Lex Manilia

Mithridates inflicted a crushing defeat on Roman forces under Lucullus' legate Triarius at the Battle of Zela in summer 67 BC.

[3] However Glabrio, realising the difficulty of the situation, lingered in Bithynia, allowing Mithridates to recover the whole of his former kingdom by the end of 67 BC.

[4] The law, proposed in 66 BC by the tribune Gaius Manilius in response to the escalating crisis in Asia Minor, recalled the three commanders presently in the East (Lucullus in Pontus, Glabrio in Bithynia, and Quintus Marcius Rex in Cilicia).

[7][8] The proposal was also supported by Cicero, at the time serving as praetor, in his extant speech De Imperio Cn.

[10] Manilius' law was passed in the Comitia Tributa without any of the violence that had occurred the year before with Gabinius' proposal.

Military situation in the Near East as of 66 BC