The following notes refer to a period which is one of considerable historic interest. In the Far East the Emperor Wu-ti, the most enterprising of the Han dynasty, having broken the power of the Turkish empire of the Hiung-nû, i.e. Kara-Nîrus, was engaged in strengthening the internal administration of China, and in extending its influence abroad. In the west the Romans had, B.C. 146, captured and destroyed Carthage, and had reduced Greece to a Roman province. The Ptolemies yet ruled in Egypt; and, in Asia, the Syrian empire under the house of the Seleucidse still survived, but was showing evident signs of decrepitude. In Asia Minor, Pontus was rising into importance under Mithradates V., who was one of the first of the more important sovereigns of the continent to enter into close relations with Rome. This position of affairs finally resulted in the great war between his son Mithradates VI. and Rome, which afforded that encroaching power the opportunity of firmly establishing the Roman rule in Asia, and of eventually overturning the decadent power of Syria, already frittered away by internal dissensions between the members of the royal house of Seleucidæ.