Appian wrote that Murena marched across Cappadocia and attacked Comana, a town which belonged to Mithridates, because of suspicions that the latter was preparing for war against the Romans. Mithridates was fitting a fleet and raising an army to deal with a rebellion by the Colchians and the tribes around the Cimmerian Bosphorus (the Kerch Strait). It was the scale of these preparations and the fact that Mithridates had not restored the whole of Cappadocia to their king, Ariobarzanes I, who was a Roman ally, which led to this impression.