The year after Lucullus left office, troubles arose again in Asia. The king of Bithynia, Mithridates' rival, had died and left his kingdom to the Romans. The Senate accepted the offer. Mithridates judged that this was the right moment for the uprising and counterattack he had been planning secretly for years. After war broke out anew the Senate sent Lucullus, a new "proconsul", to the east (73 BC) with a renewed mandate for war, the Third Mithridatic War, and a fresh army.