In 85 BC, during an expedition to Asia Minor, Fimbria took command of the army by instigating a mutiny and murdering his superior. He successfully conducted Rome's ongoing war against the Pontic king Mithradates, recovering much of the province of Asia, ravaging the surroundings and treating the conquered provincials with much savagery. He committed suicide after the troops deserted to a rival Roman general in the vicinity, Sulla. Fimbria's contemporary Cicero remembered him as "the most audacious madman of his times".