Just like that of Ipsos, the garrison of Tarsos was large but lightly armed. With no general to lead them, the Ptolemaioi troops were unable to withstand the Pontic phalangites, and the town fell easily:
And thus by the end of the campaign in 269 BC, Ariobarzanes Kianos had raised Pontos to be the sole great power in Asia Minor. The only imminent danger was from the Seleukids in the east, but they could be held at bay in the mountain passes near Mazaka, and the bridges of Tarsos. As word spread of Pontos's expansion, other peoples asked for help. Across the Bosporos, the city of Byzantion requested aid in their defense against Epeiros:
Beyond Byzantion lay the lands of the Getai. Feeling threatened by the growing power of Epeiros, their king quickly agreed to an alliance with Pontos:
And from far across the Pontos Euxinos, the Hellenic peoples of Chersonesos offered the use of an army, if Pontos would only send a good general to rid them of the raiding parties of the Sauromatae:
Finally and most importantly, the Ptolemaioi agreed to an end to hostilities and a restoration of trade rights. Both Pontos and the Ptolemaioi had a far larger enemy in Arche Seleukeia: for now their old enmity could wait.
However, all requests for aid would also have to wait. Ariobarzanes still had barely enough troops to garrison his newly-conquered towns, let alone send them off on expeditions overseas. Besides, the new members of the royal family hardly inspired great confidence in their potential abilities as generals. His first-born son was a particular disappointment, for although Mithridates Kianos was the namesake of his grandfather, he showed none of the same qualities, and took no action without first asking his chief advisor what he should do:
And thus after three years of relative peace, when the first Seleukid army appeared in the mountains near Mazaka it fell to Smerdis Phabdaios the Galatian to repel it:
In truth this was little more than a skirmish, with the Seleukid army testing the response when they besieged a Pontic border fort. Shocked at being confronted by a Pontic army twice the size of his own, the Seleukid captain sacrificed 1/3 of his men to cover his retreat. But Ariobarzanes was to use this small incursion as an excuse for bloody retribution against the Seleukids, even as he readied a new army to expand his holdings in Asia Minor.