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Biographies: Mithradates VI
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Posted by Shogun 144 on December 17 2004, 07:42 PM
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Mithradates VI was Rome’s greatest enemy in the times of Sulla and Marius. Mithradates was a brilliant general; this was shown by his conquests and how only Rome’s best generals could defeat him.
Mithradates was born the heir of an old and rich kingdom, called Pontus. Mithradates was born in 132 B.C. to Mithradates V Euergetes and an unknown woman. Mithradates showed early in life his intelligence in the fact that he could speak all of the languages of the Pontic domain. When Euergetes died in 120 B.C. Mithradates was only 11 years old, thus he had to share power with his mother, who acted as regent. In 115 Mithradates had his mother imprisoned and his brother assassinated, thusly Mithradates, now Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysius, came to be the sole power in Pontus. Mithradates VI showed early in his reign what kind of king he would be through displays of physical strength and force of character, this would in turn gain him the fame needed to fuel his Alexandrian ambitions.
Mithradates VI got his chance to display some martial prowess soon enough. A few years after ascending the throne of Pontus , Mithradates received word that King Parisades of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Modern Straits of Kerch) and King Chersonesus of the Tauric Chersonese (Modern Crimea) was requesting aid against the Scythians and Sarmatians. Mithradates immediately prepared for war and he managed to successfully drive back the Scythians and Sarmatians, impressing the latter so much that they promised to fight alongside him. He also impressed the Greeks he rescued from the Scythians and Sarmatians to the degree that when Parisades and Chersonesus died their lands went to Mithradates, who moved his capital from Sinope in Asia Minor to Panticapaeum (modern Kerch). Mithradates then conquered Colchis and Lesser Armenia to add more corn, men, and gold to his domain. However when Mithradates returned to Asia Minor he found that the provinces of Paphlagonia had declared itself a free state and Phrygia had gone to the Romans. Mithradates tried at first to settle the matter through a military partition of Paphlagonia and Galatia between himself and Nicomedes III, the King of Bithynia. However the two had disagreements over the fate of Cappadocia, this lead to Mithradates launching an invasion of Cappadocia with his son-in-law, Tigranes of Armenia in 93 B.C. But it was all for naught for the Roman Proconsul Sulla intervened and restored the Kingdom of Cappadocia just one year later.
Mithradates was now very upset and angry, he had lost that which he had worked so hard to gain, he wanted revenge on the Romans, and all he needed was a chance. In 90 B.C. Sulla was forced to turn his attention inward due to the outbreak of the Social Wars. Seeing this as his chance Mithradates decided to depose the new King of Bithynia, Nicomedes IV, but he was foiled by the Romans under Manius Aquilius. Aquilius then used the failed attempt on Nicomedes’ life as an excuse to drive Nicomedes to invade Pontus in revenge. But Mithradates was the superior commander and he defeated Nicomedes IV and killed Aquilius in short order. Harnessing the momentum of the attack Mithradates drove the Romans before him to the sea, promising freedom and lower taxes, the people in return hailed Mithradates VI as a savior. One by one the cities and provinces of Asia Minor either were conquered by or defected to Mithradates, eventually he even crossed the Hellespont into Greece. Along the way Mithradates ordered in 88 B.C. the death of all Romans in Asia Minor, ancient sources say 80,000 died (Modern historians think the actual number was much lower). The Romans were outraged and Sulla with five full legions landed in Epirus and marched to meet Mithradates. In 86 B.C. Sulla managed to defeat Mithradates in a series of battles, and 85 B.C. Sulla had managed to throw Mithradates out of Greece, but because of Marius’ unexpected return to Italy Sulla had to end the war fast, he eventually convinced Mithradates to meet him at the ruins of Troy. In the Treaty of Dardanus Sulla demanded that Mithradates hand over 2,000 talents, 70 warships (Mithradates’ entire fleet), and that he move back into his prewar territories.
Following the Treaty of Dardanus an uneasy peace settled over Asia Minor. In 83 B.C. the Roman general Lucius Murena invaded Pontus on the false charge that Mithradates had not kept his promise to return to his pre war territory by occupying some parts of Cappadocia. Mithradates who had been rebuilding his army easily defeated Murena and before hostilities could escalate Sulla intervened and ordered Murena to cease his attacks; he promptly declared a ‘white peace’ with Mithradates, who regarded the whole thing as not very serious at all.
The third and final conflict between Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysius and Rome started in 74 B.C. In the time between 83 and 74 B.C. Mithradates had slowly begun rebuilding his army for a new war with Rome, a war he was determined not to lose. When in 74 B.C. King Nicomedes IV died his will left Bithynia to Rome. Outraged and to prevent Rome from growing Mithradates declared war on the Roman Republic. He quickly managed to defeat the Romans under Consul Marius Aurelius Cotta at Chalcedon, but Mithradates was unable to follow up on his victory, because of this he was defeated by the general Lucullus at Cyzicus. Following this defeat Mithradates took refuge in Lesser Armenia with his son-in-law Tigranes, from here Mithradates won a number of battles against the sub commanders of Lucullus, who was because of mutiny among his troops, replaced by Gnaeus Pompey in 66 B.C. Pompey was a much more able commander than any of the other commanders Mithradates had faced thus far. Mithradates found himself again fleeing the Romans in 64 B.C., this time to Panticapaeum in the Cimmerian Bosporus. From the relative safety the position provided him Mithradates planned for a grand invasion of Italy itself through the Danube. This was cut short however when Mithradates’ own son, Pharnaces II, led a large part of the army in revolt against the war. Mithradates fearing the worst attempted to poison himself, but found that the immunity he built up to poison when he was younger hindered the effects (it is interesting to note that Mithradates built up that immunity in the first place because of his fear of being poisoned), so he took his sword and fell on it. After finding his father dead Pharnaces sent the body to Pompey as a token of submission. Pompey treated the body with all the respect due to such a great enemy of Rome; he even gave it a full regal burial at Sinope. Witnessing the event the great Roman orator Cicero gave Mithradates VI the epitaph: “Greatest of all Kings after Alexander”.
In conclusion Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysius was undoubtedly Rome’s greatest enemy in Asia Minor; it is interesting to note that in the field of medicine the term for a cure all antidote is “Mithradate”. |
User Comments:
| King_Pyrrhus
:: May 16 2006 |
yea that is funny (mithradate) good post an well done.
wonder why most people name things like that after greek an latin words. |
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| Paal_101
:: May 21 2006 |
| Excellent article Joshua. It was said that Mithradates built up his immunity to poison by eating arsenic with every meal, in small amounts at first then in noticable quantities later on in life. |
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| TheCobra1
:: June 15 2006 |
| Very well done Josh! I've been waiting for someone to put out a bio for Mithridates the VI. Though, if anyone wants to read a historicle fiction on him, Michael Curtis Ford wrote a book called "The Last King" that was pretty good. ;) |
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