Known for his research on poisons,
Mithridates VI of Pontus was one of Rome's most persistent opponents.
Mitridates VI Eupator (135-63 BC) transformed Pontus from a small kingdom on the southern shore of the Black Sea into the last great Hellenistic state. Resourceful, ruthless, and resilient, Mithridates' empire encompassed much of modern Turkey, the Caucasus, and
Crimea, challenging Roman rule for four decades.
Only a succession of the most famous Roman generals managed to put an end to this resistance. By skillfully exploiting Roman divisions during the civil war, Mithridates almost reversed a century of seemingly inevitable expansion. In the process, the Pontic king became Rome's chief external enemy and the object of legend.
The Pontic kingdom and the legends of Mithridates
Mithridates was born around 135 BC in a Hellenistic world that had survived a century of Roman expansion. The three great empires that had dominated the eastern Mediterranean - the Seleucids, the Antigonids of Macedon, and the Ptolemies of Egypt - were either in decline or defeated.
The Romans already possessed most of Asia Minor and Anatolia (modern Turkey), but the decline of the Seleucids created space in the region for the development of a number of states. In the 2nd century BC, Bithynia, Cappadocia, Armenia, and Galatia grew in importance. To the north of these regions and along the southern shore of the Black Sea was Pontus.
With a coastline dotted with Greek cities and a mountainous area in the center, Pontus was a diverse and rich region. For more than a century, a society shaped by Greek, Persian, and Anatolian cultures was ruled by the Mithridates dynasty, which claimed descent from the royal family of the old Persian Empire.
In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Pontus rarely makes it into the surviving historical records. There are references to the rulers of Pontus cooperating with various Seleucid monarchs and eventually with the Romans, but the region did not play a significant role until the reign of Mithridates VI. His transformation of the region into a state capable of challenging Rome was a significant achievement.
Not surprisingly, there are many legends associated with Mithridates, who became a sworn enemy of the Romans. Along with his ruthless character, which saw him witness the deaths of thousands of people, including his own family, he became particularly associated with poison.
It is believed that during the dangerous and difficult early years before he was firmly established as ruler of Pontus, Mithridates escaped his rivals by going into the wilderness, learning many languages and trying to protect himself by developing an immunity to poison.
He developed this immunity by gradually exposing himself to small doses of poison. This practice is still called mithridaticism.
Challenging Rome: The Mithridatic Empire at the height of its prosperity
Mithridates' ascent to the throne of Pontus in 113 BC was far from easy: he suffered at the hands of his mother and brother. In the first decades of his long reign, Mithridates gained control or influence over much of Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Crimea, creating the vast and wealthy Pontic Empire. Expansion to the north, south, and east avoided direct confrontation with the Roman presence in western Pontus.
Mithridates' father benefited from the alliance with Rome, but the territories gained by Pontus were subsequently culled. Finding himself at the mercy of a rich and populous empire, Mithridates undoubtedly realized the danger Rome posed to development. On the other hand, the Romans usually required little effort to destroy any threat to their own dominance.
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The ten-year war between Mithridates and the Romans began when the latter tried to limit the growing empire of the Pontic king. In the late 90s BC, the war over Cappadocia and Bithynia turned into a direct confrontation between Rome and Mithridates.
Perhaps the Romans underestimated Mithridates, or perhaps they did not intend to start a full-scale war, since their general Manius Aquilius relied mainly on the Bithynians and Cappadocians in their battles. As a result, the Romans suffered a disaster: by 89 BC, Mithridates' generals had captured Bithynia, Cappadocia, and the Roman province of Asia, taking Manius captive.
In just a few years, the Pontic armies had reversed Roman expansion in the region. Now Mithridates brutally massacred the remnants of the Roman presence. The acquaintance with
the Roman Empire was not a warm one. Romans and Italians became hated as tax collectors and extortionists.
Mithridates used this hatred to strengthen his position. Orders were sent throughout the newly conquered empire for a coordinated massacre of Romans and Italians known as the Asiatic (Ephesian) Vespers. Many inhabitants of cities and territories throughout Asia Minor were prepared to turn against the Romans, resulting in between 50,000 and 150,000 deaths.
This attempt to eliminate the Roman presence took the war to a new level. One of Rome's greatest generals, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, was appointed to command the war. As serious as the war was, the Romans were distracted by events closer to home. The 1st century BC was one of the most turbulent periods in Roman life.
Civil and foreign wars, slave revolts, piracy, and political polarization distracted and divided the Romans, giving Mithridates hope and opportunity, which he skillfully exploited. When Sulla delayed his campaign against Rome itself, Mithridates advanced further, crossed the Aegean Sea, reached Greece, and carried the war into Europe.
The newly conquered Greeks hesitated in their allegiance to Rome, and Athens accepted a Pontic army under the command of the general Archelaus. When Sulla finally arrived, it took a decisive siege of Athens and its port of Piraeus in 87-86 BC to break this alliance. Weakened by starvation, Athens was eventually taken by storm by Sulla's army, resulting in the massacre and sacking of the famous city.
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Despite this failure, Mithridates decided on an expedition to Greece and provided Archelaus with an army, which, according to historical sources, numbered 120,000 men against Sulla's 30,000. The Romans defeated this army at the Battle of Chaeronea in 86 BC. When Mithridates sent another large army as reinforcements, Sulla defeated it a little to the north, at Orchomenus.
After the short reign of Mithridates' Greek empire ended, his Asian empire was threatened. At this point, Roman forces came to Mithridates' aid. In his absence, Sulla was declared an enemy of the people, and a rival Roman army marched eastward. These disagreements prevented the Romans from defeating Mithridates.
Mithridates seized the opportunity to offer peace to Sulla, which the Roman general accepted. Mithridates had to give up most of his newly acquired territories, provide Sulla with ships and pay compensation, but he made peace with the most powerful man in Rome.
The Restoration and the war with Lucullus
Mithridates' generals were capable of defeating Roman troops, but in the confrontation with Sulla in Greece they were no match for the well-staffed Roman army. Much the same pattern was repeated in the next phase of the war, although Mithridates had learned lessons from the previous clashes.
Appian and
Plutarch disagree on the timing, but state that Mithridates attempted to copy the Roman legions that defeated him and equipped his armies after Roman fashion. Subsequent details are scarce, but this attempt shows that Mithridates was capable of learning from his enemies.
Whether or not his army was successfully reformed, Mithridates soon needed it again. After Sulla's departure, another general, Murena, on his own initiative began a brief second war with Mithridates in 83 BC. This attempt was defeated the following year after Murena invaded Pontus.
A break of several years allowed Mithridates to consolidate his empire in the east before one of Sulla's former deputies, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, arrived in 74 BC to begin the next phase of the war.
The decisive battle of the third war occurred when Mithridates attempted to reconquer Bithynia and take the city of Cyzicus. Mithridates vastly outnumbered his Roman opponent with an army of over 140,000 men. Unlike previous campaigns, Mithridates himself took command and laid siege to Kizik.
However, he was outmaneuvered by Lucullus, who seized control of the surrounding mountains and deprived him of supplies. The siege turned into a disaster when the inhabitants of Kizikus resisted and his army became isolated, forcing Mithridates to retreat, destroying his army. Pontus itself was now vulnerable.
Mithridates attempted to raise another army, but it was quickly dispersed. When most of Pontus fell into the hands of Lucullus, Mithridates fled to Armenia, where his son-in-law, Tigranes, who had built a successful kingdom almost as well as Mithridates, ruled.
The two kings had cooperated in the past, and Tigranes refused to extradite his father-in-law and kept Mithridates at a distance. This refusal led to the Roman invasion of Armenia. Tigranes and his army performed no better than Mithridates, as Lucullus won a number of battles in 69 and 68 BC.
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Defeated and exiled, Mithridates did not give up, and through a combination of resilience and the help of Roman divisions he again achieved a remarkable comeback.
The return to Pontus and the arrival of Pompey
Lucullus had traveled farther east than any previous Roman general, defeating both Mithridates and Tigranes, but his soldiers were close to mutiny. Many of them had already been away from home for several years and probably considered their task accomplished. Lucullus' opponents in Rome fueled this discontent and accused him of continuing the war for his own gain. As discontent in the Roman army grew, Mithridates returned to the unconquered regions of Pontus and raised a new army.
With this new army Mithridates inflicted a heavy defeat on the Roman army, killing many of its officers. Lucullus could still claim the title of conqueror of the two countries, but he was denied the credit for ending this long war. In 66 B.C. another of Rome's most famous generals entered the war. Not for the first time in his career, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, better known as Pompey, arrived to end a war that had previously been won by other generals.
When Pompey approached, Mithridates asked for peace, but refused when Pompey demanded unconditional surrender. Mithridates hoped that Pompey's advance would be hindered by the lack of supplies, as he was crossing a country already devastated.
But Pompey's commanding talent lay in his organizational skills, and his well-supplied army moved on. The remaining Pontic troops were defeated, and Mithridates had to flee into exile again. This time he would not return to Pontus, but another remarkable feat awaited him.
Mithridates and his few remaining followers fled toward the Caucasus. Pompey pursued them, but eventually turned south to conquer and reorganize much of the Middle East. There was no point in pursuing an elderly man with few supporters deep into wild and inaccessible country.
The Romans were so far removed from the region that, passing through Colchis in the footsteps of Jason and the Argonauts and mistaking the women warriors for Amazons, they thought they were entering mythical territory. Few could have imagined that they would hear of the fugitive again.
According to the late Roman historian Appianus, Mithridates still harbored ambitions that exceeded those of a fugitive. Heading north through the mountains, he made alliances with some inhabitants and fought off others until he reached the remaining territories of the Pontic Empire under the control of his son Machares, around the Crimea and the Sea of Azov.
Having survived this journey, Mithridates was not welcomed with open arms. Machares had already made peace with the Romans, and Mithridates' seizure of power led to his death. Mithridates again set about preparing a new army. While building the new army, Mithridates killed or caused the death of two of his sons and distrusted his heir named Pharnak. These strife eventually brought Mithridates' life to an end.
Death of Mithridates the Great
Not waiting his turn to be killed, Pharnaces rebelled against his father in 63 BC. When even the king's bodyguards began to desert, Mithridates was left isolated with his two remaining daughters and a few guards.
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Mithridates' death was the final legend. When the end was near and he feared that he would be handed over to the Romans, he decided to end his life. Taking out one of the poisons he always carried with him, he gave some to his daughters, who soon died. However, Mithridates himself was not affected: his attempts to develop immunity were successful.
It was only with the help of a guard that Mithridates was able to commit suicide. Whether the details of this story are true or it was the last ironic fiction, scholars are unlikely to ever know for sure, but after 57 years of rule, Mithridates' long wars with Rome finally ended.
That Mithridates' end came because of a bloody showdown with his own family and the unnecessary deaths of two daughters shows that his long life and reign were tumultuous and destructive.
Despite this, his Pontic Empire was the last great Hellenistic state, and Mithridates came closer than any other to reversing Roman expansion. After his death, there were virtually no forces left in the eastern Mediterranean to resist Rome.