WORLD CIVILIZATION FINAL ARTICLE

TOPIC - MITHRADATES – THE POISON KING ROME’S

DEADLIEST ENEMY AND FREIND

Name – Latika Meena

Roll no. – 12110039

INTRODUCTION:

Mithradates(163-34 BC) the Great also known as the “Poison King” and Eupator Dionysius

(in Greek signifies to the son of Noble father who was considered as the Greek god of wine) .

He was the king of Pontus (120-63 BC) who was determined to fight cruel wars against

Rome called the Mithradatic wars, the whole Rome shivered with the cold of his sword.

In the Glory of the poison King, James Blake wiener wrote these beautiful lines.

"I was enthralled by the fairy tale character of the king's remarkable life story:

a descendent of Alexander the Great and Persian royalty;

a brilliant toxicologist; a master escape artist;

a bold rebel leader, who rode into battle with an Amazon-like companion who became his

lover and last queen."

This Article is not about a King (Mithradates 6th

) power, his empire or Glorious battles, its

more about the hidden qualities and his unique remarkable poisonous life story. It will trace

out something away from the king, someone that is hidden behind the legend.

MAIN ARTICLE:

Let’s begin with how some drops of the poison in his childhood later became his weapons

and how this Poison constructed his image as the “Poison king”. Fortunately Mithradates was

born in the era of poison, the time when most of the rivalries were taken by poison. He saw

people were poured into death by poison, he saw his father(Mithradates 5th

) dying with

poison, even his own mother attempted to poison her elder sons for power and glory. Such

life threats and cruel selfish world forced the little king to escape to the forest away from his

mom’s conspiracies.

He hides himself under the shelf of cold mountains (in the northern Turkey), dangerous wild

animals, and running for life with the aim of becoming the greatest emperor. He trained

himself hard, learned the fundamentals of wars, learned javelin throw, horse riding and the

attitude of a great king. The cruelty of life made this child stiffer and determined day by day.

And finally this innocent boy returned home as a noble fighter, imprisoned his mother and

took over the Pontus throne. His hard and determined nature bought a great emperor of

Pontus.

The struggling childhood and threat for life forced him to look back toward his childhood, he

thought of his biggest threat that was poison. He thought that if a poison can take one’s life

why can’t it be used to save the life, if something can harm someone then it can also be used

to save someone by defending its own effects. Thinking seriously over this Idea he began

taking a pinch of poison as a daily routine.

There was a king reigned in the East:

There, when kings will sit to feast,

They get their fill before they think

With poisoned meat and poisoned drink.

He gathered all the springs to birth

From the many-venomed earth;

First a little, thence to more,

He sampled all her killing store;

And easy, smiling, seasoned sound,

Sate the king when health’s went round.

They put arsenic in his meat

And stared aghast to watch him eat;

They poured strychnine in his cup

And shook to see him drink it up:

They shook, they stared as white’s their shirt:

Them it was their poison hurt.

—I tell the tale that I heard told.

Mithridates, he died old

[Citation: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). The Complete Work. 1904.

Vol. IX. Poems]

The poem beautifully brings out the irony of poison in his life. He started with pinch and later

on began taking larger quantities (the poet writes that he built a store of poison indicating the

quantity of poison he used to consume). The poison which took his father, his childhood

away from him was now his weapon. The poison heart which refers to his enemies tried hard

by giving him dreadful poisons but all in vain, The King now became the poison King, he

made the poison his slave.

Poison threat was not the only reason behind his poison intake but the Great King was also

keen to discover new values of things by using their harmful characteristics to resist their

won effects. Who knows that this scientific and innovative mind of the poison king could

lead to a biggest improvisation in the medical field? He explained how the toxic substances

like “pharmaka, could be used for good or ill, depending on the dose” 1 It is written that his

grandfather Pharnaces (who built mixtures to cure plants) and king Attalus 3rd

(was known

for his contribution towards toxicological field) would have been his role models and inspired

his work for medicine science.

1 http://www.ancient.eu.com/news/3571/

Mithradates tested the remedies and antidotes

(drugs) on the criminals and later applied on

himself. His curiosity gave the medical field a

unique way to make drugs. He found that the

illness which contains poison can be cured using

the poison itself extracted from plants and

animals. However the exact recipe is lost, but today his discovery is contributing largely in

building basic concepts of making antidotes.

Nearly 100 years after the king death Celsus(a well known scientist) formulated and analysed

Mithridatum and found that the paraceutamol can be used in worst conditions like in severe

pain in muscles, internal injury, snake bite and protection against any kind of poison.

Recently some archaeologists from Naple in Italy excavated a pot; the pot once again bought

back the attention to the word “Mithridatium” (an antidote containing 36 ingredients, 34 from

plants mixed with honey and castor). The analysis of toxicology of the poison king helped the

present scenario to understand how the king had selected some plants remedies useful for

curing diseases. It is found that most of them have a sweet smell (hence some were also used

as deodorants to reduce the effect of awful smell) and “are from the family Apiaceae: Cretan

carrot, assafoetida ("gum"), galbanum, sagapenum, opopanax, parsley, anise, hartwort

("saxifrage")” 2 The medicines made out of these plants helps in curing inflammation

(burning sensation).However now days Mithridatum is being replaced by new antidotes but

the basic theme of the relation of poison and drug thought by Mithradates (The poison king)

is hard to forget.

2 The Pharmacology of Mithridatum: A 2000-Year-Old Remedy (by Stata Norton) – An

Article on Molecular Interventions

Mithradates (king of Pontus, founded by Alexender the Great) has been compared with

Alexender and king Darius. He is called great as Alexender the Great was. However they

both followed very different path undergone much diverse conditions but both claimed to

have similar ambitions. The poison king struggle for life and legendry since childhood, his

self evolving glory made him comparable with Alexender the Great. Influenced with

Alexender he attacked central power of Rome, their land was colored red with millions of

Roman people blood.

Other than the glorious achievements, the king Identity is also defined by his attitude and

personality which is directly reflected by clothes, coins and other stuffs. Mithradates use to

wear Alexender cloak in order to represent himself as the shadow of Alexender the great.

The Pontus king, in his coins portrayed himself very similar to Alexender. We can see that

the first figure (Mithradates coin) looks very much similar to the second figure (Alexender

coin). Some texts wrote that he use to consider Alexender as a good omen or his good luck.

Also during after the earthquake in Apameia he donated much money to rebuild the destroyed

infrastructure which was once constructed by Alexender. The king’s attitude bought some

more traits proving that his sole and mind completely followed Alexender. There can be no

better example than the 3rd

world war when he was entirely covered with blood, even under

such critical conditions of life he bought himself in front of his troops just like Alexender

once did in India. His attitude, actions and ambitions clearly defines him as a new Alexender

who was both Romans friend as well as their Deadliest enemy.

Mithradates had always been called for his battles and Glories, he is called cruel and mighty

because of his insensitivity toward Rome (which he was determined to conquer). But Apart

from these destructive deeds a king sole is also determined by his Relations and ethnicity

toward other cultures. He showed his owner for Alexender by respecting Greek culture and

by preserving their heritage (including infrastructure that was once made by Alexender). He

had strong relations with Armenians. Among Armenians he had friend Ally, Tigranes II (the

king of Armenia) and his son- in- law. Eupator’s Kingdom is situated at the front borders of

Armenians Empire, also once both the kingdoms were part of Persia. Good equations with the

Tigaranes II helped in building his ancient Iranian culture inside him and Pontus. It bought a

new tradition of fire worship of “Ahura Mazda and Mithra”.” Both kings served as the chief

Magus of the Zoroastrian Magi in their empires, carrying out traditional fire ceremonies on

mountaintops”3 Along with Greek and Iranian culture the Great king mentaind good

equations of Persian culture and its values with Tigranes II. However their ambitions were

very unique to each other (Mithradates was very focussed and more cunning toward his

empire while on the other hand religious king Tigranes was totally dedicated to Persian

values and poor regions of Parthia) but still, they shared much mutual times spending in horse

riding, poaching, shooting, honesty, Political thoughts, Governance etc. A mixture of

different cultures in ones ethic and behaviour exposes him to different ways of life. Later on

Tigranes married to one of the Mithradates daughter Cleopatra. Tigranes although was very

diverse in his character and governing style shared an excellent relation with the poison king

throughout his entire life. Tigarian proved to be his most loyal friend, he helped him many

times during Mithradatic wars and joined his arm forces whenever needed against Rome.

3 The Enigmatic Poison King: Mithradates VI of Pontus by James Blake ( Article based on the

Interview of Adrienne Mayor the Author of The poison King book)

CONCLUSION:

Mithradates was called great not only because of his Glory or bloodshed in battle fields but

also for his struggle for childhood, life, poison, and his attitude that was pretty much similar

to Alexender the Great. He is called Poison king because he was terrified of poison since

childhood, later made the same poison his slave. He taught the world about antidotes to cure

several pains, inflammation and diseases with the discovery of his well known

“Mithridatium”. In which he sequentially mentions the poison extracted from plants and

animals along with honey and many other ingredients used for making poison defending

remedies.

Taking Alaxender the great his Idol he modified his attitude in order to create a figure a new

Alexender inside him. His coins, way of addressing his troops, respect for Greek culture, his

Glory, ambitions etc. forced many of the research scholars and Authors to call him as the

descendent of Alaxender and Darius King of Persia. He respected Greek values and helped

the people of Macedonia at the time of crises (after severe destruction in 3rd

world war he

donated huge amount in order to rebuilt the architecture that was once built by Alexender)

Apart from destructive deeds like wars (which were always highlighted in his context),

Relations also plays an important role in developing a king’s sole. And I am sure that

relations with Armenia, Greek cultural values and Iranian ethics helped him in exploring new

ways of living which had indirect influence on his empire. He got exposed to 20 different

languages from different regions. The relation with religious and Persian- educated Tigranes

bought slight changes in his cunning and determined nature. Mithradates love and respect to

different cultural values shows his different and unique character which was mostly unknown

to many.

BIBLIGRAOHY

1. The Poison King - Rome’s Deadliest Enemy ( Finalist of National book Award by

Adrienne Mayor)

2. The Enigmatic Poison King: Mithradates VI of Pontus by James Blake ( Article based

on the Interview of Adrienne Mayor the Author of The poison King book)

3. http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=36045588092

4. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/aconite/mithridatum.html

5. The Pharmacology of Mithridatum: A 2000-Year-Old Remedy ( A book by Stata

Norton)

6. http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/macedonia/kings/alexander_III/i.html (referred

for coin Images and sculpture comparisons)

7. http://www.bartleby.com/370/10.html (for poems and texts on The Great Poison

King)

8. http://www.thefullwiki.org/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus

9. Wealth, Aristocracy And Royal Propaganda Under the Hellenistic Kingdom of the

Mithradatids in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkey (A book by Denis burcu

Erciyas)

10. http://peterjfast.com/2012/03/24/mithridates-vi-of-pontus-the-posion-king-who-hated-

rome/

(The Poison King who Hated Rome- An Articlr by Peter J past)

11. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (Book by B. C. Mc

Ging)

12. Reviews of the Book The poison King by Andrinne Mayor

13. http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/mithridates/gr/102909PoisonKingAdrienneMayor.

htm

(The Book (The Poison King) review by N. S. Gill)

14. http://www.livius.org/person/mithridates/ (Articles on Ancient History)