Famous for his knowledge of poisons, Mithridates VI of Pontus was one of Rome’s fiercest adversaries.
Mithridates VI Eupator (135-63 BCE) turned Pontus from a small kingdom on the Black Sea’s southern coast into the last significant Hellenistic state. Clever, brutal, and tough, Mithridates’ empire stretched across most of what’s now Turkey, the Caucasus, and Crimea, putting up a fight against Roman power for four decades. It took some of Rome’s most legendary generals to finally put an end to his resistance. Capitalizing on Roman infighting during a time of civil war, Mithridates nearly halted a century of Roman expansion. As a result, the King of Pontus became Rome’s main foreign enemy and a figure of many legends.
The Kingdom of Pontus and the Legends of Mithridates
Mithridates was born around 135 BCE in a Hellenistic world that had already experienced a century of Roman growth. The three major empires that once ruled the eastern Mediterranean—Seleucids, Antigonid Macedonia, and Ptolemaic Egypt—were either fading or had been defeated.
Romans had control of most of Asia Minor and Anatolia (today’s Turkey), but the decline of the Seleucids allowed several states to emerge, including Bithynia, Cappadocia, Armenia, and Galatia, which gained prominence in the 2nd century BCE. To the north of these areas, along the southern Black Sea coast, lay Pontus. With its shores lined with Greek cities and a mountainous interior, Pontus was a diverse and wealthy region. For over a century, it was ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty, which claimed lineage from the ancient Persian royal family.
During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, Pontus didn’t make much of a splash in historical records. There were mentions of its rulers aligning with various Seleucid kings and eventually with the Romans, but it didn’t really matter until Mithridates VI came along. His ability to reshape the area into a serious contender against Rome was a remarkable feat.
Given that he became a thorn in the Romans’ side, it’s no surprise that many myths surround Mithridates. Along with being ruthless enough to oversee the deaths of thousands, including his own family, he became particularly linked to poison. In his risky early days before solidifying his rule, people believed he escaped rivals by going into hiding and learning the local dialects while working on developing an immunity to poison. He gradually built this immunity by exposing himself to tiny doses, a practice still known today as Mithridatism.
Challenging Rome: The Mithridatic Empire at its Height
Mithridates’ rise to power in Pontus was anything but simple; it involved the deaths of his mother and brother. During the first few decades of his lengthy reign, he expanded his influence over much of Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Crimea, creating a vast and prosperous Pontic Empire. He managed to expand north, south, and east without directly confronting the Romans in the west.
His father had previously benefited from an alliance with Rome, but the territories Pontus gained were later taken back. Once mastering a rich and populous empire, Mithridates clearly understood the threat that Rome posed. On the flip side, the Romans typically needed little excuse to dismantle any potential threats to their supremacy.
The drawn-out conflict between Mithridates and the Romans kicked off when the latter tried to rein in the Pontic king’s expanding empire. In the late 90s BCE, a proxy war involving Cappadocia and Bithynia escalated into direct hostilities. The Romans may have underestimated Mithridates or didn’t realize they were starting a full-blown war, as their commander Manius Aquilius mostly relied on local forces to do the fighting. The outcome was disastrous for the Romans, as by 89 BCE Mithridates’ commanders had swept through Bithynia, Cappadocia, and the Roman province of Asia, capturing Manius in the chaos.
In just a few years, Mithridates’ armies turned the tide on Roman expansion in the region. He then ruthlessly targeted the remaining Roman presence. The locals had not exactly welcomed the Romans with open arms; they despised them as tax collectors and greedy moneylenders. Mithridates used this resentment to strengthen his position, issuing commands across his new empire for a coordinated slaughter of Romans and Italians, known as the Asian Vespers. Many city-dwellers in Asia Minor were eager to turn against the Romans, resulting in somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 casualties.
This move escalated the war significantly. Back in Rome, one of the top generals, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, was called to command. Although the war had become serious, the Romans were also distracted by issues closer to home. The 1st century BCE was one of the most chaotic times for Rome, filled with civil and foreign wars, slave uprisings, piracy, and political disagreements, all of which gave Mithridates some hope and opportunities that he skillfully seized.
With Sulla preoccupied with marching towards Rome itself, Mithridates pressed further, crossing the Aegean into Greece and taking the fight to Europe. The newly conquered Greeks wavered in their allegiance to Rome, and Athens welcomed a Pontic army led by General Archelaus. When Sulla eventually showed up, it took a concerted effort to lay siege to Athens and its port Piraeus from 87-86 BCE to break this alliance. Weakened by starvation, Athens ultimately fell to Sulla’s forces, leading to a massacre and the pillaging of the famous city.
Despite this setback, Mithridates stuck to his campaign in Greece and supplied Archelaus with an army reportedly numbering 120,000 against Sulla’s 30,000. Outnumbered, the Romans faced defeat at the Battle of Chaeronea in 86 BCE. When Mithridates dispatched another large army as reinforcements, Sulla defeated them too, a bit north at Orchomenus.
With Mithridates’ brief dominance in Greece coming to an end, his Asian empire faced peril. At this point, internal divisions among the Romans unexpectedly worked in Mithridates’ favor. While Sulla had been labeled a public enemy back in Rome, another Roman army moved eastward. These divisions stopped the Romans from completely crushing Mithridates. Seizing the moment, Mithridates proposed peace to Sulla, who accepted. Mithridates had to relinquish most of his newly acquired territories, supply ships to Sulla, and pay a penalty, but he managed to secure peace with Rome’s top general.
Recovery and War With Lucullus
Mithridates’ generals could defeat Roman troops, but they struggled against a well-led Roman army when facing Sulla in Greece. A similar pattern unfolded in the next stage of the conflict, although Mithridates learned from past experiences. Sources like Appian and Plutarch vary on details but agree that Mithridates attempted to model his forces after the Roman legions that had bested him, equipping his armies in a Roman style. While we don’t have many details on this, it shows that Mithridates was capable of adapting based on his foes.
Whether his army was successfully revamped or not, he soon found himself needing it again. After Sulla left, another commander named Murena initiated a brief second Mithridatic War on his own in 83 BCE. This attempt ended in failure the following year after Murena invaded Pontus. A few years of calm followed, allowing Mithridates to strengthen his empire in the east until one of Sulla’s former deputies, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, arrived in 74 BCE to kick off the next phase of the conflict.
The pivotal battle of the third Mithridatic War occurred when Mithridates sought to take back Bithynia and the city of Cyzicus. He had a massive advantage in numbers, boasting an army of over 140,000. Unlike earlier campaigns, Mithridates personally led the charge and laid siege to Cyzicus. However, he was outsmarted by Lucullus, who took control of the surrounding mountains and cut off their supplies. With citizens of Cyzicus resisting and his forces isolated, the siege turned disastrous, forcing Mithridates to retreat, which decimated his army. Now, Pontus was at risk.
Mithridates attempted to gather another army, but it quickly fell apart. As much of Pontus slipped under Lucullus’ control, Mithridates escaped to Armenia, ruled by his son-in-law, Tigranes, who had established a successful kingdom similar to Mithridates’. The two had collaborated before, and Tigranes initially refused to hand over his father-in-law but kept him at arm’s length. This refusal triggered a Roman invasion of Armenia. Tigranes’ army fared no better than Mithridates’, as Lucullus scored multiple victories in 69 and 68 BCE.
Though defeated and exiled, Mithridates wasn’t ready to throw in the towel, and a mix of determination and Roman disarray would lead to another surprising comeback.
Return to Pontus and the Arrival of Pompey
Lucullus had ventured farther east than any previous Roman leader, defeating both Mithridates and Tigranes, but his troops were close to mutiny. They had been away from home for years and likely thought their mission was complete. Rivals of Lucullus back in Rome capitalized on this unrest, accusing him of dragging out the war for personal gain. As murmurs of discontent grew within the Roman ranks, Mithridates returned to the untamed areas of Pontus and rallied another army.
With this fresh force, Mithridates dealt a heavy blow to a Roman contingent, killing numerous officers. Though Lucullus could still claim to have conquered two nations, he wouldn’t get credit for finishing this long conflict. Then in 66 BCE, one of Rome’s most celebrated generals, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, better known as Pompey, joined the fray. Not for the first time, Pompey arrived to wrap up a war mainly won by others.
As Pompey drew near, Mithridates sought peace, but when Pompey demanded unconditional surrender, Mithridates backed down. He hoped Pompey’s advance would stall due to supply shortages as he crossed a ravaged land. But Pompey’s strength as a general lay in his organizational skills, and his well-supplied forces marched forward. The remaining Pontic troops were defeated, and Mithridates had to flee into exile again. This time, there wouldn’t be a return to Pontus for him, but one more incredible chapter awaited.
Mithridates and a handful of loyal followers fled toward the Caucasus. Pompey pursued them but eventually turned south to conquer and reorganize much of the Middle East. It seemed pointless to chase an old man with few supporters deep into a wild and challenging territory. So remote was this area that the Romans believed they were stepping into a mythical realm as they traveled through Colchis, thinking they encountered Amazons when they saw female warriors. No one expected they’d hear from the fugitive again.
As the later Roman historian Appian noted, Mithridates still had ambitions beyond those of a mere refugee. Traveling north through the mountains, he allied with some local tribes and fought off others until he reached the remnants of the Pontic Empire, controlled by his son, Machares, around the Crimea and Sea of Azov. After surviving this improbable journey, Mithridates wasn’t received warmly. Machares had already negotiated peace with the Romans, and when Mithridates tried to reclaim control, it led to Machares’ death. Once more, Mithridates set out to build a new army. While doing so, he executed or caused the deaths of two of his sons and grew suspicious of his heir, Pharnaces. This family discord would ultimately seal Mithridates’ fate.
The Death of Mithridates the Great
Instead of waiting for his turn to be killed, Pharnaces revolted against his father in 63 BCE. As even the king’s bodyguards began to turn on him, Mithridates found himself isolated, accompanied only by two of his daughters and a few guards.
Mithridates’ death became one last tale. Facing the end and fearing capture by the Romans, he decided to end his life. Taking out one of the poisons he always carried, he gave some to his daughters, leading to their quick demise. But the poison didn’t work on Mithridates himself, as his attempts at immunity proved frustratingly successful. Only with the help of a guard was Mithridates able to end his own life. Whether this story is true or just an ironic invention of later times, we may never know for sure, but after a 57-year reign, Mithridates’ long-standing conflicts with Rome were finally concluded.
That Mithridates met his end due to deadly disputes with his family—resulting in the needless deaths of two daughters—highlights that his lengthy life and reign were marked by turmoil and destruction. Still, his Pontic Empire stood as the last great Hellenistic state, and Mithridates came closer than anyone else to halting Roman expansion. Following his death, little resistance remained against Rome in the Eastern Mediterranean.
