Mithridates or Mithradates VI Eupator (;The spelling "Mithridates" was the Roman Latin version, but "Mithradates", the spelling used in Greek inscriptions and Mithridates' own coins, is regaining precedence, see e.g. Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3d ed. 135–63 BC) sometimes known as Mithridates the Great was the Hellenistic ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus from 120 to 63 BC. He proved to be one of the Roman Republic's most formidable and determined opponents. He sought to dominate Anatolia and the Black Sea region, waging several hard-fought but ultimately unsuccessful wars to break Roman dominion over Asia and the Hellenic world."Mithradates VI Eupator", Encyclopædia Britannica
Following the assassination of his father Mithridates V Euergetes, the teenage Mithridates ascended to the throne under the regency of his mother Laodice VI. In 113 BC he overthrew his mother and ruled alone thereafter. Aiming to elevate Pontus to the status of a major power, Mithridates subjugated Colchis and the Cimmerian Bosporus on the Black Sea, but his expansion westwards into Asia Minor made conflict with Rome inevitable. In 89 BC, spurred by his Roman allies, Nicomedes IV of Bithynia invaded Pontus. Mithridates defeated him and, taking advantage of Rome's preoccupation with the Social War, overran Roman Asia and orchestrated large-scale massacres of Romans and Italians in the region. Positioning himself as a champion of Hellenism, he brought much of mainland Greece (including Athens) to his side.
The Romans eventually responded when Lucius Cornelius Sulla, despite having been declared a public enemy, proceeded with his plan to defeat Mithridates. In the first of the Mithridatic Wars, Sulla achieved a string of victories over the Pontic forces, but factional struggle back in Rome forced him to offer a generous peace to Mithridates, restoring the situation to its pre-89 BC state. In 83 BC, the Roman legate Lucius Licinius Murena attacked Mithridates, provoking the Second Mithridatic War. Mithridates defeated him, and peace was again declared.
The Third Mithridatic War broke out in 73 BC when Nicomedes IV died without an heir and bequeathed Bithynia to Rome, prompting an invasion by Mithridates. He was routed by the legions of Lucullus and fled to his ally, Tigranes II of Armenia. In 67 BC, Mithridates retook Pontus after inflicting a major defeat on the Romans at Zela. His victory proved short-lived, and he was decisively defeated by Pompey at the Battle of the Lycus in 66 BC. Mithridates fled to Crimea, took over the Bosporan Kingdom and was preparing another war against Rome when his son Pharnaces rebelled against him. He retreated to Panticapaeum, where he committed suicide.
Biography Name and ancestry
Mithridates is the Greek attestation of the Iranian name Mihrdāt, meaning "given by Mithra" ( - Mehrdād), the name of the ancient Iranian sun god. The name Mihrdāt itself derives from Old Iranian Miθra-dāta-. The Greek-language epithet "eupator" () means "of a well (noble) father", and was adopted by a number of other Hellenistic rulers.
Mithridates was a prince of mixed Iranian and Greek ancestry. He claimed descent from Cyrus the Great and the family of Darius the Great from his father’s side who was Persian and from his mother’s side the Regent Antipater and Alexander's generals Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Seleucus I Nicator.
Early life Mithridates was born in the Pontic city of Sinope, on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia, and was raised in the Kingdom of Pontus. He was the first son among the children born to Laodice VI and Mithridates V Euergetes (reigned 150–120 BC). His father, Mithridates V, was a prince and the son of the former Pontic monarchs Pharnaces I of Pontus and his cousin-wife Nysa. His mother, Laodice VI, was a Seleucid princess and the daughter of the Seleucid monarchs Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his sister-wife Laodice IV.
Mithridates V was assassinated in about 120 BC in Sinope, poisoned by unknown persons at a lavish banquet which he held.Mayor, p. 68 He left the kingdom to the joint rule of his widow Laodice VI, and their elder son Mithridates VI, and younger son Mithridates Chrestus. Neither Mithridates VI nor his younger brother were of age, and their mother retained all power as regent for the time being.Mayor, p. 69 Laodice VI's regency over Pontus was from 120 BC to 116 BC (even perhaps up to 113 BC) and favoured Mithridates Chrestus over Mithridates. During his mother's regency, Mithridates escaped from his mother's plots against him and went into hiding.
Mithridates emerged from hiding and returned to Pontus between 116 and 113 BC. There, he was hailed as king. By this time he had grown to become a man of considerable stature and physical strength. He combined extraordinary energy and determination with a considerable talent for politics, organization and strategy. Mithridates removed his mother and brother from the throne, imprisoning them both. In this way, he became the sole ruler of Pontus.Mayor, p. 394 Laodice VI died in prison, ostensibly of natural causes. Mithridates Chrestus may have died in prison also or may have been tried for treason and executed. Mithridates gave both of them royal funerals.Mayor, p. 100 Mithridates took his younger sister Laodice, aged 16, as his first wife.Getzel, Hellenistic settlements in Europe, the islands, and Asia Minor p.387 His goals in doing so were to preserve the purity of their bloodline, to solidify his claim to the throne, to co-rule over Pontus, and to ensure the succession to his legitimate children.
Early reign Mithridates entertained ambitions of making his state the dominant power on the Black Sea and in Anatolia. He first subjugated Colchis, a region east of the Black Sea occupied by present-day Georgia, and prior to 164 BC, an independent kingdom. He then clashed for supremacy on the Pontic steppe with the Scythian king Palacus. The most important centres of Crimea, Tauric Chersonesus and the Bosporan Kingdom readily surrendered their independence in return for Mithridates' promises to protect them against the Scythians, their ancient enemies. After several abortive attempts to invade the Crimea, the Scythians and the allied Rhoxolanoi suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Pontic generals Neoptolemus and Diophantus and accepted Mithridates as their overlord.
The young king then turned his attention to Anatolia, where Roman power was on the rise. He contrived to partition Paphlagonia and Galatia with King Nicomedes III of Bithynia. It was probably on the occasion of the Paphlagonian invasion of 108 BC that Mithridates adopted the Bithynian era for use on his coins in honour of the alliance. This calendar era began with the first Bithynian king Zipoites I in 297 BC. It was certainly in use in Pontus by 96 BC at the latest.Jakob Munk Højte, "From Kingdom to Province: Reshaping Pontos after the Fall of Mithridates VI", in Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen (ed.), Rome and the Black Sea Region: Domination, Romanisation, Resistance (Aarhus University Press, 2006), 15–30.
Yet it soon became clear to Mithridates that Nicomedes was steering his country into an anti-Pontic alliance with the expanding Roman Republic. When Mithridates fell out with Nicomedes over control of Cappadocia, and defeated him in a series of battles, the latter was constrained to openly enlist the assistance of Rome. The Romans twice interfered in the conflict on behalf of Nicomedes (95–92 BC), leaving Mithridates, should he wish to continue the expansion of his kingdom, with little choice other than to engage in a future Roman-Pontic war. By this time Mithridates had resolved to expel the Romans from Asia.
Mithridatic Wars
The next ruler of Bithynia, Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, was a figurehead manipulated by the Romans. Mithridates plotted to overthrow him, but his attempts failed and Nicomedes IV, instigated by his Roman advisors, declared war on Pontus. Rome itself was at the time involved in the Social War, a civil war with its Italian allies; as a result, there were only two legions present in all of Roman Asia, both in Macedonia. These legions combined with Nicomedes IV's army to invade Mithridates' Kingdom of Pontus in 89 BC. Mithridates won a decisive victory, scattering the Roman-led forces. His victorious forces were welcomed throughout Anatolia. The following year, 88 BC, Mithridates ordered a massacre of Roman and Italian settlers remaining in several major Anatolian cities, including Pergamon and Tralles, essentially wiping out the Roman presence in the region. As many as 80,000 people are said to have perished in the killings. The episode is known as the Asiatic Vespers.Mayor
The Kingdom of Pontus comprised a mixed population in its Ionian Greek and Anatolian cities. The royal family moved the capital from Amasia to the Greek city of Sinope. Its rulers tried to fully assimilate the potential of their subjects by showing a Greek face to the Greek world and an Iranian/Anatolian face to the Eastern world. Whenever the gap between the rulers and their Anatolian subjects became greater, they would put emphasis on their Persian origins. In this manner, the royal propaganda claimed heritage both from Persian and Greek rulers, including Cyrus the Great, Darius I of Persia, Alexander the Great, and Seleucus I Nicator.McGing, p. 11 Mithridates too posed as a champion of Hellenism, but this was mainly to further his political ambitions; it is no proof that he felt a mission to promote its extension within his domains. Whatever his true intentions, the Greek cities (including Athens) defected to the side of Mithridates and welcomed his armies in mainland Greece, while his fleet besieged the Romans at Rhodes. His neighbour to the southeast, the King of Armenia Tigranes the Great, established an alliance with Mithridates and married one of Mithridates' daughters, Cleopatra of Pontus. The two rulers would continue to support each other in the coming conflict with Rome.
The Romans responded to the massacre of 88 BC by organising a large invasion force to defeat Mithridates and remove him from power. The First Mithridatic War, fought between 88 and 84 BC, saw Lucius Cornelius Sulla force Mithridates out of Greece proper. After achieving victory in several battles, Sulla received news of trouble back in Rome posed by his rival Gaius Marius and hurriedly concluded peace talks with Mithridates. As Sulla returned to Italy, Lucius Licinius Murena was left in charge of Roman forces in Anatolia. The lenient peace treaty, which was never ratified by the Senate, allowed Mithridates VI to restore his forces. Murena attacked Mithridates in 83 BC, provoking the Second Mithridatic War from 83 to 81 BC. Mithridates defeated Murena's two green legions at the Battle of Halys in 82 BC before peace was again declared by treaty.
When Rome attempted to annex Bithynia (bequeathed to Rome by its last king) nearly a decade later, Mithridates attacked with an even larger army, leading to the Third Mithridatic War from 73 BC to 63 BC. Lucullus was sent against Mithridates and the Romans routed the Pontic forces at the Battle of Cabira in 72 BC, driving Mithridates into exile in Tigranes' Armenia. While Lucullus was preoccupied fighting the Armenians, Mithridates surged back to retake Pontus by crushing four Roman legions under Valerius Triarius and killing 7,000 Roman soldiers at the Battle of Zela in 67 BC. He was routed by Pompey's legions at the Battle of the Lycus in 66 BC.