Mithridates the Great: Rome's Indomitable Enemy

This military biography examines Mithridates VI of Pontus, one of the Roman Republic's greatest rivals, drawing on recent scholarly evidence. The Mithridatic wars between Rome and Pontus spanned over half a century across two continents, featuring pitched battles, epic sieges, double-crosses, political intrigue, assassinations, and widespread treachery. Mithridates VI was a connoisseur of poisons, skilled schemer, and strategist who proved as resilient in defeat as he was savage in victory. Few leaders who fought Rome survived to recount their experiences, yet in the first half of the first century BCE, Mithridates engaged Rome in three separate wars. At his peak, his armies drove the Romans from Asia Minor and Greece, reversing a century of Roman expansion in the region. Even as his fortunes declined, Mithridates refused to surrender. Until his death—a suicide prompted by his own son's treachery—he remained a fugitive still planning an overland invasion of Rome itself.