The Poison King : the life and legend of Mithradates, Rome's deadliest enemy
A new account of one of Rome's most relentless but least understood foes. Claiming Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia as ancestors, Mithradates inherited a wealthy Black Sea kingdom at age fourteen after his mother poisoned his father. He fled into exile and returned in triumph to become a ruler of superb intelligence and fierce ambition. Hailed as a savior by his followers and feared as a second Hannibal by his enemies, he envisioned a grand Eastern empire to rival Rome. After massacring eighty thousand Roman citizens in 88 BC, he seized Greece and modern-day Turkey. Fighting some of the most spectacular battles in ancient history, he dragged Rome into a long round of wars and threatened to invade Italy itself. His uncanny ability to elude capture and surge back after devastating losses unnerved the Romans, while his mastery of poisons allowed him to foil assassination attempts and eliminate rivals.--From publisher description
Print Book, English, ©2010
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., ©2010
Biography
xxii, 448 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm
9780691126838, 9780691150260, 0691126836, 0691150265
319247391
Kill them all, and let the gods sort them out
A savior is born in a castle by the sea
Education of a young hero
The lost boys
Return of the king
Storm clouds
Victory
Terror
Battle for Greece
Killers' kiss
Living like a king
Falling star
Renegade kings
End game
In the tower
Appendix 1. Mythic hero or deviant personality?
Appendix 2. Mithradates' afterlife in the arts and popular culture
press.princeton.edu Chapter 1 available in electronic form from Princeton University Press Web site
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