Lucullus and Mithridates VI

The third and final war between Mithridates VI and Rome began in 73 BC and was to last for a decade. The alliance with Sertorius came to nothing because of the death of the adventurer in 72 BC, but Mithridates embarked on the most extensive of his campaigns, with movements into the Roman territories of western Asia Minor. The proconsul L. Licinius Lucullus, formerly one of Sulla’s legates, was sent against him. After initial successes on the part of the king, fortunes began to turn against him, exemplified by a disastrous and lengthy siege of the Greek city of Kyzikos on the Propontis. But the war dragged on for several years, and in the summer of 67 BC Lucullus was recalled, accused of prolonging the war for his own aggrandizement.

The Gathering Storm

In 95 BC, a new king came to the throne of Armenia, southeast of Pontos. Tigranes II and Mithridates VI quickly became allies, with the former marrying the latter’s daughter. In a joint operation, both kings attacked Cappadocia, in southern Asia Minor on the Mediterranean. But the Romans, in the person of L. Cornelius Sulla, already had a presence in the region, and this led to the first clash between Pontos and the Roman Republic. Yet Mithridates was commemorated in Greece on the island of Delos, where a Mithridateion was built in his honor. But the Romans became ever more concerned about the king and sent a Roman commission to investigate his actions, which ordered the king to act with more restraint. He was totally offended, and events slipped toward war between Rome and Pontos.

The Early Expansion of the Kingdom of Mithridates VI

Mithridates VI the Great began his solidified rule by expanding his kingdom, seemingly with the goal of encircling the Black Sea. He gained possession of the ancient territory of Colchis and then strengthened his predecessors’ control of the Bosporos, on the north side of the sea. He also established a presence on the west side of the sea. The locals on the north side of the sea welcomed the king because they were constantly subject to barbarian pressures. There were also economic benefits to the Pontic kingdom in acquisition of the new territories. Mithridates also established a Pontic presence south and west of his kingdom, in Paphlagonia and Galatia. Yet such aggressive actions by the king were noticed by the Romans, even though the northern Black Sea was not in any region of their direct interest.

The Rise of Mithridates VI

Mithridates V was succeeded by the last and greatest of the Hellenistic kings of Pontos, Mithridates VI, who ruled for nearly sixty years. Since his father had been assassinated, his accession to power was not without difficulty, and there were various attempts to do away with the young heir, perhaps even involving his mother, the widow of Mithridates V. It was necessary for the young king to go into hiding and then to institute a purge of a number of his relatives and members of the court. But after a few years his rule became secure, and he embarked on an aggressive policy of bringing the kingdom to the peak of its power.

The Founder

The Pontic state began with the ambitions of Mithridates I, known as “the Founder,” a refugee from the unforgiving politics of the generation after Alexander the Great. He sought refuge in the rugged country of northern Asia Minor and declared himself king in the early third century BC, establishing what came to be called the kingdom of Pontos, creating its first capital, the fortress city of Amaseia on the Iris River. He also established a foothold on the Black Sea coast at Amastris. By the time of his death in 266 BC, Pontos had begun to emerge as one of the new states of the Hellenistic world.

Introduction

In early 63 BC, Mithridates the Great, king of Pontos, who ruled a territory that included most of the Black Sea coast, was in residence at his palace at Pantikapaion, just north of the sea. For thirty years he had been fighting the Romans for dominance in Asia Minor and beyond, and although he had won numerous victories, the overall trajectory was one of steady defeat for the king as Roman power spread to the east. He had been forced to abandon his traditional capital of Sinope, on the south shore of the sea, and retreat to the farthest corner of his kingdom at Pantikapaion, one of the most remote cities of the Greco-Roman world, where winters were unimaginably cold and the barbarian threat was ever present. Many of his allies and much of his family had abandoned him. Although he planned an invasion of Italy by going up the Danube and south through the Alps, imitating his famous predecessor Hannibal, he devoted most of his time to botany and pharmacology, in the long-standing tradition of scholarly royalty. But eventually he realized that he had no other options, and thus asked a bodyguard to kill him. Thus ended the career of one of the most remarkable leaders of classical antiquity, the man whom his younger contemporary Cicero called “the greatest king since Alexander [the Great].”...

The Kingdom Becomes an Independent State

Mithridates I the Founder was succeeded in 266 BC by his little-known son Ariobarzanes, whose son Mithridates II came to the throne in the early 240s BC and became the first powerful king of the new state. During his reign the kingdom reached legitimacy as an international power and expanded its territory. But most importantly, he made an astute marriage alliance, marrying a Seleukid princess; their children became the ancestors of much of the royalty of the eastern Mediterranean well into the Roman period, including Cleopatra of Egypt. Mithridates II became heavily involved in the politics of his era, and was the first Pontic king to strike coinage.

Pontos

The territory of Pontos was the northern coastal regions of Asia Minor, a rugged region that was a mixture of coastal Greek cities, Hittite and Assyrian outposts, and an indigenous population, noted for the unusual phenomenon of elaborate temple states. The region had long been known to the Greeks: Jason and the Argonauts were said to have passed along its coast. Its economy was primarily agricultural. It was also famous in Greek myth as the home of the Amazons. It was here that the Mithridatic kingdom has its origins, eventually coming to dominate the territory and its people.

The Royal Court

Despite the vigorous military profile of Mithridates VI, he presided over a court that was typical of the era, with a large extended family and an emphasis on the arts and scholarship. About eighty personalities are known who were members of the court, including poets, artists, physicians, and scholars. The best known is the historian Metrodoros of Skepsis, who was not only his ambassador to Armenia but a polymath writing on a wide variety of subjects. The king himself was a scholar, writing on medical research and botany. He was a noted pharmacologist, and his name is still attached to certain plants and medicines. He was also a scientific gardener. Numerous artworks are known from his environment, some of which survive.

The Aftermath of the First War

Despite the end of hostilities, before long matters drifted into a second war between Mithridates and the Romans, to a large extent started by Sulla’s legate L. Licinius Murena, who thought such aggression might yield him a triumph. Mithridates complained to Rome but did not receive a reply due to internal issues in the city. Yet there was little Roman support for another war, and Sulla, now the most powerful man in Rome, forced Murena to stand down. Mithridates had greater issues in mind, and he made an alliance in 74 BC with the Roman adventurer Sertorius, who was in Spain, with the thought of an attack on Italy from both east and west. This helped precipitate the third and final war between Mithridates and Rome.