Machiavelli praised his military genius. European royalty sought
out his secret elixir against poison. His life inspired Mozart's
first opera, while for centuries poets and playwrights recited
bloody, romantic tales of his victories, defeats, intrigues,
concubines, and mysterious death. But until now no modern historian
has recounted the full story of Mithradates, the ruthless king and
visionary rebel who challenged the power of Rome in the first
century BC. In this richly illustrated book--the first biography of
Mithradates in fifty years--Adrienne Mayor combines a storyteller's
gifts with the most recent archaeological and scientific
discoveries to tell the tale of Mithradates as it has never been
told before.
"The Poison King" describes a life brimming with spectacle and
excitement. 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.
"The Poison King" is a gripping account of one of Rome's most
relentless but least understood foes.
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