King of Pontus (r. 120-63 b. c.e.)
Born: c. 134 b. c.e.; probably Sinope, kingdom of Pontus (now Sinop, Turkey)
Died: 63 b. c.e.; Panticapaeum, Crimea (now Kerch, Ukraine)
Also known as: Mithradates Dionysus Eupator Category: Government and politics
Life Mithradates VI Eupator (mihth-rah-DAYT-eez six YEW-puh-tawr), the last independent Hellenistic monarch to oppose Rome, respected Roman arms and distrusted the senate’s word. Between 110 and 90 b. c.e., he built a state centered on his ancestral kingdom of Pontus (northeastern Turkey) and the Hellenized Tauric Chersonese (Crimea). He allied with Greek cities and warlike tribes around the Black Sea and, by marriage, with King Tigranes the Great (r. 95-55 b. c.e.) of Armenia.
Mithradates clashed with rival king and Roman ally Nicomedes III Euergetes of Bithynia (r. 128-94 b. c.e.) over Cappadocia. Provoked into the First Mithridatic War (89-85 b. c.e.), Mithradates overran Asia Minor in 89 b. c.e. in a campaign worthy of Alexander the Great. In 88 b. c.e., his armies entered Greece, and Mithradates is said to have ordered the massacre of 80,000 Romans in Asia. The king’s autocratic manner forfeited him support among his Greek allies. In 86 b. c.e., the proconsul Lucius Cornelius Sulla crushed Pontic armies in Greece, captured Athens, and carried the war to Asia. By the Treaty of Dardanus (85 b. c.e.), Mithradates agreed to an indemnity and withdrew to his kingdom.
The Third Mithridatic War (75-65 b. c.e.), erupted when King Nicomedes IV (r. 94-74 b. c.e.) willed Bithynia to Rome. Mithradates suffered a decisive defeat by Lucius Licinius Lucullus at Cyzicus in 73 b. c.e. Thereafter, Lucullus invaded Pontus. Mithradates fled to Armenia in 70 b. c.e. He left Pontus for Crimea in 65 b. c.e. and was driven to suicide there in 63 b. c.e.
Mithradates VI Eupator (right) killed himself after being defeated by Pompey the Great. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Influence Because Mithradates had been hailed a liberator by provincials, the Roman commanders Lucullus and Pompey the Great reformed provincial administration. Ironically, Mithradates’ threat catapulted Sulla and Pompey to extraordinary commands that spelled the demise of the Roman Republic.
Further Reading
Appian. “The Mithridatic Wars.” In Appian’s Roman History II, translated by Horace White. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1922. Plutarch. “Lucullus.” In Vol. 2 of Plutarch’s Lives, translated by B. Perrin.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1928.
Sherwin-White, A. N. Roman Foreign Policy in the East, 168 B. C. to A. D. 1. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984.
Kenneth W. Harl
See also: Hellenistic Greece; Mithridatic Wars.
World History
