The Poison King

The Poison King

Machiavelli praised his military genius, European royalty sought out his secret elixir against poison and his life inspired Mozart's first opera. For centuries his name inspired poets and playwrights to tell bloody, romantic tales of his victories, defeats, intrigues, concubines and mysterious death. Yet today, Mithradates has all but disappeared from the popular imagination. Now in The Poison King—the first full-scale biography of Mithradates in well over a century—classical folklorist and historian of ancient science Adrienne Mayor combines her storyteller’s gifts with the most recent archaeological and scientific discoveries to tell the story of this ruthless king and visionary rebel who challenged the power of ancient Rome.

Born in 134 BC, Mithradates inherited the wealthy Black Sea kingdom of Pontus at age 14—when his mother poisoned his father. After fleeing into a four-year exile to escape his mother’s further murderous plots, he returned in triumph to become a ruler of fierce ambition, hailed as a savior by his followers and feared as a second Hannibal by his enemies. Claiming to be a descendent of Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia, Mithradates envisioned a grand Eastern empire to rival Rome, and he dragged Rome into a series of wars that lasted nearly 40 years and included some of the most spectacular battles in antiquity.

Mayor gives us a vivid portrait of Mithradates as a man of many talents and appetites: he was a courageous warrior, a brilliant strategist, a daring gambler, a scientific researcher, an avid lover, and an erudite philhellene and patron of the arts and sciences. He was also a man capable of the worst acts of brutality, including the infamous massacre of 80,000 Roman and Italians in Anatolia in 88 BC.

And he was a master of poisons, a talent that enabled him to survive assassination attempts—and to eliminate rivals. Mayor explores the Poison King’s toxicological investigations and the scientific principles underlying his famous antidote. And she also investigates the mysteries surrounding Mithradates' legendary suicide, exploring the possibilities that he was murdered or even that he actually faked his own death.

Combining the history of science, military history and biography, this richly illustrated volume draws on the widest possible range of sources, from antiquity to international modern scholarship, and from the most recent numismatic, archaeological, epigraphical and pharmacological discoveries to medieval chronicles, Gothic folklore, European tragedies, operas, modern fiction and poetry. The result is not just another dry, scholarly biography: as Mayor notes, Mithradates’ incredible saga is also “a rollicking good story.”

Hardcover: 472 pages

Publisher: Princeton University Press ( November 01, 2009 )

Item #: 06-7899

ISBN: 9780691126838

Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 x 1.2 inches

Product Weight: 22.0 ounces