Mithridates VI of Pontus was a powerful Hellenistic king and long-term enemy of Rome. His wars against Roman expansion in Asia Minor and Greece made him one of the Republic’s most formidable eastern opponents.
Mithridates VI of Pontus also held the offices or ranks of list of kings of Pontus. Mithridates VI of Pontus belonged to the Mithridatic dynasty and operated within Kingdom of Pontus. Mithridates VI of Pontus was born in Sinop and died in Bosporan Kingdom.
Michael Curtis Ford’s The Last King makes Mithridates VI the dominant figure of a dynastic narrative told by his son Pharnaces, following the king’s survival of court intrigue, expansion around the Black Sea and three wars with Rome. Alfred Duggan’s He Died Old likewise traces his long resistance to Roman commanders from Sulla to Pompey, emphasising the combination of resilience, ruthlessness and political theatre that kept Pontus in the struggle. Colleen McCullough’s The Grass Crown uses the command against Mithridates as the prize that intensifies the rivalry between Marius and Sulla. Vincent B. Davis II’s While Rome Burned shows his eastern offensive helping push that Roman rivalry into civil war, while Steven Saylor’s Wrath of the Furies places Gordianus at Mithridates’ court on the eve of the coordinated killings of Romans and Italians in Asia Minor.
