The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy

A compelling biography of the legendary king, rebel, and poisoner who defied the Roman Empire

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.