The Poison King

Mithridates succeeded to the throne of a small kingdom on the Black Sea coast aged eleven and immediately went into hiding to avoid being poisoned by his mother. Succession disputes in that part of the world were often decided by murder but the boy survived to become the first known experimental toxicologist. He liberated his realm from Roman control orchestrating a massacre of Roman citizens and executed the Roman tax gatherer by pouring molten gold down his throat. Adding injury to insult Mithridates then defeated a succession of Roman armies sent to crush his little country. He counter-attacked and liberated Greece for some years before the tide of war turned. Surrounded by a gang of cut-throat courtiers (one sister betrayed him; another volunteered to join his harem) he had as many enemies in his household as in Rome and survived frequent assassination attempts. Finally cornered in his castle at Kerch he committted suicide along with his concubines and daughters.
The paradoxical career of this courageous visionary tyrant fascinated ancient historians Machiavelli and medieval historians. Mozart made him the subject of his first opera. It is the stuff of I CLAUDIUS but this exotic tale has not been told since Alfred Duggan's very dated 1958 account. Adrienne Mayor an expert in ancient warfare -- and poison -- brings his story to a modern audience in this highly accessible history.