Mithridates VI Eupator (135-63 BC) was the King of Pontus from 120 to 63 BC, succeeding Mithridates V Euergetes and preceding Pharnaces II.
Biography[]
Mithridates Eupator Dionysus was born in Sinope, Pontus in 135 BC, the son of Mithridates V Euergetes and Laodice VI. A descendant of both the Persian Darius the Great and the Greek Antipater, he succeeded his father on his assassination at a banquet in 120 BC. His mother served as regent and effective ruler of Pontus until 116 BC, when he ousted his mother and his brother Mithridates Chrestus from the rulership of the kingdom and assumed power himslef. His mother died in prison and his brother was executed, and Mithridates went on to marry his younger sister Laodice. The ambitious Mithridates sought to dominate the Black Sea region, and he first subjugated Colchis in the Caucasus before clashing with the Scythians for supremacy over the Pontic steppe; the Bosporan Kingdom surrendered its independence to Mithridates in exchange for his protection against the barbarians. His general Diophantus defeated several Scythian and Roxolani invasions of Crimea, successfully defending the Bosporus.
Mithridates then turned his attention to Anatolia, where Roman power was on the rise. Nicomedes III of Bithynia allied himself with the Roman Republic, threatening Mithridates' territorial ambitions, and, as Rome was distracted by the Social War in Italia, Mithridates decided to overthrow Nicomedes IV of Bithynia. Nicomedes foiled the attempted coup, leading to the First Mithridatic War breaking out in 89 BC. The two Roman legions in Asia Minor joined the Bithynians in an invasion of Pontus, but Mithridates decisively defeated them and massacred 80,000 Roman settlers in Pergamon and Tralles in the "Asiatic Vespers" of 88 BC. Mithridates, posing as a champion of Hellenism, also won the allegiance of several rebellious Greek cities, and he sent his fleet to besiege the Roman-held island of Rhodes as his armies moved into Greece. The Romans responded by sending Sulla to reconquer Greece from Pontus, and, by 84 BC, Sulla was successful, and the Romans ultimately agreed to a leneint peace treaty which restored the status quo ante bellum. In 73 BC, Mithridates attempted to reconquer his lost lands in the Second Mithridatic War, but Lucullus defeated him at the Battle of Cabira in 72 BC and drove Mithridates into exile in Tigranes the Great's Armenia. Mithridates avenged his defeat by crushing four Roman legions at the Battle of Zela in 67 BC, but Pompey defeated him at the Battle of the Lycus in 66 BC. Mithridates fled with a small army to Colchis and then into Crimea, where he attempted to raise another army. When his son, Machares, was unwilling to aid him against the Romans, Mithridates had his son killed and took the throne of the Bosporan Kingdom. Mithridates then ordered conscriptions and preparations for war, but his other son, Pharnaces II, rebelled against him with the aid of Roman exiles. Mithridates withdrew to the citadel of Panticapaeum, where he committed suicide partly through poison and partly through his sword; Pompey had him buried in the rock-cut tombs of his ancestors in Amaseia.