When Alexander the Great died in the summer of 323 BC in Babylon, he left no plans for his succession. He had travelled with an extensive entourage from his home in Macedonia to India and back to Babylon; and brought the Persian empire to an end. A vast area had come under varying degrees of Greek control, but with the king’s death at the age of 32, quarrels and fighting immediately broke out among his potential successors. There were two results: Greek culture penetrated to previously unexposed regions, and for the next 40 years there was constant and deadly competitiveness among those who sought to carry on the traditions of Alexander. As might be expected, Alexander’s empire quickly fragmented into a large number of local rulers, some more important than others.
Remnants of the disposed Persian aristocracy also participated in this chaotic search for territory and power. One such example is a certain Mithridates. He was originally attached to Alexander’s successor Antigonos Monopthalmos but, due to the unforgiving politics of the era, had to retreat to the rugged mountainous region of northern Asia Minor, where by the early third century BC he had carved out a small principality for himself. Mithridates, now generally called Mithridates I the Founder, was typical of the world after Alexander—where dynasts previously unknown could rise to power in remote areas and bring a hybrid Greco-Persian culture to regions on the margins of civilization.
Yet Mithridates I was unusual in that he was able to create a dynasty that lasted for hundreds of years. Over the next several generations his kingdom, today called Pontos, expanded south and east and established marriage alliances with the major powers; these alliances remained for generations. In fact, the most famous woman from classical antiquity, Cleopatra VII, was a descendant of Mithridates I.
In time Pontos was the most powerful kingdom in Asia Minor. A royal capital had been established at Sinope on the coast of the Black Sea, whose remains are still prominent today. Its territories covered most of the region, extending as far as the Armenians on the east (whose dynasty was related to that of Pontos), the Greek Syrians on the south, and on the west the historic Greek cities on the Aegean coast.
In the late second century BC, Pontos’ most famous dynast came to rule: Mithridates VI, called the Great, whose career is well documented as one of the major players of the era. He expanded the kingdom to circle almost the entire Black Sea, thus bringing Greek culture to regions where it had been previously unknown. Mithridates VI was an educated man—he allegedly knew 22 languages, more than anyone else in classical antiquity—and brought scholars to his court, which became the notable center of various disciplines, especially botany and pharmacology (the king was a master gardener in the scientific sense and identified several plants). The lush gardens associated with the villas of the Roman aristocracy owe their origins to Mithridates’ gardening techniques. He was also an architectural and technological innovator, most notably inventing the water mill.
The world of Mithridates the Great came to an end in 63 BC. For some time, the Mediterranean world had been coping with the rise of the Roman Republic, whose sudden ascent to power, beginning in the second century BC, provided a new dynamic to the historic relationships of the region. Mithridates the Great spent much of his career tangling with the Romans in a succession of territorial wars. Eventually the Roman presence became so powerful that the king had to abandon his kingdom and retreat to the northern limits of the Black Sea into the region of the modern Crimea. Pursued by the Roman commander Sulla, the king eventually committed suicide and left the kingdom to his son Pharnakes II, who came to a brief accommodation with the Romans. But the great days of the Pontic Kingdom were over, and the Romans represented the new direction of political power.
A number of the scholars at the court of Mithridates the Great migrated to Alexandria in Egypt and became associated with Cleopatra, who was born just about the same time as the king died; the queen well understood her debt to him as powerful dynast and opponent of Rome, and adopted many of his concepts about dynastic rule. And even today the legacy of Mithridates continues; he has been commemorated in the arts, both visual and performing, and in linguistics.
The kingdom of Pontos and its rulers were powerful players in the world between Alexander and the rise of the Romans. They exemplify the changing environment of that era and the spread of Greek culture that laid the groundwork for the domination of Rome. But in the end resistance was futile for Mithridates the Great, and Rome won out, as it did everywhere else. Nevertheless, Mithridates VI is remembered as one of the three great opponents of the late Roman Republic: he saw a predecessor in Hannibal, whose career he imitated, and a successor in Cleopatra, whom he influenced.
Featured image by Vasy Cotorobai via Unsplash.
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