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

by Adrienne Mayor

  The final phase of this grand scheme, declared Appian, was even more audacious. After reclaiming the Bosporan Kingdom, Mithradates planned to take Rome by surprise. He would wage war on them from Europe while Pompey was still stuck in Asia. With his multitudes, he would march west, across the lands of the friendly Roxolani and Bastarnae, around the Carpathians to the Danube. His ever-growing army would push northwest across Pannonia, and then, repeating the feat of Hannibal, Mithradates would cross the Alps and invade Italy from the north.

  CAT AND MOUSE IN COLCHIS

  While Mithradates contemplated his grand strategy, where was Pompey? After the Moonlight Battle, Pompey’s movements in 66/65 BC are confusing in the ancient sources, but one can reconstruct a rough chronology. Appian and Plutarch say that Pompey pursued Mithradates with major difficulties. In the land of the Turret-Folk, he lost a thousand men to poison honey, as we have seen. Reaching Colchis in fall of 66 BC, Pompey heard rumors of Mithradates’ intention to escape over the Caucasus.

  In Pompey’s mind he had already won the war. Mithradates, he reasoned, had been driven out of his kingdom for good, his son Machares was now Rome’s friend, and the Roman fleet owned the Black Sea. Pompey could not imagine that anyone, especially an old man of seventy, recovering from recent war wounds, could survive a journey over the mountain barrier. Assuming that Rome’s mortal enemy was doomed to an ice coffin, Pompey decided to indulge in some military tourism at the edge of the “civilized” world. He prided himself on being the first Roman to claim this fabled territory. He was eager to see for himself the haunts of Hercules, Prometheus, and the Argonauts, and to retrace Alexander’s route south of the Caspian Sea.20

  Unsure of Mithradates’ whereabouts, Pompey’s expeditionary force marched east along the Phasis and Cyrus rivers. Skirting the foothills of the Caucasus, they encountered warlike bands, proud to have resisted the Medes, Persians, and Alexander. Now they were highly motivated allies of Mithradates. Iranian-influenced, they worshipped the Sun and Selene (Moon), and, noted Strabo, they “assembled by the tens of thousands whenever anything alarming occurs.” Halfway between the Black and Caspian seas, at Armazi, the ancient fort overlooking the confluence of the Aragus (“fast water”) and Cyrus rivers (near Tbilisi, Georgia), Pompey made winter camp, surrounded by the hostile Iberi and Albanoi.

  While the Romans were celebrating Saturnalia, a jolly winter holiday of role reversals and heavy drinking, the Iberi, Albanoi, and allied bands ambushed the camp. The skirmishes were described by Appian, Plutarch, Strabo, and Cassius Dio. The barbarians numbered sixty thousand on foot and twelve thousand mounted. To the Romans, these tall, handsome people appeared “wretchedly armed, wearing the skins of wild beasts.” They were formidable guerrilla fighters who attacked, then took cover in the forest.21

  Pompey methodically set the forest on fire, to drive them out. After the battle, stripping the nearly nine thousand dead bodies, the Romans discovered many women warriors with typical Amazon weapons and clothing, just like what was depicted in Greek vase paintings (see fig. 14.2). Their wounds showed that their bravery matched that of the men. Female fighters were also found among the thousands of captives. According to Strabo, Amazons dressed in wild animal skins inhabited these mountains and the steppes beyond. In detailing the Amazon lifestyle, Strabo stated that his information came from the writings (now lost) of Mithradates’ old friend the philosopher Metrodorus and from someone by the name of Hypsicrates (the masculine version of Hypsicratea) who was quite “familiar with this region.”

  As noted earlier, “Amazons” referred to Eurasian groups in which both women and men hunted and made war. Since the nineteenth century, archaeologists have discovered numerous graves containing the skeletons of women warriors buried with their weapons in the same regions where the ancients located Amazons. It was said that Alexander the Great had met the Amazon queen Thalestris and her three hundred women warriors here, between the Phasis and the Caspian Sea, the very region now traversed by Pompey. According to the tale, Alexander had devoted thirteen nights to gratifying the queen’s desires. Now the Amazons were fighting on Mithradates’ side! Pompey was eager to show off these captive women warriors in his Triumph.22

  Pompey’s winter camp was selected for its strategic location. Cassius Dio says Pompey occupied the citadel of Armazi (built in the third century BC) in order to “secure the nearly inpenetrable pass” over the mid-Caucasus, the main route between Scythia and Armenia. Armazi also blocked the way to the eastern end of the Caucasus. The citadel’s massive blocks can be seen today; the ancient bridge is still called “Pompey’s bridge.” In spring of 65 BC, assuming he was “master of the pass,” Pompey left a garrison there and ordered the Roman fleet to patrol the eastern Black Sea coast on the lookout for Mithradates. Then Pompey marched toward the Caspian, to explore and perhaps to assure himself that Mithradates had not somehow slipped around the eastern end of the mountains (through modern Azerbaijan and Dagestan). But Pom-pey was soon forced to turn back. The ground was crawling with deadly snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas.23

  Filled with “wrath and resentment” (Plutarch’s words), Pompey now had to retrace his route. Struggling across the flooded Cyrus, his army revisited hostile territory: the Albanoi, Iberi, and their friends had risen up again. After a series of frustrating skirmishes, Pompey decided to try to pick up Mithradates’ trail. That summer, Pompey headed east again, fighting his way through “unknown and hostile tribes” along the Phasis to the Black Sea. Here, perceiving that Mithradates could not have escaped to the Crimea either by boat or by following the coast north, Pom-pey gave up the chase.24

  Pompey’s seemingly aimless wanderings are best seen as a game of cat and mouse. Mithradates seemed to have vanished into thin air. Pom-pey was trying to intercept or locate his prey’s three likely escape routes out of Colchis: around the mountains by the Caspian Sea, along the Black Sea coast, or over the daunting pass at the highest point of the Caucasus—the pass Pompey thought he had blocked. But, as we shall see, the mouse enjoyed all the advantages and managed to slip away through a secret “mouse-hole,” virtually under the cat’s nose.

  TIGRANES SURRENDERS, PONTUS OCCUPIED

  Pompey now crossed the Lesser Caucasus range into northern Armenia, to attack Tigranes’ stronghold, Artaxata. His men suffered severe hardships, thirst, and ambush, because the guides—Albanoi, Iberi, and Amazon prisoners of war—deliberately misled him.25

  In Artaxata, Tigranes, nearly seventy-five years old, had lost his will to fight. His son Tigranes (Mithradates’ grandson) had revolted, and it looked as though his old friend Mithradates was beaten at last. Tigranes accepted Pompey’s terms, prostrating himself on the ground and handing over his tiara in ancient Persian fashion. In exchange for six thousand talents and the surrender of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Phoenicia, Tigranes was pardoned. He ruled Armenia as a Friend of Rome until his death at age eighty-five in 55 BC. “Mithradates, he died old” is the familiar refrain, but Mithradates’ friend Tigranes would die even older.26

  Considering the Mithradatic War won at last, in late 65 BC Pompey returned to Pontus and founded Nicopolis (“Victory City”) on the battlefield near Dasteira where he had defeated Mithradates by moonlight. He traversed Pontus seizing fortresses and treasures that “would add splendor to his triumph.” The vaults at Talaura yielded cups of onyx and gold, splendid furniture, bejeweled armor and gilded horse bridles, Persian antiques, and the treasure from Cos—including the precious cloak of Alexander the Great.27

  When the Romans stormed Sinora Tower, the eunuch Meniphilus feared that his mistress Drypetina would be raped. He killed her and then himself with his sword. Several royal concubines were captured in other strongholds and brought to Pompey—Plutarch points out that he refrained from raping them. Stratonice, certain that she would never see her king alive again, surrendered Kainon Chorion to Pompey. In exchange for a promise to spare her young son Xiphares, she revealed the underground vault filled with Mithradates’ treasure
and archives. Stratonice and Xiphares were allowed to sail to Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula. They joined other members of Mithradates’ family there, overseen by Machares.28

  Pompey spent long hours poring over Mithradates’ private papers, for they “shed much light on the king’s character.” Curiosity ran high about the man who had defied Rome for so many decades. Rumors and speculations arose later about what state and private secrets these documents revealed. Did Pompey discover the Mithridatium recipe? The papers were shipped to Rome to be translated into Latin verse by the freedman Cn. Pompeius Lenaeus, Pompey’s learned Greek secretary. Lenaeus’s life exemplifies the rapidly shifting fortunes of many in the Mithradatic Wars. Captured as a boy of twelve, during Sulla’s siege of Athens in 87 BC, Lenaeus somehow escaped and returned to Greece to study. He was recaptured but freed by Pompey, whom he accompanied on all his campaigns. It would be fascinating to read Lenaeus’s character sketch of Mithradates—but, sadly, that work and all of Lenaeus’s writings are lost.29

  None of Mithradates’ archives, which passed through the hands of Pompey, Lenaeus, Plutarch, and Pliny, are extant. In the first century AD, Plutarch and Pliny consulted the original writings. The notes, according to Plutarch, named victims of Mithradates’ poisons and included interpretations of the dreams of the king and his lovers. There were sheaves of royal and personal correspondence, including the racy love letters penned by Mithradates and Monime.

  Plutarch says that Pompey shrugged off pursuing Mithradates beyond Colchis because—just as Lucullus had warned—the king was far more slippery in flight than in battle. Lucullus’s premonition, that Mithradates’ strength could multiply a thousandfold if he escaped to the Caucasus, was more accurate than Pompey realized. Remarking that “famine” would finish off Mithradates, should he somehow survive the mountain snows, Pompey established a blockade to cut off trade to the Bosporus (apparently forgetting that the Crimea had access to abundant fish and grain). Then Pompey set off to embellish his résumé of conquests, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Leaving Pontus far behind, Pompey marched south to subdue Commagene, Cilicia, Phoenicia, Syria, and the lands of the Arabs and Jews.30

  THE TREK OVER THE CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS

  While Pompey was traipsing around Colchis, Mithradates accomplished his most daring exploit, crossing the Caucasus Mountains in early 65 BC. To the great surprise of his son Machares, Mithradates and his army suddenly appeared in the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom that summer. Four ancient historians provide imprecise, contradictory information on Mithradates’ route over the mountain barrier and around the Sea of Asov to Pantikapaion (unfortunately, Livy’s account has not survived). Mithradates’ stunning feat was a mystery in antiquity and remains a puzzle today. Drawing on the ancient evidence and topographical conditions, I propose a mountain trek that differs from the coastal route accepted by historians since Reinach in 1890.

  Cassius Dio said Mithradates “outstripped Pompey’s pursuit, fleeing by the Phasis River” to “reach the Sea of Azov and the Bosporus on foot.” Plutarch says he traveled all the way around the Sea of Asov and down to Pantikapaion. Strabo states that Mithradates “despaired of the route north of Dioscurias [the Klukhor Pass] owing to the rugged mountains and ferocious inhabitants, the Zygi,” and “embarked on another route, along the sea, traversed with great difficulty.” Perhaps because he himself was uncertain, Strabo’s passage is ambiguous: the Greek word for “embark” can mean “to set off marching” or “to set off in boats” (English has similar dual meanings for “embark,” and “launch an attack”). Both translations appear in scholarly translations of Strabo’s passage. A further difficulty is that Strabo claims the Achaeans were friendly to Mithradates; Appian says they were hostile.

  MAP 14.1. Caucasia, between the Black and Caspian seas: Pontus, Armenia, Colchis, Scythia. (Top) Pursued by Pompey, Mithradates escaped from Pontus into Colchis, reaching Pantikapaion by way of Daryal Pass into Scythia, across the Don River and around the Sea of Azov. (Bottom) Detail of Mithradates’ probable route over the Caucasus Mountains. Map by Michele Angel.

  It is Appian who offers the most specific details. In describing Machares’ shock at his father’s unexpected arrival, Appian states that Mithradates traveled over the pass known as the “Scythian Keyhole, which no [army] had ever done before,” and then journeyed through the lands of strange Scythian tribes around the Sea of Asov and the River Don, arriving in Pantikapaion.31

  Mithradates had several options to consider. He rejected the Klukhor Pass north of Dioscurias because of forbidding topography and fierce Zygi (rumored in antiquity to be cannibals). The Caspian Gates pass at the far eastern end of the Caucasus range was nearly nine hundred miles distant. And the Iberi, Albanoi, and other allies would have advised him that the way east was blocked by the Roman garrison at Armazi Citadel, and that Pompey’s army was exploring near the Caspian. Armazi also controlled the main approach to the high pass over the central Caucasus, the Scythian Gates mentioned by Appian.

  Believing that crossing the central Caucasus, as implied in the other three sources, was impossible for even a small army, Reinach interpreted Strabo to mean that Mithradates marched along the shore from Dioscurias, emerging at the Taman Peninsula (this raises the question of why Mithradates would then travel all around the Sea of Azov instead of going directly to Phanagoria and Pantakapaion). By Reinach’s day a modern road had been dynamited above the sea coast. But in antiquity, there was only a narrow strip of beach obstructed by deep gorges, marshes, and sheer cliffs. Reinach imagined that Mithradates and his army bypassed these obstacles by taking camarae (dugout kayaks) provided by friendly “pirates” (the Achaeans).

  Reinach’s route entails several drawbacks. An army of three thousand, stretched out single file along the narrow beach, would be vulnerable to attack by Zygi and Achaean bandits. As Appian and others state, the Achaeans could not be counted on; this rugged coast had never been pacified as part of Mithradates’ Black Sea Empire. Moreover, according to Strabo, each camara held only twenty-five people, requiring more than one hundred dugouts for Mithradates’ army and equipment. And Pom-pey’s navy was patrolling the coast, looking for Mithradates. If Reinach’s theory is correct, this would have been an impressive feat. But I suggest that the route described by Appian, the pass over the mid-Caucasus known as the “Scythian Keyhole,” is the more likely route. This would take Mithradates on foot through friendly tribes, to the heartland of the Scythian tribes around the Sea of Asov, matching the details preserved by Cassius Dio and Plutarch.32

  The so-called Scythian Keyhole (or Gates) was only a faint rumor for Romans at the time, but in fact it was the most reliable way over the Caucasus, the major migration route for Eurasian nomads, traders, and invaders. The Persians had named this strategic pass Daryal, Dar-e Alan, “Gate of the Alans,” one of the nomadic tribes of Scythia whose territory lay over the pass (Tigranes’ mother was an Alan; the region is now Alania-North Ossetia). Fortification ruins dating from 150 BC or earlier, mentioned by Strabo, are still visible in the pass. The Daryal’s narrow defile with vertical walls accounts for its ancient nickname “Scythian Keyhole.” Famed for its wild grandeur, the Daryal Pass is featured in romantic Russian art and literature. The Georgian Military Road (begun in 1799) follows (and obliterates) the ancient route. Today, this region is violently contested by Georgia, Russia, Chechnya, Ossetia, Ingushetia, and others.33

  The main route to the Scythian Keyhole/Daryal followed the Aragus River up from its confluence with the Cyrus to the Daryal Gorge. Pom-pey had secured this approach, guarded by Armazi Citadel. But he was unaware that there was an alternate route, a “back way,” to the Daryal Pass.

  From Dioscurias, a march of less than 150 miles would take Mithradates to a lesser-known trail (near modern Kutaisi), separated from Pom-pey’s garrison at Armazi by 100 miles of rugged foothills. Described by Strabo, this steep, winding path followed the Phasis River to its source in the Caucasus. The route crossed 120 footbridges ov
er rushing torrents and yawning gorges to the Mamisson (Mamisoni) Pass, at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (the Ossetian Military Road, built in 1854–89, followed this ancient route). After crossing another pass (Roki, 9,800 feet, in South Ossetia, ancient Iberia), this path joined the main route to the Daryal Pass (about 8,000 feet). I propose that this daunting route, avoiding hostile tribes and the Roman navy, and bypassing Pompey’s garrison at Armazi, was Mithradates’ only hope of escape.34

  Pompey and the Romans believed it was certain death to attempt to cross the massive wall of eternal snows at the edge of the known world. But Mithradates’ plan—though extremely dangerous—was not as unrealistic as it seemed. Many of his warriors—including Hypsicratea—were recruited from Caucasia. They were already familiar with this traditional migration route, and they were used to cold weather at high altitude. Indeed, it may have been their local knowledge that led Mithradates to camp at Dioscurias and to cross at Daryal, taking the lesser-known route up the Phasis River. Mithradates could also have learned of this important pass from his Scythian allies and his study of Cyrus the Great, who was the first to fortify Daryal.

  The Caucasus is one of the most linguistically and ethnically diverse regions in the world. According to Strabo, seventy tribes—speaking seventy dialects—dwelled in the high Caucasus, living on milk, wild fruit, and game. In the winter, says Strabo, these peoples came down from the mountains to camp at Dioscurias and barter for salt and other goods (the northern branch of the Silk Route linked the Caspian and Black seas).35 We know that in the winter of 66/65 BC, Mithradates was camped at Dioscurias. It follows that he learned the logistics of the Daryal and other passes from these mountaineers, benefiting from their survival tips and scouts.