8. The comet’s position in the constellation Pegasus was first proposed by Ramsey 1999, 218–28. Horse omen: Widengren 1959, 244. Pegasus coins: McGing 1986, 85, 94–95.
9. Comets shaped like swords, Pliny 2.22.89; Josephus Jewish War 6.5.3; 1 Chronicles 21.16; Revelation 1.16. The harpe was also the signature weapon of Perseus, Iranian-influenced Greek hero who beheaded the Gorgon, releasing Pegasus. Xenophon Cyrus 1.2.9. Perseus with harpe is featured on Pontic coins, Højte 2009c; McGing 1986, 35, 94.
10. Prophecies about Rome, Sanford 1937, 437–39, on messianic hopes in provinces of Rome, 446; Holland 2003, 31–58; Buitenwerf 2003. See Gruen 1984.
11. Strabo 6.4.2, Roman expansion. Brutal Roman warfare: Polybius 10.15; Livy 31.34.4; Walbank 1984, 2:215–16; Holland 2003, 3–6, 10–11; Ñaco del Hoyo et al. 2009, 12. Hatred of Rome, Appian 23; self-criticism by Romans: Cicero Pro lege Manilia 65, Pro Flacco 8.19; Tacitas Agricola for barbarians’ grievances against Romans. Sanford 1937 and 1950; Balsdon 1979, 161–92.
12. Persian and Egyptian oracles: Widengren 1959, 248–49; Zoroastrian Bahman Yasht 3.13–15. Rome later banned the Oracle of Hystapses under penalty of death. Sanford 1937 and 1950, 35. Star and comet omens, Lewis 1976, 68, 144–47. Oracles about Rome, Balsdon 1979, 188–89. The name Anatolia comes from Anatolo, ancient Greek for “rising sun or heavenly body,” see Lewis 2001, preface. Lewis discusses the history of the problematic nomenclature for Asia Minor, Anatolia, the Orient, and the Near and Middle East. Prophetic texts expressing anti-Roman sentiments, Lewis and Reinhold 1990, 1:403–9. Balsdon 1979, 188–92.
13. Here I have condensed Publius’s long, rambling prophecy into a single sentence in italics: full utterance in Phlegon of Tralles’ Book of Marvels, in Hansen 1996, 32–37, 101–12. Sanford 1950, 29–30 on the story and its source; cf McGing 1986, 102–4.
14. The original Sibylline Books are probably lost; surviving versions may date from the 2nd century BC. Parke 1988; Sanford 1937, 438, 448–49. Third Book of the Sibylline Oracles and pro-Mithradates Jews in Asia, Buitenwerf 2003, 220–35, 302–10. See also Holland 2003, 31–35.
15. Athenaeus 5.211–15. McGing 1986, 84, 102, 118–21, 123. M hailed as a god: Widengren 1959, 245, 248–49, in Iranian royal traditions, M would be seen as a divine savior, proven by his birth legends, similar to those of Cyrus, Mithra, and Zarathustra.
16. McGing 1986, 170 and 107 (quotes), 102–8, 122, 149–50.
17. Dionysus associated with rebellion against Rome, Strauss 2009, 33–35. Neverov 1973. One of M’s maternal ancestors was called Dionysus, Appian 10. Dionysus in inscriptions and coinage of 105–80 BC, Erciyas 2006, 117, 119, 133, 135, 165.
18. M’s lightning story, reported by Plutarch Moralia 624 B and Quaestiones Convivales 1.6.2, is unsensational and naturalistic: “While Mithradates was an infant, lightning burnt his cradle but did not harm him, only leaving a little mark on his brow, which was covered by his hair when he grew up.” Plutarch remarked that the nickname “Dionysus” was deemed fitting because of M’s capacity for wine. Lightning and Alexander, Plutarch Alexander 2.1–5, 6.3. Lightning plus horse omen designated Darius king of Persia: Herodotus 3.86–93. Savior-king identified by special marks, Widengren 1959, 249, 256. Sibylline Books allude to lightning marking great rulers, Buitenwerf 2003, 228, and see eg Artemidorus, Interpretation of Dreams in Lewis 1976, 68–69. Lightning predicted birth of Emperor Augustus, Suetonius Augustus 94. See Ramsey 1999, 199 and nn4 and 118; and Widengren 1959, 248–49.
19. According to Appian 112, 115–16, M was sixteenth in descent from Darius I and inherited his treasures. Pontic rulers, Eder and Renger 2007, 110–12. See also Polybius 5.43.2; Sallust Histories 2.73–85; Justin 38.7.1; Tacitus Annals 12.18. Since Reinach 1890, 3–5, M’s Persian and Macedonian ancestry was dismissed as pretentious propaganda. The “ancestry [was] fictitious,” “all propaganda invented . . . in the time of Mithradates Eupator, to give added respectability and nobility,” according to McGing 1986, 13, 14–15, 35–38, 95. “Later propaganda”: B. McGing, “Mithradates” in Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd rev. ed, 1996. But M’s claims are supported by ancient sources: see the painstaking study of evidence by Bosworth and Wheatley 1998, now accepted by McGing 2009, 2–3, and 2003, 84. M’s descent from Cyrus, Darius, Seleucus Nikator, and perhaps Alexander, accepted by Arslan 2007 and Saprykin and Maslennikov 1995, among others. On M’s Macedonian bloodline, see Ballesteros Pastor 1996, ch 1. Macedonian-Persian relationships: Plutarch Alexander 70–71. Barsiné and son murdered by Cassander, Pausanias 9.6.1.
20. After the massacre of 88, Cos welcomed M, turning over Cleopatra III’s young grandson and treasure; M raised the boy in royal style. Appian 23 and 117. M associated with Alexander, Glew 1977, 254–55; McGing 1986, 44–46, 99, 101–2, 107, 141–42. Ptolemy hijacks Alexander’s body, Aelian Historical Miscellany 12.64.
21. Maskiell and Mayor 2001, 24–26, symbolic and literal meanings of donning another’s robe or royal khilat in Greece, Persia, India, and Old Testament. In Plutarch Alexander 18.6–8, Darius dreams that Alexander wears his royal robe. In Xenophon, Cyrus 1.4.26, future king of Persia presents his magnificent robe to most beloved friend. Persian king’s gift of a robe, dorophorike: Aelian Historical Miscellany 1.22, also 1.32. In the Sibylline Books, a purple cloak confers high status: Buitenwerf 2003, 228. Jerome, Life of Paul, Bishop St. Athanasius’s robe, and Paul’s tunic inherited by St. Anthony. According to John 19.23, a Roman soldier obtained the mantle worn by Jesus after the Crucifixion. Today that relic is claimed by two cities: “Holy Coat,” Catholic Encyclopedia. Elvis Presley’s comet-design cape sold for $24,000 at Dick Clark’s Rock and Roll Memorabilia auction, Dec 1, 2006. Hassan Nasrallah’s robe displayed to Hezbollah followers across Lebanon, Time magazine, Dec 11, 2006.
22. Comparisons of M and Alexander, Arslan 2007 nn114, 122–23, 137, 140–41, 150.
23. Reinach 1890, 49–56, devoted a chapter to imagining M’s “joyful” youth. Modern historians, including McGing 1986 and Ballesteros Pastor 1996, decline to speculate on M’s youth, commenting on the legendary quality of the ancient reports. Holland 2003, 43, dismisses M’s early biography as “florid propaganda, read[ing] like a fairytale.” Memnon 22.2 says only that M was a “serial poisoner in childhood.” Appian (112) says only that M was an “orphan” when crowned king. Strabo 10.4.10 mentions M’s birth in Sinope. Duggan, the popular historical novelist who wrote M’s biography in 1958, spent only a few pages on M’s youth. Novelist Michael Curtis Ford 2004, 23–30, imagines a few scenes from M’s boyhood memories.
24. Rank, Raglan, and Dundes 1990 reprints Rank and Raglan’s original works. See appendix 1 for the heroic traits and scoring. Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) focused on the milestones of the hero’s quest or journey, see Rank, Raglan, and Dundes 1990, introduction. Scores for ancient and modern heroes, from diverse cultures such as Java, Ireland, Egypt, and the United States, are widely available. Thanks to Dr. Thomas J. Sienkewicz and students, Monmouth College, for several scores cited here; to Sage Adrienne Smith for Harry Potter’s score; and to Barry Strauss for Spartacus’s score. For a satire of Raglan’s mythic hero system, see Utley 1965 (thanks to Ted Champlin). Matyszak 2008, vi, rejects “hero” status for M.
25. Snowball Effect: Barber and Barber 2004, 146, “possibility may be restructured as probability and then as fact, which may entrain yet other probabilities which come in turn to be told as fact.” Propaganda is a modern concept; perhaps it is anachronistic to apply this concept to antiquity.
26. Cyrus’s life story, Herodotus 1.108–30. Cf Champlin forthcoming for evidence that Roman Emperor Tiberius consciously “channeled” the life of Homer’s Odysseus. See Champlin’s 2006 working paper: www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/champlin/090602.pdf. Cyrus the Great was the original example of mythic hero model: Rank, Raglan, and Dundes 1990, 22–31. See Arslan 2007 on M’s conscious emulation of Alexander as a “savior” who liberated Anatolia from Persian tyranny.
27. “Ost
ension” coined by semiotician Umberto Eco to describe actions that substitute for words; the concept is applied by folklorists to actions in real life guided by legends and myths. Definitions, examples, and publications, see John Lundberg, www.ostension.org; and see Kvideland 2006.
28. Herodotus 1.136–39. Eunuchs: Xenophon, Cyrus 7.5.58–69; Strauss 2004, 53–54, 58–59. Balsdon 1979, 227–29; Guyot 1980; Reinach 1890, 405; McGing 2009.
• 3 •
EDUCATION OF A YOUNG HERO
1. I elaborate on Justin 37.2. Ghosts of charioteers panic racehorses, Pausanias 6.20.15–19. Alexander’s horsemanship, Plutarch Alexander 6. McGing 1986, 44, suggests that Justin misunderstood royal Persian education, and that the horse story was invented by M’s supporters to foster comparisons with Alexander. Xenophon Cyrus 1.4.5–9 described young Cyrus’s risk taking and skills in riding and hunting.
2. M’s personality, Bekker-Neilsen 2004, Olbrycht 2009, McGing 2009.
3. Poisoning in antiquity, Cilliers and Retief 2000.
4. Strabo 10.4.10, 12.3.11. Plutarch Pompey 42, M also considered Gaius son of Hermaeus a “foster brother.”
5. Strabo 10.4.10, 11.2.18. See H. L. Jones, introduction, Loeb ed of Strabo’s Geography, 1:xiii–xvii. Strabo’s life and Theophilus: Richards 1941, 81. Strabo also wrote a history, now lost. See Bowersock 2008 on Strabo and M.
6. Rostovtzeff 1921, 223. Iranian culture in Pontus, McGing 1998; Mitchell 1995, 2:14–30. Greek cities under Roman rule, Gleason 2006.
7. Anatolian history after Alexander, see Mitchell 1995, 1:29–31, 81–85. History of Pontus through reign of Euergetes, Hind 1994, 130–37; Højte 2009a. Bosworth and Wheatley 1998; Reinach 1890, 1–47; McGing 1986, 1–42, 93 and n27. Black Sea: West 2003. Strabo 10.4.10; 11.2.18; 12.2.13; 12.3.15, 33, 39; 14.1.48; Justin 37–38; Valerius Maximus 1.8; Plutarch Lucullus 18.
8. Religion in Pontus, Saprykin 2009. Persian religion and customs, Herodotus 1.130–42, see 1.138, Persian hatred of lying and debt; also Xenophon Cyrus. Strabo 15.3.13–14, Persians worship “the Sun whom they call Mithra.” Magi and Zoroastrianism, Ammianus Marcellinus 23.6.32–8. Fire, Widengren 1959, 251; Champlin 2003, 227–29. Royal name Mithradates indicates that authority to rule was “given by Mithra,” endowing kings with divine light, Wynne-Tyson 1972, 21–26. Greek, indigenous, Persian, Jewish religions in Anatolia, Mitchell 1995, 1:11–35; exploitation by taxation, 1:30; ancient Iranian influences in Anatolia, 2:29–30. Roman tribute, taxation, extortion, moneylending: Balsdon 1979, 167–70.
9. Reinach 1890, 52–53. Gleason 2006, 243–47. Herodotus 1.136–39.
10. Pliny 25.14.33 (pharnaceon); for other medicinal plants discovered by another king of Pontus (Polemon) and M, see 25.7.22–25.20.46; many antidotes and poisons known to the Magi are discussed in Pliny bk 25. Paradox of poisons, Newman 2005, 7–9. Scientific survey of poisons known in antiquity, Cilliers and Retief 2000, 91–95; antidotes 96.
11. Memnon 22.2 (Jacoby fragment, FGrH 434).
12. Xenophon March 5; see Lee 2007, 36–37, 169–71.
13. Xenophon Cyrus 1.1.3–5 (secrets of power); 8.1.1, 8.2.9, 8.8.2 (good father).
14. Xenophon Cyrus 6.1.27–30, 50–53; 6.2.7–8; 7.1.31 and 47; 8.3.33; Xenophon Hellenica 4.1.17–19.
15. Equestrian victory inscriptions, McGing 1986, 92. M drove sixteen horses abreast: Appian 112. Suetonius Nero 24; Champlin 2003, 59.
16. Xenophon Cyrus 1.2.8–13; Strabo 15.3.17–19.
17. A bronze statuette in the British Museum has been identified as M dressed as a wrestler or a charioteer, barefoot, wearing wide belt, short tunic, and lionskin cap like Hercules, holding a wreath: Oikonomides 1962; McGing 1986, 100; Erciyas 2006, 156–58; but Jakob Munk Højte is dubious, per cor Feb 4, 2009.
18. History of Mithradatid dynasty and lands, Bosworth and Wheatley 1998. Scythians and other nomads, West 2003, 154, 156–57; Batty 2007; Sitwell 1986.
19. Appian 10. Rome’s client-kings, Eich and Eich 2005.
20. Strabo 11.2.12 describes pirates’ ships and methods. Appian 92–96. See Charachidzé 1998 for design of Black Sea pirate ships for carrying slaves and booty from antiquity on. Extraordinary wealth of Pontus in grave goods: Erciyas 2006, esp ch 3.
21. Road system of Pontus: Munro 1901. Pliny 8.47.109. Black Sea fishery, King 2004, 32–33. Castoreum was also used in perfumes.
22. Crimea, Taman, northern Black Sea during M’s reign, Saprykin and Maslennikov 1995. Erciyas 2006, 76, 163–66. Black Sea history and geography, Ascherson 1995; King 2004.
23. Fossils of Taman, Mayor 2000, Phlegon of Tralles in Hansen 1996, 45. Strabo 11.2.10. Logan 1994.
24. Persian-style luxuries: Plutarch Alexander 36–37, 40; Justin 38; Athenaeus 5 and 12; Valerius Maximus 9.
25. Plutarch Lucullus 31. For detailed digital topographical maps of entire Black Sea region, based on American National Geospatial Intelligence Agency data, see Centre for Black Sea Studies http://www.pontos.dk/e-resources/terrain-models. For chronological royal records of Pontus and its neighbors, Eder and Renger 2007.
26. Oxford Clasical Dictionary sv “Hannibal.” Hannibal’s influence on M: Sonnabend 1998. Hannibal’s ruses, Mayor 2009, 154–55, 188–89.
27. Justin 36.4; Plutarch Demetrius 20.2; Diodorus 34–35.3; Rigsby 1988, 123–27. On Galen Antidotes 1.1 and Attalus, see Scarborough 2007, proposing that Nicander of Colophon, a contemporary compiler of antidotes, worked with Attalus III. Attalus: Totelin 2004, 3 n10. Portrait of Attalus, Holland 2003, fig 4. M world’s first “experimental toxicologist”: Griffin 1995.
28. Lewis and Reinhold 1990, 1:344–45. Attalus’s will, Mitchell 1995, 1:29–30, 62. Aristonicus and M claimed the will a forgery, McGing 1986, 157–58; see Ussher 2007, 486, 133 BC, for ancient sources on Attalus’s will. Delphic Oracle predicting Aristonicus’s rebellion, Diodorus 34–35.13. Leucae, Tralles, and Phocaea: Bean 1979, 97–98, and Bean 1989, 177–78. Blossius: Scullard 1970, 25, 31, 40. Deep causes of Mithradatic Wars and M’s early expansions, Mastrocinque 1999, 18–28. Romans underestimated local loyalty to Aristonicus, Sanford 1950, 31–32.
29. Desperation: Oxford Classical Dictionary sv “Aristonicus.” Strabo 13.4.2–3; 14.1.38–39 (resourceless people).
30. Details of Aristonicus’s revolt: Eutropius 4.20 (Crassus); Orosius 5. Appian 2 and 9; Florus 1.35, 2.7.7–8; Justin 36.4, 37; Livy 59.14; Valerius Maximus 3. Sallust Catiline War 55. Children of the Sun, Arewordik’ or Arevordik, Robert Bedrosian, “Soma among the Armenians, Ethnobotany . . .” www.rbedrosian.com; Gevork Nazaryan, www.Armenianhighland.com, 2006; and Raffi 1959. Apollo wept, Obsequens in Lewis 1976, 120.
31. Statue of Aristonicus, Alexander’s friend, in Delos, Plutarch Fortune of Alexander 334. Hellebore in sieges: Mayor 2009, 100–103, Aristonicus, 109–10.
32. West 2003, 158–61.
33. Strabo 12.3.11. Ancient knowledge of petroleum incendiaries: Mayor 2009, 207–8, 228–31. This image of Medea is from Apollonius of Rhodes Voyage of the Argo 3.844–62; Euripides Medea (the plant is unknown). Argonauts: King 2004, 40–42.
34. Baby’s resemblance to adult M: Andreae 1994–95 and 1977; Højte 2009c. After defeat of M in 63 BC, Pompey installed this Hercules statue in his Theater on the Field of Mars, Rome; the statue was discovered in 1507 in Campo dei Fiori, near ruins of Pompey’s Theater, and now in Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican. Prometheus group, McGing 1986, 100.
35. See McGing 2009 for insights on M’s relationship with Alexander.
36. Plutarch Fortune of Alexander 335, Alexander 4; Pliny 35.10.92. For M portraits with left-inclined head, Høtje 2009c. M’s imitation of Alexander, McGing 1986, 101–2.
37. Xenophon Cyrus 1.3. Fox 2004. Plutarch Alexander 32 and 45, and Fortunes of Alexander 330. Strabo 11.13.9–10.
38. Persian birthday banquets, Herotodus 1.130–35.
39. I’ve imagined M’s father’s death scene, based on reports that he was poisoned at a banquet. Various historians give M’s age at his coronation as 11–13; the evidence of the comets, suppo
rted by Chinese sources, suggests he was about 14 in 120 BC (see Ch 2). McGing 1986, 41–43 and Ramsey 1999. Strabo 10.4.10; Justin 37; Appian 112. See Peck 1898, sv “Mithradates” for disputed dates; eg according to Memnon, Mithradates was 13 when his father died, while Appian says he reigned 57 years and died at age 68–69, and Cassius Dio gives his age at death in 63 BC as 75. See Ussher 2007, 495, 124 BC, for ancient sources on date of Euergetes’ death.
40. Justin 9.6–7; Plutarch Alexander 2.1–5, 77.5, Pausanias 8.7.5.
41. Reinach 1890, 50–51, 53. The motives for murdering Euergetes are unknown.
42. We know that M kept his weapons close at all times; I suggest that he emulated Alexander’s habit. Plutarch Alexander 19.
43. The Styx waterfall near Nonacris in Arcadia is the highest in Greece. Plutarch Alexander 77.1–5, Pausanias 8.17.6. Herodotus 6.74.Today locals avoid drinking from Mavro Nero (Black Water) River and say no vessel can hold it. I thank Antoinette Hayes, exploratory toxicologist at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, for suggesting the extremely toxic bacteria calicheamicin (discovered by scientists in caliche clay in the 1980s and now used as an anticancer drug) as a possible basis of this myth, per cor March 9, 2007.
44. Justin 37.2.4–6. Plutarch Alexander 8, 19.4–10, and 41.5–10. Harmatelia snake antidote, Mayor 2009, 89–90 and references.
45. Mayor 2009, 145–48. Xenophon March 4.8; Lee 2007, 29–30, 229–30. Ducks, quail, and goats thrive on toxic hellebore, Lucretius 4. Venomous fish, Aelian On Animals 17.31.
46. Strabo 12.3.40–41; see also 11.14.9, arsenic mines in Armenia.
47. Toxic minerals: Pliny 33.31.98, 33.32.99–100, 33.36–41, 35.13–15, 34.55–56.178. Theophrastus On Stones 8.48–60, toxic minerals and mining. Healy 1999, 215–19, 235–36, 258–62. Mitchell 1995, 1:82 n23. Smith 1890, sv “Arsenikon,” “Sandaracha.” Aggrawal 1997. Poisonous minerals, Cilliers and Retief 2000, 95.
48. Juvenal Satire 6.630–34.
• 4 •
THE LOST BOYS
The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy Page 46