Mithridātes VII., surnamed Eupator and The Great, succeeded his father Mithridates VI., though only at the age of 11 years. The beginning of his reign was marked by ambition, cruelty, and artifice. He murdered his own mother, who had been left by his father co-heiress of the kingdom, and he fortified his constitution by drinking antidotes against the poison with which his enemies at court attempted to destroy him. He early inured his body to hardship, and employed himself in many manly exercises, often remaining whole months in the country, and making the frozen snow and the earth the place of his repose. Naturally ambitious and cruel, he spared no pains to acquire himself power and dominion. He murdered the two sons whom his sister Laodice had had by Ariarathes king of Cappadocia, and placed one of his own children, only eight years old, on the vacant throne. These violent proceedings alarmed Nicomedes king of Bithynia, who married Laodice the widow of Ariarathes. He suborned a youth to be king of Cappadocia, as the third son of Ariarathes, and Laodice was sent to Rome to impose upon the senate, and assure them that her third son was still alive, and that his pretensions to the kingdom of Cappadocia were just and well grounded. Mithridates used the same arms of dissimulation. He also sent to Rome Gordius, the governor of his son, who solemnly declared before the Roman people, that the youth who sat on the throne of Cappadocia was the third son and lawful heir of Ariarathes, and that he was supported as such by Mithridates. This intricate affair displeased the Roman senate, and finally to settle the dispute between the two monarchs, the powerful arbiters took away the kingdom of Cappadocia from Mithridates, and Paphlagonia from Nicomedes. These two kingdoms, being thus separated from their original possessors, were presented with their freedom and independence; but the Cappadocians refused it, and received Ariobarzanes for king. Such were the first seeds of enmity between Rome and the king of Pontus. See: [Mithridaticum bellum]. Mithridates never lost an opportunity by which he might lessen the influence of his adversaries; and the more effectually to destroy their power in Asia, he ordered all the Romans that were in his dominions to be massacred. This was done in one night, and no less than 150,000, according to Plutarch, or 80,000 Romans, as Appian mentions, were made, at one blow, the victims of his cruelty. This universal massacre called aloud for revenge. Aquilius, and soon after Sylla, marched against Mithridates with a large army. The former was made prisoner, but Sylla obtained a victory over the king’s generals, and another decisive engagement rendered him master of all Greece, Macedonia, Ionia, and Asia Minor, which had submitted to the victorious arms of the monarch of Pontus. This ill fortune was aggravated by the loss of about 200,000 men, who were killed in the several engagements that had been fought; and Mithridates, weakened by repeated ill success by sea and land, sued for peace from the conqueror, which he obtained on condition of defraying the expenses which the Romans had incurred by the war, and of remaining satisfied with the possessions which he had received from his ancestors. While these negotiations of peace were carried on, Mithridates was not unmindful of his real interests. His poverty, and not his inclinations, obliged him to wish for peace. He immediately took the field, with an army of 140,000 infantry and 16,000 horse, which consisted of his own forces and those of his son-in-law Tigranes king of Armenia. With such a numerous army, he soon made himself master of the Roman provinces in Asia; none dared to oppose his conquests, and the Romans, relying on his fidelity, had withdrawn the greatest part of their armies from the country. The news of his warlike preparations was no sooner heard, than Lucullus the consul marched into Asia, and without delay blocked up the camp of Mithridates, who was then besieging Cyzicus. The Asiatic monarch escaped from him, and fled into the heart of his kingdom. Lucullus pursued him with the utmost celerity, and would have taken him prisoner after a battle, had not the avidity of his soldiers preferred the plundering of a mule loaded with gold, to the taking of a monarch who had exercised such cruelties against their countrymen, and shown himself so faithless to the most solemn engagements. After this escape, Mithridates was more careful about the safety of his person, and he even ordered his wives and sisters to destroy themselves, fearful of their falling into the enemy’s hands. The appointment of Glabrio to the command of the Roman forces, instead of Lucullus, was favourable to Mithridates, and he recovered the greatest part of his dominions. The sudden arrival of Pompey, however, soon put an end to his victories. A battle, in the night, was fought near the Euphrates, in which the troops of Pontus laboured under every disadvantage. The engagement was by moonlight, and, as the moon then shone in the face of the enemy, the lengthened shadows of the arms of the Romans having induced Mithridates to believe that the two armies were close together, the arrows of his soldiers were darted from a great distance, and their efforts rendered ineffectual. A universal overthrow ensued, and Mithridates, bold in his misfortunes, rushed through the thick ranks of the enemy, at the head of 800 horsemen, 500 of which perished in the attempt to follow him. He fled to Tigranes, but that monarch refused an asylum to his father-in-law, whom he had before supported with all the collected forces of his kingdom. Mithridates found a safe retreat among the Scythians, and, though destitute of power, friends, and resources, yet he meditated the destruction of the Roman empire, by penetrating into the heart of Italy by land. These wild projects were rejected by his followers, and he sued for peace. It was denied to his [♦]ambassadors, and the victorious Pompey declared that, to obtain it, Mithridates must ask it in person. He scorned to trust himself into the hands of his enemy, and resolved to conquer or to die. His subjects refused to follow him any longer, and they revolted from him, and made his son Pharnaces king. The son showed himself ungrateful to his father, and even, according to some writers, he ordered him to be put to death. This unnatural treatment broke the heart of Mithridates; he obliged his wife to poison herself, and attempted to do the same himself. It was in vain; the frequent antidotes he had taken in the early part of his life strengthened his constitution against the poison, and, when this was unavailing, he attempted to stab himself. The blow was not mortal; and a Gaul, who was then present, at his own request, gave him the fatal stroke, about 63 years before the christian era, in the 72nd year of his age. Such were the misfortunes, abilities, and miserable end of a man, who supported himself so long against the power of Rome, and who, according to the declaration of the Roman authors, proved a more powerful and indefatigable adversary to the capital of Italy, than the great Annibal, and Pyrrhus, Perseus, or Antiochus. Mithridates has been commended for his eminent virtues, and censured for his vices. As a commander he deserves the most unbounded applause, and it may create admiration to see him waging war with such success during so many years against the most powerful people on earth, led to the field by a Sylla, a Lucullus, and a Pompey. He was the greatest monarch that ever sat on a throne, according to the opinion of Cicero; and, indeed, no better proof of his military character can be brought, than the mention of the great rejoicings which happened in the Roman armies and in the capital at the news of his death. No less than 12 days were appointed for public thanksgivings to the immortal gods, and Pompey, who had sent the first intelligence of his death to Rome, and who had partly hastened his fall, was rewarded with the most uncommon honours. See: [Ampia lex]. It is said that Mithridates conquered 24 nations, whose different languages he knew, and spoke with the same ease and fluency as his own. As a man of letters he also deserves attention. He was acquainted with the Greek language, and even wrote in that dialect a treatise on botany. His skill in physic is well known, and even now there is a celebrated antidote which bears his name, and is called Mithridate. Superstition, as well as nature, had united to render him great; and if we rely upon the authority of Justin, his birth was accompanied by the appearance of two large comets, which were seen for 70 days successively, and whose splendour eclipsed the mid-day sun, and covered the fourth part of the heavens. Justin, bk. 37, ch. 1, &c.—Strabo.—Diodorus, bk. 14.—Florus, bk. 3, ch. 5, &c.—Plutarch, Sulla; Lucullus; Caius Marius; & Pompey.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 4, ch. 6, &c.—Dio Cassius, bk. 30, &c.—Appian, Mithridatic Wars.—Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 97; bk. 7, ch. 24; bk. 25, ch. 2; bk. 33, ch. 3, &c.—Cicero, On Pompey’s Command, &c.—Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 18.—Eutropius, bk. 5.—Josephus, bk. 14.—Orosius, bk. 6, &c.
[♦] ‘ambassaders’ replaced with ‘ambassadors’
Mithridātes, a king of Parthia, who took Demetrius prisoner.——A man made king of Armenia by Tiberius. He was afterwards imprisoned by Caligula, and set at liberty by Claudius. He was murdered by one of his nephews, and his family were involved in his ruin. Tacitus, Annals.——Another, king of Armenia.——A king of Pergamus, who warmly embraced the cause of Julius Cæsar, and was made king of Bosphorus by him. Some supposed him to be the son of the great Mithridates by a concubine. He was murdered, &c.——A king of Iberia.——Another of Comagena.——A celebrated king of Parthia, who enlarged his possessions by the conquest of some of the neighbouring countries. He examined with a careful eye the constitution and political regulations of the nations he had conquered, and framed from them, for the service of his own subjects, a code of laws. Justin.—Orosius.——Another, who murdered his father, and made himself master of the crown.——A king of Pontus, put to death by order of Galba, &c.——A man in the armies of Artaxerxes. He was rewarded by the monarch for having wounded Cyrus the younger; but, when he boasted that he had killed him, he was cruelly put to death. Plutarch, Artaxerxes.——A son of Ariobarzanes, who basely murdered Datames. Cornelius Nepos, Datames.
Mithridātĭcum bellum, begun 89 years B.C., was one of the longest and most celebrated wars ever carried on by the Romans against a foreign power. The ambition of Mithridates, from whom it receives its name, may be called the cause and origin of it. His views upon the kingdom of Cappadocia, of which he was stripped by the Romans, first engaged him to take up arms against the republic. Three Romans officers, Lucius Cassius the proconsul, Marcus Aquilius, and Quintus Oppius, opposed Mithridates with the troops of Bithynia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and Gallo-græcia. The army of these provinces, together with the Roman soldiers in Asia, amounted to 70,000 men and 6000 horse. The forces of the king of Pontus were greatly superior to these; he led 250,000 foot, 40,000 horse, and 130 armed chariots into the field of battle, under the command of Neoptolemus and Archelaus. His fleet consisted of 400 ships of war, well manned and provisioned. In an engagement the king of Pontus obtained the victory, and dispersed the Roman forces in Asia. He became master of the greatest part of Asia, and the Hellespont submitted to his power. Two of the Roman generals were taken, and Marcus Aquilius, who was principally entrusted with the conduct of the war, was carried about in Asia, and exposed to the ridicule and insults of the populace, and at last put to death by Mithridates, who ordered melted gold to be poured down his throat, as a slur upon the avidity of the Romans. The conqueror took every possible advantage; he subdued all the islands of the Ægean sea, and, though Rhodes refused to submit to his power, yet all Greece was soon overrun by his general Archelaus, and made tributary to the kingdom of Pontus. Meanwhile the Romans, incensed against Mithridates on account of his perfidy, and of his cruelty in massacring 80,000 of their countrymen in one day all over Asia, appointed Sylla to march into the east. Sylla landed in Greece, where the inhabitants readily acknowledged his power; but Athens shut her gates against the Roman commander, and Archelaus, who defended it, defeated, with the greatest courage, all the efforts and operations of the enemy. This spirited defence was of short duration. Archelaus retreated into Bœotia, where Sylla soon followed him. The two hostile armies drew up in a line of battle near Chæronea, and the Romans obtained the victory, and of the almost innumerable forces of the Asiatics, no more than 10,000 escaped. Another battle in Thessaly, near Orchomenos, proved equally fatal to the king of Pontus. Dorylaus, one of his generals, was defeated, and he soon after sued for peace. Sylla listened to the terms of accommodation, as his presence at Rome was now become necessary to quell the commotions and cabals which his enemies had raised against him. He pledged himself to the king of Pontus to confirm him in the possession of his dominions, and to procure him the title of friend and ally of Rome; and Mithridates consented to relinquish Asia and Paphlagonia, to deliver Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, and Bithynia to Nicomedes, and to pay to the Romans 2000 talents to defray the expenses of the war, and to deliver into their hands 70 galleys, with all their rigging. Though Mithridates seemed to have re-established peace in his dominions, yet Fimbria, whose sentiments were contrary to those of Sylla, and who made himself master of the army of Asia by intrigue and oppression, kept him under continual alarms, and rendered the existence of his power precarious. Sylla, who had returned from Greece to ratify the treaty which had been made with Mithridates, rid the world of the tyrannical Fimbria; and the king of Pontus, awed by the resolution and determined firmness of his adversary, agreed to the conditions, though with reluctance. The hostile preparations of Mithridates, which continued in the time of peace, became suspected by the Romans, and Muræna, who was left as governor of Asia in Sylla’s absence, and who wished to make himself known by some conspicuous action, began hostilities by taking Comana and plundering the temple of Bellona. Mithridates did not oppose him, but he complained of this breach of peace before the Roman senate. Muræna was publicly reprimanded; but, as he did not cease from hostilities, it was easily understood that he acted by the private directions of the Roman people. The king upon this marched against him, and a battle was fought, in which both the adversaries claimed the victory. This was the last blow which the king of Pontus received in this war, which is called the second Mithridatic war, and which continued for about three years. Sylla at that time was made perpetual dictator at Rome, and he commanded Muræna to retire from the kingdom of Mithridates. The death of Sylla changed the face of affairs; the treaty of peace between the king of Pontus and the Romans, which had never been committed to writing, demanded frequent explanations, and Mithridates at last threw off the mask of friendship, and declared war. Nicomedes, at his death, left his kingdom to the Romans, but Mithridates disputed their right to the possessions of the deceased monarch, and entered the field with 120,000 men, besides a fleet of 400 ships in his ports, 16,000 horsemen to follow him, and 100 chariots armed with scythes. Lucullus was appointed over Asia, and entrusted with the care of the Mithridatic war. His valour and prudence showed his merit; and Mithridates, in his vain attempts to take Cyzicum, lost no less than 300,000 men. Success continually attended the Roman arms. The king of Pontus was defeated in several bloody engagements, and with difficulty saved his life, and retired to his son-in-law Tigranes king of Armenia. Lucullus pursued him; and, when his applications for the person of the fugitive monarch had been despised by Tigranes, he marched to the capital of Armenia, and terrified, by his sudden approach, the numerous forces of the enemy. A battle ensued. The Romans obtained an easy victory, and no less than 100,000 foot of the Armenians perished, and only five men of the Romans were killed. Tigranocerta, the rich capital of the country, fell into the conqueror’s hands. After such signal victories, Lucullus had the mortification to see his own troops mutiny, and to be dispossessed of the command by the arrival of Pompey. The new general showed himself worthy to succeed Lucullus. He defeated Mithridates, and rendered his affairs so desperate, that the monarch fled for safety into the country of the Scythians; where, for a while, he meditated the ruin of the Roman empire, and, with more wildness than prudence, secretly resolved to invade Italy by land, and march an army across the northern wilds of Asia and Europe to the Apennines. Not only the kingdom of Mithridates had fallen into the enemy’s hands, but also all the neighbouring kings and princes were subdued, and Pompey saw prostrate at his feet Tigranes himself, that king of kings, who had lately treated the Romans with such contempt. Meantime, the wild projects of Mithridates terrified his subjects; and they, fearful to accompany him in a march of above 2000 miles across a barren and uncultivated country, revolted, and made his son king. The monarch, forsaken in his old age, even by his own children, put an end to his life [See: [Mithridates VII.]], and gave the Romans cause to rejoice, as the third Mithridatic war was ended in his fall, B.C. 63. Such were the unsuccessful struggles of Mithridates against the power of Rome. He was always full of resources, and the Romans had never a greater or more dangerous war to sustain. The duration of the Mithridatic war is not precisely known. According to Justin, Orosius, Floras, and Eutropius, it lasted 40 years; but the opinion of others, who fix its duration to 30 years, is far more credible; and, indeed, by proper calculation, there elapsed no more than 26 years from the time that Mithridates first entered the field against the Romans, till the time of his death. Appian, Mithridatic Wars.—Justin, bk. 37, &c.—Florus, bk. 2, &c.—Livy.—Plutarch, Lucullus, &c.—Orosius.—Paterculus.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Mithridātis, a [♦]daughter of Mithridates the Great. She was poisoned by her father.
[♦] ‘daughther’ replaced with ‘daughter’
Mithrobarzānes, a king of Armenia, &c.——An officer sent by Tigranes against Lucullus, &c. Plutarch.——The father-in-law of Datames.
Mĭty̆lēne and Hĭty̆lĕnæ, the capital city of the island of Lesbos, which receives its name from Mitylene the daughter of Macareus, a king of the country. It was greatly commended by the ancients for the stateliness of its buildings and the fruitfulness of its soil, but more particularly for the great men whom it produced. Pittacus, Alcæus, Sappho, Terpander, Theophanes, Hellenicus, &c., were all natives of Mitylene. It was long a seat of learning, and, with Rhodes and Athens, it had the honour of having educated many of the great men of Rome and Greece. In the Peloponnesian war the Mityleneans suffered greatly for their revolt from the power of Athens; and, in the Mithridatic wars, they had the boldness to resist the Romans, and disdain the treaties which had been made between Mithridates and Sylla. Cicero, On the Agrarian Law.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.—Diodorus, bks. 3 & 12.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 4.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 7, &c.—Thucydides, bk. 3, &c.—Plutarch, Pompey, &c.
Mitys, a man whose statue fell upon his murderer, and crushed him to death, &c. Aristotle, bk. 10, Poetics.——A river of Macedonia.
Mizæi, a people of Elymais.