[15] His goals in doing so were to preserve the purity of their bloodline, to solidify his claim to the throne, to co-rule over Pontus, and to ensure the succession to his legitimate children.

He first subjugated Colchis, a region east of the Black Sea occupied by present-day Georgia, and prior to 164 BC, an independent kingdom.

The most important centres of Crimea, Tauric Chersonesus and the Bosporan Kingdom readily surrendered their independence in return for Mithridates' promises to protect them against the Scythians, their ancient enemies.

[12] After several abortive attempts to invade the Crimea, the Scythians and the allied Rhoxolanoi suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Pontic general Diophantus and accepted Mithridates as their overlord.

When Mithridates fell out with Nicomedes over control of Cappadocia, and defeated him in a series of battles, the latter was constrained to openly enlist the assistance of Rome.

The Romans twice interfered in the conflict on behalf of Nicomedes (95–92 BC), leaving Mithridates, should he wish to continue the expansion of his kingdom, with little choice other than to engage in a future Roman-Pontic war.

Mithridates plotted to overthrow him, but his attempts failed and Nicomedes IV, instigated by his Roman advisors, declared war on Pontus.

[12] Whatever his true intentions, the Greek cities (including Athens) defected to the side of Mithridates and welcomed his armies in mainland Greece, while his fleet besieged the Romans at Rhodes.

After achieving victory in several battles, Sulla received news of trouble back in Rome posed by his rival Gaius Marius and hurriedly concluded peace talks with Mithridates.

In 63 BC, another of his sons, Pharnaces II of Pontus, led a rebellion against his father, joined by Roman exiles in the core of Mithridates' Pontic army.

[citation needed] After Pompey defeated him in Pontus, Mithridates VI fled to the lands north of the Black Sea in the winter of 66 BC in the hope that he could raise a new army and carry on the war through invading Italy by way of the Danube.

There two of his daughters, who were still girls growing up together, named Mithridates and Nysa, who had been betrothed to the kings of [Ptolemaic] Egypt and of Cyprus, asked him to let them have some of the poison first, and insisted strenuously and prevented him from drinking it until they had taken some and swallowed it.

[21]Cassius Dio's Roman History records a different account: Mithridates had tried to make away with himself, and after first removing his wives and remaining children by poison, he had swallowed all that was left; yet neither by that means nor by the sword was he able to perish by his own hands.

When, therefore, he failed to take his life through his own efforts and seemed to linger beyond the proper time, those whom he had sent against his son fell upon him and hastened his end with their swords and spears.

[citation needed] Where his ancestors pursued philhellenism as a means of attaining respectability and prestige among the Hellenistic kingdoms, Mithridates VI made use of Hellenism as a political tool.

The most impressive symbol of Mithridates VI's approbation with Greece (Athens in particular) appears at Delos: a heroon dedicated to the Pontic king in 102/1 BC by the Athenian Helianax, a priest of Poseidon Aisios.

[25] A dedication at Delos, by Dicaeus, a priest of Sarapis, was made in 94/93 BC on behalf of the Athenians, Romans, and "King Mithridates Eupator Dionysus".

[26] Greek styles mixed with Persian elements also abound on the official Pontic coins – Perseus was favoured as an intermediary between both worlds, East and West.

The Romans were easily translated into "barbarians", in the same sense as the Persian Empire during the war with Persia in the first half of the 5th century BC and during Alexander's campaign.

It served its purpose; at least partially because of it, Mithridates VI was able to fight the First War with Rome on Greek soil, and maintain the allegiance of Greece.

After he became king of Pontus, Mithridates continued to study poisons and develop antidotes, whose initial efficacies were tested on Pontic criminals condemned to death.

[31] In keeping with most medical practices of his era, Mithridates' antitoxin routines included a religious component; they were supervised by the Agari, a group of Scythian shamans who never left him.

The original formula has been entirely lost,[37] although Pliny reports that Mithridates' various antidotes usually included the blood of Pontic ducks (possibly ruddy shelducks), which fed on poisonous plants[36] like hellebore[38] and hemlock[39] and thus provided a kind of serum against them.

[41] The legions under Pompey who had defeated Mithridates killed his secretary Callistratus and burnt some of his papers,[42] but were also reported to have taken an extensive medicinal library and collection of specimens back to Rome, where Pompey's slave Lenaeus translated them into Latin[36][35] and the Roman doctors like A. Cornelius Celsus began prescribing various recipes under the name of Mithridates' antidote (Latin: antidotum Mithridaticum).

[34] Andromachus the Elder, Nero's court physician, developed theriac (theriaca Andromachi) by supplementing the versions of Mithridates' formula known in his day with more opium, poppy seeds,[48] and a homeopathic addition of viper flesh.

[50] Of the plants shared across these early forms of mithridate, many seem to be strongly odoriferous[34] or to exhibit antibacterial[51] and anti-inflammatory abilities;[34] it is also noteworthy that bioactive alkaloids[34] and poisons are not widely represented.

The Islamic scientist Averroes, meanwhile, believed it may be helpful in some cases but cautioned against regular consumption by the healthy as it "could actually transform human nature into a kind of poison".

[49] It notably failed as a cure to plague and epilepsy,[34] and William Heberden's 1745 Antitheriaca (Ancient Greek: Αντιθηριακα, Antithēriaka) helped fully discredit it in England.

Plutarch, writing in his Lives, states that Mithridates' sister and five of his children took part in Pompey's triumphal procession on his return to Rome in 61 BC.

He gathered all that springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, thence to more, He sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, seasoned sound, Sate the king when healths went round.