the poison king the life and legend of mithradates

She chose readability, and the book was VERY readable, but it did come at a cost. So Mayor is stuck, she can either try to sort out the fact from the fable and sometimes get a little loose with her narrative, or she can write a book that no one but Classical Historians would probably want to read. Those materials that exist are often biased because they were written by Romans. So much of Mithradates life is shrouded in rumor, speculation and second and third-hand sources.

The shortcoming of this book is one that would probably be the shortcoming of any historical biography of Mithradates: the lack of complete records. He fought them using terror, direct action (both naval and military), statecraft, and asymmetric warfare. He wanted to be a Darius or an Alexander the Great type of leader and for much of his life he was. He wasn't interested in playing a minor character on the world stage. He was a brilliant linguist, military commander, scientist, and absolutely machismo to boot. His methods for removing the Romans from Asia Minor were not even remotely reasonable ('Kill them all and let Zeus sort them out' wasn't tolerable even in 88 BC). He isn't, however, a warrior king/leader you can completely admire. Mithradates makes almost every other challenger to the status quo seem inept, uncreative and not really committed. A mythic & complicated life of a charismatic KingĪ fascinating piece of Persian/Roman/Asia Minor history/biography.

The poison king the life and legend of mithradates