The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates <li> Rome's Deadliest Enemy
(Libby/OverDrive eAudiobook)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Contributors
Mayor, Adrienne Author
Hecht, Paul Narrator
Published
Recorded Books, Inc. , 2010.
Status
Available from Libby/OverDrive

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Description

Machiavelli praised his military genius. European royalty sought out his secret elixir against poison. His life inspired Mozart’s first opera, while for centuries poets and playwrights recited bloody, romantic tales of his victories, defeats, intrigues, concubines, and mysterious death. But until now no modern historian has recounted the full story of Mithradates, the ruthless king and visionary rebel who challenged the power of Rome in the first century BC. In this richly illustrated book—the first biography of Mithradates in fifty years—Adrienne Mayor combines a storyteller’s gifts with the most recent archaeological and scientific discoveries to tell the tale of Mithradates as it has never been told before.The Poison King describes a life brimming with spectacle and excitement. Claiming Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia as ancestors, Mithradates inherited a wealthy Black Sea kingdom at age fourteen after his mother poisoned his father. He fled into exile and returned in triumph to become a ruler of superb intelligence and fierce ambition. Hailed as a savior by his followers and feared as a second Hannibal by his enemies, he envisioned a grand Eastern empire to rival Rome. After massacring eighty thousand Roman citizens in 88 BC, he seized Greece and modern-day Turkey. Fighting some of the most spectacular battles in ancient history, he dragged Rome into a long round of wars and threatened to invade Italy itself. His uncanny ability to elude capture and surge back after devastating losses unnerved the Romans, while his mastery of poisons allowed him to foil assassination attempts and eliminate rivals.The Poison King is a gripping account of one of Rome’s most relentless but least understood foes.

More Details

Format
eAudiobook
Edition
Unabridged
Street Date
09/02/2010
Language
English
ISBN
9781456114763

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Published Reviews

Choice Review

Mayor (Stanford) has specialized in writing well-researched, readable scholarship in the history of ancient science and technology, including the pre-eminent work on ancient chemical and biological warfare (Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs, CH, May'04, 41-5439). It is fitting, therefore, that her first major biography tackles the life of Mithridates VI of Pontus, known for his knowledge of poisons. It is difficult to weave personal anecdotes (the lifeblood of good biography) with the technical tidbits of science, but Mayor carries it off brilliantly, as evidenced by sections describing Mithridates' youth and early scientific education in Sinope, and his extraordinary chemical knowledge at the peak of his reign. Sometimes, Mayor's penchant for delving into scientific detail can be distracting, as in an excursus on meteors, probably better placed in an appendix. Mayor describes particularly well Mithridates' skill as a strategist, and especially his diplomatic efforts to form disparate coalitions with some of Rome's greatest foes--both individual rebels, like Sertorius or Spartacus, and states, like Armenia or Parthia. The work is a marvel: part biography, part campaign history, and part scientific exploration, written in a style that makes the book a true page-turner. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. J. Tucci School of Advanced Air and Space Studies

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
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Library Journal Review

Little known in the West, Mithradates has not been the subject of a full-scale biography in over 100 years, even though he remains a national hero in Armenia and Kurdistan. The publication of this biography is timely, as events of Mithradates's life parallel recent history. Mayor (visiting scholar, classics & history of science, Stanford Univ.: The First Fossil Hunters), a specialist in ancient science, fills this gap with a reappraisal of Mithradates's character and a detailed account of his scientific pursuits, notably his in-depth studies of poison. Prior depictions, particularly in popular culture, have shown a one-sided view of him as a cruel tyrant. Mayor gives us a more nuanced view of the so-called Poison King, placing him in his proper context as a Greco-Persian ruler following in the footsteps of his purported ancestor Alexander the Great. The most compelling aspect of this book is Mayor's engaging style. A true storyteller, she makes Mithradates's world come alive. Verdict This distinctive and compelling book is sure to fascinate all readers interested in the ancient world or in understanding the historical politics of the Caucasus region.-Margaret Heller, Dominician Univ. Lib., River Forest, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Mayor, A., & Hecht, P. (2010). The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates <li> Rome's Deadliest Enemy (Unabridged). Recorded Books, Inc..

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Mayor, Adrienne and Paul Hecht. 2010. The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates <li> Rome's Deadliest Enemy. Recorded Books, Inc.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Mayor, Adrienne and Paul Hecht. The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates <li> Rome's Deadliest Enemy Recorded Books, Inc, 2010.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Mayor, A. and Hecht, P. (2010). The poison king: the life and legend of mithradates <li> rome's deadliest enemy. Unabridged Recorded Books, Inc.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Mayor, Adrienne, and Paul Hecht. The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates <li> Rome's Deadliest Enemy Unabridged, Recorded Books, Inc., 2010.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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