PHARNAKEIA in PONTUS 95BC Zeus Eagle MITHRADATES VI the GREAT Greek Coin i53920

Item: i53920

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Greek city of Pharnakeia
in

Pontus

Bronze 19mm (8.19 grams) Struck under 

Mithradates VI the Great circa 95-90 B.C.
 or 
circa 80-70 B.C.
Reference: HGC 7, 297; SNG Black Sea 1276-1285; Sear 3663
Laureate head of Zeus right.
ΦΑΡΝΑΚΕΙΑΣ, eagle standing left on thunderbolt, head turned right; monogram left.

A strongly fortified coastal town, Pharnakeia was founded by 
the grandfather of Mithradates the Great on the site of the former Kerasus.

 You are bidding on the exact item pictured, 

Authenticity.

In the
ancient Greek
 
religion, Zeus was the 
“Father of Gods and men” (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν 
τε)
who ruled the Olympians of
Mount Olympus
 
as a father ruled the family. He was the
god of sky
 
and
thunder
 
in
Greek mythology
. 
His
Roman
 
counterpart is
Jupiter
 
and
Etruscan
 
counterpart is Tinia
.

Zeus was the child of
Cronus
 
and
Rhea
, 
and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to

Hera, although, at the 
oracle of Dodona
, 
his consort was
Dione
: 
according to the Iliad
, 
he is the father of
Aphrodite
 
by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and 
heroic offspring, including
Athena
,
Apollo
 
and Artemis
,
Hermes
,
Persephone
 
(by Demeter
),
Dionysus
,
Perseus
,
Heracles
,
Helen of Troy
,
Minos
, 
and the Muses
 
(by Mnemosyne
); 
by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered

Ares,
Hebe
 
and Hephaestus
.

As
Walter Burkert
 
points out in his book, Greek Religion, “Even the gods who are not his 
natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence.” 
For the Greeks, he was the
King of the Gods
, 
who oversaw the universe. As
Pausanias
 
observed, “That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men”. In 
Hesiod’s Theogony
 
Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is 
referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the
thunderbolt
,
eagle
,
bull
, 
and oak
. 
In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer” 
also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East
, 
such as the
scepter
. 
Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, 
striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated 
in majesty.

Mithridates VI
King of  Kings
Mithridates VI from the Musée du Louvre
Reign	120–63 BC
Successor	Pharnaces II of Pontus
Father	Mithridates V of Pontus
Mother	Laodice VI

Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI (Greek:
Μιθραδάτης), 
from Old Persian Mithradatha, “gift of
Mithra
“; 134–63 
BC, also known as Mithradates the Great (Megas) and Eupator 
Dionysius, was king of
Pontus
and
Armenia Minor
in northern
Anatolia
 
(now Turkey
) 
from about 120–63 BC. Mithridates is remembered as one of the
Roman Republic
’s most formidable and successful enemies, who engaged three 
of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the
Mithridatic Wars
:
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
,
Lucullus
 
and Pompey
. He 
was also the greatest ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus.

Ancestry, 
family and early life

Mithridates was a prince of
Persian
 
and Greek
 
ancestry. He claimed descent from
Cyrus the Great
, from the family of
Darius the Great
, the
Regent

Antipater
 
and from the generals of
Alexander the Great
and later kings:
Antigonus I Monophthalmus
and
Seleucus I Nicator
. 
Mithridates was born in the Pontic city of
Sinope
, 
and was raised in the
Kingdom of Pontus
. He was the first son and among the children born to
Laodice VI
 
and
Mithridates V of Pontus
(reigned 150–120 BC). His father, Mithridates V, was 
a prince and the son of the former Pontic Monarchs
Pharnaces I of Pontus
and his wife-cousin
Nysa
. His mother, Laodice VI, was a Seleucid Princess and the daughter of 
the Seleucid Monarchs
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
and his wife-sister
Laodice IV
.

Mithridates V was assassinated in about 120 BC in
Sinope
, poisoned by unknown persons at a lavish banquet which he held. 
In the will of Mithridates V, he left the Kingdom to the joint rule of Laodice 
VI, Mithridates and his younger brother,
Mithridates Chrestus
. Mithridates and his younger brother were both under 
aged to rule and their mother retained all power as regent. 
Laodice VI’s regency over Pontus was from 120 BC to 116 BC (even perhaps up to 
113 BC) and favored Mithridates Chrestus over Mithridates. During his mother’s 
regency, he escaped from his mother’s plots against him, and went into hiding.

Mithridates emerged from hiding and returned to Pontus between 116 BC and 113 
BC and was hailed King. He removed his mother and brother from the throne, 
imprisoning both, and became the sole ruler of Pontus. 
Laodice VI died in prison of natural causes. Mithridates Chrestus may have died 
in prison from natural causes or was tried for treason and executed. 
Mithridates gave both a royal funeral. 
Mithridates first married his younger sister
Laodice
, aged 16. 
He married her to preserve the purity of their bloodline, and to co-rule over 
Pontus, to ensure the succession to his legitimate children, and to solidify his 
claim to the throne.

Early reign

Map of the Kingdom of Pontus, Before the reign of Mithridates VI 
(dark purple), after his conquests (purple), his conquests in the 
first Mithridatic wars (pink), as well as Pontus’ ally the Kingdom 
of Armenia (green).

Mithridates entertained ambitions of making his state the dominant power in 
the Black Sea
 
and Anatolia
. 
After he subjugated
Colchis
, the 
king of Pontus clashed for supremacy in the
Pontic steppe
with the
Scythian
King Palacus
. 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. 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. The young king then 
turned his attention to Anatolia, where Roman power was on the rise. He 
contrived to partition
Paphlagonia
and
Galatia
with 
King
Nicomedes III of Bithynia
. It soon became clear to Mithridates that 
Nicomedes was steering his country into an anti-Pontic alliance with the 
expanding Roman Republic. 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.

Mithridatic Wars

The next ruler of Bithynia,
Nicomedes IV of Bithynia
, was a figurehead manipulated by the Romans. 
Mithridates plotted to overthrow him, but his attempts failed and Nicomedes IV, 
instigated by his Roman advisors, declared war on Pontus. Rome itself was 
involved in the
Social War
, a civil war with its Italian allies. Thus, in all of Roman Asia 
Province there were only two legions present in Macedonia. These legions 
combined with Nicomedes IV’s army to invade Mithridates’ kingdom of Pontus in 89 
BC. Mithridates, however, won a decisive victory, scattering the Roman-led 
forces. His victorious forces were welcomed throughout Anatolia. The following 
year, 88 BC, Mithridates orchestrated a massacre of Roman and Italian settlers 
remaining in several Anatolian cities, essentially wiping out the Roman presence 
in the region. This episode is known as the Asiatic Vespers. 
The Kingdom of Pontus comprised a mixed population in its
Ionian Greek
 
and Anatolian cities. The royal family moved the capital from
Amasya
to the 
Greek city of
Sinope
. Its rulers tried to fully assimilate the potential of their subjects 
by showing a Greek face to the Greek world and an Iranian/Anatolian face to the 
Eastern world. Whenever the gap between the rulers and their Anatolian subjects 
became greater, they would put emphasis on their Persian origins. In this 
manner, the royal propaganda claimed heritage both from Persian and Greek 
rulers, including
Cyrus the Great
,
Darius I of Persia
,
Alexander the Great
and
Seleucus I Nicator
. 
Mithridates too posed as the champion of
Hellenism
, but this was mainly to further his political ambitions; it is no 
proof that he felt a mission to promote its extension within his domains. 
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
. 
Neighboring King of Armenia
Tigranes the Great
, established an alliance with Mithridates and married one 
of Mithridates’ daughters,
Cleopatra of Pontus
. They would support each other in the coming conflict 
with Rome.

The Romans responded by organising a large invasion force to defeat him and 
remove him from power.The
First Mithridatic War
, fought between 88 BC and 84 BC, saw
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
force Mithridates VI out of Greece proper. After 
victory in several battles, Sulla received news of trouble back in Rome posed by 
his enemy
Gaius 
Marius
and hurriedly concluded peace talks with Mithridates. As Sulla 
returned to Italy

Lucius Licinius Murena
was left in charge of Roman forces in Anatolia. The 
lenient peace treaty, which was never ratified by the Senate, allowed 
Mithridates VI to recoup his forces. Murena attacked Mithridates in 83 BC, 
provoking the
Second Mithridatic War
from 83 BC to 81 BC. Mithridates scored a victory 
over Murena’s green forces before peace was again declared by treaty.

When Rome attempted to annex Bithynia (bequested to Rome by its last king) 
nearly a decade later, Mithridates VI attacked with an even larger army, leading 
to the
Third Mithridatic War
from 73 BC to 63 BC. First
Lucullus
 
and then Pompey
 
were sent against Mithridates VI, who surged back to retake his kingdom of 
Pontus, but was at last defeated by Pompey. After his defeat by Pompey in 63 BC, 
Mithridates VI fled with a small army from Colchis (modern Georgia) over the 
Caucasus Mountains to
Crimea
and made 
plans to raise yet another army to take on the Romans. His eldest living son,
Machares
, 
viceroy of Cimmerian Bosporus, was unwilling to aid his father. Mithridates had 
Machares killed, and Mithridates took the throne of the
Bosporan Kingdom
. Mithridates then ordered the conscriptions and 
preparations for war. In 63 BC,
Pharnaces II of Pontus
, one of his sons, led a rebellion against his father, 
joined by Roman exiles in the core of Mithridates’ Pontic army. Mithridates 
withdrew to the citadel in
Panticapaeum
, where he committed suicide. Pompey buried Mithridates in the 
rock-cut tombs of his ancestors in Amasya, the old capital of
Pontus
.

Assassination 
conspiracy

During the time of the First Mithridatic War, a group of Mithridates’ friends 
plotted to kill him. These were Mynnio and Philotimus of Smyrna, and Cleisthenes 
and
Asclepiodotus of Lesbos
. Asclepiodotus changed his mind and became an
informant
. 
He arranged to have Mithridates hide under a couch to hear the plot against him. 
The other
conspirators
were
tortured
and
executed
. However, this was not enough for Mithridates, who also killed all 
of the plotters’ families and friends.

Propaganda

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. 
As protector of Greek cities on the Black Sea and in Asia against barbarism, 
Mithridates VI logically became protector of Greece and Greek culture, and would 
use this stance in his clashes with Rome. 
Strabo mentions that Chersonesus buckled under the pressure of the barbarians 
and asked Mithridates VI to become its protector (7.4.3. c.308). 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 by the Athenian Helianax, a priest of 
Poseidon Aisios. 
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.”^[16] 
Greek styles mixed with Persian elements also abound on official Pontic
coins
 
– Perseus was favored as an intermediary between both worlds, East and West. 
Certainly influenced by
Alexander the Great
, Mithridates VI extended his propaganda from “defender” 
of Greece to the “great liberator” of the Greek world as war with
Roman Republic
became inevitable. 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. How many Greeks genuinely bought into this claim will 
never be known. It served its purpose, however. 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. 
His campaign for the allegiance of the Greeks was aided in no small part by his 
enemy Sulla, who allowed his troops to
sack the 
city of Delphi
and plunder many of the city’s most famous treasures to help 
finance his military expenses.

Death

When Mithridates VI was at last defeated by Pompey and in danger of capture 
by Rome, he is alleged to have attempted
suicide
by 
poison; this attempt failed, however, because of his immunity to the poison. 
According to Appian’s
Roman History, he then requested his Gaul bodyguard and 
friend, Bituitus, to kill him by the sword:

Mithridates then took out some poison that he always carried next to 
his sword, and mixed it. 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. The drug took effect 
on them at once; but upon Mithridates, although he walked around rapidly to 
hasten its action, it had no effect, because he had accustomed himself to 
other drugs by continually trying them as a means of protection against 
poisoners. These are still called the Mithridatic drugs.

Seeing a certain Bituitus there, an officer of the Gauls, he said to 
him, “I have profited much from your right arm against my enemies. I shall 
profit from it most of all if you will kill me, and save from the danger of 
being led in a Roman triumph one who has been an autocrat so many years, and 
the ruler of so great a kingdom, but who is now unable to die by poison 
because, like a fool, he has fortified himself against the poison of others. 
Although I have kept watch and ward against all the poisons that one takes 
with his food, I have not provided against that domestic poison, always the 
most dangerous to kings, the treachery of army, children, and friends.” 
Bituitus, thus appealed to, rendered the king the service that he desired. 
(XVI, §111)

Cassius Dio
Roman History, on the other hand, records his death as 
murder:

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. For the poison, although deadly, did not prevail 
over him, since he had inured his constitution to it, taking precautionary 
antidotes in large doses every day; and the force of the sword blow was 
lessened on account of the weakness of his hand, caused by his age and 
present misfortunes, and as a result of taking the poison, whatever it was. 
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. Thus 
Mithridates, who had experienced the most varied and remarkable fortune, had 
not even an ordinary end to his life. For he desired to die, albeit 
unwillingly, and though eager to kill himself was unable to do so; but 
partly by poison and partly by the sword he was at once self-slain and 
murdered by his foes. 
(Book 37, chapter 13)

At the behest of Pompey, Mithridates’ body was later buried alongside his 
ancestors (in Sinope, Book 37, chapter 14).
Mount Mithridat
in the central
Kerch
and the 
town of Yevpatoria
in Crimea commemorate his name.

Mithridates’ antidote

In his youth, after the assassination of his father Mithridates V in 120 BC, 
Mithridates is said to have lived in the wilderness for seven years, inuring 
himself to hardship. While there, and after his accession, he cultivated an 
immunity to poisons by regularly ingesting sub-lethal doses of the same. 
He invented a complex “universal antidote” against poisoning; several versions 
are described in the literature.
Aulus Cornelius Celsus
gives one in his
De 
Medicina
and names it Antidotum Mithridaticum, whence English
mithridate
. 
Pliny the Elder’s version comprised 54 ingredients to be placed in a flask and 
matured for at least two months. After Mithridates’ death in 63 BC, many 
imperial Roman physicians claimed to possess and improve on the original 
formula, which they touted as Mithradatium. In keeping with most medical 
practices of his era, Mithridates’ anti-poison routines included a religious 
component; they were supervised by the Agari, a group of Scythian
shamans
who never left him. Mithridates was reportedly guarded in his sleep 
by a horse, a bull, and a stag, which would whinny, bellow, and bleat whenever 
anyone approached the royal bed.

Mithridates as 
polyglot

In
Pliny the Elder
‘s account of famous
polyglots
, Mithridates could
speak the languages of all
the twenty-two nations he governed.^[22] 
This reputation led to the use of Mithridates’ name as title in some later works 
on comparative linguistics, such as
Conrad Gessner
‘s Mithridates de differentis linguis, (1555), and 
Adelung and Vater’s Mithridates oder allgemeine Sprachenkunde 
(1806–1817).

Wives, 
mistresses and children

Mithridates VI had wives and mistresses, by whom he had various children. The 
names he gave his children are a representation of his Persian, Greek heritage 
and of his ancestry.

1. First wife,
   his sister Laodice
   . They were married from 115/113 BC till about 90 BC. 
   Mithridates with Laodice had various children:
   • Sons: Mithridates,
     Arcathius
     ,
     Machares
     and
     Pharnaces II of Pontus
   • Daughters:
     Cleopatra of Pontus
     (sometimes called Cleopatra the Elder to 
     distinguish her from her sister of the same name) and Drypetina (a 
     diminutive form of “Drypetis“). 
     Drypetina was Mithridates VI’s most devoted daughter. Her baby teeth 
     never fell out, so she had a
     double set of teeth
     .^[24]
2. Second wife, the Greek Macedonian Noblewoman,
   Monime
   . 
   They were married from about 89/88 BC till 72/71 BC. By whom, he had:
   • Daughter:
     Athenais
     , who married King
     Ariobarzanes II of Cappadocia
3. Third wife, Greek woman
   Berenice of Chios
   , married from 86–72/71 BC
4. Fourth wife, Greek woman
   Stratonice of Pontus
   , married from after 86–63 BC
   • Son:
     Xiphares
5. Fifth wife, unknown
6. Sixth wife, Caucasian woman
   Hypsicratea
   , married from an unknown date to 63 BC

One of his mistresses was the Galatian Celtic Princess
Adobogiona
. 
By Adobogiona, Mithridates had two children: a son called
Mithridates I of the Bosporus
and a daughter called Adobogiona.

His sons born from his concubine were Cyrus, Xerxes, Darius,
Ariarathes IX of Cappadocia
, Artaphernes, Oxathres, Phoenix (Mithridates’ 
son by a mistress of Syrian descent) and Exipodras. His daughters born from his 
concubine were Nysa, Eupatra, Cleopatra the Younger, Mithridates and
Orsabaris
. 
Nysa and Mithridates, were engaged to the
Egyptian Greek Pharaohs

Ptolemy XII Auletes
and his brother
Ptolemy of Cyprus
.

In 63 BC, when the
Kingdom of Pontus
was annexed by the Roman general
Pompey
the 
remaining sisters, wives, mistresses and children of Mithridates VI in Pontus 
were put to death. Plutarch writing in his lives (Pompey v.45) states that 
Mithridates’ sister and five of his children took part in Pompey’s triumphal 
procession on this return to Rome in 61 BC.

The Cappadocian
Greek nobleman
and
high 
priest
of the temple-state of
Comana, Cappadocia

Archelaus
had descended from Mithridates VI. 
He claimed to be a son of Mithridates VI, 
however chronologically Archelaus may have been a maternal grandson of the 
Pontic King, who his father was Mithridates VI’s favorite general may have 
married one of the daughters of Mithridates VI.

Literature

The poet
A. E. 
Housman
alludes to Mithridates’ antidote, also known as
mithridatism
, in the final stanza of his poem
“Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff”
in
A Shropshire Lad
.

There was a king reigned in the East:

There, when kings will sit to feast,

They get their fill before they think

With poisoned meat and poisoned drink.

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.

They put
arsenic
 
in his meat

And stared aghast to watch him eat;

They poured
strychnine
in his cup

And shook to see him drink it up:

They shook, they stared as white’s their shirt:

Them it was their poison hurt.

–I tell the tale that I heard told.

Mithridates, he died old.

–
A. E. Housman
,
A Shropshire Lad

Ralph Waldo Emerson
included his “Mithridates” in his 1847 “Poems”. The 
legend also appears in
Alexandre Dumas
‘s novel
The Count of Monte Cristo
. The demise of Mithridates VI is detailed in 
the 1673 play
Mithridate
written by
Jean 
Racine
. This play is the basis for several 18th century operas including one 
of
Mozart’s
earliest, known most commonly by its Italian name,
Mitridate, re di Ponto
(1770). He is the subject of the opera
Mitridate Eupatore
(1707) by
Alessandro Scarlatti
. In
The Grass Crown
, the second in the
Masters of Rome
series,
Colleen McCullough
, the Australian writer, describes in detail the various 
aspects of his life – the murder of
Laodice (sister-wife of Mithridates VI of Pontus)
, and the Roman Consul who, 
quite alone and surrounded by the Pontic army, ordered Mithridates to leave 
Cappadocia immediately and go back to Pontus – which he did.

Wordsworth, amidst casting about for poetic themes in
The Prelude
:

Sometimes, more sternly moved, I would relate

How vanquished Mithridates northward passed,

And, hidden in the cloud of years, became

Odin, the Father of a race by whom

Perished the Roman Empire.

–
William Wordsworth
,
The Prelude
Bk i vv 186 ff

In
Dorothy L. Sayers
‘
Detective Novel
“Strong 
Poison“, from 1929, the protagonist,
Lord Peter Wimsey
, refers to Mithridates’ measures to survive poisoning; as 
well as
Albert Einstein
‘s theory of
Special Relativity
, when the protagonist warns not to trust someone who 
looks straight in your eye, as they’re trying to distract you from seeing 
something, “..even the path light travels is bent”.

James 
Joyce
alludes to Mithridates’ immunity to poison in his love poem Though 
I Thy Mithridates Were.

The Last King is an
historical novel
by
Michael Curtis Ford
about the King and his exploits against the Roman 
Republic. Mithridates is a major character in
Poul 
Anderson
‘s novel The Golden Slave. Mithridates of Pontus is mentioned 
by
E. E. “Doc” Smith
in
Triplanetary
, the first novel of the famous
Lensman
science fiction series. In the story, Mithridates was supposed 
to be one of the humans possessed by a member of an evil alien race bent on 
remaking human civilization into its own image.

In the novel Mithridates is Dead (Spanish:
Mitrídates ha muerto
),
Ignasi 
Ribó
traces parallels between the historical figures of Mithridates and
Osama Bin Laden
. Within a postmodern narrative of the making and unmaking of 
history, Ribó suggests that the
September 11 attacks
on the United States closely paralleled the massacre of 
Roman citizens in 88 B.C. and prompted similar consequences, namely the 
imperialist overstretch of the American and Roman republics respectively. 
Furthermore, he suggests that the ensuing
Mithridatic Wars
were one of the key factors in the demise of Rome’s 
republican regime, as well as in the spread of the Christian faith in Asia Minor 
and eventually throughout the whole Roman Empire. The novel implies that the 
current events in the world might have similar unforeseen consequences.