the name of several kings of Pontus. See Pontus.

MITHRIDATES VII., surnamed Eupator and the Great, succeeded to the throne at the age of 11 years, about 123 years before the Christian era. 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 the most manly exercises, often remaining whole months in the country, and making 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 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 had married Laodice the widow of Ariarathes, and ultimately involved Mithridates in a quarrel with the Romans. 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 the victims of his cruelty. This called aloud for vengeance. 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. 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 hard terms. But he soon took the field again with an army of 140,000 infantry, and 16,000 horse, consisting of his own forces and those of his son-in-law Tigranes king of Armenia. With this army he 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master of the Roman provinces in Asia; none dared to oppose his conquests; and the Romans, relying on his fidelity, had withdrawn the greatest part of their armies from the country.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 were no sooner heard, than Lucullus the consul marched into Asia; and without delay he 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. The appointment of Glabrio to the command of the Roman forces, instead of Lucullus, was favourable to Mithridates, who 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. An 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 whom 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 overthrow 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 in the hands of his enemy, and resolved to conquer or to die. His subjects refused to follow him any longer; and revolting from him, made his son Pharmaces 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 64 years before the Christian era. Such were the misfortunes, abilities, and miserable end, of a man, who MITRIDALES supported himself so long against the power of Rome, and who, according to the declarations of the Roman authors, proved a more powerful and indefatigable adversary to the capital of Italy than the great Hannibal, Pyrrhus, Perseus, or Antiochus. 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.