Table Of ContentEMPIRE OF THE BLACK SEA
EMPIRE OF THE BLACK SEA
The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World
Duane W. Roller
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Roller, Duane W., author.
Title: Empire of the Black Sea : the rise and fall
of the Mithridatic world / Duane W. Roller.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2020. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019033327 (print) | LCCN 2019033328 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190887841 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190887865 (epub) |
ISBN 9780190887858 | ISBN 9780197500552
Subjects: LCSH: Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, approximately 132 B.C.– 63 B.C. |
Pontus— Kings and rulers. | Pontus— History. | Black Sea Region— History. |
Rome— History— Mithridatic Wars, 88- 63 B.C.
Classification: LCC DS156. P8 R65 2020 (print) | LCC DS156. P8 (ebook) |
DDC 939/ .33— dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2019033327
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2019033328
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
ILLUSTRATIONS
MAPs
1 Localities mentioned in the text xi
2 Pontos during the period of the Mithridatic dynasty xi
FIGURes
1.1 Sinope, location of ancient town. Shutterstock 111781768. 13
1.2 Amaseia. Shutterstock 1087007765. 16
1.3 Amaseia, royal tombs. Shutterstock 1143719102. 17
4.1 Coin of Mithridates VI with star and crescent: obverse and
reverse. American Numismatic Society 1967.152.390. 51
4.2 Coin of Pharnakes I: obverse and reverse. British Museum
1872,0709.131. 55
4.3 Athens, Middle Stoa. Shutterstock 1184868205. 68
4.4 Intaglio, perhaps of Nysa. Bibliotheque National Français
1974.1093. 70
5.1 Coin of Mithridates IV. American Numismatic Society
1097.152.388. 75
5.2 Coin of Mithridates IV and Laodike. Numismatica Ars
Classica NAC AG, Auction 59, Lot 658. 75
5.3 View of Delos. Shutterstock 549487042. 78
vii
IllUstRAtIons
5.4 Intaglio of Laodike (wife of Mithridates IV). Metropolitan
Museum 42.11.26. 79
6.1 Head of Mithridates VI. Louvre MA 2321. 98
6.2 Head of Mithridates VI. The State Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg, Π1860- 20. 99
8.1 Tigranes II, king of Armenia, vintage engraved illustration.
Shutterstock 271069871. 126
8.2 Drawing of Mithridateion on Delos. 130
8.3 Italian coin, possibly of Mithridates VI. British Museum
1860,0328.258. 136
12.1 Mithridatum Vase. Getty Museum 90.SC.42.1. 198
12.2 Wall painting of garden of Livia in Villa of Prima Porta.
Museo Nationale Romano. 199
12.3 Coin of Mithridates VI with Pegasos: obverse and reverse.
American Numismatic Society 1967.152.392. 204
13.1 Pantikapaion. Shutterstock 365774894. 210
viii
PREFACE
Over a period of more than two centuries, the Pontic dynasty of northern Asia
Minor evolved from modest beginnings into one of the most powerful states in
the Greco- Roman world. Its founder, Mithridates I, was a refugee from the unfor-
giving and violent politics of the years after the death of Alexander the Great in
323 bc. The dynasty culminated in its last and most famous king, Mithridates
VI the Great, who died in 63 bc. Pontos was originally the north central portion
of what is today modern Turkey, but at its peak the kingdom controlled central
Asia Minor and most of the coastal Black Sea, with trade and commercial con-
nections into Armenia, toward the Iranian plateau, the Caucasus, and the barbar-
ian hinterland north of the sea. Eventually Pontos was rivaled only by Ptolemaic
Egypt and the lengthening reach of the Roman Republic.
Much of the modern interest in the ancient Pontic kingdom has centered on
the career of Mithridates the Great, but he was merely the last representative of
a dynasty that began in the early third century bc as the world that had been left
in disarray by the death of Alexander the Great settled into a number of heredi-
tary and contentious monarchies. Pontic power was slow to develop, but by the
end of the third century bc Pontos had become one of the major regional states
of the Hellenistic world. With the arrival of the Romans in Asia Minor, early in
the following century, local politics became tangled with the effects of Roman
policy, and the history of the last century of the Pontic dynasty is one of ever
more complex relations with that power. After the accession of Mithridates VI
around 120 bc, the dynasty both reached its peak and began its decline, eventu-
ally yielding to the inexorable power of Rome, as was to happen to the other
surviving kingdoms founded after Alexander’s death.
ix
PReFACe
This study is the first thorough analysis in English of the dynasty as a whole,
with detailed attention given to its origins and entire history. The author has
positioned himself for this endeavor by his extensive earlier writings on the
eastern dynasties of the Hellenistic and Roman world, especially an analysis of
the Pontic kingdom as reconstituted by Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) in 37
bc, and the career of the most famous descendant of the Mithridatids, Queen
Dynamis of Bosporos, the granddaughter of Mithridates VI.1 The present work
extends from the world of the successors of Alexander the Great to the Roman
era and draws heavily on the concept of the allied king or queen, monarchs on the
fringes of the Roman world who entered into a symbiotic relationship with that
power, for better or worse, most famously Cleopatra VII and Herod the Great.
There are certain difficulties inherent in writing a study of the Pontic dynasty.
As in all historiography, sources can be deficient or lacking, and the emphasis
placed in ancient literature on certain events or personalities may reflect more
the survival of the sources than their perceived contemporary importance.
Moreover, after the arrival of the Romans the extant writings begin to reflect the
victor’s point of view, a well- known problem in late Hellenistic history and most
pernicious in the case of Cleopatra VII. And, as always, women, regardless of
their importance, tend to be faint or virtually nonexistent in the narrative.
As before, the author wrote the book in his study in Santa Fe, having con-
ducted research in the Harvard College Library and the library of the University
of California at Berkeley, as well as utilizing the excellent interlibrary loan services
of the Ohio State University. He would particularly like to thank the Emeritus
Academy of the Ohio State University for grant support. Among the many who
assisted in the completion of this work, he would like especially to thank Stanley
Burstein, David Braund, Emma Dodd of Numismatic Ars Classica, Amelia
Dowler of the British Museum, Patric- Alexander Kreuz, Kenneth Lapatin, Lee
Patterson, Letitia K. Roller, Lisbet Thoresen, Stefan Vranka and many others at
Oxford University Press, Claudia Wagner, and Wendy Watkins and the Ohio
State University Center for Epigraphical and Paleographical Studies.
x
Map 1 Localities mentioned in the text
Map 2 Pontos during the period of the Mithridatic dynasty
GENEALOGICAL CHART
This chart is greatly simplified, designed to show the line of descent from
Mithridates I the Founder to the royal children of Mithridates VI the Great.
Ruling personalities in Pontos and Bosporos are shown in capitals. For a more
complete stemma, see Richard D. Sullivan, Near Eastern Royalty and Rome
(Toronto 1990), stemma 2 (as well as the other stemmata in that volume), and
BNP Chronologies, 110–1 1.
xii
