Strange history: The king who was so paranoid that he poisoned himself
Photo source: etc.ancient.eu
A century before the beginning of the era, King Mithridates VI was in power in the kingdom of Pontus, which was part of Asia. The enthronement of this king, however, did not go very smoothly. When his father, Mithridates V, died from poisoning, Mithridates and his little brother, who was also practically Mitridates, were still underage. Their mother Laodice, who perhaps had the poisoning of Mithridates V on her conscience, however, had a preference for brother Mitridates as a new king and tried to kill her own son. As Simba from the movie The Lion King, the future Mithridates VI fled abroad to return only after four years. Once Mithridates was back, he took it thoroughly. He had his mother and brother imprisoned. Not long after both of them died of 'natural' causes, he gave them a royal funeral. After two funerals his subjects could use a party, so Mithridates planned his wedding. The new king married a bride with the same name as his mother: Laodice. In addition to names, the Pontus kings kept more in the family, because this Laodice happened to be his sister. That rule actually went quite well. Mithridates VI soon found out that he liked to add new pieces of land to his territory and by regular warfare his kingdom became bigger and bigger.
Photo source: etc.ancient.eu
That did not mean, however, that Mithridates could now relax on his throne. Because of his somewhat difficult start as king, he was well aware that not everyone was waiting for his rule and he had not forgotten how his father had come to an end. When Mithridates was busy waging war, some of his friends were preparing an attack on the king. Since one of the friends thought that this was not so friendly and told everything to the king, these plans were prevented and the conspirators and, to be sure, their entire family and all their friends were put to death. This was not the only plot against Mithridates He also had his wife (sister) Laodice put to death because she conspired against him. In order to reduce the possibility of a successful assassination attempt, Mithridates always had a bodyguard with him. In addition, he decided to take a small amount of poison every day so that his body could withstand this, if opponents tried to poison him.
Photo source: keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk
It may seem useful to be immune to poison, but at the end of his life Mithridates found out that this is not always the case. When he was about to lose one of his wars against the Romans, he thought it was time for heavy measures. He asked his son Machares, who had his own kingdom, for help, but he did not feel like it. Mithridates did not allow himself to be told and had his son killed and took over his kingdom. Pharnaces II, another son of Mithridates was not that enthusiastic about this move. He therefore supported by the Romans within the limits of Pontus to rebel against the king. Since he was in 88 BC. at least 80,000 Romans had to be murdered in one day, the king rightly assumed that the Romans had not planned such nice things for him if they would get him. Mithridates therefore decided to take his fate into his own hands. Since he always had his poison with him, an extra large dose of it seemed the easiest. With his daughters this worked well too, they succumbed to the poison within a short time. But Mithridates himself had become immune by his self-medication. Fortunately for the king there was plan B, from bodyguard. The king ordered his bodyguard to kill him with his sword and was able to stay out of the hands of the Romans through this death.
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