Inventive Moments in History - Mithridates, The Poison King

Inventive Moments in History Mithridates the Poison King Mithridates, the King of Pontus, was one of Rome's most bitter opponents. At a time when the Republic seemed unstoppable, he would stand as one of the last great monarchs to defy the Roman juggernaut. To his allies, he was revered as a savior of the East, and to his enemies, he was grudgingly admired as a second Hannibal. Yet Mithridates' accomplishments were not just limited to the battlefield. He was a remarkably talented individual whose pursuits dove deep into the arts and sciences. Most famous would be his groundbreaking and innovative work with toxins. Today, we will be discussing the achievements which earned him the title of Poison King. Over the centuries, humans have found many ways to create poisons. In the ancient world, this was done by turning to the plants, animals, and minerals of one's environment. It was believed that for every natural poison, there would be a corresponding natural antidote. Thus, across the Mediterranean, an arms race developed as people endeavored to concoct deadly toxins and even stronger remedies. While the Greeks and Romans certainly tried their hands, it would be in the East that this art would be mastered. This was especially true amongst the kingdoms of Anatolia. Here, contested borders and unstable ruling families bred an environment of constant infighting with cloak and daggers politics. Threats lurked around every corner, and the most treacherous of foes often emerged from one's own family and friends. In these deadly court conspiracies, poison was often the weapon of choice. It was into this environment that Mithridates was born. Early on, he was made painfully aware of the very real stakes at play when his father, the King of Pontus, was assassinated by poison. The 12-year-old prince was too young to take the throne, and the queen held regency. It was suspected that she had actually played a role in the murder and was now playing kingmaker amongst her children. Mithridates was subject to several assassination attempts and suspected that his own mother was now intent on killing him. He soon fled into the wilderness seeking safety. Whilst on the run, Mithridates would have a chance to think on his future. He concluded that his survival depended on finding a defense against the inevitable poisons that would face him upon his return home. Therefore, the prince set about exploring the secrets of the countryside. In it, he would find an abundant range of deadly plants, animals, and minerals that curiously filled his native land. Amongst the plants, he would find poisonous monkshood, hellebore, nightshade, hemlock, azalea, and rhododendrons. Among the animals, he would find venomous snakes, spiders, scorpions, as well as toxic slugs and birds. Among the minerals, he would find mercury, sulfur, and arsenic. It is said that while coming to understand these ingredients, Mithridates began carefully ingesting small amounts to build up an immunity. This habit would prove foundational to much of his later work and mark the beginning of his lifelong obsession with mastering the art of poison and its antidotes. At the age of 17, Mithridates returned home to the capital. He had wisely spent his years traveling the countryside by collecting allies who now backed his claim to the throne. As a result, the prince managed to orchestrate a swift coup. He became king, purging the palace of those implicated in his father's death and reportedly having both his mother and younger brother poisoned. This rise to power was remarkable. Now, he would be able to put into practice what he had long planned during his years of travel. The king's machinations would ultimately lead to three wars with the Roman Republic. However, these will have to be discussed another time. For now, we will focus on his other important initiatives, namely, finding a way to stay alive whilst under constant threat of assassination. Mithridates would do so by leveraging his newfound power to double down on the studies he had made as a roving prince. Step one would be to scale things up. Laboratory facilities were built in the capital and at various royal residences. Step two would be to collect materials. At first, these would come from the surrounding area or the special gardens that were constructed for the purpose of the king's studies. In time, these materials would have been imported from further and further afield. Eventually, exotic goods from across the known world were added to Mithridates' collection. Were he to make it past the guards and into the vaults, he might expect to find the following. Arrow drugs from Mesopotamia, stingray spines and jellyfish from Libya, insects and scorpions from Egypt, poisoned fish from Armenia, crystallized snake venom from India, mushrooms from Scythia, rhubarb from the Volga, roots from Arabia, and more. Perhaps there might even be a few drops of Dikirion, an extremely rare poison said to be extracted from a tiny orange bird which nested in the Himalayas. Suffice to say, this was one of the most splendid troves of exotic poisons in the ancient world. Every new ingredient added to Mithridates' pharmacy would be carefully studied by the king and his associates. Chief amongst his aides would be Krataeus of Pergamon, one of the world's first ethnobotanists and the father of botanical illustration. The pair were assisted by a team of royal physicians, healers, and even snake-charming shamans from Scythia. This all-star team of ancient professionals immediately got to work conducting experiments. These often involved human subjects such as prisoners, associates, and even the king himself. Apparently, some of the more risky trials would use men who had already been condemned to die, their bodies in essence being donated to science. For other dangerous work involving fumes, protective pig bladders may have been worn as masks. In this way, a huge range of poisons and their antidotes were tested. Their properties were carefully observed and meticulously recorded. Mithridates' studies would be further enriched by collecting the works of others who had come before him. The king developed an extensive library filled with books and treatises from across the world. Still not dissatisfied, he also sought to learn from his contemporaries. This was done by exchanging letters with his peers or inviting them to visit Pontus. We know for instance that Mithridates was in correspondence with the renowned scholars Zephyrus of Egypt and Asclepius of Bithynia. Thanks to all his experimentation and research, the ruler of Pontus was fast becoming the foremost expert in the field. In fact, such was the magnitude of his pioneering work that today he is remembered as the father of experimental toxicology. Mithridates' ultimate goal was to develop the Holy Grail of Toxicology, a universal antidote. As we mentioned before, his efforts had begun in the wilderness by ingesting minute levels of toxins to build up an immunity. This had advanced progressively over the years to the point that he was now able to survive doses that would kill any ordinary man. Such an ability must have been a particularly cool party trick at royal banquets. The historian Adrian Mayer paints a lively scene. As the guests take their places on couches, turbaned Hindus might charm cobras with sinuous flute music, and scily serpent handlers allow themselves to be bitten by Libyan adders. Shamans milk the venom from the fangs of a steppe viper as a Scythian archer dips his arrowhead in the poison and shoots a chained criminal, the arrow zipping over the heads of the guests. Meanwhile, Kroteos measures out some dreaded plant poison. With a flourish, he sprinkles it atop a tasty dish and serves it to another condemned man. Mithridates provides learned commentary as everyone observes the results of the poison taking place. Suspense builds as servants proffer the same dish to their guests, minus the poison of course. With grand gesture and banter, Mithridates awes the guests by swallowing a drop of snake venom. For the climax of the evening, the poison king invites the guests to salt his own plate of lamb or wine cup with arsenic. With a debonair smile, he raises his goblet in a toast. These displays must have caused quite the sensation. However, the appearance of invincibility required a lot of prep work. Every morning, Mithridates would consume the latest and greatest concoction he and his team had derived. After years of improvement, rumors spread that the poison king had finally succeeded in achieving his goal of creating the universal antidote. His creation would become immortalized as Mithridatium. According to Pliny the Elder, the mix was an amalgamation of over 50 different additives which were ground into powder, mixed with honey, and formed into almond-sized chewable tablets. Unfortunately, the exact recipe is lost to time. Scholars believe that it would have been composed of a combination of beneficial drugs and antitoxins with tiny amounts of poisons. It is likely that far from being mere ancient voodoo, the concoction actually held great scientific potential. Studies have shown that many candidate ingredients could have triggered beneficial enzymatic activation or metabolic functional changes. For instance, the hypericum herb is known to cause the liver to produce a potent enzyme that can neutralize thousands of potentially dangerous chemicals. Such was the efficacy of Mithridates' treatment, or at least its reputation, that he would survive any assassination attempts into his 70s. According to legend, when the Romans finally did coroner the aging king, he was unable to kill himself with the suicide capsule and had to ask a servant to end his life with the blade. Though the poison king was dead, his legacy would live on. After the defeat of Pontus, many of its treasures were brought back to Rome. These included Mithridates' personal papers and library, which were translated into Latin by Pompey's secretary. It's possible that within them were the recipe for the famed universal antidote. In any case, within a few years, Roman doctors would claim to possess the secret. Soon famous individuals such as Caesar are supposed to have been prescribed Mithridatium by their physicians. In time, every emperor would religiously take what their doctors claimed to be a version of the poison king's recipe. As the years rolled by, these derivations would multiply. A common feature would be to include increasingly rare and costly ingredients. To once again quote Adrian Mayer, In Europe, from the Middle Ages on, Mithridatium was eagerly ingested. European laws required apothecaries to openly display all the precious, expensive ingredients and to concoct Mithridatium in the public squares. For more than two millennia after the death of Mithridates, aristocrats and royalty from Charlemagne and Alfred the Great to Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I swallowed some version of Mithridatium. The recipe even propagated through the Islamic world, being carried by ambassadors who gifted them all the way to the Tang emperors of China. Inevitably, there were also cheaper versions developed for the poor. Mithridatium became the most popular and longest-lived prescription in history, available in Rome as recently as 1984. I hope you've enjoyed this discussion of the all-too-often overlooked life of Mithridates. The title of Poison King was just one of the many crowns he wore, and as you learn more about his accomplishments, it's hard not to be blown away. For further reading, I suggest the following resources, which I'll link in the description. A huge thanks is owed to our supporters on Patreon and the many talented researchers, writers, and artists who made this video possible. Please consider contributing to fund future content. If you found this topic interesting, check out these related videos about our fascinating past. Be sure to like and subscribe for more history, and check out the description for ways to support the channel. Thanks for watching!