There are plenty of superhero films about at the moment, it seems to be a popular subject and the franchises built around these superhuman characters like The Avengers, X-Men, Wonderwoman and Superman have a huge following.
Well if you like stories about people with superhuman ability, consider the life of King Mithridates Eupator VI of Pontus. Born in the year 135B.C. in the same year that a bright comet lit up the sky.
(To the people of the East a comet heralded good fortune, but to the Greeks and Romans, comets were often associated with disaster or calamity. Many coins from Mithridates early reign, often display stars and comets on them).
Man Of Many Talents
Mithridates had both Greek and Persian ancestors, he was a champion of the arts and sciences, loved music and reputedly spoke many languages. He collected and catalogued precious stones, his engineers developed water-powered mills and highly advanced siege machines. He was said to have admired Alexander the Great (who lived about two centuries before him). But he is also said to have dressed like one of the ancient Persian kings.
He was one of the deadliest enemies of the Roman Republic.
But his childhood was a traumatic one. In 120B.C., his father (Mithridates V) had been assassinated (by poisoning) at a banquet. The culprits; his own mother Laodice and brother Chrestus, instantly took over the kingdom and plotted against young Mithridates.
On The Run
He escaped and lived in the wilderness for a few years. In this time, he developed an interest in poisons and antidotes.
There were rumours that he would regularly experiment on himself, to develop an almost super-human immunity from many poisons. One fanciful story was that he had developed an antidote to all natural toxins. Mithridates came out of the wilderness and returned to Pontus sometime between 116-113B.C.
The Return of the King
He had grown powerful and now the people of Pontus (now Northern Turkey), welcomed him back as their king. On his return, he had his own mother and brother thrown into prison, (where they both died).
His interest in poisons and antidotes grew, he was supposed to have had gardens full of toxic (poisonous) plants. He also got his servants to collect poisons from scorpions, snakes, jellyfish and even stingray barbs.
He decided to increase his power by invading countries nearby or manipulating policy in rival kingdoms to his advantage. However, the Roman Republic was also gaining territory in that part of the world.
Massacre
To the people of Pontus, he was a superhero, but to the Romans he was considered a supervillain. (In fact, some historians say that they regarded him as a ‘second Hannibal’)
He masterminded the massacre of between 80,000 to 100,000 Roman men, women and children in Anatolia (now Turkey), on one day in 88B.C. As Adrienne Mayor points out on her book ‘The Poison King’: A sudden attack on this scale, with no intelligence leaks, must have taken an incredible amount of planning and coordination on the part of Mithridates and his followers.
He fought three major wars against the Romans and their allies (Later called the Mithridatic Wars). In one battle ‘Zela’ in 67B.C. he killed over 7,000 Roman soldiers.
He was eventually defeated at Dasteria (later called Nicopolis) by the Roman General Pompey. He fled and tried to rally more support, but his remaining forces then chose to support his son Pharnaces II of Pontus, friend of Pompey and sadly for Mithridates, an ally of Rome.
Rather than face capture, he killed himself in 63B.C. ironically with… poison.
Sources:
The Poison King by Adrienne Mayor (Princeton)
King of Pontus: The Story of Mithridates Eupator by Alfred Duggan 1959 (Coward-McCann)
Roman History by Cassius Dio (Harvard University Press)
Lives (Pompey) by Plutarch (Penguin Classics)
Epitome of Military Science by Vegetius (Liverpool University Press)