King Mithridates VI of Pontus, also known as Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysus and Mithridates the Great (135–63 BCE, r. 120-63 BCE) was a dogged Roman foe for much of his life. In 88 BCE, he orchestrated the mass killing of up to 150,000 Roman and Italian noncombatants in a single day, if the number of victims Plutarch gave is to be believed, and over the course of decades, he was embroiled in intermittent, bitter conflicts with the Roman Republic. Mithridates' relentless attempts at empire building and his pugnacious foreign policy ensured his place in the annals of history, but his rampant paranoia and obsession with toxicology also guaranteed that his name would forever be associated with poison.
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