The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy

To the Romans, the greatest enemy the Republic ever faced was not the Goths or Huns, nor even Hannibal, but rather a ferocious and brilliant king on the distant Black Sea: Mithridates Eupator VI of Pontus, known to history as Mithridates the Great.

At age eleven, Mithridates inherited a small mountain kingdom of wild tribesmen, which his wicked mother governed in his place. Sweeping to power at age twenty-one, he proved to be a military genius and quickly consolidated various fiefdoms under his command. Since Rome also had expansionist designs in this region, bloody conflict was inevitable.

Over forty years, Rome sent its greatest generals to contain Mithridates and gained tenuous control over his empire only after suffering a series of devastating defeats at the hands of this cunning and ruthless king. Each time Rome declared victory, Mithridates considered it merely a strategic retreat, and soon came roaring back with a more powerful army than before.

Bursting with heroic battle scenes and eloquent storytelling, Michael Curtis Ford has crafted a riveting novel of the ancient world and resurrected one of history's greatest warriors.

In chronicling the feats of Mithridates Eupator VI, last King of Pontus (a region of Asia Minor), Ford captures the Roman first century B.C. from a novel perspective, viewing it through the prism of one of Rome's most formidable enemies. Mithridates proved his prowess by holding his own against Sulla, Lucullus, Pompey and a number of lesser Roman commanders for nearly 40 years in ceaseless battles. When he first claims the throne of Pontus, the kingdom is nearly bankrupt and dependent on Rome. Consolidating his hold on his Black Sea coast territories, the upstart king launches himself into combat with Rome, exploiting the republic's weaknesses. Mithridates's military skills are remarkable, but he also resorts to questionable tactics, massacring 80,000 Romans in Pontus. Ford's storytelling shifts uneasily between the realistic (the king's quarrels with the narrator, his bastard son Pharnaces) and the mythic (the king's heroic, even Conanesque physical stature and prowess), and the contemporary tone of the dialogue (" 'Quit the posturing,' Sulla interrupted") tends to sits awkwardly with more sober historical exposition. Battle scenes are described with great skill, though the author's eagerness to provide a thorough cataloguing of weaponry and tactics sometimes gets in the way of the action. Flaws aside, the book demonstrates the author's ability to imagine the Roman world from its periphery and shows the same mastery of military history as his first novel, The Ten Thousand.
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Ford has crafted a fascinating fictional biography of King Mithradates the Great of Pontus. Though other enemies of Rome have had greater play in the history books, none were as feared or as respected by the ancient Romans as the Persian-born, Greek- educated ruler of the relatively small eastern kingdom on the edge of the Black Sea. Determined to forge a new Hellenistic empire, Mithradates clashed again and again with the Roman Republic over the course of 40 eventful years. Further motivated by the personal and military humiliation his grandfather experienced at the hands of the Romans, the wily warrior was able to contain and repel the mighty Roman war machine more effectively than any other foe. Eloquently narrated by Pharnaces, the illegitimate son of Mithradates and one of his favorite concubines, this rousing saga also provides an illuminating glimpse into the often vast divide that separated Eastern and Western warfare, culture, and philosophy during antiquity. Margaret Flanagan
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