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Rome's Greatest Enemy, Part 1

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Submitted By masterofhistory
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Few figures in antiquity could challenge the might of the Roman Empire more than Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus and preserver of Hellenism. During his reign, Mithridates battle three of Rome’s mightiest generals: Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompey. Each general halted Pontic expansion, and even captured the Pontic capital of Sinope, but Mithridates wriggled out of the grasps of all three, returning to power after each defeat. As each general dealt with internal pressures inherent to the position of Roman general, a relative paucity of such rivalries allowed Mithridates to rise from the ashes and forge his empire anew. Such persistence and longevity, as well as cultural sophistication and tactical brilliance, made Mithridates the most worthy threat to Roman rule since Hannibal, and the greatest threat the empire would face until the Hunnic invasions of the Fourth Century AD.
The roots of Mithridatic expansion hark to the breakup of the Macedonian Empire after the death of Alexander the Great. Alexander’s general Seleucus inherited the remains of Darius’ Persian Empire, as well as Mesopotamia and the Levant. Another general, Ptolemy, inherited the fertile Nile valley of Egypt and the Sinai. The propinquity of these fiefdoms contributed heavily to the pervading resentment between the two, ultimately representing a microcosm of the rampant unrest that persists in that area today.
Mithridates’ maternal grandfather, Antiochus IV, attempted to put an end to the struggle once and for all, amassing a huge army of more than 40,000 footmen, archers, chariots, and camelry. His army ravaged the Egyptian countryside and pushed Ptolemaic forces to the brink of destruction, channeling them to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria. Unbeknownst to Antiochus, however, was the fact that Alexandria was a Roman protectorate, and Rome could not allow such an important trade center to

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