er to
death. He had now murdered a wife, a sister, a brother, and a nephew.
He had also imprisoned his mother, and was equally merciless to his
sons, his daughters, and his concubines. At his death, it is said, a
paper was found in which he had foredoomed his most trusted servants,
and he slew all the inmates of his harem in order to hinder them from
falling into his enemies' hands.

[Sidenote: Early years of Mithridates.] His whole history is in
fact one long record of sensuality, treachery, and murder. From
his earliest years he had breathed, as it were, an atmosphere of
assassination. His father had been assassinated when he was eleven
years old. His guardians and even his own mother had then plotted to
assassinate him. They placed him on a wild horse, and made him perform
exercises with the javelin on it. When his precocious vigour defeated
their hopes, they tried to poison him. But by studying antidotes he
made his body poison-proof, or at least was reputed to have done so,
and, flying from his enemies, lived for seven years through all the
hardships of a wild and wandering life, in which he never slept under
a roof, and hunted and fought with wild beasts, to emerge in manhood a
very tiger himself for strength, and beauty of body, and ferocity of
disposition, a tyrant who spared neither man in his ambition nor
woman in his lust. [Sidenote: His physical vigour.] His stature
was gigantic, his strength and activity such as took captive the
imagination of the East. He could, it was believed, outrun the deer;
out-eat and out-drink everyone at the banquet; strike down flying
game unerringly; tame the wildest steed, and ride 120 miles in a day.
Twenty-two nations obeyed him, and he could speak the dialect of
each. A veneer of Greek refinement was spread thinly over the savage
animalism of the man. [Sidenote: Pseudo-civilisation of his court.] He
was a virtuoso, and had a wonderful collection of rings. He maintained
Greek poets and historians, and offered prizes for singing. He had
shrewdness enough to employ Greek generals, but not enough to keep him
from being grossly superstitious.

[Sidenote: His kingdom and how it was acquired.] For twenty years
(110-90 B.C.) he had been with never-resting activity extending his
empire, before the Romans assailed him. He had inherited from his
ancestors the kingdom of Pontus, or Cappadocia on the Pontus, which
had been one of the two satrapies into which Cappadocia was divided
at t