The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy

From Publishers Weekly
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. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
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.



About the Author
Michael Curtis Ford is forty-three years old and is a translator and novelist. He has bachelor's degrees from the University of Washington and a graduate degree from Princeton. He speaks several languages and is an avid reader of the classics. He and his wife educate their three children at home in Oregon.



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Continuing his fictional stroll through classical history, Ford (Gods and Legions, 2002, etc.) provides a swashbuckling account of the exploits of Mithradates the Great, King of Pontus and scourge of ancient Rome. Although he never quite became a household name like Alexander the Great, Mithradates (115-63 b.c.) deserves to be remembered in the company of that noble Greek, who set the pattern for every conqueror-statesman from Xerxes to Napoleon. A Persian, Mithradates grew up in the thoroughly Hellenized court of Pontus on the Black Sea, where the veneer of Greek civilization masked the brutality of Asiatic despotism. Under the rule of his weak mother, Queen Laodice, Pontus had become a vassal state of Rome, militarily impotent and economically subservient. The young Mithradates, not content in his role as heir apparent to a puppet throne, fled the palace and lived for seven years in the wilds of Pontus and Cappadocia, eventually returning at the head of an outlaw army to occupy the capital and depose his mother. As if that weren't enough strife for one family, he then proceeded to marry his younger sister, who despised him but bore him one son before he killed her for plotting against his life. He then marauded through Cappadocia and Bythinia, gradually extending the sway of his rule until he became a threat to Rome itself. Over the course of some 20 years (88-66 b.c.), Mithradates was Public Enemy Number One as far as the Senate was concerned, and he proved astonishingly capable of rebounding from defeats at the hands of superior forces to recoup his losses with a vengeance, eventually conquering the whole of Asia Minor. Even after he met his match in the Roman general Pompey,Mithradates was able to get the last word in: He asked one of his own men to kill him, thus evading capture and execution. Solid fun: a good, old-fashioned adventure tale with plenty of action and no narrative frills. Agency: Sheil Land Associates


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