"Mithridates: The Poison King Who Tried to Outsmart Death"

Mithridates VI, also known as Mithridates the Great, was the king of Pontus (in modern-day Turkey) during the 1st century BCE and is famous for his obsession with poisons.

According to historical accounts, he lived in constant fear of being assassinated by poisoning, a common method of murder among rulers of that era. To protect himself, he is said to have practiced “mithridatism”—the deliberate ingestion of small, non-lethal doses of various poisons and toxins over time to build up immunity.

He reportedly experimented with snake venom, arsenic, and plant-based toxins, even testing antidotes and mixtures on prisoners and slaves. His name became so linked with this practice that “mithridatism” is still used as a term for gradually developing resistance to a poison.

Ironically, when Mithridates was finally defeated by the Romans, he is said to have attempted suicide by poison—but it didn’t work, because his body was so resistant. In the end, he allegedly had to order a soldier to kill him with a sword.