v53_0082 - PONTUS - PONTIC KINGDOM - MITHRIDATES VI THE GREAT Tétradrachme

PONTUS - PONTIC KINGDOM - MITHRIDATES VI THE GREAT

(120-63 BC)

When his father Mithridates V died, Mithridates VI was only eleven years old. Very quickly, however, he built up a vast empire in Asia Minor, came into conflict with the Romans and fought against the kingdoms of Bithynia and Cappadocia. In 88, he ordered the massacre of all the Romans and Italians of Asia Minor, the massacres of Ephesus, where more than 80,000 victims were counted. Mithridates then won Athens where he was archon, but his fleet failed before Rhodes. In 86 BC, after Sulla's recapture of Athens and the battles of Chaeronea and Orchomenus, Mithridates signed the Peace of Dardanus which ended the First Mithridatic War.