The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy

by Adrienne Mayor

An obscure will-o’-the-wisp legend, mentioned by Edward Gibbon in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88), even gives Mithradates his final revenge. I have traced this tradition back to medieval Norse saga, in which a barbarian tribe from the Sea of Azov, allied with Mithradates, carried on his dream of one day invading Italy. Led by their chieftain Odin, this tribe was said to have escaped Roman rule after Pompey’s victory, by migrating to northern Europe and Scandinavia. They became the Goths, who, still inspired by Mithradates’ old struggle, avenged his defeat by overwhelming the Roman Empire. In the vision of the poet William Wordsworth, this old tale tells How vanquished Mithridates, northward passed, And, hidden in the cloud of years, became Odin, the Father of a Race by whom Perished the Roman Empire. . . .26