The Poison King

The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy

By: Adrienne Mayor

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

A National Book Award finalist for this epic work, Adrienne Mayor delivers a gripping account of Mithradates, the ruthless visionary who began to challenge Rome’s power in 120 B.C. Machiavelli praised his military genius. Kings coveted his secret elixir against poison. Poets celebrated his victories, intrigues, and panache. But until now, no one has told the full story of his incredible life.

©2010 Adrienne Mayor (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Close but Missed the Mark

I appreciate the effort to flesh out the story of Mithradates, a fascinating character. The book falls short on several points. There are long stretches devoted to speculation about Mithradates childhood and lifestyle in court. These passages take up a lot of air time for something that is unverifiable. In the meantime his descriptions of the battles, in particular of the third Mithradatic War are incomplete and don't give a clear picture. It also seems as though he is using some inflated numbers.

I also found the reader monotone and hard to listen to at times.

Overall the book is ok, it has good moments, the author does a good job of describing the political climate. It could have done with less speculation and more description of actual verifiable events.

The other side of the story

It was interesting to hear the non-Roman side of the Mithradatic wars. The history I learned dwells on the internal struggles of the mid to late Roman Republic, and from that point of view its a matter of Romans being distracted from the task of conquering the east.

The author clearly admires Mithradates, and there is a great deal of background into his childhood, character, family life and reputation. I found him odious. The politics and culture of the region were fascinating and this book is insightful.

Ancient Roman history fans will REALLY enjoy this!

Truly interesting from beginning to end; I personally love gobbling up (any and all) information during this era. Mithridates is so interesting, I'm surprised this book has not come out sooner!

A Speculative Tale

The author tries to give an account of Mithradates life but so little is know and so much is told from the “here’s what may have happened” or “we can only imagine” and so on.

Please use women narrators!

This is the 2nd ancient history book I've read written by a woman and read by a less than compelling male narrator. Maybe the next time consider a female narrator? Overall it's a solid history of the Mithradatic wars. It's always refreshing to find something that seeks to present the view from the non Roman side of the fight.

What an ending!

Has to be one of the most thought provoking endings I have ever heard in a historical book. A tale many do not know well, worth a listen!

Send the script to Game of Thrones producers!!!!

Would you listen to The Poison King again? Why?
This book and the narration is above and beyond any other history book in Audible. The narration is impeccable and the story of the Poison King and his allies begs for a TV series of its own.
As a TV series:
Starting with a you prince and the scheming Queens and concubines is enough for a 3 season TV spectacle like Reign, Game of Thrones, etc. I can picture the role with one of the teen idols from Teen Werewolf or Twisted in a swashbuckling adventure between the young Mithradates, his BFF young Tigranes, and adventures through fantastic Baltic sea and Asia Minor Kingdoms, pirate lords and as counter evil to unite them all: Roma and Persia!
This books begs to be an on-going TV series!

Who was your favorite character and why?
Mirthradates, followed by his son in law Tigranes the Great.

What about Paul Hecht’s performance did you like?
EVERYTHING!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
"if you like Game of Thrones...meet The Poison King!

Any additional comments?
Listeners should do a standing ovation when the book reaches its end, cause this is top quality material that needs to be sold to HBO, Starz or AMC as a regular TV series

why the constant comparison?

this is half about poison half about comparing him to Alexander the great. Title misleading.

For Ancient History Buffs

If you enjoy ancient history, you might enjoy this well research book about Mithradates. I had a hard time keeping the names of people, tribes, realms etc straight and of course I had never heard of Mithradates before,,, apparently everyone else in the world has :::sigh:::

Anyway, it is still a fascinating story and well worth the listen, but it is NOT for the faint of heart. The cruelty and brutally that was common in that time absolutely takes my breath away and not in a good way

Fascinating history

As a student of Greco-Roman history reference to Mithradates has popped up frequently from a variety of sources. That he was a "bogey man" to the Romans was hauntingly familiar to the USA's preoccupation with Osama Bin Laden. For the same reasons I am sure. Facts, historic events mixed with politics and license. Through war and mayhem on a grand scale civilizations and indeed individuals were in turn enriched and impoverished, or in other words, "made history". One must keep in mind that during these adventures millions of men, women and children were killed, injured and enslaved, and that the boundaries of the known world were increased and defined.

Not since reading "Funeral games" regarding the aftermath of the death of Alexander had I been so uniquely informed of the post Alexandrian politics of the near east. Mithradates life and times were fascinating. The author Adrienne Mayor continually alludes to the myth of Mithradates . The myth goes as follows. An individual of royal (elite) birth, born under an under an eastern star and destined by the gods to be the savior of the east(the light) from the tyranny of Rome (the dark). An old, old story. She did an excellent job of utilizing the historic biographic resources available. One criticism however was her annoying use of repetition of events and perceptions, as if the more times something was repeated the more significant to the total narrative it was meant to be. In fact, Mithradates was a tyrant, bent on conquering all of his Pontic neighbors and subjugating them to his will through any means possible. Mayor oft repeats stories of the fabulous wealth of Mithradates and suggests that his wealth came from the richness of his lands and his wise judgments in their utilization, all the while ignoring the fact that he lived off of the toil of the very people he proposed to be the savior of. Also, in his wars of acquisition and wars of defense against Rome perhaps more than a million of his people died.

As to the verity of the history of the wars, Adrienne Mayor describes the Roman legions as near perfect killing machines. An army that sliced through the myrid polyglot armies of the potentates of the near east like a knife through butter, regardless of the size of their enemy. This smacks of Roman revisionist history, a la Julius Caesar's gallic wars. But then of course, most of Mayors sources for this material were Romans or under Roman influence.

Reader Paul Hecht did a credible job with the material he had to work with. He did not, by tone or inflection, try to lead the listener toward a conclusion or point of view. He kept some of the "acting" out of the narrative that is the downfall of so many other readers. Well done Paul.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history and is a rousing adventure story as well.