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商品の説明
内容説明
Machiavelli praised his military genius. European royalty sought out his secret elixir against poison. His life inspired Mozart's first opera, while for centuries poets and playwrights recited bloody, romantic tales of his victories, defeats, intrigues, concubines, and mysterious death. But until now no modern historian has recounted the full story of Mithradates, the ruthless king and visionary rebel who challenged the power of Rome in the first century BC. In this richly illustrated book - the first biography of Mithradates in fifty years - Adrienne Mayor combines a storyteller's gifts with the most recent archaeological and scientific discoveries to tell the tale of Mithradates as it has never been told before. "The Poison King" describes a life brimming with spectacle and excitement. Claiming Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia as ancestors, Mithradates inherited a wealthy Black Sea kingdom at age fourteen after his mother poisoned his father. He fled into exile and returned in triumph to become a ruler of superb intelligence and fierce ambition. Hailed as a savior by his followers and feared as a second Hannibal by his enemies, he envisioned a grand Eastern empire to rival Rome. After massacring eighty thousand Roman citizens in 88 BC, he seized Greece and modern-day Turkey. Fighting some of the most spectacular battles in ancient history, he dragged Rome into a long round of wars and threatened to invade Italy itself. His uncanny ability to elude capture and surge back after devastating losses unnerved the Romans, while his mastery of poisons allowed him to foil assassination attempts and eliminate rivals. "The Poison King" is a gripping account of one of Rome's most relentless but least understood foes.
著者について
Adrienne Mayor is the author of "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World" (Overlook) and "The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times" (Princeton). She is a research scholar in classics and history of science at Stanford University.
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カスタマーレビュー
Amazon.com で最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー (beta)
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28件のカスタマーレビュー
37 人中、33人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Exciting narrative, based on deep research
2009/11/12
形式:ハードカバー
This is the first biography in a over century of a major figure in Roman history. The story of Mithradates is a thrilling one and Mayor's narrative carries you along through an amazing series of twists and turns. The book is based on a great deal of in-depth research on ancient Roman writers, archeology, art, and ancient and modern science. The historical speculation is careful and clearly marked. Although this book often reads like a novel, it stays true to the history. The author's guess-work is always clearly flagged. Opens up a new perspective on the age-old conflict between East and West and on the fall of the Roman Republic. Highly recommended.
22 人中、20人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Well researched and written work
2010/3/2
形式:ハードカバー
This book combines two qualities that I find essential in a history work: It is extensively, indeed exhaustively researched, and it is eminently readable and accessible.
I have been primarily a student of Roman/Byzantine history, while naturally developing a fair amount of knowledge about the history of the Gauls/Franks, Persians, Carthaginians, and Persians, among others. I know Hannibal because I know Fabian (and Scipio), Vercengetorix because I know Caesar, and so on, but I knew little about Mithradates prior to reading this work. I was particularly interested to learn that Mithradates was a historical character of considerable fame throughout the middle ages and renaissance. While I have of course previously read of the campaigns of Sulla and Pompey in Asia, this had always been from the Roman point of view, with little effort to provide insight into Mithradates, their primary opponent, and his realm. Apparently the old boy has fallen out of fashion for a hundred years or so.
As I read "The Poison King", I found myself constantly amazed at the wealth, activity, cultures, and leadership in Pontus. While many of the detailed records of his life are lost or colored by their Roman filter, Mithradates remains a compelling and fascinating character based upon what we know and may reasonably infer or surmise. It is surely not overstatement to say that he was Rome's most feared enemy for fifty years. If you are interested in the Eastern theater of Rome's empire prior to the fall of the Republic, I think you have to regard this as a must-read.
Regarding some of the negative reviews: I almost have believe we didn't read the same book. I read the work with care, after reading at least two negative reviews here, and keeping their negative commentary in mind I found no merit in their views. I'd say someone has an axe to grind, or is sufficiently concerned with modern politics to be unable to discern a truly objective, scholarly, and entertaining work of ancient history. I will say that this is primarily a work of history, not merely military history.
I have been primarily a student of Roman/Byzantine history, while naturally developing a fair amount of knowledge about the history of the Gauls/Franks, Persians, Carthaginians, and Persians, among others. I know Hannibal because I know Fabian (and Scipio), Vercengetorix because I know Caesar, and so on, but I knew little about Mithradates prior to reading this work. I was particularly interested to learn that Mithradates was a historical character of considerable fame throughout the middle ages and renaissance. While I have of course previously read of the campaigns of Sulla and Pompey in Asia, this had always been from the Roman point of view, with little effort to provide insight into Mithradates, their primary opponent, and his realm. Apparently the old boy has fallen out of fashion for a hundred years or so.
As I read "The Poison King", I found myself constantly amazed at the wealth, activity, cultures, and leadership in Pontus. While many of the detailed records of his life are lost or colored by their Roman filter, Mithradates remains a compelling and fascinating character based upon what we know and may reasonably infer or surmise. It is surely not overstatement to say that he was Rome's most feared enemy for fifty years. If you are interested in the Eastern theater of Rome's empire prior to the fall of the Republic, I think you have to regard this as a must-read.
Regarding some of the negative reviews: I almost have believe we didn't read the same book. I read the work with care, after reading at least two negative reviews here, and keeping their negative commentary in mind I found no merit in their views. I'd say someone has an axe to grind, or is sufficiently concerned with modern politics to be unable to discern a truly objective, scholarly, and entertaining work of ancient history. I will say that this is primarily a work of history, not merely military history.
22 人中、18人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Interesting
2009/11/14
形式:ハードカバー|Amazonが確認した購入
I found the book to be very interesting. She puts together a lot of information that is easy to read. I have several books on the Roman Empire but nothing about Mithradates so I appreciate the author's work and in depth research as it gets me more up to speed on that part of ancient history. A lot of my books I pass on or donate but this one I will keep in my ancient history collection.
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