Mithridates VI of Pontus

After his father Mithridates V was assassinated, the teenage king ascended under his mother's regency until he overthrew her in 113 BC. He built Pontus into a regional power by subjugating Colchis and the Cimmerian Bosporus, but his westward push brought collision with Rome. In 89 BC he crushed Bithynia's invasion, swept into Roman Asia during the Social War, and rallied much of Greece — including Athens — to his banner as a champion of Hellenism. Sulla beat him back in the First Mithridatic War but cut a lenient peace to settle Rome's civil strife. A second war in 83 BC ended in another stale…