The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy

by Michael Curtis Ford

Book Overview

To the Romans, the greatest enemy the Republic ever faced was not the Goths or Huns, nor even Hannibal, but rather a ferocious and brilliant king on the distant Black Sea: Mithridates Eupator VI, the last king of Pontus, known to history as Mithridates the Great. At age eleven, he inherited a small mountain kingdom of wild tribesmen whom his wicked mother governed in his place. Sweeping to power at twenty-one-years-old, he proved to be a military...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031293615X
• ISBN13: 9780312936150
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Beyond Five Stars

At the end of the day, if I REALLY want to read a book about how LIFE REALLY IS (as opposed to those "airplane books" (read 'em on the plane, leave 'em on the plane) by Grisham, Dan Brown, Ludlum, ad nauseam), I read something by Steven Pressfield, or Victor Davis Hansen, or Bernard Cromwell. Of the writers in this gendre, I like Michael Curtis Ford the best. Of course, the others are wonderful--it is just that HE is MIRACULOUS! Within the first 10 or 20 pages of one of his novels, you have achieved the "willing suspension of disbelief" that Socrates said was the essential element of great writing--you realyy feel that you are THERE---that the characters are living, breathing people that you know as well as our own friends. I can't wait for him to write more.

M. C. Fords greatest book to date.

It took me quite some time to get around to reading this book as I was put off a little by the Connan the Barbarian style dust jacket.But it is an exellent historical novel, one I just hated to put down. Action packed, fast moving and shown through the eyes of the civilizations opposing Rome. A must read!

Rome's greatest enemy: Mithridates

In first century BC, the Roman Senate declared King Mithridates Eupator VI of Pontus (on the Black Sea) as its greatest enemy. Rome had turned Pontus into a satellite state when Mithridates' mother ruled. When he became the monarch, his country was totally reliant on Rome. Instead of bowing like his mom, he launches campaigns often brutal to throw Rome out of his country and the rest of Asia Minor. Over the next four decades starting at home, Mithridates ruled and warred. First he exploited the weaknesses of his mother ultimately overthrowing her; then he challenged the puppeteers of the Roman Republic using anything in his genocidal arsenal to make a point. Finally after forty years of battles, retreats, and more war, he met final defeat at the hands of General Pompey. Even then he refused to bow having his men execute him instead of allowing the Romans to parade him as a trophy. This is a fabulous historical fiction novel that provides deep insight into the Ancient Roman world through one of its toughest enemies. Many readers like this reviewer probably never heard of Mithridates before, but he obviously proved to be a dangerous long term threat to the Romans. Though the depth in which Michael Curtis Ford provides military tactics seems overwhelming to the lay-person, it also furbishes a sense of how brilliant Rome's Greatest Enemy truly was. The tactics also lead to fantastic descriptions of the battles as the audience get a first hand account (narrated by the lead protagonist's son) of life in the BC Roman Empire from the perspective of those who wanted out from the glory.

Splendid Novel on Rome's scourge Mithridates Eupator

Michael Curtis Ford, along with Steven Pressfield, is among our finest contemporary story tellers about the Graeco-Roman world during the latter half of the First Millenium B. C. I haven't read Ford's novel on the Greek general Xenophon, but have no doubt that it is as riveting as "The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy". I've been familiar with the saga of Hellenicized Persian King Mithradates Eupator of Pontus for years, finding remarkable how he managed to hold off Rome for decades, inspite of devastating defeats which would have caused lesser men to sue for peace with Rome. Here Ford recounts this remarkable tale, told from the unique perspective of Pharnaces, Mithradates' bastard son, who seeks to emulate his father's success on the battlefield and earn both his love and trust. Through Pharnaces' eyes, we see the successive rise and fall - and back again, not once, but several times - of Mithridates' military fortunes, as he fights against leading Roman politicians and generals such as Lucullus, Sulla and Pompey. Indeed, this novel's emphasis is on Mithradates' life and battles, and there are hardly any intrigues mentioned inside the Pontian royal court. We also see how Mithradates sought to create a "New Greece" in Asia Minor as a cultural alternative to the Roman Republic's rapidly expanding empire, paying homage not only to Alexander the Great, butalso to Mithradates' own royal Persian ancestors, most notably Cyrus the Great and his son, Darius I. My only complaint is one voiced by one of the editorial reviewers; namely that much of the speech, especialy those by the Romans, is cast in a contemporary 21st Century light. But I suppose that it was the author's intent to show how tersely worded the Romans were, and will grant him at least that bit of artistic license. Maybe more questionable is depicting Mithradates almost as a human equivalent of Heracles (Hercules), who endures successfully in both body and spirit, while witnessing his armies being slaughtered by the Romans (And yet I did not find this objectionable, recognizing it as artistic license employed by the writer, though others may.). Still, despite these flaws, I strongly recommend this novel as among the finest of its kind.

Third Time's the Charm

Mithridates Eupator VI, was the king of Pontus and one of Rome's most formidable and successful enemies. In a time when husbands and sons were killed by other members of the royal family to gain or maintain political power, Mithridates, as a teenager, went into hiding with his friends in the harsh mountains and canyons of his homeland to ensure his survival. At the ripe age of 21, he claimed his birthright to the throne of Pontus, only to find it nearly bankrupt and deeply indebted to Rome as a result of his mother's questionable administration. He married his sister Laodice to produce offspring, and sired Pharnaces (the book's narrator) with his favorite concubine. Mithridates was ambitious, and sought to expand his kingdom, to restore the lost glory of Greece. This brought him into direct conflict with the mighty Roman Empire. Mithridates employed his exceptional military skills to defeat or frustrate a number of Roman generals (including Sulla, Lucullus and Pompey) in ceaseless battles over a span of nearly 40 years. "The Last King" is as brilliant and engrossing as Ford's first two books, "The Ten Thousand" and "Gods and Legions". I am impressed at how Ford transports you into the first century world as seen through the eyes of one of Rome's greatest enemies. The detail to the physical world, the colorful inhabitants, the tangled realm of royal politics, and the furious action of ancient warfare, were so natural that you wouldn't care whether this or that was historically accurate or the product of creative license; you would simply enjoy it. For example, in one scene, Mithridates returns to the throne city of Sinope astride a magnificent golden horse. The beast was so magical that it could turn its own turd into something precious - a golden nugget. This book is a superlative piece of literature - a must-read, a must-purchase. Ford's eloquent storytelling and mastery of ancient military history give this book a solid five-star rating.