Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/556

Rh 530 M I T M I T part of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia. Several of them intermarried with the Seleucida? and other Greek royal families, and something of the Hellenic civilization was engrafted on the native non-Hellenic character of the kingdom. The names Mithradates, Pharnaces, and Ariobar- zanes, all non-Hellenic, alternate in the family. The pro vince of Phrygia was sold in the most scandalous way by the Roman consul Aquillius to Mithradates V., who died probably in 120 B.C. He was succeeded by his son Mithradates Eupator, sixth of the name, one of those remarkable conquerors that arise from time to time in the East. He was a boy when his father died, and for seven years lived the wandering life of a hunter pursued by assassins. His courage, his wonderful bodily strength and size, his skill in the use of weapons, in riding, and in the chase, his speed of foot, his capacity for eating and drink ing, and at the same time his quick and penetrating intellect, his wonderful mastery of twenty-two languages, all these qualities are celebrated by the ancients to a degree which is almost incredible. With a surface gloss of Greek education, he united the subtlety, the superstition, and the obstinate endurance of an Oriental. He was a virtuoso, and collected curiosities and works of art; he assembled Greek men of letters round him; he gave prizes to the greatest poets and the best eaters. He spent much of his time in practising magic arts, the interpretation of dreams, and other superstitious ceremonies ; and it was believed that he had so saturated his body with poisons that none could injure him. He trusted no one; he murdered his nearest relations, his mother, his sons, the sister whom he had married ; to prevent his harem from falling a trophy to his enemies he murdered all his concubines, and his most faithful followers were never safe. He once dis appeared from his palace, no one knew whither, and returned after some months, having wandered over all Asia Minor in disguise. Except in the pages of romance or the tales of the Thousand and One Nights it would be difficult to find anything to rival the account given of Mithradates by the gravest of historians. These qualities fitted him to be the opponent of Roman arms in Asia Minor, to be the champion of the East in its struggle against the destroying and yet civilizing power of the West. He resisted the Romans for eighteen years, yet we can hardly credit him with much real generalship or organizing power. He could collect masses of men and hurl them against the Roman legions; everything that boundless energy and boundless hatred could do he did; but the strength of his opposition to the Romans lay in the fact that all the dislike inspired by Rome in the worst and most cruel time of her rule was arrayed on his side. No direct collision took place between the Romans and Mithradates for thirty-two years, though the republic took away Phrygia from him in 120 B.C., and several times thwarted his designs in Paphlagonia and Cappadocia. The rupture came about the time of the Social War. Mithradates, prompted, it is said, by envoys from the Italian allies, took advantage of the intestine struggles in Italy. War broke out in 88, on the ostensible cause of disputes about the kingdom of Bithynia ; Mithradates rapidly overran Galatia, Phrygia, and Asia, defeated the Roman armies, and made a general massacre of the Romans resident in Asia. He also sent large armies into European Greece, and his generals occupied Athens. But Sulla in Greece and Fimbria in Asia defeated his armies in several battles ; the Greek cities were disgusted by his severity, and in 84 B.C. he concluded peace, abandoning all his con quests, surrendering seventy ships, and paying a fine of 2000 talents. Murena invaded Pontus without any good reason in 83, but was defeated in 82. Difficulties con- etantly arose between the two adversaries, and in 74 a general war broke out. Mithradates defeated Cotta, one of the Roman consuls, at Chalcedon ; but Lucullus worsted him in several engagements, and drove him finally in 72 B.C. to take refuge in Armenia with his son-in-law Tim-anes ... ^ After two great victories in 69 and 68, Lucullus was dis concerted by mutiny among his troops and the defeat of his lieutenant Fabius (see vol. xv. p. 56). In 66 he was superseded by Pompey, who completely defeated both Mithradates and Tigranes. The former established him self in 64 at Panticapaeum, and was planning new campaigns against the Romans when his own troops revolted, and, after vainly trying to poison himself, he ordered a Gallic mercenary to kill him. So perished the greatest enemy that the Romans had to encounter in Asia Minor. His body was sent to Pompey, who buried it in the royal sepulchre at Sinope. MITHRAS was a Persian god whose worship spread over the Roman world during the 2d and 3d centuries after Christ. His name is found in the oldest records of the East Aryan races. In the Rig-Veda, Mitra, i.e., the friend, and Varuna, i.e., Or/xxvos, are a pair of gods regularly associated : they denote the heaven of day and the heaven of night. Mithras is therefore by origin the god of the bright heaven and of day, closely related in conception to, and yet expressly distinguished from, the sun. In the developed Old Persian religion of Zoroaster Mithras retained a place ; he was not one of the greatest gods, but was first of a triad which, while less pure embodiments of the divine nature, were more easy for men to comprehend and to worship. The seventh month, which bears his name, and the sixteenth day of every month were sacred to Mithras; prayers were offered to him at sunrise, at mid-day, and at sunset. When the Persians conquered Assyria and Babylonia their religion was much affected by the worship of these more educated races. The worship of foreign deities was introduced, that of Persian deities was changed in character ; and the gods were represented by images. The cultus of Mithras now became far more prominent, he was identified with the sun, and an elaborate ritual with the non-Aryan accompaniment of mysteries was established. This revolution had begun before Herodotus (i. 131) could identify Mithras with the Assyrian goddess Mylitta, and it became more thorough during the 4th century B.C. It is in this most developed form that we know the cultus of Mithras. The god of light becomes by a ready transition, which is made in the very oldest Aryan records, the god of purity, of moral goodness, of knowledge. There goes on in the world as a whole, and in the life of each man, a continual struggle between the power of good and the power of evil ; Mithras is always engaged in this con test, and his religion teaches all, men and women alike, to aid in the battle. Victory in this battle can be gained only by sacrifice and probation, and Mithras is conceived as always performing the mystic sacrifice through which the good will triumph. The human soul, which has been separated from the divine nature and has descended to earth, can reascend and attain union with God through a process of fasting and penance which is taught in the mysteries ; the sacrifice which is being always offered by Mithras makes this ascent and union possible. Those who were initiated in the mysteries of Mithras had to pass through a long probation, with scourging, fasting, and ordeal by water, and were then admitted as soldiers fighting on behalf of Mithras. This was the lowest terrestrial grade, but there were still two others to attain, the Bull and the Lion, each involving further probation, before the soul could rise above the earth. It then ascended by the grades of Vulture, Ostrich, and Crow through the region of aether; and then it strove to become pure fire through the grades of Gryphon, of Perses, and of the Sun. Finally