Duane W. Roller
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190887841
- eISBN:
- 9780197500552
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190887841.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
Despite the vigorous military profile of Mithridates VI, he presided over a court that was typical of the era, with a large extended family and an emphasis on the arts and scholarship. About eighty ...
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Despite the vigorous military profile of Mithridates VI, he presided over a court that was typical of the era, with a large extended family and an emphasis on the arts and scholarship. About eighty personalities are known who were members of the court, including poets, artists, physicians, and scholars. The best known is the historian Metrodoros of Skepsis, who was not only his ambassador to Armenia but a polymath writing on a wide variety of subjects. The king himself was a scholar, writing on medical research and botany. He was a noted pharmacologist, and his name is still attached to certain plants and medicines. He was also a scientific gardener. Numerous artworks are known from his environment, some of which survive.Less
Despite the vigorous military profile of Mithridates VI, he presided over a court that was typical of the era, with a large extended family and an emphasis on the arts and scholarship. About eighty personalities are known who were members of the court, including poets, artists, physicians, and scholars. The best known is the historian Metrodoros of Skepsis, who was not only his ambassador to Armenia but a polymath writing on a wide variety of subjects. The king himself was a scholar, writing on medical research and botany. He was a noted pharmacologist, and his name is still attached to certain plants and medicines. He was also a scientific gardener. Numerous artworks are known from his environment, some of which survive.
