ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I AM INDEBTED to my excellent editor at Princeton University Press, Rob Tempio, and the anonymous readers who offered valuable suggestions for improving the manuscript. I’m grateful for the early encouragement from Sam Elworthy, Kirsten Manges, Sam Popkin, Susan Shirk, and the LPG writers group of Princeton. Heartfelt gratitude goes to my agent Sandy Dijkstra and everyone at the agency. Valuable insights were offered at various stages by Murat Arslan, Glen Bowersock, David Braund, Deniz Burcu Erciyas, Tom Habinek, Toni Hayes, Bruce Hitchner, Jakob Munk Høtje, Henryk Jaronowski, Robert Keohane, John Ma, Brian McGing, Robert Proctor, John Ramsey, Walter Scheidel, John Strisino, Mehmet Tezcan, and Philip Wexler. I thank Jeffrey Bauman for helping to create the time line and dramatis personae, and Luca Grillo for help with translations. I’m grateful for Lauren Lepow’s fine editorial guidance, Dimitri Karetnikov’s eye for illustrations, Frank Mahood’s pleasing text design and layout, and the proofreading wizardry of Barbara Mayor.

In 2008, a group dedicated to “our king” Mithradates, “the second Aleksandros of the World,” was established on the Internet networking site Facebook, by Greek and Turkish people of Pontus. Mithradates has a growing presence on Facebook; as of this writing the group has more than four hundred international members. I thank the many friends of Mithradates Eupator on Facebook for unique perspectives and support.

Special thanks go to Peter van Alfen and Elena Stolyarik of the American Numismatic Society, and Dr. George Keremediev of the American Computer Museum, Bozeman, Montana. Artist Rubik Kocharian contributed his evocative painting of Mithradates and Tigranes the Great. Jakob Munk Høtje and Dick Osseman allowed me to use their photographs of Mithradatic archaeology in Turkey. My talented sister Michele Angel created the maps and two imaginative illustrations. Over the years, Christopher Duffin has provided photographs and literary evidence for Mithridatium and theriacs in medieval and early modern times. Hans Heiner Buhr of Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, shared his photographs, paintings, and personal knowledge of the Caucasus Mountains. I’m grateful for thoughtful comments on early drafts by Ted Champlin, Ian Morris, Severo Perez, and Elaine Wise. I’ve profited from conversations with Kris Ellingsen, Deborah Gordon, and Barry Strauss, and from on-line research by N. S. Gill, K. Kris Hirst, David Meadows, and Tim Spalding. This book is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Gerald Charles Olson. A man of bold intelligence, curiosity, and resilience, he would have enjoyed Mithradates’ amazing tale. To three friends who read the entire manuscript and offered wise comments, my deep gratitude: Michelle Maskiell, Josh Ober, and Marcia Ober.

For research support, thanks go to Stephen Macedo and the Princeton University Center for Human Values; Denis Feeney and the Princeton Classics Department; and Anthony Grafton and the Princeton Humanities Council Old Dominion Fellows of 2005–6. Richard Martin and the Stanford Classics Department, and the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program, Stanford, have given me my first academic home. It was Ted Champlin of Princeton who first welcomed me as an independent scholar; I’m grateful for his friendship. I want to express my gratitude to Montana State University for the gift of an honorary doctorate in May 2007.

For Josiah, O Best Beloved, words are not enough—but a nomad’s saying about friendship captures what I want to say: “Because he shared my burden when it threatened to slow my pace and kept by my side when we traveled lightly.”