Ancient antidotes
Favourites of emperors and royalty, theriacs were the universal cures of their day
His fears were not irrational. His father was poisoned by his enemies and it has been said he had good reason to fear his mother would dispatch him in the same fashion. His name was Mithridates VI (c.132–63 BCE) and, like his father before him, he became King of Pontus, a state along the Black Sea. Mithridates’ fears spurred him to action – both as poisoner and poison scholar.
Mithridates has been called the first experimental toxicologist, with his primary goal being the creation of ‘a “universal antidote” to make himself and his friends immune to all poisons and toxins’.1 His experimental methods would now be considered dubious at best, including self-dosing with poisons and their supposed antidotes. His practice of taking a bit of poison regularly toward acquiring a tolerance bears his name – mithridatism.