Mithridates VI of Pontus

About Mithridates VI of Pontus

Mithridates VI, the last effective king of the Hellenistic Kingdom of Pontus in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), is ranked as the 764th most historically important figure by MIT’s Pantheon project. Reigning from approximately 120 to 63 BCE, his primary historical significance stems from his prolonged and tenacious opposition to the Roman Republic. He famously waged three major wars against Rome, attempting to expel Roman influence from Asia Minor and the Black Sea region, and was known for his reputed mastery of multiple languages and his experimental toxicology studies, including the development of a universal antidote, or Mithridatium.

Despite this high historical importance ranking, Mithridates VI receives remarkably low contemporary attention. In 2025, his Wikipedia page accrued only 48K annualized views, placing him significantly underrepresented relative to his historical weight, evidenced by an Attention Gap of -7x. To contextualize this underattention, a contemporary politician like Slobodan Milošević, ranked nearly 200 spots lower at #939, garnered 912K views in the same year, over 18 times the traffic. Furthermore, interest in the Pontic king is declining, as his 2025 performance showed a 10.5% year-over-year drop and an 8% dip in momentum between the first and third quarters.