Upon the utter defeat of Antiochus The Great by the Romans, near Ephesus in 190 B.C., the
Romans deemed it necessary to give the Syrian King a strong incentive to never again invade territory
held by Rome. As we have previously discussed, the Romans imposed heavy war reparation taxes upon
Antiochus, which left his kingdom in serious financial distress. As if this weren’t enough, they decided to
take Antiochus’ youngest son, Mithradates, along with other captives to Rome in order to insure the
Syrian King’s total compliance. Mithradates, who was only 25 years old at the time would be held as a
Roman captive for approximately fourteen years. This is a possible explanation for the deep seated
anger and cruelty that were to become ingrained into the character of the young Syrian prince, for he
would one day return to his homeland and take out his uncontrollable rage on any who dared to defy his
will. In short, he became a monster, a psychopathic tyrant with all of his fathers ambition for power,
coupled with a sadistic compulsion to revel in the suffering of his enemies.