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    The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy
    The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy
    The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy
    Ebook504 pages10 hours

    The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy

    By Michael Curtis Ford

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    To the Romans, the greatest enemy the Republic ever faced was not the Goths or Huns, nor even Hannibal, but rather a ferocious and brilliant king on the distant Black Sea: Mithridates Eupator VI of Pontus, known to history as Mithridates the Great.

    At age eleven, Mithridates inherited a small mountain kingdom of wild tribesmen, which his wicked mother governed in his place. Sweeping to power at age twenty-one, he proved to be a military genius and quickly consolidated various fiefdoms under his command. Since Rome also had expansionist designs in this region, bloody conflict was inevitable.

    Over forty years, Rome sent its greatest generals to contain Mithridates and gained tenuous control over his empire only after suffering a series of devastating defeats at the hands of this cunning and ruthless king. Each time Rome declared victory, Mithridates considered it merely a strategic retreat, and soon came roaring back with a more powerful army than before.

    Bursting with heroic battle scenes and eloquent storytelling, Michael Curtis Ford has crafted a riveting novel of the ancient world and resurrected one of history's greatest warriors.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 1, 2007
    ISBN9781429904377
    The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy
    Author

    Michael Curtis Ford

    MICHAEL CURTIS FORD has worked variously as a laborer, a ski patrolman, a musician, a consultant, a banker, a Latin teacher, and a translator. He holds degrees in economics and linguistics and lives in Oregon, where he and his wife educate their three children at home. His novels include The Ten Thousand, Gods and Legions, The Last King, The Sword of Attila, and The Fall of Rome.

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    Reviews for The Last King

    4.5/5

    12 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I read this book more for facts than fun. I haven't gotten to whatever Roman historians who covered Mithradates, but did remember a biography by Alfred Duggan fondly. Plutarch deals with him tangentially, I believe. There's a lot of research in this book, but no spark, and thus little desire to reread.
    • 4/5
      I read this on the strength of having purchased a different book of the author already that I haven't read. I think I will read it when I unpack it. It was an ok read, I can't say that I was gripped by the saga of the King of Pontus, I'll probably like the Roman stuff better. But despite it being not really an area of interest for me, I felt like it was a good story. It wasn't told real well, in that most of the characters are pretty shallow, but it was informative about Mithridates, whom I had known nothing about.
    • 5/5
      Mithridate, the ancient king of Pont, was a man whose whole life was marked by two things – his hate against the Rome and his thirst for power. Ford’s book tries to portray this man who defied Romans until his death.Interesting book. If you are into history novels you’ll like this one.
    • 5/5
      Ford as always, brings these historical events and characters to life in a manner which makes for quite an enjoyable read. The bringing back the story of Mithridates was a nice slice of history of one of the little known great figures of the past.
    • 4/5
      Although replete with salient and cogent arguments on trust, loyalty and friendships in addition to omnipresent action, “The Last King” by Michael Curtis Ford falls flat in many places. Every so often Mr. Ford picks up the pace and events seem to conspire to create a stupendous scene but then suddenly events in the novel become stilted and my interest wavered. This does not mean that I disliked the novel, on the contrary I gave it 3 ½ stars. However as a reader of historical fiction and purveyor of action novels I sometimes found the storyline wooden and artificial.
    • 5/5
      An excellent read! Ford does a spectacular job in taking historical fact and creating an epic tale of Mithridates the Great. It will leave you with a yearning to learn more about this often shadowy historical figure. To qoute the book "The victors shall write history". Although Mithridates lost his war(s) against Rome and was removed from mainstream history by the victors, this book takes Mithridates loss and creates a wonderful tale and a most remarkeable character.

    Book preview

    The Last King - Michael Curtis Ford

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