The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mithridate \Mith"ri*date\, n. (Med.) An antidote against poison, or a composition in form of an electuary, supposed to serve either as a remedy or a preservative against poison; an alexipharmic; -- so called from King Mithridates, its reputed inventor.
[Love is] a drop of the true elixir; no mithridate so
effectual against the infection of vice.
--Southey.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"antidote against poison," from Medieval Latin mithridatum, from Late Latin mithridatium, neuter of Mithridatius "pertaining to Mithridates," king of Pontus, who made himself poison-proof.
Wiktionary
n. (context obsolete English) A universal antidote against poison
WordNet
Wikipedia
Mithridate, also known as mithridatium, mithridatum, or mithridaticum, is a semi-mythical remedy with as many as 65 ingredients, used as an antidote for poisoning, and said to be created by Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus in the 1st century BC. It was among one of the most complex, highly sought-after drugs during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly in Italy and France, where they were in continual use for centuries. An updated recipe called theriac ( Theriacum Andromachi) was known well into the 19th century.
Mithridate takes its name from its inventor, Mithradates VI, King of Pontus (134 to 63 BC) who is said to have so fortified his body against poisons with antidotes and preservatives, that when he tried to kill himself, he could not find any poison that would have an effect, and, according to some legends, had to ask a soldier to run him through with a sword. The recipe for the reputed antidote was found in his cabinet, written with his own hand, and was carried to Rome by Pompey. It was translated into Latin by Pompey's freedman Lenaeus, and later improved upon by Nero's physician Andromachus and Marcus Aurelius's physician Galen. It likely underwent considerable alterations since the time of Mithradates.
In the Middle Ages, mithridate was also used as part of a regimen to ward off potential threats of plague. According to Simon Kellwaye (1593), one should "take a great Onyon, make a hole in the myddle of him, then fill the place with Mitridat or Triacle, and some leaues of Rue". Until as late as 1786, physicians in London could officially prescribe mithridate. According to historian Christopher Hill, Oliver Cromwell took a large dose of mithridate as a precaution against the plague and found it cured his acne.
The term mithridate has come to refer to any generally all-purpose antidote.
Mithridate is a tragedy in five acts (with respectively 5, 6, 6, 7, and 5 scenes) in Alexandrine verse by Jean Racine.
Usage examples of "mithridate".
The daughters of Macedonian aristocrats, they had been given to Cleopatra when all three were small children, to be the royal companions of the second daughter of King Ptolemy Auletes and Queen Cleopatra Tryphaena, a daughter of King Mithridates of Pontus by his queen.
After an accident to his flagship caused by a Chian ship, King Mithridates VI of Pontus ever after harbored a huge grudge against Chios and Chians.
Then Fimbria trapped Mithridates in Pitane and sent to Lucullus to help him capture the King by blockading the harbor.
Romans was due, of course, to the occupation of the city by Fimbria and Flaccus four years earlier, when they-appointed by the government of Cinna-had decided to head for Asia and a war with Mithridates rather than for Greece and a war with Sulla.
I have been blamed by some for the fact that King Mithridates is at large to commence this third war against Rome because I refused to aid Fimbria in capturing Mithridates at Pitane, and-it is commonly said-thereby allowed Mithridates the room to escape.
King Mithridates and he had stayed in Asia Province after Sulla went home, holding it for Sulla while the governor, Murena, had busied himself conducting an unauthorized war against Mithridates in the land of Cappadocia.
For a while Murena had done amazingly well, until self-confidence had led him into a series of disastrous encounters with Mithridates on his own soil of Pontus.
He had crossed into Asia, fought against King Mithridates, been handed over to Sulla when Fimbria fell from power and suicided, and fought for Sulla, for Murena, and then for Lucullus.
If Ptolemy Alexander is not made King and Pharaoh, then we will have to send to Mithridates and Tigranes for the elder of the two bastards, Ptolemy Philadelphus who was called Auletes because of his piping voice.
When Pompey commanded in the East, he rewarded his soldiers and allies, dethroned princes, divided kingdoms, founded colonies, and distributed the treasures of Mithridates.
King Attalus of Pergamum willed his kingdom to Rome, had sold the whole land of Phrygia to the fifth King Mithridates of Pontus for a huge sum of gold, and thereby let the inscrutable Orient into western Asia Minor.
Aquillius set about organizing the bequest as the Roman province of Asia, he sold most of Phrygia to King Mithridates V of Pontus for a sum of gold which he put into his own purse.
Kingdom of Pergamum to Rome, the Roman proconsul Manius Aquillius literally sold most of Phrygia to King Mithridates V of Pontus, pocketing the gold for himself.
King Mithridates, Diophantus espoused his task with enthusiasm, and took a large and well-trained army to the Tauric Chersonnese in the spring following the visit of Mithridates.
A proven general from the time of the fifth King Mithridates, Diophantus espoused his task with enthusiasm, and took a large and well-trained army to the Tauric Chersonnese in the spring following the visit of Mithridates.