Mithridate

Mithridate, also known as mithridatium, is a semi mythical remedy with as many as sixty five ingredients, used as an antidote for poisoning, and said to have been created by Mithridates VI Eupator, king of the ancient Anatolian kingdom of Pontus, in the first century BC. It was one of the most complex and highly sought after drugs during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, particularly in Italy and France, where it remained in continual use for centuries, and an updated recipe called theriac was known well into the nineteenth century. Mithridates VI 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 work, and according to some legends had to ask a soldier to run him through with a sword instead; the recipe for the antidote was said to have been found in his cabinet after his death and was carried to Rome by Pompey, later translated into Latin and improved upon by physicians including Andromachus, physician to Nero, and Galen, physician to Marcus Aurelius. In the Middle Ages mithridate was also used as part of a regimen to ward off the plague, and physicians in London were officially prescribing it as late as 1786.