mithridatism

Immunity against the action of a poison produced by small and gradually increasing doses of the same. [Mithridates, King of Pontus (132–63 B.C.), supposedly an unsuccessful suicide (by poison) because of repeated small doses taken to become invulnerable to assassination by poison]

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mith·ri·da·tism .mith-rə-'dāt-.iz-əm n tolerance to a poison acquired by taking gradually increased doses of it

Mith·ra·da·tes VI Eu·pa·tor .mith-rə-'dāt-ēz-'siks-'yü-pə-.tȯr (d 63 BC)

king of Pontus. Mithradates the Great ruled from 120-63 BC. A great military leader, a brave warrior, and a cunning politician, he was one of the few serious threats to Roman domination in the ancient world. A revolt of his own soldiers led him to attempt to take his own life. According to legend, he was ever suspicious of treachery, so he had consumed doses of poison in increasingly greater amounts in order to build up a tolerance. When he vainly sought to commit suicide, he found that he had become totally immune to poison. He finally resorted to ordering a follower to stab him to death.

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mith·ri·da·tism (mithґrĭ-da″tiz-əm) [Mithridates, died 63 B.C., king of Pontus, who reportedly took poisons so as to become immunized against them] the acquisition of immunity to the effects of a poison by ingestion of gradually increasing amounts of it.