Mithridates of Cius (in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Mιθριδάτης or Mιθραδάτης; lived c. 386–302 BCE, ruled 337–302 BCE) a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

noble, succeeded his kinsman or father Ariobarzanes II in 337 BCE as ruler of the Greek town of

Cius Cius (; grc-gre, Kίος or Κῖος ''Kios''), later renamed Prusias on the Sea (; la, Prusias ad Mare) after king Prusias I of Bithynia, was an ancient Greek city bordering the Propontis (now known as the Sea of Marmara), in Bithynia and in ...

Mysia Mysia (UK , US or ; el, Μυσία; lat, Mysia; tr, Misya) was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia, Asian part of modern Turkey). It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the ...

(today part of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

assigns him a rule of thirty-five years, but it appears that his rule of Cius was interrupted during that period. What circumstances led to his expulsion or subjection are unknown; nothing is heard of him until his death in 302 BCE. However, it appears that he had submitted to the

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...

ian Antigonus, who, to prevent him from joining the league of

Cassander Cassander ( el, Κάσσανδρος ; c. 355 BC – 297 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 305 BC until 297 BC, and ''de facto'' ruler of southern Greece from 317 BC until his death. A son of Antipater and a cont ...

and his confederates, arranged for his assassination in Cius. According to

Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore ...

, he was at least eighty-four years of age at the time of his death, which makes it likely that he is the same person as the Mithridates, son of Ariobarzanes, who in his youth circumvented and put to death

Datames Datames (Old Persian: ''Dātama'' or ''Dātāma'', Aramaic: ''Tadanmu'', grc, Δατάμης, Datámēs; 407 BC – 362 BC), also known as Tarkamuwa, was an Iranian military leader, who served as the governor ( satrap) of the Achaemenid satrapy o ...

. King

Mithridates I of Pontus Mithridates I Ctistes (in Greek Mιθριδάτης Kτίστης; reigned 281–266 BC), also known as Mithridates III of Cius, was a Persian nobleman and the founder (this is the meaning of the word ''Ctistes'', literally ''Builder'') of the Ki ...

was his kinsman, although it is not known whether he was his son. Therefore, it is likely that he was the same Mithradates, son of Ariobarzanes prince of

, who is mentioned by

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...

as having betrayed his father, and the same circumstance is alluded to by

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. During the Satraps' Revolt in the 360s BCE, Mithridates tricked

into believing in him. But in the end he arranged for Datames' murder in 362 BCE. Similarly, Mithridates gave his own father

Ariobarzanes of Phrygia Ariobarzanes ( peo, *Aryābr̥zaⁿs; grc, Ἀριοβαρζάνης ; death: crucified in c. 362 BCE), sometimes known as Ariobarzanes I of Cius, was a Persian Satrap of Phrygia and military commander, leader of an independence revolt, and t ...

over to his Persian overlord, so Ariobarzanes was crucified in 362 BCE. Presumably he was not the same Mithridates who accompanied the younger

Cyrus Cyrus ( Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...

in c. 401 BCE - there is no proof of this. Neither is he the Mithridates mentioned by Xenophon as

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revo ...

and

Lycaonia Lycaonia (; el, Λυκαονία, ''Lykaonia''; tr, Likaonya) was a large region in the interior of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), north of the Taurus Mountains. It was bounded on the east by Cappadocia, on the north by Galatia, on the west by ...

in the late 5th century BCE. Between 362 and 337 BCE the family fiefdom of Cius in Mysia was held by Ariobarzanes II (possibly Mithridates' brother).

Notes

References

Appian Appian of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἀππιανὸς Ἀλεξανδρεύς ''Appianòs Alexandreús''; la, Appianus Alexandrinus; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Hadr ...

,
The foreign wars
', Horace White (translator),

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, (1899). *Aristotle, ''

Politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

'', H. Rackham (translator),

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, (1944) *Diodorus Siculus,
Bibliotheca
', C. H. Oldfather (translator),

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, (1989). *Diodorus Siculus,
Bibliotheca
', C. H. Oldfather (translator), Cambridge, Massachusetts - London, (1989) *Højte, Jakob Munk;
The Date of the Alliance between Chersonesos and Pharnakes and its implications
'. * Smith, William (editor); ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

''
"Mithridates I"

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, (1867) * Smith, William (editor); ''

''
"Mithridates II"

, (1867). * *Xenophon, ''

Anabasis Anabasis (from Greek ''ana'' = "upward", ''bainein'' = "to step or march") is an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country. Anabase and Anabasis may also refer to: History * ''Anabasis Alexandri'' (''Anabasis of Alexander''), a ...

'', Cambridge, Massachusetts - London, (1980) *Xenophon, ''

Cyropaedia The ''Cyropaedia'', sometimes spelled ''Cyropedia'', is a partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, the founder of Persia's Achaemenid Empire. It was written around 370 BC by Xenophon, the Athenian-born soldier, historian, and student of Soc ...

'', Cambridge, Massachusetts - London, (1979–83) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mithridates 02 Of Cius 4th-century BC Iranian people Rulers in the Achaemenid Empire Ancient Persian people 4th-century BC rulers Year of birth unknown 302 BC deaths Governors of Antigonus I Monophthalmus