Mithridates II of Cius

Mithridates of Cius (in Greek Mιθριδάτης or Mιθραδάτης; lived c. 386–302 BC, ruled 337–302 BC) succeeded his kinsman or father Ariobarzanes II in 337 BC as ruler of the Greek town of Cius in Mysia (today part of Turkey). Diodorus assigns him a rule of thirty-five years, but it appears that he did not hold uninterrupted possession of the sovereignty during that period^[1]. What circumstances led to his expulsion or subjection we know not; nothing is heard of him till his death in 302, but it appears that he had submitted to the Macedonian Antigonus, who now, to prevent him from joining the league of Cassander and his confederates, procured his assassination in Cius.^[2] According to Lucian, he was not less than eighty-four years of age at the time of his death, which renders it not improbable that he is the same as the Mithridates, son of Ariobarzanes, who in his youth circumvented and put to death Datames. King Mithridates I of Pontus was his kinsman, possibly not directly his son however.

As said, he possibly was the same Mithradates, son of Ariobarzanes prince of Cius, who is mentioned by Xenophon^[3] as having betrayed his father, and the same circumstance is alluded to by Aristotle^[4]. During the Satraps' Revolt in the 360s BCE, this Mithridates frauded Datames to believe in him, but in the end arranged Datames' murder in 1362. Similarly, Mithridates gave his own father Ariobarzanes of Phrygia to the hands of the Persian overlord, so Ariobarzanes was crucified in 1362.

Presumably he was not the same Mithridates who accompanied the younger Cyrus in c.401 BCE - there is no proof of this. Neither he presumably was the same Mithridates mentioned by Xenophon^[5] as satrap of Cappadocia and Lycaonia in the late 400s BCE.

Between 362 and 337 BCE the family fiefdom of Cius in Mysia was held by Ariobarzanes II (possibly Mithridates' brother).^[6]

References

• Aristotle, Politics, H. Rackham (translator), Cambridge, MA - London, (1944)
• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, C. H. Oldfather (translator), Cambridge, MA - London, (1989)
• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Mithridates I", Boston, (1867)
• Xenophon, Cyropaedia, Cambridge, MA - London, (1979-83)
• Xenophon, Anabasis, Cambridge, MA - London, (1980)

Notes

1. ^ Diodorus, xvi. 90.
2. ^ Appian, "Mithridatic Wars", 9; Diodorus, xx. 111, pg. 456.
3. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named xen1_8.8.4; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text
4. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named aris_5.10; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text
5. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named xen2_7.8.25; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text
6. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named diod_15.90; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text

References

• Appian, The foreign wars, Horace White (translator), New York, (1899).
• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, C. H. Oldfather (translator), Cambridge - 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, "Mithridates II", Boston, (1867).
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).

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