Mithridates I of Pontus

Mithridates I Ctistes (in Greek Mιθριδάτης Kτίστης; reigned 302 BC – 266 BC) was the founder (this is the meaning of the word Ctistes) of the kingdom of Pontus in Anatolia.

Plutarch mentions that Mithradates was son of a man named Ariobarzanes. The classical historian Appianus informs that Mithradates was born of the male line of the extended dynasty of Grest King Dareios. Mithradates is told to have been of the same age as Demetrios Poliorketes, which means he was born in mid-330s BCE. In 302 or 301 BC, shortly after having executed the young man's kinsman (possibly his father or grandfather) and predecessor Mithridates of Cius, the diadoch Antigonus became suspicious of the son who had inherited the family dominion of Cius. Antigonus was motivated to form a plan oriented on killing the boy. Mithridates Ktistes, however, received from Demetrius Poliorcetes timely notice of Antigonus's intentions, and fled with a few followers to Paphlagonia, where he occupied a strong fortress, called Cimiata. He was joined by numerous bodies of troops from different quarters and gradually extended his dominions in Pontus and created the foundations for the birth of a new kingdom, which may be judged to have risen about 281 BC when Mithridates assumed the title of basileus (king).^[1] In the same year, we find him concluding an alliance with the town of Heraclea Pontica, in Bithynia, to protect them against Seleucus^[2]. At a subsequent period, Mithridates is found acquiring support from the Gauls (who later settled in Asia Minor) in order to overthrow a force sent against him by Ptolemy, king of Egypt.^[3] These are the recorded events of his reign, which lasted for thirty-six years.^[4] He was succeeded by his son Ariobarzanes. He seems to have been buried in a royal grave near the kingdom's capital, Amasia. Next to him would be buried all the kings of Pontus until the fall of Sinope in 183 BC.

According to Appian,^[5] he was eighth in descent from the first satrap of Pontus under Darius the Great and sixth in ascending order from Mithridates Eupator. However, this point is controversial since Plutarch^[6] writes that eight generations of kings of Pontus stemmed from him before Roman subjection.

Preceded by Mithridates II of Cius

King of Pontus 302 BC – 266 BC

Succeeded by Ariobarzanes

References

• Appian, The foreign wars, Horace White (translator), New York, (1899)
• Hazel, John; Who's Who in the Greek World, "Mithridates I" (1999)
• Memnon, History of Heracleia, Andrew Smith (translator), (2004)
• Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Demetrius", John & William Langhorne (translator), (1770)
• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Mithridates III", Boston, (1867)
• Strabo, Geography, H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer (translators), London, (1903)

Notes

1. ^ Appian, The Foreign Wars, "The Mithridatic Wars", 9; Strabo, Geography, xii. 3; Plutarch, Lives, "Demetrius", 4
2. ^ Memnon, History of Heraclea, 7
3. ^ Stephanus, Ethnica, s. v. Ancyra
4. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Histoire Universelle, xx. 111, pag. 457
5. ^ Appian, 112
6. ^ Plutarch, 4

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).