Mithridates of Cius

Mithridates (in Greek Mιθριδάτης; lived 4th century BC), son of Ariobarzanes prince of Cius, is mentioned by Xenophon^[1] as having betrayed his father, and the same circumstance is alluded to by Aristotle^[2]. Presumably he was not the same Mithradates who accompanied the younger Cyrus - there is no proof of this. Neither he presumably was the same Mithradates mentioned by Xenophon^[3] as satrap of Cappadocia and Lycaonia in the late 400s BCE.

During the Satraps' Revolt in the 1360s, Mithridates frauded Datames to believe in him, but in the end arranged Datames' murder in 362 BCE. Similarly, Mithridates gave his own father Ariobarzanes of Phrygia to the hands of the Persian overlord, so Ariobarzanes was crucified in 362 BCE.

Demosthenes speaks of Ariobarzanes and his three sons having been lately made Athenian citizens.^[4] - as signal of sympathy in the revolt effort, Athens made Ariobarzanes and three of his sons as citizens of Athens. Mithradates was possibly one of those sons.

In 363 BCE already, Ariobarzanes II (possibly Mithridates' son) made himself master of the family fiefdom of Cius in Mysia.^[5] No classical source actually says that this Mithradates would have died in 363 BCE. Such a death date comes merely from much later reconstructions of the succession in the dynasty, which may have gotten this man wrong.

However, if they are not separate persons, this Mithradates may well be the same man as the elderly Mithridates II of Cius who held Cius in Mysia between 337 and 302 BCE, being said to be an old man at that time.

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. ^ Xenophon, Cyropaedia, viii. 8. 4
2. ^ Aristotle, v. 10
3. ^ Xenophon, Anabasis, vii. 8. 25
4. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named dem1; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text
5. ^ Diodorus, xv. 90

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