Mithridates I of Media Atropatene
Mithridates I of Media Atropatene, sometimes known as Mithridates I and Mithridates of Media[1] (100 BC-66 BC) was a King of Achaemenid Media Atropatene Kingdom of Armenia.
Although Mithridates I was a Median Prince, little is known on his lineage and his life. In or before 67 BC, Mithridates I married an unnamed Armenian Princess from the Artaxiad Dynasty who was a daughter of the Armenian King Tigranes the Great and his wife, Cleopatra of Pontus.[2]
Mithridates I ruled from 67 BC to ca. 66 BC. Mithridates I is mentioned in the ancient sources, in the last campaign against the Roman General Lucullus in 67 BC.[3] He was supporting Tigranes, when his father-in-law went to war against the Romans to invade Cappadocia in 67 BC.[4] There is a possibility that Mithridates I was present with Tigranes the Great and the King Mithridates VI of Pontus, when Tigranes and Mithridates VI were defeated by Lucullus at the Arsanias River in 66 BC.[5]
Mithridates I appeared to have died in ca. 66 BC, as his relative Darius I was King of Media Atropatene in c. 65 BC.[6] According to modern genealogies, Mithridates I and his Armenian wife are presented in being the parents of a child, a son called Ariobarzanes I[7] which can explain the claims of Mithridates I’s descendants to the Armenian Kingship in opposition to the lasting ruling monarchs of the Artaxiad Dynasty.
References
- ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy: Tryphaena, Footnote 13
- ^ Cassius Dio, 36.14
- ^ Cassius Dio, 35.14
- ^ Azerbaijan iii. Pre-Islamic History, Atropates, Persian satrap of Media, made himself independent in 321 B.C. Thereafter Greek and Latin writers named the territory as Media Atropatene or, less frequently, Media Minor: Parthian period
- ^ Ancient Library article on Mithridates, page 1094
- ^ Azerbaijan iii. Pre-Islamic History, Atropates, Persian satrap of Media, made himself independent in 321 B.C. Thereafter Greek and Latin writers named the territory as Media Atropatene or, less frequently, Media Minor: Parthian period
- ^ Toumanoff, Manual genealogy and chronology for the Christian Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Albania), p.p.81-82
Sources
- C. Toumanoff, Manual genealogy and chronology for the Christian Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Albania), ED. Aquila, Rome, 1976
- Ancient Library article on Mithridates
- Ptolemaic Genealogy: Tryphaena
- Azerbaijan iii. Pre-Islamic History, Atropates, Persian satrap of Media, made himself independent in 321 B.C. Thereafter Greek and Latin writers named the territory as Media Atropatene or, less frequently, Media Minor: Parthian period