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.
In 302 or 301 BC, shortly after having executed his father 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).(refactored from app_9; str_12.3; plut_4) In the same year, we find him concluding an alliance with the town of Heraclea Pontica, in Bithynia, to protect them against Seleucus(refactored from memn_7). 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.(refactored from steph) These are the recorded events of his reign, which lasted for thirty-six years.(refactored from diod_20.111) 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,(refactored from app_112) 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(refactored from plut_4) writes that eight generations of kings of Pontus stemmed from him before Roman subjection.
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
Template:Ent Appian, The Foreign Wars, "The Mithridatic Wars", 9; Strabo, Geography, xii. 3; Plutarch, Lives, "Demetrius", 4 Template:Ent Memnon, History of Heraclea, 7 Template:Ent Stephanus, Ethnica, s. v. Ancyra Template:Ent Diodorus Siculus, Histoire Universelle, xx. 111, pag. 457 Template:Ent Appian, 112 Template:Ent Plutarch, 4
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)