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Mithradates III

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Mithradates II of Parthia

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III. murdered his father Phraates III. about 57 B.C., with the assistance of his brother Orodes. He was made king of Media, and waged war against his brother, but was soon deposed on account of his cruelty. He took refuge with Gabinius, the Roman proconsul of Syria. He advanced into Mesopotamia, but was beaten at Seleucia by Surenas, fled into Babylon, and after a long siege was taken prisoner and killed in 54 by Orodes I. (Dio Cass. 39, 56; Justin 42, 4; Jos. Bell. i. 8, 7, Ant. 14, 6, 4).

A Parthian king Mithradates, who must have occupied the throne for a short time during the reign of Phraates IV., is mentioned by Jos. Ant. xvi. 8, 4, in 10 B.C.; another pretender Meherdates was brought from Rome in A.D. 49 by the opponents of Gotarzes, but defeated (Tac. Ann. xi. io, xii. 10 sqq.). The name of another pretender Mithradates (often called Mithradates IV.) occurs on a coin of the first half of the 2nd century, written in Aramaic, accompanied by the Arsacid titles in Greek (Wroth, Catal. of the Coins of Parthia, p. 219)

he appears to be identical with Meherdotes, one of the rival kings of Parthia who fought against Trajan in '16; he died in an attack on Commagene and appointed his son Sanatruces successor, who fell in a battle against the Romans (Arrian ap. Malalas, Chron. pp. 2 7 0.2 74). (ED. M.) The kings of Pontus were descended from one of the seven Persian conspirators who put the false Smerdis to death (see DARIUS I.). According to Diodorus Siculus, three Kings of members of his family - Mithradates, Ariobarzanes, Pontus. 5' - Mithradates - were successively rulers of Cius on the Propontis and Carine in Mysia. The last of these was put to death in 302 B.C. by Antigonus, who suspected him of having joined the coalition against him. He was succeeded by his son Mithradates I. or III. (if the two dynasts of Cius be included') the founder (KTLVT'zjs) of the Pontic kingdom, although this distinction is by some attributed to the father. Warned by his friend Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, that he was threatened with the same fate as his father, he fled to Paphlagonia, where he seized Cimiata, a fort at the foot of the Olgassys range. Being joined by the Macedonian garrison and the neighbouring populations, he conquered the Cappadocian and Paphiagonian territories on both sides of the Halys and assumed the title of king. Before his death he further enlarged Pontic Cappadocia. He was succeeded by Ariobarzanes, who left the throne to