Mithridates V (Pontus)

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Mithridates V. Euergetes, terracotta in Louvre museum

Mithridates V. Euergetes († 120 BC in Sinope ) was the seventh king of Pontus and ruled from about 152/151 to 120 BC. Chr.

Life

Mithridates V was the son of Pharnakes I. He tried to establish contacts in almost the entire Greek world. To recruit mercenaries for a powerful army, he often sent his general Dorylaos from Amisos to Thrace , Greece and Crete . He also tried to Hellenize his own court. As a friend of the Greeks, he donated several consecration gifts for the island of Delos . His son was the later feared enemy of the Romans, Mithridates VI. Since his birthplace was Sinope, Mithridates V probably made this city into the new metropolis of the Pontic Empire instead of the previous residence Amaseia (but this could also have happened under Pharnakes I).

Mithridates V continued the Rome-friendly course of his predecessor Mithridates IV and helped the world power 149-146 BC. In the Third Punic War with aid contingents and ships against Carthage and 133–129 BC. In the suppression of the rebellion of Aristonikos in Pergamon. When it came to the distribution of the won territories, both Mithridates V and King Nicomedes II of Bithynia wanted to incorporate the land of Phrygia into their kingdom. Mithridates V was able to point out the dowry that Seleucus II had once given to his sister for her marriage to Mithridates II . In addition, the Pontic king made the highest offer. That is why he received the land through the consul Manius Aquillius , but this deal did not materialize in the end, because resistance arose in Rome and was prevented by Gaius Sempronius Gracchus . For this Mithridates V succeeded in being appointed by Pylaimenes of Paphlagonia to heir to his kingdom. Then the Pontic king launched an offensive against troubled Cappadocia and tied King Ariarathes VI. to himself by giving him his daughter Laodike to be his wife.

120 BC Mithridates V was murdered in his Sinope residence by a conspiracy of his closest confidants, who might even include family members. Now his wife and two sons took over the government according to the testamentary provision.

literature

Web links

Commons : Mithridates V of Pontus  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. Strabo 10, 4, 10, p. 477.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Dittenberger , Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae 366.
  3. Strabo 12, 3, 11 p. 545.
  4. ^ Appian , Mithridatic Wars 10.
  5. Strabo 14, 1, 38 p. 646; Justin 37, 1, 2; Eutropius 4, 20; Orosius 5, 10, 2.
  6. ^ Appian, Mithridatic Wars 12; Aulus Gellius 11, 10.
  7. Justin 37: 4: 3-5; 38, 7, 10.
  8. Memnon of Herakleia in Felix Jacoby , The Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrH), No. 434, F 1, 22, 1; Justinus 38, 1, 1.
  9. Strabo 10, 4, 10, p. 477; Justin 37, 1, 6; see. Memnon, FGrH 434, F 1, 22, 2.
predecessor Office successor
Mithridates IV. King of Pontus
152 / 151-120 BC Chr.
Mithridates VI.