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 Media Atropatene.

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

  1. ↑ Ptolemaic Genealogy: Tryphaena, Footnote 13
  2. ↑ Cassius Dio, 36.14
  3. ↑ Cassius Dio, 35.14
  4. ↑ 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
  5. ↑ Ancient Library article on Mithridates, page 1094
  6. ↑ 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
  7. ↑ Toumanoff, Manual genealogy and chronology for the Christian Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Albania), p.p.81-82

Sources

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