Bor > Tyana Nigde Turkey
393 CE
Worlds
The Great Crossroads
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The northern group includes Tabal, which may have included a group of city states called the Tyanitis (Tuwana, Tunna, Hupisna, Shinukhtu, Ishtunda); …
Demetrius also dethrones Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia.
The Seleucid empire is temporarily united again.
Demetrius may had married his sister Laodice V, by whom he had three sons Demetrius II Nicator, Antiochus VII Sidetes and Antigonus.
Ariarathes V, king of Capadocia, is distinguished by the excellence of his character and his cultivation of philosophy and the liberal arts.
According to Livy, he had been educated at Rome; but this account may perhaps refer to another Ariarathes, while Ariarathes Eusebes had probably studied in his youth in Athens, where he seems to have become a friend of the future
Pergamene king Attalus II Philadelphus.
In consequence of rejecting, at the wish of the Romans, a marriage with Laodice V the sister of Demetrius I Soter, the latter makes war upon him, and brings forward Orophernes of Cappadocia, his brother and one of the supposititious sons of the late king, as a claimant of the throne.
Ariarathes is deprived of his kingdom, and flees to Rome about 157 BCE.
He is restored by the Romans, who, however, allow Orophernes to reign jointly with him (as is expressly stated by Appian, and implied by Polybius).
Orophernes will not long hold the Kingdom of Cappadocia, and it is alleged that his reign was signalized by a departure from the more simple customs of his ancestors and by the introduction of systematic debauchery.
To supply his lavish extravagance, he oppresses and pillages his subjects, putting many to death and confiscating their property.
He deposits four hundred talents with the citizens of Priene as a resource in case of a reversal of fortune, but the Priennians later return the money.
Orophernes' business affairs are on the decline.
Fearing that his soldiers might mutiny over unpaid wages, he plunders an ancient temple of Zeus to pay them off.
Orophernes is forced at the end to return to Syria, where he enters into a conspiracy with the people of Antioch to dethrone Demetrius.
Demetrius throws Orophernes into chains, but spares his life that he might still keep Ariarathes in alarm with his pretensions.
Cappadocia under Ariarathes IV had come into relations with Rome, first as a foe espousing the cause of Antiochus the Great, then as an ally against Perseus of Macedon.
The kings henceforward had throws in their lot with the Republic as against the Seleucids, to whom they had been from time to time tributary.
Ariarathes V marches with the Roman proconsul Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus against Aristonicus, a claimant to the throne of Pergamon, and their forces are annihilated in 130 BCE.
The imbroglio that follows his death will ultimately lead to interference by the rising power of Pontus and the intrigues and wars that end in the failure of the dynasty.
The kingdom of Cappadocia has maintained a faithful allegiance to Rome since the Roman victory at Magnesia in 190.
Ariarathes VII of Cappadocia had in his first years reigned under the regency of his mother Laodice, the eldest sister of the King Mithridates VI of Pontus.
During this period the kingdom had been seized by King Nicomedes III of Bithynia, who married Laodice.
Nicomedes is soon expelled by Mithridates, who restore Ariarathes to the throne, but when the latter objects to his father's assassin and ally of Mithridates, Gordius, the Pontian monarch has him killed and puts in his place a son of his as Ariarathes IX Eusebes Philopator.
Since the new king is only eight years old, he is put under the regency of Gordius.
He is early overthrown by a rebellion by the Cappadocian nobility, who replace him with Ariarathes VIII of Cappadocia, whom Mithridates promptly expels, restoring Ariarathes IX.
Mithridates is however deprived of his advantage over Nicomedes by the Roman Senate's instructions to Lucius Cornelius Sulla, as proconsul, to install a pro-Roman king here in 96.
Sulla becomes the first Roman magistrate to meet a Parthian ambassador, Orobazus, and by taking the seat between the Parthian ambassador and Ariobarzanes I of Cappadocia (the center seat being the place of honor), he seals, perhaps unintentionally, the Parthian ambassador's fate.
(Orobazus is executed upon his return to Parthia for allowing Sulla to outmaneuver him.)
It is at this meeting he is told by a Chaldean seer that he will die at the height of his fame and fortune.
This prophecy is to have a powerful hold on Sulla throughout his lifetime.
After the short period of direct Pontic rule, the brief restoration of Ariarathes VIII and an attempted instauration of a republic, Sulla seats on the throne a man chosen by the Cappadocians, who reject the idea of a Republic: the choice falls on Ariobarzanes I Philoromaios.
Supported by Sulla, Ariobarzanes will be in on-and-off control of a kingdom that is now considered a Roman protectorate.
Mithridates’ second attempt at Cappadocia is undertaken by his son-in-law, Tigranes.
The Romans under Sulla intervene in Cappadocia before Parthian help can arrive, driving the Armenians from the country in 92 BCE.
Antiochus I Theos of Commagene (reigned 70 BCE-38 BCE), had been an ally to Roman general Pompey in his campaigns against Mithridates of Pontus in 64 BCE.
Through skilled diplomacy, Antiochus had been able to keep Commagene independent from the Romans.
Very little is known of the life and reign of grandson Antiochus III of Commagene, whose death creates major issues for the kingdom, as Commagene is currently in political turmoil.
The reasons for this situation are unclear; however, it may have been the result of his children by his sister-wife Queen Iotapa, Antiochus and Iotapa being too young to succeed their father.
This may have meant that there was no effective authority to prevent civil unrest and unite the citizens of Commagene.
After Antiochus' death, two political factions appear.
One faction is led by noblemen who want Commagene to be placed under the rule of the Roman Empire and the other faction is led by citizens who want Commagene's independence to be retained under the rule of their own king.
Both factions send embassies to Rome, seeking the advice and assistance of the Roman Emperor Tiberius to decide the future of Commagene.
Tiberius decides to make Commagene a part of the Roman province of Syria, a decision welcomed by many of Commagene’s citizens.
Cappadocia’s Ariobarzanes dynasty had ended in 36 BCE with the execution, by Mark Antony, of King Ariarathes X, and the Cappadocian nobleman Archelaus had been given the throne, by favor first of Antony and then of Octavian.
Archelaus has since maintained tributary independence, having reigned over Cappadocia for fifty years and having lived to an advanced age when, in 17, there is a shortage of funds for military pay in the Roman Empire and Tiberius wants to integrate Archelaus’ kingdom into a Roman province.
Archelaus is enticed by Tiberius to come to Rome, and on arrival is accused by the Roman Senate of harboring revolutionary schemes.
Tiberius hopes Archelaus will be condemned to death by the Senate.
However Archelaus is obliged to remain in Rome, where he dies of natural causes (Tactitus leaves open the possibility that he may have committed suicide).
Cappadocia becomes a procuratorial province and his widow with her family returns to Pontus.
The Romans give Armenia Minor to his stepson Artaxias III to rule as Roman Client King, while the Cilician and the remaining territories of his former dominion are given to his son, Archelaus of Cilicia, to rule as Roman Client King.