Nicomedes IV of Bithynia

Mithridates VI of Pontus is one of Rome's greatest enemies during the late Republic.

A brilliant despot, he has striven to emulate Alexander the Great by uniting the peoples in the surrounding areas into his empire.

His son-in-law, Tigranes of Armenia, has agreed that he is to extend his influence in the East, while Mithridates is to conquer Roman land in Anatolia and in Europe.

By creating a stronger Hellenistic state, Mithridates is to contend with the well-established Roman foothold in Europe.

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.

Tigranes has meanwhile begun to enlarge his Armenian kingdom, first annexing the kingdom of Sophene (east of the upper Euphrates River).

The interference of the two kings in Cappadocia (in eastern Asia Minor) is successfully countered for a second time by Roman intervention in 92, when …

…Mithridates II of Parthia, whose forces are advancing into north Syria against the declining Seleucids, concludes the first treaty between Parthia and Rome.

In the negotiations, which take place on the Euphrates between the Roman general Sulla and the Parthian ambassador Orobaze, Mithridates wisely refuses to agree to follow in the Roman path and prefers to retain his neutrality in the struggle between Rome and Mithridates VI of Pontus.

The two parties recognize the Euphrates as a common frontier.

Orobaze pays with his head upon his return to Hecatompylos for the lèse majesté he had committed by accepting a seat lower than Sulla's at their meeting.

Mithridates steps up his efforts to topple Roman ally Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, sending a clear message to the Romans that he wants them out of Anatolia.

While appearing to acquiesce to Rome, Mithridates resolves to expel the Romans from Asia.

Mithridates VI mounts a first attempt to depose Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, who is completely subservient to the Romans.

There is nothing known about Nicomedes IV's birth or the years before he became king.

However, his reign began at the death of his father.

The first few years of his kingship had been relatively peaceful, but soon Mithridates (his maternal granduncle), had begun harassing Bithynia's borders.

Nicomedes’ brother, Socrates Chrestus, assisted by Mithridates, defeats Nicomedes’ army in 90 BCE, and Nicomedes is forced to flee to Italy.

He is restored to his throne due to Rome's influence in the region.

Nicomedes, at the instigation of Roman envoys, now attacks Pontic territory.

Mithridates of Pontus, after protesting in vain to the Romans, finally declares war in 88, overrunning Bithynia and Cappadocia and invading Roman territory.

Tapping into local discontent with the Roman, he attracts the sympathy of the natives by arranging a general massacre of the Roman and Italian residents, planned scrupulously to take place on the same day, in several towns scattered over Asia Minor (eighty thousand are said to have perished), in order that the Greek cities, as his accessories in the crime, should feel irrevocably committed to the struggle against Rome.

Nicomedes and the Roman armies are defeated and flung back to the coasts of the Propontis and the Aegean and the Roman province of Asia comes under Pontian occupation.

The East is seen by the Romans as a province providing an abundance of gold and silver.

As such, two powerful Romans, Gaius Marius and the Consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla aim at command in the region.

Sulla flees the intrigues of Rome to Anatolia, where he commences the First Mithridatic War.

Tigranes supports Mithridates but is careful not to become directly involved in the war.