Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/88

76 slaughter, fled into Armenia, where he lay concealed till the civil dissensions which arose among the Macedonians after the death of Eumenes (to whom Perdiccas had surrendered the kingdom) gave him a favourable opportunity of recovering the throne. Having defeated Amyntas in a pitched battle, he compelled the Macedonians to abandon all the strongholds, and after a long and undisturbed reign, left his kingdom to his son Ariamnes II., under whose peaceful administration, as well as that of his successor Ariarathes III., Cappadocia made great progress. He was succeeded by Ariarathes IV., who joined Antiochus the Great against the Romans, and after his defeat was obliged to atone for taking up arms against the people of Rome by paying a fine of two hundred talents. He afterwards assisted the republic with men and money against Perseus king of Macedon, and was honoured by the senate with the title of the friend and ally of the Roman people. He left the kingdom to his son Mithridates, who took the name of Ariarathes V. During the reign of this prince, surnamed Philopator, the Cappadocians remained in close alliance with Rome. Notwithstanding this, he was for a time expelled from his kingdom by Orophernes, who had been set up against him by Demetrius Soter, king of Syria, as a rival claimant to the throne of Cappadocia; but Ariarathes succeeded in expelling Orophernes, and afterwards united his arms with those of Alexander Balas against Demetrius, who was defeated and killed in battle. Some years afterwards Ariarathes, having espoused the cause of the Romans in their contest with Aristonicus, a claimant of the throne of Pergamus, was slain in the same battle in which Crassus, pro-consul of Asia, was taken, and the Roman army cut to pieces (130 B.C.) He left six sons by his wife Laodice, on whom the Romans bestowed Lycaonia and Cilicia. But Laodice, fearing lest her children when they came of age should take the government out of her bands, poisoned five of them, the youngest only having escaped her cruelty by being conveyed out of the kingdom. She was soon, however, put to death by her subjects, who rose in rebellion against her tyrannical government. Laodice was succeeded by Ariarathes VI., who soon after his accession married Laodice, daughter of Mithridates the Great, wishing to gain the alliance of that powerful prince in his contest with Nicornedes king of Bithynia, who laid claim to part of his kingdom. Mithridates, however, instead of assisting, procured the death of Ariarathes by poison, and under pretence of maintaining the rights of the Cappadocians against Nicomedes, proclaimed himself regent till the children of Ariarathes should be competent to govern the kingdom. The Cappadocians at first acquiesced ; but finding him unwilling to resign the regency in favour of the lawful king, they rose in arms, expelled the foreign garrisons, and placed Ariarathes VII., eldest son of the late king, on the throne. The new prince found himself immediately engaged in a war with Nicomedes ; but, being assisted by Mithridates, he not only drove him out of Cappadocia, but stripped him of a great part of his hereditary dominions. On the con clusion of the peace, the refusal of Ariarathes to recall Gordius, the murderer of his father, led to a war with Mithridates. When the two armies met on the frontiers of Cappadocia, Mithridates invited Ariarathes to a confer ence, and openly stabbed him with a dagger which he had concealed in his dress. The terror-stricken Cappadocians immediately dispersed, and submitted to tie yoke of Mithridates ; but, unable to endure the tyranny of his prefects, they quickly rose in rebellion, and recalling the exiled brother of the late king they placed him on the throne. He had scarcely ascended the throne when Mithridates invaded the kingdom at the head of a numerous army, defeated the army of the Cappadocians with great slaughter, and compelled Ariarathes VIII. to abandon the kingdom. The unhappy prince soon after died of grief, and Mithridates bestowed the kingdom on his own son, a youth only eight years old, giving him also the name of Ariarathes. But Nicomedes Philopator, king of Bithynia, dreading the increase of power in a rival already so formid able, claimed the throne for a youth who pretended to be the third son of Ariarathes, and whom he sent with Laodice to Rome to advocate his cause. Having received the declaration of Laodice that the petitioner was one of three sons which she had borne to Ariarathes, and whom she had kept concealed lest he should share the fate of his brothers, the senate assured him that they would reinstate him in his kingdom. Mithridates, receiving notice of these transactions, despatched Gordius to Rome to advocate his cause, and to persuade the senate that the youth to whom he had resigned the kingdom of Cappadocia was the lawful son of the late king, and grandson to Ariarathes, who had lost his life in the service of the Romans against Aristonicus. On receiving this embassy, the senate inquired more narrowly into the matter, discovered the whole plot, and ordered Mithridates to resign Cappadocia. The Cappado cians enjoyed their freedom for a short time, but soon sent ambassadors to Rome, requesting the senate to appoint a king. Leave was given them to elect a king of their own nation ; and as the old royal family was now extinct, they chose Ariobarzanes, who received the sanction of the senate, and continued steadily attached to the Roman interest (93 B.C.) Ariobarzanes had scarcely taken possession of his kingdom when he was driven out by Tigranes, king of Armenia, who resigned Cappadocia to the son of Mithridates, in terms of an alliance previously concluded between them. Ario barzanes fled to Rome, and by the assistance of Sulla, who routed Gordius the general of Mithridates, he was quickly reinstated in his kingdom. On the return of Sulla, however, Ariobarzanes was again driven out by Ariarathes, the son of Mithridates, whom Tigranes had set up as king. By the intervention of Sulla, Ariobarzanes was again placed on the throne ; and immediately after Sulla s death he was a third time forced to abandon his kingdom, when Pompey, after defeating Mithridates near Mount Stella, restored the unfortunate monarch, and rewarded him for his services during the war with the provinces of Sophene, Gordyene, and a great part of Cilicia. Wearied with such a succession of disasters, soon after his restoration he resigned the crown to his son Ariobarzanes (G3 B.C.), and spent the rest of his life in retirement. Ariobarzanes II. proved no less faithful to the Romans than his father had been. On the breaking out of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey he sided with the latter ; but after the death of Pompey he was received into favour by Caesar, who bestowed upon him a great part of Armenia. While the dictator was engaged in war with the Egyptians, Pharnaces, king of Pontus, invaded Cap padocia and stripped Ariobarzanes of all his dominions; but Caesar, after defeating Pharnaces, restored the king of Cappadocia, and honoured him with new titles of friendship. After the murder of Caesar, Ariobarzanes, refusing to join Brutus and Cassius, was declared an enemy to the republic, and was soon afterwards taken prisoner and put to death (42 B.C.) His brother, Ariarathes IX. was then for a few years raised to the throne, but was in his turn put to death by Antony, and with him the royal family became extinct. Archelaus, the grandson of the general of the same name who commanded against Sulla in the Mithridatic war, owed his elevation to the throne of Cappadocia solely to the intrigues of his mother Glaphyra with Mark Antony, to whom he remained faithful in the contests with Augustus.