Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia

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Ariarathes IV Eusebes (in Greek Aριαράθης Eυσεβής; reigned 220–163 BC), son of the king of Cappadocia Ariarathes III, was a child at his accession, and reigned 220—163 BC, about 57 years.¹ He married Antiochis, the daughter of Antiochus III the Great, king of Syria, and, in consequence of this alliance, assisted Antiochus in his war against the Romans. After the defeat of Antiochus by the Romans in 190 BC, Ariarathes sued for peace in 188, which he obtained on favourable terms, as his daughter, Stratonice, was about that time betrothed to Eumenes I, king of Pergamum and ally of the Romans. In 183–179 BC, he assisted Eumenes in his war against Pharnaces, king of Pontus. Polybius mentions that a Roman embassy was sent to Ariarathes after the death of the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who died 164 BC. Antiochis, the wife of Ariarathes, is said to have at first bore him no children, and accordingly introduced two supposititious ones, who were called Ariarathes and Orophernes. Subsequently, howaver, the tale goes that she bore her husband two daughters and a son, Mithridates, afterwards Ariarathes V, and then informed Ariarathes of the deceit she had practised upon him. The other two were in consequence sent away from Cappadocia, one to Rome, the other to Ionia.²

[edit] References

• Appian, The foreign wars, Horace White (translator), New York, (1899)
• Hazel, John; Who's Who in the Greek World, "Ariarathes IV", (1999)
• Head, Barclay; Historia Numorum, "Cappadocia", (1911)
• Justin; Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, John Selby Watson (translator); London, (1886)
• Livy; Ab urbe condita, Canon Roberts (translator); New York, (1905)
• Polybius; Histories, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (translator); London - New York, (1889)
• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, "Ariarathes IV", Boston, (1867)

[edit] Notes