Pharnaces II of Pontus
Encyclopedia
Pharnaces II of Pontus, also known as Pharnaces II (in Greek
Φαρνάκης about 97 BC-47 BC) was a prince, then King of Pontus
and the Bosporan
until his death. He was a monarch of Persian
and Greek Macedonian ancestry
. Pharnaces II was the youngest son and child born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus
from his first wife, his sister Queen Laodice
. He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus and was the namesake of his late paternal great grandfather Pharnaces I of Pontus
.
during the Third Mithridatic War
.
Mithridates VI was keen to wage war with the Romans once more, but Pharances II was less keen, and thus began a plot to remove his father from power. Unfortunately, his plans were discovered, but the army, not wishing to engage Pompey and the Roman armies, supported Pharnaces II. They marched on Mithridates VI and forced their former king to take his own life in 63 BC.
Pharnaces II quickly sent an embassy to Pompey with offers of submission and hostages, for he was keen to secure his position. He also sent the body of his father, to be at the disposal of Pompey. The latter readily accepted Pharnaces II overtures, for he wished to be back at Rome
having been seen to have made peace in the region. Pompey granted Pharnaces II the Bosporan Kingdom
, and named him friend and ally of Rome.
Contemporary historians are silent on his early reign, but eventually, on viewing the increasing power struggles between the Romans, and with an eye to recreating the kingdom of his father, he attacked and subjugated the free Greek city of Phanagoria, violating one of his agreements with Pompey.
and Pompey. Whilst the Romans were distracted by this, Pharnaces II decided to seize the opportunity and, with the forces under his disposal and against little opposition, made himself the ruler of Colchis
and Lesser Armenia
. The ruler of Galatia
, Deiotarus
appealed to Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, the lieutenant of Caesar in Asia, for support, and soon the Roman forces sought battle with Pharnaces II. They met at Nicopolis
in Anatolia
, Pharnaces II defeated the Roman army and overran Pontus
.
After this show of strength against the Romans, Pharnaces II drew back to suppress revolt in his new conquests. However, the extremely rapid approach of Caesar in person forced Pharnaces II to turn his attention back to the Romans. At first, recognizing the threat, he made offers of submission, with the sole object of gaining time until Caesar's attention fell elsewhere; but Caesar's speed brought war quickly, and battle took place near Zela
, where Pharnaces II was routed and was able to escape with just a small detachment of cavalry. Caesar himself, in a letter to a friend in Rome, famously said of the short war: “Veni, vidi, vici
” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”).
Pharnaces II fled quickly back to the Bosporan, where he managed to assemble a small force of Scythia
n and Sarmatian troops, with which he was able to gain control of a few cities. His former governor and son-in-law Asander
, attacked his forces and killed him. The historian Appian
states that he died in battle; Cassius Dio says he was captured and then killed.
semi-draped, seated on a lion-footed throne, holding a laurel branch over a tripod. Apollo’s left elbow is resting on a cithara at his side. On top and between Apollo is inscribed his royal title in Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΦΑΡΝΑΚΟΥ, which means of King of Kings Pharnaces the Great.
tribes and probably through this alliance Pharnaces II possibly sometime after 77 BC married an unnamed Sarmatian woman. The wife of Pharances II was a Sarmatian noblewoman, who perhaps may be a princess, a relative of a ruling Sarmatian Monarch or an influential aristocrat of some stator. His Sarmatian wife bore Pharances II had a son Darius
; a daughter Dynamis
and a son Arsaces
. The names that Pharnaces II gave his children are a representation of his Persian, Greek heritage and of his ancestry. His sons were made Pontian Kings for a time after his death, by Roman Triumvir Mark Antony
. His daughter and her family succeeded him as ruling Monarchs of the Bosporan Kingdom. Pharnaces II through his daughter would have further descendants ruling the Bosporan.
in 1727 under the title Farnace
. Based on the number of revivals of it that were staged, it must be counted as one of Vivaldi's most successful operas. A few later composers also set Lucchini's libretto, among them Josef Mysliveček
, whose opera Farnace
of 1767 was perhaps the best written after Vivaldi's setting.
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Φαρνάκης about 97 BC-47 BC) was a prince, then King of Pontus
Kingdom of Pontus
The Kingdom of Pontus or Pontic Empire was a state of Persian origin on the southern coast of the Black Sea. It was founded by Mithridates I in 291 BC and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BC...
and the Bosporan
Bosporan Kingdom
The Bosporan Kingdom or the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient state, located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus...
until his death. He was a monarch of Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
and Greek Macedonian ancestry
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
. Pharnaces II was the youngest son and child born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
from his first wife, his sister Queen Laodice
Laodice (sister-wife of Mithridates VI of Pontus)
Laodice was a beautiful Pontian Princess and Queen who was first wife and sister-wife to King Mithridates VI of Pontus.She was a monarch of Persian and Greek Macedonian ancestry...
. He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus and was the namesake of his late paternal great grandfather Pharnaces I of Pontus
Pharnaces I of Pontus
Pharnaces I , fifth king of Pontus and was of Persian and Greek Macedonian ancestry. He was the son of King Mithridates III of Pontus and his wife Laodice, whom he succeeded on the throne. Pharnaces had two siblings: a brother called Mithridates IV of Pontus and a sister called Laodice who...
.
Coup
Pharnaces II was raised as his father's successor and treated with distinction. However, we know little of his youth from writers of the time and find him first mentioned after Mithridates VI had taken refuge from the Roman General PompeyPompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
during the Third Mithridatic War
Third Mithridatic War
The Third Mithridatic War was the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic...
.
Mithridates VI was keen to wage war with the Romans once more, but Pharances II was less keen, and thus began a plot to remove his father from power. Unfortunately, his plans were discovered, but the army, not wishing to engage Pompey and the Roman armies, supported Pharnaces II. They marched on Mithridates VI and forced their former king to take his own life in 63 BC.
Pharnaces II quickly sent an embassy to Pompey with offers of submission and hostages, for he was keen to secure his position. He also sent the body of his father, to be at the disposal of Pompey. The latter readily accepted Pharnaces II overtures, for he wished to be back at Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
having been seen to have made peace in the region. Pompey granted Pharnaces II the Bosporan Kingdom
Bosporan Kingdom
The Bosporan Kingdom or the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient state, located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus...
, and named him friend and ally of Rome.
Contemporary historians are silent on his early reign, but eventually, on viewing the increasing power struggles between the Romans, and with an eye to recreating the kingdom of his father, he attacked and subjugated the free Greek city of Phanagoria, violating one of his agreements with Pompey.
War with Gaius Julius Caesar
In 49 BC, civil war broke out between the Roman Triumvirs Gaius Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and Pompey. Whilst the Romans were distracted by this, Pharnaces II decided to seize the opportunity and, with the forces under his disposal and against little opposition, made himself the ruler of Colchis
Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.The Kingdom of Colchis contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian...
and Lesser Armenia
Lesser Armenia
Lesser Armenia , also known as Armenia Minor and Armenia Inferior, refers to the Armenian populated regions, primarily to the West and North-West of the ancient Armenian Kingdom...
. The ruler of Galatia
Galatia
Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace , who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of...
, Deiotarus
Deiotarus
Deiotarus of Galatia was a Chief Tetrarch of the Tolistobogii at Western Galatia, Asia Minor, and a King of Galatia at Anatolia, Asia Minor. He was considered one of the most adept of Celtic kings, ruling the three tribes of Celtic Galatia from his fortress in Blucium...
appealed to Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, the lieutenant of Caesar in Asia, for support, and soon the Roman forces sought battle with Pharnaces II. They met at Nicopolis
Battle of Nicopolis (48 BC)
The Battle of Nicopolis was fought in December 48 BC between the army of Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of Mithdridates VI Eupator, and a Roman army led by Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus....
in Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
, Pharnaces II defeated the Roman army and overran Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
.
After this show of strength against the Romans, Pharnaces II drew back to suppress revolt in his new conquests. However, the extremely rapid approach of Caesar in person forced Pharnaces II to turn his attention back to the Romans. At first, recognizing the threat, he made offers of submission, with the sole object of gaining time until Caesar's attention fell elsewhere; but Caesar's speed brought war quickly, and battle took place near Zela
Battle of Zela
The Battle of Zela was a battle fought in 47 BC between Julius Caesar and Pharnaces II of The Kingdom of Pontus.-Prelude:After the defeat of the Ptolemaic forces at the Battle of the Nile, Caesar left Egypt and travelled through Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia to fight Pharnaces, son of Mithridates...
, where Pharnaces II was routed and was able to escape with just a small detachment of cavalry. Caesar himself, in a letter to a friend in Rome, famously said of the short war: “Veni, vidi, vici
Veni, vidi, vici
"Veni, vidi, vici" is a Latin sentence reportedly written by Julius Caesar in 47 BC as a comment on his short war with Pharnaces II of Pontus in the city of Zela ....
” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”).
Pharnaces II fled quickly back to the Bosporan, where he managed to assemble a small force of Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
n and Sarmatian troops, with which he was able to gain control of a few cities. His former governor and son-in-law Asander
Asander (Bosporan King)
Asander named Philocaesar Philoromaios was an aristocrat and a man of high rank of the Bosporan Kingdom.Asander was of Greek and possibly of Persian ancestry. There is not much is known on his family and early life. He started his political and military career as a general under Pharnaces II, King...
, attacked his forces and killed him. The historian Appian
Appian
Appian of Alexandria was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practised as...
states that he died in battle; Cassius Dio says he was captured and then killed.
Coinage
Gold and silver coins have survived from his reign dating from 55 BC-50 BC. An example of a coin like this is in the obverse side displays a portrait of Pharnaces II. On the reverse side, displays the ancient Greek God ApolloApollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
semi-draped, seated on a lion-footed throne, holding a laurel branch over a tripod. Apollo’s left elbow is resting on a cithara at his side. On top and between Apollo is inscribed his royal title in Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΦΑΡΝΑΚΟΥ, which means of King of Kings Pharnaces the Great.
Marriage, Issue and Succession
Mithridates VI in the early 1st century BC, made an alliance with the SarmatianSarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
tribes and probably through this alliance Pharnaces II possibly sometime after 77 BC married an unnamed Sarmatian woman. The wife of Pharances II was a Sarmatian noblewoman, who perhaps may be a princess, a relative of a ruling Sarmatian Monarch or an influential aristocrat of some stator. His Sarmatian wife bore Pharances II had a son Darius
Darius of Pontus
Darius of Pontus was a Prince from the Kingdom of Pontus. He was a monarch of Iranian and Greek Macedonian ancestry....
; a daughter Dynamis
Dynamis (Bosporan queen)
Dynamis named Philoromaios was a Roman Client Queen of the Bosporan Kingdom during the Roman Republic and the reign of the first Roman Emperor Augustus.-Life:...
and a son Arsaces
Arsaces of Pontus
Arsaces of Pontus was a Prince from the Kingdom of Pontus. He was a monarch of Iranian and Greek Macedonian ancestry....
. The names that Pharnaces II gave his children are a representation of his Persian, Greek heritage and of his ancestry. His sons were made Pontian Kings for a time after his death, by Roman Triumvir Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
. His daughter and her family succeeded him as ruling Monarchs of the Bosporan Kingdom. Pharnaces II through his daughter would have further descendants ruling the Bosporan.
Pharnaces II in Opera
The 18th-century librettist Antonio Maria Lucchini crafted a libretto based on incidents from the life of Pharnaces II that was originally set by Antonio VivaldiAntonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
in 1727 under the title Farnace
Farnace
Farnace , is the title of several 18th-century operas set to various librettos. The earliest version was written by Lorenzo Morari with music by Antonio Caldara, first performed at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice in 1703...
. Based on the number of revivals of it that were staged, it must be counted as one of Vivaldi's most successful operas. A few later composers also set Lucchini's libretto, among them Josef Mysliveček
Josef Myslivecek
Josef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music...
, whose opera Farnace
Farnace (opera)
Farnace is an 18th-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. It was composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Antonio Maria Lucchini that is best known from a setting by Antonio Vivaldi first produced at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice for the carnival operatic...
of 1767 was perhaps the best written after Vivaldi's setting.
See also
- Bosporan KingdomBosporan KingdomThe Bosporan Kingdom or the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus was an ancient state, located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus...
- Roman CrimeaRoman CrimeaRoman Crimea is the area of actual Crimea that was under control of the Roman Empire and mostly coincided with the Bosporan Kingdom. For nearly five centuries it was a Roman "Client State", but under emperor Nero it was briefly an area of the Roman Province of Moesia inferior .-History:Rome started...
Sources
- Extracts from the book Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, edited by William Smith (published in 1870), and the writings of AppianAppianAppian of Alexandria was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practised as...
, ancient historian - A. Mayor, The Poison King: the life and legend of Mithradates, Rome’s deadliest enemy, Princeton University Press, 2009
- http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sarmatians/sarmatians.html
- http://www.coinlink.com/News/world-coins/ira-and-larry-goldberg-world-and-ancient-coin-auction/
- The Dynastic History of the Hellenistic Monarchies of Asia Minor According to Chronography of George Synkellos by Oleg L. Gabelko