Iranians and Greeks in South Russia - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian ...

IN THE ROMAN PERIOD 151
confront Mithridates of Pergamon, a Pergamene Greek who called
himself a bastard son of Mithridates the Great and who was one of
Caesar's favourites. Caesar owed it partly to the younger Mithridates,
that he was not assassinated at Alexandria : he assigned him the
kingdom of Pharnaces as a reward. Asandros would not submit to
this decision. With the help of his subjects he defeated Mithridates,
who perished in the conflict.
It is curious that after this stroke, Caesar, who never forgot a
friend, did not think of expelling Asandros and punishing him for his
treason. But Caesar had hardly time. On his return to Rome after
the final defeat of his opponents in Spain, he was not able to carry
out his plan for an eastern expedition to destroy the Thracian empire
of Boerebista and to prepare his decisive blow at Iranian power in the
east. That he concentrated his army at Apollonia, and that he
intended to begin his Parthian campaign, like Alexander the Great,
by a war on the Danube, proves that he would have settled the affairs
of the Bosphorus before opening the great struggle with the Iranian
forces. An inscription from Chersonesus, discovered recently and
studied by myself in special articles, shows that he was deeply
interested in the fortunes of that colony, that he had friends there,
and that he pursued a definite policy in South Russia. But Caesar
was assassinated at Rome on the eve of his departure for the east,
and Asandros contrived,no doubt by paying money, to obtain recognition
from Antony as archon and later as king of the Bosphorus.
As ruler of the Bosphorus, Asandros governed the enfeebled
kingdom with a strong and resolute hand. He managed to re-establish
order, to defeat the pirates, and to secure his frontiers against Scythian
and Sarmatian invasions. He was sixty years old when he ascended
the throne, and he remained king to an advanced age. The end of
his reign was troubled. A usurper, one Scribonius, who claimed to
be descended from Mithridates, and who probably belonged, like
Mithridates of Pergamon, to the Greco-Oriental aristocracy of Asia
Minor, enlisted Asandros' subjects against him, wedded Queen
Dynamis, and ejected the aged king. It is not impossible that
Dynamis, daughter of Pharnaces and wife of Asandros, took part in
the rising. She certainly profited by it, for in 17 b. c. she was the
recognized ruler of the Bosphorus, and she struck coins with her own
effigy and the insignia of Mithridates. Scribonius was probably only
her tool, to be discarded at the first opportunity.
Henceforth the dominant figure in Bosphoran history is the
energetic and unscrupulous Queen Dynamis. Augustus, and his
counsellor for eastern affairs, Agrippa, had to reckon with her.