The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians Part 13

(M29) Demetrius Poliorcetes, Pyrrhus, and Lysimachus, made themselves masters of all, or the greatest part of Macedonia; sometimes in conjunction, and at other times separately.

(M30) After the death of Lysimachus, Seleucus possessed himself of Macedonia, but did not long enjoy it.

(M31) Ptolemy Ceraunus having slain the preceding prince, seized the kingdom, and possessed it but a very short time, having lost his life in a battle with the Gauls, who had made an irruption into that country.

(M32) Sosthenes, who defeated the Gauls, reigned but a short time in Macedonia.

(M33) Antigonus Gonatas, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, at length obtained the peaceable possession of the kingdom of Macedonia, and transmitted it to his descendants, after he had reigned thirty-four years.

(M34) He was succeeded by his son Demetrius, who reigned ten years, and then died, leaving a son named Philip, who was but two years old.

(M35) Antigonus Doson reigned twelve years in the quality of guardian to the young prince.

(M36) Philip, after the death of Antigonus, ascended the throne at the age of fourteen years, and reigned something more than forty.

(M37) His son Perseus succeeded him, and reigned about eleven years. He was defeated and taken prisoner by Paulus Emilius; and Macedonia, in consequence of that victory, was added to the provinces of the Roman empire.

IV. The Kingdom of Thrace, and Bithynia, &c.

This fourth kingdom, composed of several separate provinces very remote from one another, had not any succession of princes, and did not long subsist in its first condition; Lysimachus, who first obtained it, having been killed in a battle after a reign of twenty years, and all his family being exterminated by a.s.sa.s.sinations, his dominions were dismembered, and no longer const.i.tuted one kingdom.

Beside the provinces which were divided among the captains of Alexander, there were others which had been either formed before, or were then erected into different states, independent of the Greeks, whose power greatly increased in process of time.

Kings of Bithynia

(M38) Whilst Alexander was extending his conquests in the east, Zypethes had laid the foundations of the kingdom of Bithynia. It is not certain who this Zypethes was, unless that Pausanias,(246) from his name, conjectures that he was a Thracian. His successors, however, are better known.

(M39) Nicomedes I. This prince invited the Gauls to a.s.sist him against his brother, with whom he was engaged in a war.

Prusias I.

(M40) Prusias II., surnamed the Hunter, in whose court Hannibal took refuge, and a.s.sisted him with his counsels, in his war against Eumenes II.

king of Pergamus.

Nicomedes II. was killed by his son Socrates.

Nicomedes III. was a.s.sisted by the Romans in his wars with Mithridates, and bequeathed to them at his death the kingdom of Bithynia, as a testimonial of his grat.i.tude to them; by which means these territories became a Roman province.

Kings of Pergamus

This kingdom at first comprehended only one of the smallest provinces of Mysia, on the coast of the aegean sea, over-against the island of Lesbos.

(M41) It was founded by Philetaerus, an eunuch, who had served under Docimus, a commander of the troops of Antigonus. Lysimachus confided to him the treasures he had deposited in the castle of the city of Pergamus, and he became master both of these and the city after the death of that prince. He governed this little sovereignty for the s.p.a.ce of twenty years, and then left it to Eumenes his nephew.

(M42) Eumenes I. enlarged his princ.i.p.ality, by the addition of several cities, which he took from the kings of Syria, having defeated Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, in a battle. He reigned twenty-two years.

(M43) He was succeeded by Attalus I., his cousin-german, who a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of king, after he had conquered the Galatians; and transmitted it to his posterity, who enjoyed it to the third generation. He a.s.sisted the Romans in their war with Philip, and died after a reign of forty-three years. He left four sons.

(M44) His successor was Eumenes II., his eldest son, who founded the famous library of Pergamus. He reigned thirty-nine years, and left the crown to his brother Attalus, in the quality of guardian to one of his sons, whom he had by Stratonice, the sister of Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia. The Romans enlarged his dominions considerably, after the victory they obtained over Antiochus the Great.

(M45) Attalus II. espoused Stratonice his brother's widow, and took extraordinary care of his nephew, to whom he left the crown, after he had worn it twenty-one years.

(M46) Attalus III., surnamed Philometor, distinguished himself by his barbarous and extravagant conduct. He died after he had reigned five years, and bequeathed his riches and dominions to the Romans.

(M47) Aristonicus, who claimed the succession, endeavoured to defend his pretensions against the Romans; but the kingdom of Pergamus was reduced after a war of four years, into a Roman province.

Kings of Pontus.

(M48) The kingdom of Pontus in Asia Minor was anciently dismembered from the monarchy of Persia, by Darius the son of Hystaspes, in favour of Artabazus, who is said, by some historians, to have been the son of one of those Persian lords who conspired against the Magi.

Pontus is a region of Asia Minor, situated partly along the coast of the Euxine sea (_Pontus Euxinus_), from which it derives its name. It extends from the river Halys, as far as Colchis. Several princes reigned in that country since Artabazus.

(M49) The sixth monarch was Mithridates I., who is properly considered as the founder of the kingdom of Pontus, and his name was a.s.sumed by the generality of his successors.

(M50) He was succeeded by his son Ariobarzanes, who had governed Phrygia under Artaxerxes Mnemon: he reigned twenty-six years.

(M51) His successor was Mithridates II. Antigonus suspecting, in consequence of a dream, that he favoured Ca.s.sander, had determined to destroy him, but he eluded the danger by flight. This prince was called ?t?s??, or _the Founder_, and reigned thirty-five years.

(M52) Mithridates III., who succeeded him, added Cappadocia and Paphlagonia to his dominions, and reigned thirty-six years.

After the reigns of two other kings, Mithridates IV., the great grandfather of Mithridates the Great, ascended the throne, and espoused a daughter of Seleucus Callinicus, king of Syria, by whom he had Laodice, who was married to Antiochus the Great.

(M53) He was succeeded by his son Pharnaces, who had some disagreement with the kings of Pergamus. He made himself master of Sinope, which afterwards became the capital of the kingdom of Pontus.

After him reigned Mithridates V., surnamed Euergetes, the first who was called the friend of the Romans, because he had a.s.sisted them against the Carthaginians in the third Punic war.

(M54) He was succeeded by his son Mithridates VI., surnamed Eupator. This is the great Mithridates who sustained so long a war with the Romans: he reigned sixty-six years.

Kings of Cappadocia.

Strabo informs us,(247) that Cappadocia was divided into two satrapies, or governments, under the Persians, as it also was under the Macedonians. The maritime part of Cappadocia formed the kingdom of Pontus: the other tracts const.i.tuted Cappadocia properly so called, or Cappadocia Major, which extended along mount Taurus, and to a great distance beyond it.

(M55) When Alexander's captains divided the provinces of his empire among themselves, Cappadocia was governed by a prince named Ariarathes.