Mithridates II of the Bosporus: A Brief Caesar-Backed King in Ancient Anatolia

Introduction

Mithridates II of the Bosporus, also called Mithridates of Pergamon, was an Anatolian nobleman and a younger son of King Mithridates VI by the Galatian princess Adobogiona the Elder. He was of Persian, Macedonian and Galatian descent, was educated at Pergamon where he became a leading citizen, and held the local title of tetrarch over the Trocmi tribe.

During the winter of 48–47 BC he raised an army to relieve Julius Caesar, then besieged in Alexandria. In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Zela, Caesar appointed him king of the Bosporan Kingdom. His forces defeated the reigning monarchs, his niece Dynamis and her husband Asander, and installed him on the throne. His tenure proved short; Asander subsequently defeated him in 47 or 46 BC, and Mithridates died soon afterward. Ultimately Asander was later confirmed by Augustus as king of the Bosporus sometime between 27 and 17 BC, leaving Mithridates remembered as a brief, Caesar-backed claimant whose rule was quickly reversed.