Ariarathes VII Philometor: King of Cappadocia in the Late 2nd Century BC

Introduction

Ariarathes VII Philometor was a king of Cappadocia of the Ariarathid dynasty who reigned approximately in the late 2nd century BC, commonly dated c.116–101 BC (some sources give 111–100 BC). He was the eldest son of Ariarathes VI and Laodice of Cappadocia; Laodice was the elder sister of Mithridates VI of Pontus. His family included an elder sister, Nysa, and a younger brother, Ariarathes VIII.

He acceded as a minor and at first ruled under the regency of his mother Laodice. Early in his reign the kingdom was seized by Nicomedes III of Bithynia, who married Nysa; Nicomedes was soon expelled by Mithridates VI, who restored Ariarathes VII to the throne. The wider context of his accession included the earlier murder of his father, Ariarathes VI, by a noble named Gordius, an act linked in the sources to Mithridates VI.

As king Ariarathes VII opposed the return and influence of Gordius, rejecting the assassin’s role in Cappadocian government. He raised forces in response to Gordius’s reappearance and to Pontic interference. Mithridates VI then arranged for Ariarathes VII to be killed in 101 BC according to the sources; Mithridates subsequently placed his own young son, Ariarathes IX, on the Cappadocian throne with Gordius as regent.

In surviving accounts Ariarathes VII is chiefly remembered for his brief, factional reign caught between Bithynian and Pontic ambitions; his epithet Philometor, “mother-loving,” and his death figure in narratives of Mithridates VI’s expansion of influence over Cappadocia.