i. The first Kingdom of Pontus.— In the confusion that followed on the death of Alexander the Great, an adventurer named Mithridates managed to found a new state beyond the Ualys in north-eastern Asia Minor, about B.C. 302. He assumed the title of king probably towards the end of B.C. 281, and was afterwards known as Ktistes, ' the Founder.' In later times the vanity of the dynasty descended from him invented the story of a legendary kingdom in older times, ruled by a Persian noble family ; but that older kingdom rests on no historical basis. The kingdom ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty was, to a great extent,
• Bosporus waa the term which afterwards was employed to desit'iial« those rei^lons when formed Into a kingdom.
part of the country previously called Cappadocia : it also included some of the mountain tribes near the Black .Sea coasts, and part of Paphlagonia. But, as a political unity, it required a name. Polybiuf in the 2nd cent. B.C. called it ' Cappadocia towards the Euxine,' and Strabo mentions that some called it 'Pontus,' and some 'Cappadocia towards the Pontus." * Such elaborate names could never estab- lish themselves in common use : Cappadocia was fixed as the name of the kingdom which iniluded the centre and south of the country hitherto embraced under that title, and Pontus as the name of the northern kingdom which was ruled by the Mithridatic dynasty for 218 years, B.C. 2sl-l)3. The extent of the name varied according to the varying bounds of the kingdom, which was some- times larger (including Armenia Minor, etc.), some- times smaller.
The meaning of the name Pontus changed in B.C. 64. It had previously designated a kingdom, and that kingdom in that year ceased to exist. The Romans then incorporated part of the former kingdom in the empire, constituting it along with BithyNIA as the double province Bithynia et Pontus, which continued to exist with hardly altered limits for more than three centuries until the reorganization of the provinces by Diocletian.
The rest of the old kingdom of Pontus was broken up by Pompej- into a number of partu, which were treated in diverse ways ; several self- governing cities were constituted ; Comana was governed by a priest ; Gazelonitis and Pontic Armenia were bestowed on Deiotarus, the G:ilatian chief and king. The rapid vicissitudes of that
Eart of Pontus in the following years cannot here e followed up in detail. Pharnaces, son of Mithridates the Great, had been made by Poinpey king of Bosporus, ruling over the countries on the north-eastern coasts of the Euxine ; but he took advantage of the civil wars to reinstate himself in his father's realm of Pontus, till he was defeated by Ca'sar in B.C. 47. The kingdom of Pontus was reconstituted by Antony in B.C. 39, and given first to Darius, son of Pharnaces, and afterwards, in B.C. 36, to Polemon.t Polomon founded a dj-nasty of kings who ruled over Pontus until A.D. 63.
ii. ilisTORY OF Pontus in New Testament Times. — The new Pontic dynasty touched Chris- tian history in several noteworthy ways ; and it also was distinguished by coming into relationship with the reigning emperors, Caligula and still more nearly Claudius. The second wife of Pole- mon I. was Pythodoris, daughter of Antonia and granddaughter of Antony the Triumvir. Pytho- doris reigned as queen of Pontus in her own right after her husbana's death in B.C. 8 until some time after A.D. 21 ; but the history of the kingdom is quite unknown in her reign, and an interval seems to have occurred at her death. Her daughter Tryphiena reigned in association with her own son, Polcmon II., during part of the reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. The one date which iscerta.in is that Caligula J made Polemon II. king of Pontus and Bosi)orus in A.D. .'iS. Previously, Trypha-na seems to have lived for some time in Cyzicus, and she had married Cotys, king of Thrace (who died in A.D. 19). She perhaps retired to the neigh lio\ir- hood of Iconium at some time during the reign of Claudius. Her father, Polenion I., had at one time governed a kingdom or state in the south,
* KanroLioKiA 4 vipj T«, Kvitite*, Polyb. V. 43. 1 J (I w^it xm IIokTw KairT<x24x<«, Strub. p. 534.
t Son of Zeiion, tlio rhetor of Laodicea In the Lycui valley, see vol. ii. p. 80.
I Caligula's (jrandmotlier, Antonia, wos half-sister of Try- ph:iina% praiiiiniother. The first year of Tr.\^^hIona and Polt-nion LTuli-il (afi:f>nlini; to the current Pontic year)in autumn 38 ; and ttieir coins are known .is late aj* their eiKlitecnth year fliiihoof. Blunier in X/t, f. Suinittm. XX. p. '2(13; Wroth, Catalogue ^ Brit. Mm., Pimttu, p. 47), A.D. 64-66.
IG
PONTUS
PONTUS
containing Iconinm and great part of Cilicia Tracheiii ; and presumably some estates near the city may have remained in possession of the family.* The remarkable story contained in the Acta Paull et Theclw mentions this queen Trypha;na as present at a great imperial festival in Pisidian Antioch under the reign of Claudius, and calls her a relative of the emperor. She could hardly be l)resent at that festival of the provincial cult of the emperor, unless she were resident in the southern part of the province Galatia (of which part Antioch was capital), or, perhaps, on the frontier in the Cilician kingdom, wliich was given to Polemun by Claudius in 41 (see below) ; and she was a near connexion of the emperor Claudius, whose mother was Antonia, half-sister of Try- plirena's grandmother.