Notes |
- REMARKS:
life span from 189 BCE to 156 BCE
- BIOGRAPHY
The youngest son, Mithradates, had been designated as successor of his father King Ariarathes IV of Kappadokia. Allegedly this designation is because the father felt that he is more certainly the biological father of the youngest son. The youngest son is seemingly present in the Kappadokian court. He took the regnal name Ariarathes V.
Soon after the death of Ariarathes IV in c591 AUC, Opephernes made claim to the throne of Kappadokia. Orophernes had been raised in the region of Ionia (Jonia), a coast that belonged to Pergamon.
Their cousin, the Padishah Demetrios I supported Orophernes - because Ariarathes V insulted the padishah, by refusal to marry the padishah's sister, their yet another cousin. Ariarathes V married another kinswoman, Nyssa of Pontos.
According to propaganda from Ariarathes V's side and supporters, Orophernes were a mere changeling whom the mother-queen had smuggled to the royal nursery, to hide her then inability to birth children. At the very least, Orophernes is stigmatized as bastard cuckoo child, the mother-queen's child sired by someone else than her husband the King Ariarathes IV. (In those days, it was commonplace to accuse rivals as bastard-born, in order to weaken their claim.) We do not know the version Orophernes and his side, apparently because they lost the conflict and did not get to write the history of the matter. According to propoganda, or historical narrative, allegedly the Queen had confessed her doings when the genuine son, Mithradates, the future Ariarathes V, had then been born. The same story narrates that to neutralise the cuckoo son, he were then sent to Jonia, far away from Kappadokia. (However, in those days, royal sons were often raised in other places, to keep some of them in safety. Ariarathes IV's daughter, the boy's elder sister, Straonike was already then Queen-Consort of Pergamon.)
In c595/595 AUC, Orophernes manages to drive Ariarathes V from Kappadokia and to take over the country - with Demetrios' assistance. Ariarathes V sought support from the Roman senate. Rome tried to dictate that Ariarathes V and Orophernes are to rule Kappadokia jointly, as co-rulers. However, by c599 AUC, Ariarathes V has managed to drive Orophernes totally out of Kappadokia.
[Author: M. Sjöström]
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