Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia

Early life

Ariarathes IV was the son of the king of Cappadocia Ariarathes III and his Greek Macedonian wife Stratonice. He was a child at his accession, and reigned for about 57 years. He married Antiochis, the daughter of Antiochus III the Great, king of Syria, and wife Laodice III, and, in consequence of this alliance, assisted Antiochus in his war against the Romans. After the defeat of Antiochus by the Romans in 190 BC, Ariarathes sued for peace in 188 BC, which he obtained on favourable terms, as his daughter, Stratonice, was about that time betrothed to Eumenes II, king of Pergamum, whom she later actually married, and became an ally of the Romans. In 183–179 BC, he assisted Eumenes in his war against Pharnaces, king of Pontus. Polybius mentions that a Roman embassy was sent to Ariarathes after the death of the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who died 164 BC. Antiochis, the wife of Ariarathes, is said to have at first borne him no children, and accordingly introduced two supposititious ones, who were called Ariarathes and Orophernes. Subsequently, however, the tale goes that she bore her husband two daughters and a son, Mithridates, afterwards Ariarathes V, and then informed Ariarathes of the deceit she had practised upon him. The other two were in consequence sent away from Cappadocia, one to Rome, the other to Ionia.