Notable Rulers and Other Figures (and their Policies, Building Projects, Notable Biographical Information, etc.)

Sardur (All Facts)

• 2nd ruler (and founder?) of the Ancient Kingdom of Urartu on the fringes of the Assyrian Empire in modern-day Armenia, it was Neo-Hurrian

• Established the kingdom’s capital at Tushpa on the banks of Lake Van

Sardur III (All Facts)

• Formed a vast coalition with Syria against the coalition members’ common enemy: Assyria, around 745 BCE

700’s BCE - King Midas (All Facts)

• Legendary and historical king of Phrygia

• His fabulous wealth inspired legends that he could turn things to gold

• Committed suicide in the Phrygian capital after his kingdom was attacked by a band of Cimmerian hordes

  • His suicide represented the end of Phrygian independence

• Enhanced the reputation of this kingdom high on the Anatolian plateau by

  • his wealth

  • his marriage to a Greek princess

  • being the first non-Greek to make offerings at the Oracle at Delphi

680 BCE - 644 BCE - Gyges (All Facts)

• 1st Ruler and Founder of the Mermnad Dynasty of Lydia

• Bodyguard of the Lydian King Candaules

  • Killed his master and took his place

• This allegedly happened because Candaules’ wife was upset with Candaules for allowing the namesake man to see her naked, so she married him instead and plotted to have him kill her original husband

• Appealed to Ashurbanipal of Assyria for help after his kingdom of Lydia began to be attacked by the Cimmerians, who have invaded the kingdom multiple times before, however Ashurbanipal of Assyria refused to answer the appeal, likely due to his being occupied in putting down the revolt in Egypt that occurred during his reign

• Known for his invasions of Miletus, Smyrna, and Colophon

• He also sent troops to help Egypt in its attempt to free itself from Assyrian control

384 BCE - 360 BCE - Kotys (All Facts)

• King of the Odrysians in Thrace

• Last ruler of Thrace

• Tried to unite Thrace’s tribes of wild shepherds into an empire but failed

120 BCE - 63 BCE - King Mithridates VI “The Great” (All Facts)

• 9th King of Pontus (he was the most famous)

• Was known for his namesake technique, in which he would ingest small amounts of poison over the course of his life in order to develop an immunity to poisons and thus protect himself against assassination attempts

• 101 BCE - Pursued an expansionist policy in the region

• 89 BCE - Started his first namesake war with Rome

• 88 BCE - Routed Nicomedes of Bithynia in northwest Anatolia

• 88 BCE - Initiated the Asiatic Vespers, in which he invaded the Roman province of Asia and had 80K Romans and Italians massacred by Roman forces loyal to him and his kingdom

• 88 BCE - His fleet laid siege to Delos where his troops killed 20K of the island’s inhabitants

• 86 BCE - Fought against Sulla and the Romans in the Battle of Chaeronea, which he lost

• 85 BCE - By the end of his first namesake war with Rome, he made peace with the Romans on Sulla’s terms at Dardanus, in which he gave up all the territories he had previously conquered

• 83 BCE - Started his second namesake war with Rome

• 81 BCE - Won his second namesake war with Rome, in which he defeated Lucius Licinius Murena and the Romans and made them sign a peace treaty agreeing to his terms

• 74 BCE - Started his third namesake war with Rome after he regarded with blatant provocation the acts of Nicomedes III and Ptolemy Apion who both bequeathed their respective territories, Cyrenaica and Bithynia, which were parts of the Kingdom of Pontus, to Rome

• 74 BCE - Invaded the Roman province of Bithynia, driving out the Roman general Lucullus there

• 73 BCE - Fled to the court of Tigranes in Armenia

• 67 BCE - Vanquished by Pompey “the Great,” having been driven out of Bithynia by him

• 63 BCE - By the end of his third namesake war with Rome, he was defeated by Pompey “the Great” and Phraates III of Parthia, having been driven back

• 63 BCE - Fled to Crimea to escape Pompey “the Great”

• 63 BCE - He committed suicide by stabbing himself

70 BCE - 31 BCE - King Antiochus I (All Facts)

• 4th King of Commagene (he was the most famous)

• Built a magnificent tomb for himself

  • It was on a two-mile-high hill of Nimrud, built on top of a conical mass of stones 170 feet high

  • It was flanked by colossal statues of gods, eagles, and lions

  • The king’s Persian and Greek ancestors were shown in bas-reliefs

  • The namesake was shown shaking hands with a god