Mithridates of Armenia

Mithridates of Armenia (Armenian: Միհրդատ Իբերացի, fl. 1st century) was an Iberian prince who served as a King of Armenia under the protection of the Roman Empire.

Mithridates was installed by Roman emperor Tiberius, who invaded Armenia in 35. When the Parthian prince Orodes, son of Artabanus II of Parthia, attempted to dispossess Mithridates of his newly acquired kingdom, Mithridates led a large Armenian and Iberian army and defeated the Parthians in a pitched battle (Tacitus, Annals. vi. 32-35). At a later period c. 37, the new emperor Caligula had Mithridates arrested, but Claudius restored him on the Armenian throne c. 42. Subsequently, Mithridates' relations with his brother Pharasmanes I deteriorated and the Iberian king instigated his son, Rhadamistus, to invade Armenia and overthrow Mithridates in 51. Betrayed by his Roman commanders, Mithridates surrendered: the Roman historian Cassius Dio reports a likely apocryphal confrontation of Mithridates and Claudius at Rome, in which Mithridates is said to respond boldly to threatening by saying: "I was not brought to you; I came. If you doubt it, release me and try to find me." Mithridates was put to death by his nephew Rhadamistus, who usurped the crown and married his cousin Zenobia, Mithridates' daughter.