A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

king of the BOSPORUS, which sovereignty he obtained by the favour of the emperor Claudius, who appointed him to replace Polemon II., A. D. 41. (D. C. 60.8.) He was a descendant of the great Mithridates, but we have no account of his more immediate parentage. Nor do we know any thing of the circumstances which led to his subsequent expulsion by the Romans, who placed his younger brother Cotys on the throne in his stead; for these events were related by Tacitus in one of the books of the Annals now lost. But Mithridates, though a fugitive from his kingdom, did not abandon all hope: he collected a body of irregular troops, with which he expelled the king of the Dandarians; and, as soon as the main body of the Roman troops were withdrawn from the Bosporus, he prepared to invade that kingdom. He was however defeated by the Roman lieutenant Julius Aquila, supported by Eunones, king of the Scythian tribe of the Adorsi, and ultimately compelled to surrender to Eunones, by whom he was given up to the Romans, but with a promise that his life should be spared. (Tac. Ann. 12.15-21; Plin. Nat. 6.5.)

[E.H.B]