kings of PONTUS. The first of these, however, was not really an
independent monarch, but merely a satrap under the Persian king; and it would be more correct
to omit him in the enumeration, and reckon the one who comes next in order as Mithridates I.;
but the ordinary practice has been here followed for convenience. The kings of Pontus claimed
to be lineally descended from one of the seven Persians who had conspired against the Magi,
and who was subsequently established by Dareius Hystaspes in the government of the countries
bordering on the Euxine Sea. (de Vir. Illust. 76.) They also asserted
their descent from the royal house of the Achaemenides, to which the kings of Persia belonged,
but we know not how they made out this part of their pedigree. Very little is known of their
history until after the fall of the Persian empire.