Ariobarzanes II of Cius

Who was Ariobarzanes II of Cius?

Ariobarzanes succeeded his kinsman or father, Mithridates or alternatively succeeded another Ariobarzanes I of Cius, as ruler of the Greek town of Cius in Mysia, governing 26 years between 363 and 337 BC for the Persians. It was seemingly his family which in mid-360s BCE revolted from Artaxerxes II, ending up to defeat in 362. He was succeeded as governor of Cius by Mithridates, possibly his son, certainly a kinsman, such as younger brother.

This Ariobarzanes cannot have been the satrap Ariobarzanes of Phrygia who revolted and was killed in c.362 BCE by cruxifixion. Being probably a kinsman however, that Ariobarzanes is called by Diodorus satrap of Phrygia, and by Nepos satrap of Lydia, Ionia, and Phrygia. He revolted from Artaxerxes II in 360s. Demosthenes speaks of Ariobarzanes of Phrygia and his three sons having been lately made Athenian citizens. He mentions him again in the following year and says, that the Athenians had sent Timotheus to his assistance; but that when the Athenian general saw that Ariobarzanes was in open revolt against the king, he refused to assist him. Probably the other Ariobarzanes held some high office in the Persian court in 368 BCE, as we find him, apparently on behalf of the king, sending an embassy to Greece in 368.