Asander (Bosporan king)

Asander named Philocaesar Philoromaios (Greek: Άσανδρoς Φιλοκαισαρ Φιλορώμαίος, Asander, lover of Caesar lover of Rome, 110 BC – 17 BC) was an aristocrat and a man of high rank of the Bosporan Kingdom.

Asander was of Greek and possibly of Persian ancestry. There is not much is known on his family and early life. He started his political and military career as a general under Pharnaces II, King of Pontus and the Bosporan. According to some scholars, Asander married as his first wife a woman called Glykareia. She is known from one surviving Greek inscription:

By 47 BC, Asander married as his second wife the daughter of Pharnaces II from his Sarmatian wife, Dynamis. She was a granddaughter of King Mithridates VI of Pontus and from his first wife, his sister Laodice. In 47 BC, Asander revolted against Pharnaces II, who had appointed him as regent of the Bosporan Kingdom, during the war against General of the Roman Republic, Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus. He hoped by deserting and betraying his father-in-law, Asander would win favor with the Romans and they could help him become Bosporan King. Pharnaces II was defeated by the Romans. He fled and took refuge from the Romans with his supporters. Asander found Pharnaces II and put Pharnaces II and his supporters to death.

Asander became Bosporan King and was able to retain the throne with his wife Dynamis as Queen. This was so, until Roman Dictator Gaius Julius Caesar commanded a paternal uncle of Dynamis, Mithridates II to declare war on the Bosporan Kingdom and claimed the kingship for himself. Asander and Dynamis were defeated by Mithridates II and had gone into political exile. However, after the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, the Bosporan Kingdom was restored to Asander and Dynamis by Julius Caesar’s great nephew and heir Octavian (future Roman Emperor Augustus). Dynamis bore Asander a son called Aspurgus. There is a possibility that Asander and Dynamis may have had other children.

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Wikipedia