Pharnaces II of Pontus

Pharnaces II of Pontus, also known as Pharnaces II (Greek: Φαρνάκης; about 97–47 BC) was a prince, then King of Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom until his death. He was a monarch of Persian and Greek Macedonian ancestry. Pharnaces II was the youngest son and child born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus from his first wife, his sister Queen Laodice. He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus and was the namesake of his late paternal great grandfather Pharnaces I of Pontus.

Pharnaces II was raised as his father's successor and treated with distinction. However, we know little of his youth from writers of the time and find him first mentioned after Mithridates VI had taken refuge from the Roman General Pompey during the Third Mithridatic War.

Mithridates VI was keen to wage war with the Romans once more, but Pharnaces was less keen, and thus began a plot to remove his father from power. His plans were discovered, but the army, not wishing to engage Pompey and the Roman armies, supported Pharnaces. They marched on Mithridates VI and forced their former king to take his own life in 63 BC.

Pharnaces II quickly sent an embassy to Pompey with offers of submission and hostages, for he was keen to secure his position. He also sent the body of his father, to be at the disposal of Pompey. The latter readily accepted Pharnaces' overtures, for he wished to be back at Rome having been seen to have made peace in the region. Pompey granted Pharnaces the Bosporan Kingdom, and named him friend and ally of Rome.

Contemporary historians are silent on his early reign, but eventually, on viewing the increasing power struggles between the Romans, and with an eye to recreating the kingdom of his father, he attacked and subjugated the free Greek city of Phanagoria, violating one of his agreements with Pompey.

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