DFA: possible pre-Arsacid link
Stewart Baldwin
In my very long DFA ("Descent From Antiquity") posting awhile back, I
discussed why I thought that Settipani's attempts to get a link
between the Arsacids and the kings of Commagene were extremely flimsy,
and I have an "alternate route" to suggest in order to get a POSSIBLE
line to the Seleucids. Although it has obvious problems (as do all
such attempts), I think it has a better chance of being correct (at
least at the dynastic level) than Settipani's proposed link between
Parthia and Commagene. I have not attempted to guess each of the
individual generations, and a string of *'s will indicate a possible
descent through an unknown number of missing generations.
Antiochos II, Seleucid king of Syria 261-246 BC
|
Laodike md. Mithridates II, king of Pontus 250-220 BC
___|
|
Mithridates III king of Pontus
*
* The kings of Pontus are not very well documented
* for this period, but a descent of Mithridates VI
* from Mithridates III is a reasonable possibility.
*
Mithridates VI Eupator ("the Great") king of Pontus 111-63 BC
|
Kleopatra md. Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia 95-56 BC
|
No proof of maternity for |________
this daughter of Tigranes, | |
giving us a possible weak | Artavasdes, king of Armenia
link at this point. |
|
Mithridates, king of Media md. dau. of Tigranes
*
* There is no proof that the later kings of Media Atropatene
* descend through this marriage, but the presence of the name
* Artavasdes in the Atropatene dynasty at this point (a common
* name in the dynasty of Tigranes), plus the posession of the
* kingship of Armenia by two of these Atropatenians, makes it
* a reaonable possibility.
*
Atropatenian prince [see Note 1] md. Arsacid Princess.
?
????????????????????????????????????
? ?
Artabanos II, king of Parthia Vonones II, king of Parthia
likely ancestor of the later
Arsacid kings of Armenia
As has been discussed in the previous postings on this subject, from
the late Arsacid kings of Armenia, a descent can be traced to the
early Mamikonids, of whom a probable descendant, Samuel (d. 772),
prince of the Mamikonids, had a daughter through whom the later
medieval Bagratid kings of Georgia can trace a contionuous descent, as
can anyone who can trace a line to the later Bagratid kings [see Note
2].
Note 1:
With regard to the identity of the father of Vonones II (father of
Vologases and Tiridates in the following quote), the following citaion
from the Annals of Tacitus XII, 50 seems to be relevant:
"Nam Vologeses easum invadendae Armeniae obvenisse ratus, quam a
maioribus suis possessam externus rex flagitio optineret, contrahit
copias fratremque Tiridaten deducere in regnum parat, ne qua pars
domus sine imperio ageret."
Translation from the Loeb Classical Library edition:
"For Vologeses, convinced that the chance was come for an attack on
Armenia, once the property of his ancestors, now usurped by a foreign
monarch in virtue of a crime, collected a force, and prepared to
settle his brother Tiridates on the throne; so that no branch of the
family should lack its kingdom."
The interesting phrase "once the property of his ancestors" could be
interpreted in different ways, and may have been a false claim to
justify the attack. It could also be a vague reference to the fact
that Arsaces, son of Artabanos II, had briefly held the kingdom of
Armenia. Arsaces was no doubt a relative of Vologases, but he was
certainly not an ancestor. If we interpret the word "ancestor"
literally, there seem to be three main possibilities:
(1) A vague claim of descent from earlier kings of Armenia, such as
the dynasty of Tigranes the Great.
(2) A claim of descent from the dethroned Arsacid Vonones I, who had
held the Armenian throne briefly after losing the kingship of Parthia
to Artabanos II. Although I think that the possibility that Vonones
II was the son of Vonones I can not be ruled out on the known
evidence, the reconstruction in which Vonones II is a brother of
Artabanos II, and only descended from the Arsacids in the female line,
seems more likley.
(3) A claim of descent from the Atropatenian kings who had briefly
ruled Armenia. Of these, only Ariobarzanes (d. 4 AD) is
chronologically possible as a father of Artabanos II and Vonones II,
whom Settipani make the sons of a completely hypothetical (and
possibly nonexistant) brother of Ariobarzanes to whom Settipani
assigned the guesswork name of "Darius." If we accept the theory that
Artabanos and Vonones were brothers, sons of an Arsacid princess and
an Atropatenain prince (and this appears to be the most widely
accepted theory), then this statement of Tacitus makes Ariobarzanes a
much more likely candidate for the father than his completely
conjectural brother.
Note 2:
At the moment, I am willing to accept this possible DFA as being a
reasonable likelihood only for those individuals who can trace a
descent from the Bagratids which is late enough to take advantage of
the above Mamikonid marriage, which includes no medieval Western
Europeans of whom I am aware. I still find the attempts to get a link
from early Western European monarchs to the Mamikonids by way of
Byzantium to be too weak to take seriously at this point.
Stewart Baldwin