The Development and Display of Hellenistic Kingship in Bithynia and Pontus: 323-63 BCE

Abstract

This study aims to discover both the process of how the kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus became Hellenistic monarchies during the 3rd-1st centuries BCE as well as how they actively displayed their Hellenism through their royal propaganda. The first two chapters of this thesis focus on the kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus through the 3rd-2nd centuries BCE while the third and final chapter focuses exclusively on the reign of Mithridates VI. The methodology used in this study has been to examine both the literary and material evidence from both kingdoms with an emphasis on the material due primarily to a noticeable lack of the literary. This study has found that while the two kingdoms gradually became more ‘hellenised’ over the course of their respective historical development, they did so at comparatively different speeds and through different methods. The Bithynians developed as a Hellenistic monarchy at a gradual pace from the ascension of their second monarch onwards. They employed the familiar mechanisms of Hellenistic kingship seen in their contemporaries, namely the Seleucids, such as city construction, patronage of Pan-Hellenic sanctuaries and use of coinage from an early date. The Pontic kings however remained largely isolationist and were content to remain true to their Persian/Anatolian identity for their early years. It was only really with Pharnaces I’s capture of Sinope, and the subsequent use of the city as a royal capital, that Pontus began to ‘hellenise’ at any significant pace. While they also patronized Pan-Hellenic sanctuaries and employed coinage just as the Bithynians, they did not establish any significant cities in their lands and their coinage employed a unique set of portraits unseen in the Hellenistic world. Mithridates VI would serve as the culmination of Hellenistic kingship in Pontus. His reign saw the further cultivation of Hellenic culture orientated around the monarch while continuing his dynasty’s’ tradition of not establishing cities in his name. This study concludes that both Bithynia and Pontus should be seen as Hellenistic kingdoms in their own right based on the existing evidence in the context of the more prominent Hellenistic kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean region.