1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Archelaus of Cappadocia

ARCHELAUS OF CAPPADOCIA (1st century B.C.), general of Mithradates the Great in the war against Rome. In 87 B.C. he was sent to Greece with a large army and fleet, and occupied the Peiraeus after three days’ fighting with Bruttius Sura, prefect of Macedonia, who in the previous year had defeated Mithradates’ fleet under Metrophanes and captured the island of Sciathus. Here he was besieged by Sulla, compelled to withdraw into Boeotia, and completely defeated at Chaeroneia (86). A fresh army was sent by Mithradates, but Archelaus was again defeated at Orchomenus, after a two days’ battle (85). On the conclusion of peace, Archelaus, finding that he had incurred the suspicion of Mithradates, deserted to the Romans, by whom he was well received. Nothing further is known of him.

Appian, Mithrid. 30, 49, 56, 64; Plutarch, Sulla, 11, 16-19, 20, 23; Lucullus, 8.

Archelaus, king of Egypt, was his son. In 56 B.C. he married Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, queen of Egypt, but his reign only lasted six months. He was defeated by Aulus Gabinius and slain (55).

See Strabo xii. p. 558, xvii. p. 796; Dio Cassius xxxix. 57-58; Cicero, Pro Rabirio, 8; Hirtius (?), Bell. Alex. 66; also Ptolemies.

Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, was grandson of the last named. In 41 B.C. (according to others, 34), he was made king of Cappadocia by Mark Antony, whom, however, he deserted after the battle of Actium. Octavian enlarged his kingdom by the addition of part of Cilicia and Lesser Armenia. He was not popular with his subjects, who even brought an accusation against him in Rome, on which occasion he was defended by Tiberius. Subsequently he was accused by Tiberius, when emperor, of endeavouring to stir up a revolution, and died in confinement at Rome (A.D. 17). Cappadocia was then made a Roman province. Archelaus was said to have been the author of a geographical work, and to have written treatises On Stones and Rivers.

Strabo xii. p. 540; Suetonius, Tiberius, 37, Caligula, 1; Dio Cassius xlix. 32-51; Tacitus, Ann. ii. 42.