Ariara'thes Viii.
A second son of Ariarathes VI.; but he was speedily driven out of the kingdom by Mithridates, and shortly afterwards died a natural death.
By the death of these two sons of Ariarathes VI., the royal family was extinct. Mithridates placed upon the throne one of his own sons, who was only eight years old. Nicomedes sent an embassy to Rome to lay claim to the throne for a youth, who, he pretended, was a third son of Ariarathes VI. and Laodice. Mithridates also, with equal shamelessness, says Justin, sent an embassy to Rome to assert that the youth, whom he had placed upon the throne, was a descendant of Ariarathes V., who fell in the war against Aristonicus.
The senate, however, did not assign the kingdom to either, but granted liberty to the Cappadocians.
But as the people wished for a king, the Romans allowed them to choose whom they pleased, and their choice fell upon Ariobarzanes. (Justin,
38.1,
2;
Strab. xii. p.540.)
