Mithridates Chrestus
Mithridates Chrestus(" the Good", flourished 2nd century BC, died 115 BC- 113 BC) was a Prince and co-ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus.
Chrestus was of Greek and Persian ancestry.
He was the second son and among the children born to the Pontian monarchs Mithridates V of Pontus and Laodice VI.
He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus.
His father was assassinated in about 120 BC in Sinope poisoned by unknown persons at a lavish banquet which he held.
In the will of his father, Mithridates V left the Kingdom to the joint rule of his mother, his eldest brother Mithridates VI of Pontus and himself.
As Chrestus and his brother were underage and thus unable to rule, their mother retained all the power as regent.
She favored Chrestus over his elder brother.
In 116 BC/ 115 BC, Chrestus and his brother were honored by Dionysius, the gymnasiarch on the Greek island of Delos.
Another dedication survives in Athens, by a gymnasiarch of statues of Chrestus and his brother to the Greek Patron God Zeus on behalf of Chrestus and his brother apparently in recognition of his aid to sailors and traders.
Mithridates VI escaped from the plotting of his mother and went into hiding.
Between 116 BC- 113 BC he emerged from hiding, returned to Pontus and was hailed King.
He was able to remove his mother and Chrestus from the Pontian throne and become the sole ruler of Pontus.
As sole King, Mithridates VI showed clemency towards his mother and brother, by not executing them.
He did, however, imprison both of them.
Laodice died in prison of natural causes.
It is unclear whether Chrestus also died in prison from natural causes or was later tried for treason and then executed on the orders of Mithridates VI.
When they died, Mithridates VI gave his mother and brother a royal funeral.
Darius of Pontus
Darius of Pontus (reigned 37-37/36 BC) was a monarch of Iranian and Greek Macedonian ancestry.
He was the first child born to King Pharnaces II of Pontus and his Sarmatian wife.
He had two younger siblings: a sister called Dynamis and a brother called Arsaces.
His paternal grandparents were Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus and his first wife, his sister Laodice.
Hardly anything is known about Darius.
We only have a mention by Appian that he was appointed king of Pontus by Mark Antony.
According to Appian, Mark Antony established client kings in the eastern areas of the Roman empire which were under his control on condition that they paid a tribute.
In Anatolia, Darius, the son of Pharnaces II and grandson of Mithridates VI, was appointed in Pontus, Polemon in a part of Cilicia and Amyntas in Pisidia.
This was in 37 BC, before Antony's war with Parthia, when he was making preparations for it and before he wintered in Athens in the winter of 37/36 BC.
The reign of Darius was short-lived.
Strabo wrote that Polemon and Lycomedes of Comana attacked Arsaces, one the sons of Pharnaces II, in Sagylium because he “was playing the dynast and attempting a revolution without permission from any of the [Roman] prefects …” This stronghold was seized, but Arsaces fled to the mountains where he starved because he was without provisions and without water.
Three decades earlier Pompey had ordered the wells to be obstructed by rocks to prevent robbers from hiding on the mountains.
Arsaces was captured and killed.
Cassius Dio described Polemon as "the king of that part of Pontus bordering on Cappadocia”
Presumably, Polemon was appointed as a king of Pontus as a reward for suppressing Arsaces' attempt to assume the throne of Pontus.
Pontus, which had become a Roman province, must have been assigned to several client kings who administered its various regions.
We do not know whether Darius died and Arsaces was trying to succeed him or whether Arsaces was a usurper.
Darius' reign must have lasted less that a year because Cassius Dio referred to Polemon as a king of Pontus when he was involved in Mark Antony's war against the Parthians in 36 BC.
Pharnaces I of Pontus
Pharnaces I (lived 2nd century BC), fifth king of Pontus, was of Persian and Greek ancestry.
He was the son of King Mithridates III of Pontus and his wife Laodice, whom he succeeded on the throne.
Pharnaces had two siblings: a brother called Mithridates IV of Pontus and a sister called Laodice who both succeeded Pharnaces.
He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus.
Mithridates III of Pontus
Mithridates III was the fourth King of Pontus, son of Mithridates II of Pontus and Laodice.
Mithridates had two sisters: Laodice III, the first wife of the Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great, and Laodice of Pontus.
He may have ruled in an uncertain period between 220 BC and 183 BC.
Nothing is known of him since the years just cited, because the kingdom of Pontus disappears from history.
His same existence is contested by certain historians, even if it is necessary to account for Appian's indication of Mithridates VI of Pontus as the eighth king of the dynasty and the sixth of the name.
Mithridates married an obscure Seleucid princess called Laodice.
By this wife, he had three children: Mithridates IV of Pontus, Pharnaces I of Pontus and Laodice.
Pharnaces II of Pontus
Pharnaces II of Pontus, also known as Pharnaces II( about 97 – 47 BC) was the king of the Bosporan Kingdom until his death.
He was a monarch of Persian and Greek Macedonian ancestry.
He was the youngest 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 double great grandfather Pharnaces I of Pontus.
Although ancient historians referred to him as Pharnaces of Pontus, he did not actually rule the Kingdom of Pontus.
After his father was defeated by the Romans in the Third Mithridatic War( 73 – 63 BC) and died in 63 BC, the Romans annexed Pontus, merged it with the former Kingdom of Bithynia and formed the Roman Province of Bithynia and Pontus.
Heracleides of Magnesia
Heracleides of Magnesia, is known only as the author of a history of Mithridates VI of Pontus( Μιθριδατικά), which is lost.
Xiphares
Xiphares( c. 85 – 65 BC) was a Pontian prince, who was the son of King Mithridates VI of Pontus from his concubine and later wife, Stratonice of Pontus.
His mother turned over the stronghold of Mithridates at Coenum that had been entrusted to her protection to the Roman forces under Pompey.
In revenge, Mithridates had Xiphares killed, leaving his corpse unburied.
Kaya Alp
Kaya Alp was, according to Ottoman tradition, the son of Kızıl Buğa and the father of Suleyman Shah, who was, in turn, the grandfather of Ertuğrul, and the great grandfather of the Ottoman Empire founder, Osman I.
Orsabaris
Orsabaris, also spelt as Orsobaris( meaning in Persian:" brilliant Venus", flourished 1st century BC) was a Princess from the Kingdom of Pontus.
Orsabaris was of Greek Macedonian and Persian ancestry.
She was the youngest daughter born to King Mithridates VI of Pontus from an unnamed concubine of Mithridates VI.
Orsabaris was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus.
Orsabaris was betrothed or had married as her first husband the Bithynian prince, usurper Socrates Chrestus.
Socrates Chrestus was a political ally to her father; as well he was her paternal second cousin.
This possibility is based on coins minted after 72 BC, found at the Bithynian city of Prusias ad Mare, which bears the inscription of Orsabaris ’ name.
These coins reveal Orsabaris ’ full name and her royal title in Greek.
An example of this coinage is, on one surviving coin, on the obverse side inscribes the full name and royal title of Orsabaris in Greek:" ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ ΜΟΥΣΗΣ ΟΡΣΟΒΑΡΙΟΣ", which means" of Queen Mousa Orsobaris", showing her portrait.
On the reverse side of the coin, is inscribed in Greek:" ΠΡΟΥΣΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΘΑΛΑΣΣΗ", showing the head of Heracles.
The city of Prusias ad Mare was the city that the Pontian paternal ancestors of Orsabaris originated from.
Socrates Chrestus had died by the time the Kingdom of Pontus was annexed by the Roman Triumvir and General Pompey in 63 BC.
Orsabaris was captured by Pompey and it seems that she was one of the few remaining relatives from the family of Mithridates VI, whose life was spared by the Romans.
Orsabaris became a political prisoner of Pompey and served to adorn his triumph parade in Rome in 61 BC.
After Pompey's triumph parade in Rome, Orsabaris was released by the Romans and she returned to Anatolia.
Orsabaris married a nobleman from Bithynia who was of Cappadocian Greek descent called Lycomedes of Comana, who was the priest of the goddess Bellona and priest- ruler of the temple- state of Comana, Cappadocia.
Lycomedes ruled as priest- ruler from 47 BC until after 30 BC.
Orsabaris through her marriage, became a ruler of the temple- state and had bore Lycomedes, a daughter called Orodaltis.
The Romans had approved the status of Lycomedes, Orsabaris and their family, as they ruled over Comana for a substantial period.
Orsabaris and her family could be viewed as potential successors of Mithridates VI on the Pontian throne, however the Kingdom of Pontus at the time became a Roman Client State who was ruled by Orsabaris' half- paternal brother Pharnaces II of Pontus; the sons of Pharnaces II and eventually by Polemon I of Pontus.
Mithridates V of Pontus
Mithridates V Euergetes (Greek: "Μιθριδάτης ὁ εὐεργέτης", which means "Mithridates the benefactor"; fl.
2nd century BC, r. 150–120 BC); also known as "Mithridates V of PontusMithradates V of Pontus "and "Mithradates V Euergetes", was a Prince and seventh King of the wealthy Kingdom of Pontus.
Mithridates V was of Greek Macedonian and Persian ancestry.
He was the son of the King Pharnaces I of Pontus and Queen Nysa, while his sister was Nysa of Cappadocia.
His mother is believed to have died during childbirth, while giving birth to either him or his sister.
He was born and raised in the Kingdom of Pontus.
Mithridates V succeeded his paternal aunt Laodice and paternal uncle Mithridates IV of Pontus on the Pontian throne, but the circumstance of his accession is uncertain.
Mithridates V continued the alliance with the Roman Republic started by his predecessors.
He supported them with some ships and a small auxiliary force during the Third Punic War (149–146 BC) and at a subsequent period rendered them useful assistance in the war against the King of Pergamon, Eumenes III (131–129 BC).
For his services on this occasion, Mithridates V was rewarded by the Roman consul Manius Aquillius with the province of Phrygia.
However the acts of the Roman consul were rescinded by the Roman Senate on the grounds of bribery, but it appears that he maintained his possession of Phrygia until his death.
Mithridates V also increased the power of the Kingdom of Pontus by the marriage of his eldest child, his daughter Laodice of Cappadocia to King Ariarathes VI of Cappadocia.
The end of his reign can only be approximately determined based on statements concerning the accession of his son Mithridates VI, which is assigned to the year 120 BC, signaling the end of the reign of Mithridates V.
Mithridates V was assassinated in about 120 BC in Sinope, poisoned by unknown persons at a lavish banquet which he held.
Mithridates V, was a great benefactor to the Hellenic culture which shows on surviving coinage and honorific inscriptions stating his donations in Athens and Delos and held the Greek God Apollo in great veneration.
A bilingual inscription dedicated to him is displayed at the Capitoline Museums in Rome.
Mithridates V was buried in the royal tombs of his ancestors at Amasya.
Mithridates V married the Greek Seleucid Princess Laodice VI, who was the daughter of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Laodice IV.
Mithridates V and Laodice VI were related, thus he was connected to the Seleucid dynasty.
Laodice bore Mithridates V seven children: Laodice of Cappadocia, Mithridates VI of Pontus, Mithridates Chrestus, Laodice, Nysa (sometimes spelt as Nyssa), Roxana and Statira.
Roxana and Statira were compelled to kill themselves with poison after the fall of the Kingdom of Pontus in 63 BC.
Nysa was taken prisoner by the Romans and made to march in the triumphs of two Roman generals.

Question: Who is Mithridates V Of Pontus's paternal grandfather?
Answer: Mithridates III of Pontus