Lycomedes of Comana

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Lycomedes of Comana was a Bithynian of Cappadocian descent who ruled Comana in the late 1st century BC.[1] In 47 BC he was named by Julius Caesar the priest of the goddess Bellona in the temple-state of Comana,[2][3] and sovereign, therefore, of the surround­ing country.[4] His predecessor was the son of the general Archelaus.[5] Strabo reports that with Polemon, Lycomedes besieged a fortress held by Arsaces, a rebel chief who was guarding the sons of Pharnaces II of Pontus, until Arsaces surrendered.[6]

Lycomedes was an adherent of Mark Antony, who at some point enlarged the territory of Lycomedes' kingdom.[7] Because of his partisanship he was deposed by Augustus after the Battle of Actium.[8][9][10] He was succeeded as priest and ruler, briefly, by Medeius and the brigand-king Cleon of Gordiucome, and more permanently by Dyteutus.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Erciyas, Deniz Burcu (2005). Wealth, Aristocracy and Royal Propaganda Under the Hellenistic Kingdom of the Mithradatids. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 49. ISBN 90-04-14609-1. 
  2. ^ Julius Caesar, De Bello Alexandrino 66
  3. ^ Syme, Ronald; Anthony Richard Birley (1995). Anatolica: Studies in Strabo. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 166-169. ISBN 0-19-814943-3. 
  4. ^ Elder, Edward (1867), “Lycomedes (4)”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, pp. 846 
  5. ^ Dueck, Daniela (2005). Strabo's Cultural Geography: The Making of a Kolossourgia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 197. ISBN 0-521-85306-0. 
  6. ^ Strabo, Geographia xii p. 560
  7. ^ Huzar, Eleanor Goltz (1986). Mark Antony: A Biography. Routledge, 159. 0-7099-4719-4. 
  8. ^ Strabo, Geographia xii. p. 558
  9. ^ Cassius Dio, li. 2
  10. ^ Appian, Mithr. 114
  11. ^ Cramer, John Antony (1832). A Geographical and Historical Description of Asia Minor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 307-308. 

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).