Having concentrated on military matters for most of his adult life, Ktistes Mithridates had little time for the affairs of scribes and money-men. His son and heir Ariobarzanes also preferred the army life, but his son-in-law Ariarathes Herakleotes, a Hellen, showed some promise as a manager as well as a leader of men.
Even with his limited grasp of figures, Ktistes Mithridates knew that his tiny kingdom was in trouble. For the royal treasury was rapidly running out of silver to pay the wages of the Pontic military.
The choice facing Ktistes Mithridates was a stark one. He could disband the military, saving his kingdom from bankruptcy but dooming it to soon serve a Seleukid master. Or he could instead use the military to take the riches of the nearby mines and trade routes for Pontos. What decided Ktistes Mithridates' mind was not the fate of himself, or even of his immediate heirs, but that of the entire family tree. For the Kianos family was fruitful, and he had many grandchildren yet to come of age, and even a young son born to him late in life. And no Kianos would ever bow to a Seleukid master again.
With what little silver remained, Ktistes Mithridates first ordered the construction of the most basic of civil infrastructure, so that someday his people might remember him as a king of peace.
And then he earned his legacy as a king of war, dividing his military into three tiny armies and sending them out from Amaseia. Ariarathes Herakleotes would take the first army west, into the province of Galatia near the town of Ankyra, who were once the friends of Pontos but were now openly hostile. Ariobarzanes Kianos would march south with the second army, towards the Seleukid town of Mazaka. And Ktistes Mithridates himself would lead the third army past Mazaka, to march along the old Persian Royal Road, and into history.
And thus began the rise of Pontos.
Chapter 1: A King of War
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