NICOMEDES IL  , Epiphanes,

king of Bithynia, 149-91 B.C., fourth in descent from Nicomedes I., was the son of Prusias II . He was so popular with the people that his father sent him to Rome . Here he was so much favoured by the senate that Prusias sent an emissary to Rome with secret orders to assassinate him . But the emissary revealed the plot, and persuaded the prince to rebel against his father . Supported by Attalus II., king of Pergamum, he was completely successful, and ordered his father to be put to death at Nicomedia . During his long reign Nicomedes adhered steadily to the Roman alliance, and assisted them against Aristonicus of Pergamum . He made himself for a time master of Paphlagonia, and in order to have a claim on Cappadocia married Laodice (the widow of Ariarathes VI.), who had fled to him when Mithradates the Great endeavoured to annex the country . When her two sons died, Nicomedes brought forward an impostor as a claimant to the throne; but the plot was detected . The Romans refused to recognize the claim, and required Nicomedes to give up all pretensions to Cappadocia and to abandon Paphlagonia . Appian, Mithrad . 4-7; Strabo xiii . 624, 646; Diod .

Sic. xxxii . 20, 21;

Justin XXXiv . 4, xxxvii . 4, XXXViii . 1, 2 .