Artoces was a king of Iberia

Caucasian Iberia

Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...

 (modern-day Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

) from 78 to 63 BC. He features in the Classical

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

 accounts of the Third Mithridatic War

Third Mithridatic War

The Third Mithridatic War was the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic...

 (Appian

Appian

Appian of Alexandria was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practised as...

, Bell. Mithr. 103, 117; Cassius Dio 37.1-2; Eutropius 6.14 [Artaces]; Festus

Festus (historian)

Festus was a Late Roman historian whose breviary was commissioned by the emperor Valens in preparation for war against Persia....

 16; Orosius 6.4.8) and is identified with the Artag or Arik (არიკ) of the medieval Georgian annals.

According to the Georgian historic tradition, he was the son and successor of Artaxias I

Artaxias I of Iberia

Artaxias I, of the Artaxiad dynasty, was a king of Iberia from 90 to 78 BC. He is known exclusively from the medieval Georgian chronicles which gives his name as Arshak .A son of the king of Armenia, purportedly of Artavasdes I Artaxias I, of the Artaxiad dynasty, was a king of Iberia (modern-day...

 of the Artaxiads

Artaxiad dynasty of Iberia

The Artaxiads , a branch of the eponymous dynasty of Armenia, ruled Iberia from c. 90 BC to 30 AD. According to the medieval Georgian chronicles, they acquired the crown of Iberia after the Iberian nobles revolted against their king P’arnajom, of the Pharnabazid dynasty, and petitioned the king of...

. The medieval Georgian account of his reign is brief and focuses on the devastation of his kingdom at the hands of Iranians

Parthia

Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....

 while the Classical sources much closer to the period in question contain a detailed description of Artoces’s war with Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 on the side of Mithridates VI of Pontus

Mithridates VI of Pontus

Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...

 and Tigranes of Armenia

Tigranes the Great

Tigranes the Great was emperor of Armenia under whom the country became, for a short time, the strongest state east of the Roman Republic. He was a member of the Artaxiad Royal House...

.

Alarmed by the Roman occupation of the neighboring Albania

Caucasian Albania

Albania is a name for the historical region of the eastern Caucasus, that existed on the territory of present-day republic of...

, Artoces promised peace and friendship; but the Roman commander Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...

, informed that he was secretly arming so as to fall upon the Romans on their march in the passes of the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

, advanced in March 65 BC, before resuming the pursuit of Mithridates, to the Iberian strongholds of Harmozica and Seusamora. Artoces, caught by surprise, hastily burnt the bridge over the Kura

Kura

Kura may refer to:* Kura River in Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan* Kura River, Russia in Russia* Kura Test Range in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, a major ICBM testing site during the Cold War* Kura, Nigeria, a Local Government Area of Kano State...

and retreated further in his forested country. Pompey occupied the fortresses and crossed the river, but met a fierce resistance by the Iberian army. In the end, the Romans prevailed, and, when Artoces saw the Pelorus also crossed by Pompey, he surrendered, and sent his children as hostages.