Ariarathids

The Ariarathids were the successors of Ariarathes I, who had been appointed by Darius III Codomannus, and organized Cappadocia as an independent state after the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire. He lost his life in 322 BCE in a war against Perdiccas, but his adopted son, Ariarathes II, later returned to power as vassal of the Seleucids.

Ariarathes III was the first to call himself king, while Ariarathes IV or Ariarathes V, who both were surnamed Eusebes ("benefactor"), refounded the capital, Mazaca, as a Greek city, named Eusebia. After a crisis at the beginning of the first century BCE, Cappadocia became a vassal of Rome. It was finally annexed by the Romans in 17 CE, who renamed the main city Caesarea (modern Kayseri)