He was speedily driven out of the kingdom by Mithridates VI, and shortly afterwards died a natural death.
However, King Nicomedes III of Bithynia sent an embassy to Rome to lay claim to the Cappadocian throne for a youth, whom, he pretended, was a third son of Ariarathes VI and Laodice.
According to Justin, Mithridates VI also, with equal shamelessness, sent an embassy to Rome to assert that the youth, whom he had placed upon the throne, was a descendant of Ariarathes V of Cappadocia, who fell in the war against King Eumenes III of Pergamon.
The Roman Senate, however, did not assign the kingdom to either but granted liberty to the Cappadocians and, in 95, ordered to depose Ariarathes IX.
As the people wished for a king, the Romans allowed them to choose whom they pleased, and their choice fell upon Ariobarzanes I.