He plays a prominent role in the historian Tacitus' account of policy and campaigns in the eastern lands of the Roman Empire under Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.

[5] Around 52, Pharasmanes instigated his son, Rhadamistus, whose ambitious and aspiring character began to give him umbrage, to make war upon his uncle Mithridates, and supported him in his enterprise.

The Romans had expressed their displeasure at the proceedings of Rhadamistus, and in order to curry their favor, Pharasmanes put his son to death.

His Armenian wife bore him three sons: Mithridates I (Mihrdat), Rhadamistus, and Amazaspus (Amazasp), who is known from the Epigram of Amazaspos found in Rome.

According to the Georgian chronicles, Aderki's division of his kingdom between his two sons, Kartam (Kardzam) and Bartom (Bratman), inaugurated the start of dyarchy in Iberia which would last for five generations.