Research Notes:

Vonones II was a Parthian prince who served as a King of Media Atropatene and briefly as King of the Parthian Empire.

Vonones was not from the ruling branch of the Arsacid royal family; his father was a Dahae prince, who was most likely descended from the former Arsacid monarch Mithridates II (r. 124–88 BC), whilst his mother was a daughter of the incumbent Arsacid King of Kings Phraates IV (r. 37–2 BC). Vonones II's brother was the Parthian King Artabanus II. Vonones II was the namesake of his maternal relative Vonones I, as he was born and raised in the Parthian Empire.

From about 11 until 51, Vonones II served as a King of Media Atropatene, a period about which little is known.

After the death of his nephew Gotarzes II, Vonones II was raised to the Parthian Kingship in 51. However, he died a few months into his reign and was succeeded by his son, Vologases I. Tacitus wrote that Vonones II “knew neither success nor failure which have deserved to be remembered to him. It was a short and inglorious reign”.

Vonones II had 3 sons who held the thrones of Parthia, Media Atropatene and Armenia: Pacorus, Vologases I, and Tiridates I. His sons were born and raised during his Kingship of Media Atropatene. ¹

-------------------------------

Wikipedia ... gives a list of children of Artavasdes I which includes as the third child a son, Darius II, who is said to have married a Parthian Arsacid princess, who bore him Artabanus III [II] and Vonones II of Parthia. Darius II as the father of Artabanus II and Vonones II of Media Atropatene and Parthia is a conjectural reconstruction made in 1991 by Christian Settipani in Nos ancêtres de l’Antiquité.

In 1996 Stewart Baldwin criticized this proposal toward the end of a long message to this forum.... Stewart's critique is introduced by “What about other possibilities. The other main one which has been suggested has been through the kings of Commagene.” Stewart implied that he was not comfortable with hypothesizing an otherwise unattested son of Artavasdes I, but said that the crucial question (re linking to the Seleucids) was whether the father (whatever his name) of Artabanus and Vonones was a son of Artavasdes I and a Commagenian princess.

Christian wrote a response in French to Stewart's various points later in 1996 as part of an addenda and corrigenda for his book. Bennett posted a three-part English translation of this response in 1998... Christian defended in detail some of the proposals criticized by Stewart, but later, as I recall, conceded that Artabanus and Vonones might well be sons of Ariobarzanes II of Media Atropatene, a known son of Artavasdes I.

Since that discussion several publications have dealt with the paternity of Artabanus and Vonones. See, e.g., Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2014). "The genealogy of Artabanos II (AD 8/9–39/40), King of Parthia," in Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica 15 (3): 92–97.... Olbrycht cites both older and more recent studies, and among these studies there are a number of different hypotheses about the father of Artabanus and Vonones.

One hypothesis is that Artabanus and Vonones were the sons of a Hyrcanian (Scythian), perhaps an underking, based on Tacitus's comment, Annals 2.3, that Artabanus “had grown to manhood among the Dahae” (a Scythian tribe).

Another hypothesis is that Artabanus and Vonones belonged to the royal family of Media Atropatene, since both of them were kings of Media Atropatene before becoming kings of Parthia. (Schottky's 1991 article proposes that they were children of a Darius who was a son of Darius I, the Darius mentioned by Appian as having fought Pompey in 65 or 64 BC. Schottky's 1998 colloquium contribution further explores connections between Parthia, Media Atropatene and Hyrkania.)

A third hypothesis, sometimes combined with the first one, is that Artabanus and Vonones, as kings of Parthia, must have been Arsacid in the male line (in addition to the female line). One supporter of the combination of the first and third hypotheses is Olbrycht; he believes that Artabanus sprang from an Arsacid branch (descended from Mithradates II) which held power in Hyrcania, east of the Caspian Sea. He may be correct, though perhaps not because of the reasoning in his article, much of which I find unconvincing.

Thus, the Wikipedia article does not mention the significant number of alternate proposals for the paternity of Artabanus and Vonones but instead leads the reader to believe that there is no reason to doubt that they are sons of Darius II, son of Artavasdes I... ²