Cappadocia (Roman province)

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Provincia Cappadocia ἐπαρχία Καππαδοκίας
imperial province of Cappadocia highlighted.
Capital	Caesarea (modern-day Kayseri, Turkey)
Historical era	Antiquity
• Annexed by Emperor Tiberius	18 AD
• Thematic reorganization	7th Century
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Cappadocia Armeniac Theme
Today part of	Turkey

Cappadocia was a

.

Cappadocia was an

Armenia Minor

.

History

Asia Minor

from 188 BC until 63 BC.

Roman ally

Prior to direct imperial rule, Cappadocia was one of the successor kingdoms of

Roman–Seleucid War

from 192 to 188 BC.

Following Rome's victory over Antiochus, Ariarathes IV entered friendly relations with the Republic by betrothing his daughter to the king of

from 171 to 166 BC. Rome's defeat of the Selecuids and Macedonia established the Republic as a major power in the eastern Mediterranean.

When King

Ariarathes VI

, occupying the Cappadocian throne.

King

Mithridates VI of Pontus

.

In 116 BC, the Cappadocian king Ariarathes VI was murdered by the Cappadocian noble

.

The Pontic king would later have Ariarathes VII murdered in 101 BC, with Mirthridates VI installing his eight-year-old son

Ariarathes VIII

, son of the murdered Ariarathes VII, as king. Mithridates quickly put down the rebellion, exiled Arirarathes VIII, and restored his son to the Cappadocian throne.

Roman client kingdom (95 BC-14 AD)

In response to the turmoil in Cappadocia, in 95 BC king

, however, did not assign the kingdom to either.

Instead, the Senate demanded both Pontus and Bithynia withdraw from Cappadocia and guarantee its independence. The Senate ordered Ariarathes IX deposed. With military support from the

.

In 93 BC, troops from

client kingdom

under Armenia, Tigranes created a buffer zone between his kingdom and the expanding Roman Republic.

With Cappadocia secured, Mithridates invaded

Social War

was still raging in Italy, Rome was able to successfully restore both kings due to the Republic's growing influence in the region.

Mithridatic Wars (88-63 BC)

In 89 BC, after having made peace arrangement with Rome and with Ariobarzanes I restored to the Cappadocian throne, Mithridates VI again invaded Cappadocia, reinstalling his son Ariarathes IX as puppet-king under Pontic rule. Mithridates' actions in Cappadocia sparked the First Mithridatic War (89-85 BC) between Rome and Pontus and its ally Armenia.

assumed command of the Roman war effort in 87 BC and soundly defeated Mithridates VI and his allies in 85 BC. His attention needed in Rome due to rising political challenges, Sulla imposed mild terms on Mithridates VI: Mithridates was to relinquish his control over Bithynia and Cappadocia, reinstating Ariobarzanes I and Nicomedies IV as Roman client-kings. In return, Rome allowed Mithridates VI to retain his rule over Pontus.

When Nicomedes IV died in 74 BC, he bequeathed Bithynia to the Roman Republic. His death caused a power vacuum in Asia Minor, allowing Mithridates VI to invade and conquer the leaderless kingdom. With Mirthidates VI again having designs on Roman protectorates in Asia Minor, including Cappadocia, Rome launched the Third Mithridatic War to end the Pontic threat. Dispatching Consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus to Asia, Rome drove Pontus and its ally Armenia out of Asia proper, reasserting Roman dominance over the Asian client kingdoms by 71 BC and conquering Pontus in the process. When Mithridates VI fled to Armenia, Lucullus invaded the kingdom in 69 BC.

Despite initial successes, Lucullus was unable to decisively end the war. By 66 BC, Mithridates VI and Tigranes were able to retake their respective kingdoms and Lucullus was recalled to Rome. The Senate then sent

, bringing the war to an effective end in 65 BC.

When Machares refused to launch a new war against Rome, Mithridates VI had him killed and assumed the Bosporan throne for himself. While Mithridates VI was eager to fight the Romans once more, his youngest son Pharnaces II of Pontus was not and plotted to remove his father from power. His plans were discovered, but the army, not wishing to engage Pompey and his armies, supported Pharnaces. They marched on Mithridates VI and forced their former king to take his own life in 63 BC. Pharnaces II quickly sent an embassy to Pompey with offers of submission. Pompey accepted Pharnaces II's submission and, in returned, named Pharnaces II as the Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom.

With Mithridates VI absent from Asia Minor, Pompey officially annexed Bithynia, Pontus, and Cilicia in the Roman Republic as provinces. Invading Armenia in 64 BC, Tigranes surrendered to Pompey and become a

as the new Roman client king of Cappadocia.

Ariobarzanes II reigned as Rome's client king until 51 BC when he was assassinated by forces loyal to the neighboring

Mithridates VI

, from Cappadocia.

Roman civil wars

Cappadocia became an important player during the

.

With the Romans were distracted by civil war,

.

After the defeating the Ptolemaic forces at the

. In return, Caesar named Asander as the kingdom's new Roman client king. Caesar then incorporated Lesser Armenia into Cappadocia to serve as a buffer from Rome's interests in Asia Minor against future Eastern aggression.

Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC, by the members of the Roman Senate, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus chief among them. The "Liberators" then fled from Italy, assuming command of the Republic's eastern provinces and the eastern client kingdoms, including Cappadocia, in 43 BC. When Ariobarzanes III objected to the level of Roman intervention into his kingdom, Cassius had him executed and installed his younger brother Ariarathes X upon the Cappadocian throne in 42 BC. Later that year, following the defeat of Brutus and Cassius by the Second Triumvirate at the Battle of Philippi, Triumvir Mark Antony assumed command of the Eastern provinces and client kingdoms. In 36 BC, Antony executed Ariarathes X and installed Archelaus as the new Cappadocian client king.

The Second Triumvirate expired in 33 BC, ending Antony's legal right to govern the Eastern half of the Republic. With the Triumvirate lapsed, the struggle for dominance between Antony and

from Greece to Egypt, Cappadocian king Archelaus and the other Eastern client kings declared their loyal to Octavian. In return, Octavian allowed him and the other client kings to remain on their thrones.

When Octavian became "Augustus" as the first

.

Roman province

During the Principate

Cappadocia remained an important and trusted eastern client kingdom under

from 6 BC to 2 AD, though the nominal commander of the Eastern half of the Empire, in 1 BC Archelaus recognized Gaius Caesar, then a military commander subordinate to Tiberius, as Augustus' true representative. Though Gaius Caesar was Augustus' preferred successor, his death in 4 AD while on military campaign in Armenia forced Augustus to adopt Tiberius and name him as his successor.

Assuming the Imperial throne in 14 AD, Tiberius set about a change in Rome's eastern policy. Wanting direct access to Cappadocia's resources and seeking to reduce Archelaus, Tiberius summoned Archelaus to Rome in 17 AD. At the time, Archelaus had governed Cappadocia as Rome's client king for over fifty-years. When he arrived in Rome, Tiberius accused Archelaus of harboring revolutionary schemes and imprisoned him, where he died of natural causes soon thereafter.

Sending his adoptive son

.

For much the 1st century AD,

deposed him and annexed his kingdom into direct imperial ruled by incorporating his former territory into Cappadocia.

Bording the

of Syria for direction.

Following the

.

The first Cappadocian to be admitted to the Roman Senate was Tiberius Claudius Gordianus, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius during the middle second century AD.^[1]

During the Dominate

Following the provincial reorganization of

spent his early years at a remote estate, Macellum. Class divisions between the landowning class and the urban and rural poor were extreme, as was also the climate of this upland plateau.

In the late 330s, the eastern half of the province was split off to form the provinces of Armenia Prima and Armenia Secunda. In 371, emperor Valens split off the south-western region around Tyana, which became Cappadocia Secunda under a praeses, while the remainder became Cappadocia Prima, still under a consularis.

Cappadocia during this period saw a generation of Christian thinkers, the most prominent of whom were

.

Later developments

In the period 535–553, under emperor

Armeniakon

.

See also

• Roman governors of Cappadocia

References

38°40′14″N 34°50′21″E / 38.6706°N 34.8392°E / 38.6706; 34.8392