Kingdom of Sophene
Kingdom of Sophene | |||||||||||
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3rd century BC–95 BC | |||||||||||
Kingdom of Armenia | |||||||||||
Capital | Karkathiokerta Arsamosata | ||||||||||
Common languages | Imperial Aramaic (government, court)[1][2] Armenian (lingua franca)[2] | ||||||||||
Religion | Zoroastrianism[3] | ||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||
King | |||||||||||
• c. 260 BC | Sames I | ||||||||||
• c. 95 BC | Artanes | ||||||||||
Historical era | Hellenistic Age | ||||||||||
• Established | 3rd century BC | ||||||||||
• Conquered by Tigranes the Great | 95 BC | ||||||||||
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The Kingdom of Sophene (
Name
The name Sophene is thought to derive from the ethnonym Ṣuppani, a people who lived in the region in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE and appear in Hittite and Assyrian sources.[4] According to historian Nicholas Adontz, the Ancient Greek Sōphēnḗ was coined after the Armenian Tsop’k’, which stems directly from Ṣuppani.[4]
History
The Kingdom of Sophene was ruled by the Orontid dynasty of Iranian origin,[8] which was descended from Orontes I, a Bactrian nobleman who was the son-in-law of the Achaemenid King of Kings Artaxerxes II (r. 404–358 BC).[9] According to the Greek writer Strabo (died 24 AD) in his Geographica, Sophene first emerged as a distinct kingdom under Zariadres (fl. 190 BC), who was installed as its ruler by the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great (r. 222–187 BC). He further adds that following the defeat of Antiochus III against the Romans, Zariadres declared independence.[10] However this report is strongly contradicted by epigraphic and numismatic evidence.[9][11]
Sophene most likely emerged as distinct kingdom in the 3rd-century BC, during the gradual decline of Seleucid influence in the Near East and the split of the Orontid dynasty into several branches. Three rulers belonging to a different Orontid branch, Sames I, Arsames I and Xerxes ruled the western part of Greater Armenia, perhaps from Commagene to Arzanene.[12] Following the death of Zariadres, his son Artaxias I claimed the right to rule over Sophene based on his succession rights (primogeniture). However, the younger line in Sophene managed to preserve the independence of their kingdom, due to their diplomatic (and possibly dynastic) link with Cappadocia. Three known successors of Zariadres are known, which were Mithrobouzanes, Arkathias, and Arsakes.[13]
The kingdom's capital was
Sophene was autonomous for the majority of the 2nd century BC. Change first occurred with the arrival of the Parthian Empire, who under the King of Kings Mithridates II (r. 124–91 BC) forced Sophene to recognize their suzerainty.[15] Sophene was conquered by the King of Greater Armenia, Tigranes II the Great c. 95 BCE, but Tigranes lost control over Sophene c. 69 BCE during his war with Rome.[16] After Tigranes II was defeated by the Romans, Pompey installed Tigranes' son Tigranes the Younger as ruler of Sophene, then ceded the kingdom to Ariobarzanes I of Cappadocia.[16] It is debated whether after 66 BCE Sophene came back under Greater Armenian control or became a part of Cappadocia.[13] Around 54 CE, the Romans installed Sohaemus of Emesa as King of Sophene.[17] After this, Sophene reverted to Armenian control and was ruled as an Armenian province.[18] Branches of the Orontid dynasty continued to rule parts of Sophene after it was annexed by Greater Armenia.[18]
Religion and culture
The Orontid dynasty in Sophene practiced Zoroastrianism.[3] According to modern historian Michał Marciak, the well-attested existence of Iranian culture in Sophene could be understood as a derivation of Greater Armenia and indirectly from Iran. However, he also adds that the strong existence of Iranian culture might have influenced Roman and Greek writers to regard the region as Armenian.[19] The Orontids were involved or revived certain local practices of their Persian satrapal descendants to make their small realm stand out.[20] Furthermore, with the names of the royal members of the family including the names of their newfound cities, the Orontids emphasized their Achaemenid and Orontid royal dynastic aspirations, and also their Iranian cultural background. This included names such as Xerxes and Arsames, common amongst the Achaemenid dynasty and the Persian elite. The name of "Sames" is possibly derived from the Avestan name Sāma, the father of the Avestan hero Garshasp, which would indicate some sort of custom of Iranian religious or epic lore amongst the Orontids.[20]
Iranian cults were popular in Sophene amongst the nobility, who gave themselves theophoric Iranian names, and the peasantry, who sacrificed horses in the name of the goddess
Architecture
The Orontids founded cities such as
The royal tombs erected by the Orontids played a role in the evolution of several Middle Iranian traditions. They created them in the style of a rock-cut tomb, thus greatly stressing their Persian royal connection, as well as recalling the stories of the Achaemenid necropolis near Persepolis.[25]
Coinage
Similar to the early
Language
Kings of Sophene
- Sames I (ca. 260 BCE)
- Arsames I (ca. 240 BCE)
- Xerxes (ca. 220 BCE)
- Zariadres (ca. 190 BCE)
- Mithrobouzanes (ca. 188 BCE–163 BCE)
- Arkathias (second half of the 2nd century BCE)
- Artanes (or Arsakes) (reign ended ca. 95 BCE)
References
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 117–118.
- ^ a b c Chaumont 1986, pp. 418–438.
- ^ a b Boyce & Grenet 1991, p. 320.
- ^ a b c d Marciak 2017, p. 77.
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 61.
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 95.
- ^ Lacey 2016, p. 109.
- ^ Facella 2021; Sartre 2005, p. 23; Strootman 2020, pp. 205, 210; Michels 2021, p. 485; Toumanoff 1963, p. 278; Garsoian 2005; Gaggero 2016, p. 79; Russell 1986, pp. 438–444; Drower et al. 2021; Olbrycht 2021, p. 38; Ball 2002, pp. 31, 436; Canepa 2015, p. 80
- ^ a b Facella 2021.
- ^ Marciak 2017, pp. 113, 117.
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 123.
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 157.
- ^ a b Marciak 2017, p. 158.
- ^ Sinclair 1989, pp. 112, 196, 358.
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 128.
- ^ a b Marciak 2017, p. 130.
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 159.
- ^ a b Toumanoff 1963, p. 166-167.
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 112.
- ^ a b Canepa 2018, p. 109.
- ^ Marciak 2017, pp. 97–98, 111.
- ^ Marciak 2017, pp. 57, 97–98, 111.
- ^ Canepa 2021, p. 88.
- ^ a b Canepa 2021, p. 82.
- ^ Canepa 2018, p. 227.
- ^ a b Canepa 2017, p. 207.
- ^ Canepa 2018, p. 252.
- ^ Canepa 2017, pp. 207–208.
Sources
- Babaie, Sussan; Grigor, Talinn (2015). Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–288. ISBN 9780857734778.
- Ball, Warwick (2002). Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge. ISBN 9781134823871.
- ISBN 978-9004293915.
- ISBN 9780857734778.
- ISBN 9780520379206.
- Canepa, Matthew P. (2017). "Rival Images of Iranian Kingship and Persian Identity in Post-Achaemenid Western Asia". In Strootman, Rolf; Versluys, Miguel John (eds.). Persianism in Antiquity. Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 201–223. ISBN 978-3515113823.
- Canepa, Matthew (2021). "Commagene Before and Beyond Antiochos I". Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods: Commagene in its Local, Regional, and Global Context. Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 71–103. ISBN 978-3515129251.
- Chaumont, M. L. (1986). "Armenia Iran ii. The pre-Islamic period". In ISBN 978-0-71009-104-8.
- Drower, M; Grey, E.; Sherwin-White, S.; Wiesehöfer, J. (2021). "Armenia". Oxford Classical Dictionary. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
- Erskine, Andrew; Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd; Wallace, Shane (2017). The Hellenistic Court: Monarchic Power and Elite Society from Alexander to Cleopatra. The Classical Press of Wales. ISBN 978-1910589625.
- Facella, Margherita (2021). "Orontids". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
- Gaggero, Gianfranco (2016). "Armenians in Xenophon". Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach. De Gruyter.
The above mentioned Orontids..[..]..but also because the two satraps who were contemporaries of Xenophon's are explicitly stated to be Persian.
- Garsoian, Nina (2005). "Tigran II". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- Lacey, James (2016). Great Strategic Rivalries: From the Classical World to the Cold War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9789004350724.
- ISBN 978-90-04-35072-4.
- Michels, Christoph (2021). "'Achaemenid' and 'Hellenistic' Strands of Representation in the Minor Kingdoms of Asia Minor". Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods: Commagene in its Local, Regional, and Global Context. Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 475–496. ISBN 978-3515129251.
- Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2021). Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250-165 B.C.). Brill. ISBN 978-9004460751.
- Russell, J. R. (1986). "Armenia and Iran iii. Armenian Religion". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 4. pp. 438–444.
- Sartre, Maurice (2005). The Middle East Under Rome. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674016835.
- Sinclair, T. A. (1989). Eastern Turkey, an Architectural and Archaeological survey. Vol. 3. The Pindar Press.
- Strootman, Rolf (2020). "Hellenism and Persianism in Iran". Dabir. 7: 201–227. hdl:1874/408015.
- Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Georgetown University Press.