Armeniaca Place
Sophene
- Armenian
- Ծոփք
- Region
- Southwestern Armenia
Sophene, called Tsopk in Armenian, was a province in the southwest of historic Armenia. Its rulers were of Persian origin and were vassals of the Seleucid kings.1 Its capital was Arshamashat, called Arsamosata in Greek.21
The ruler Zariadris added the districts of Acilisene and Taraunitis, which is Taron, to his lands. Tigranes the Great later took Sophene from its king Artanes and joined it to Greater Armenia. Pompey gave it to Tigranes the Younger as an appanage, the lands given to a king’s son.1 By the Treaty of Nisibis in 297 it was given up to Rome.1
Sophene is the second of the fifteen provinces of Greater Armenia.2
Sources
- “Armenia and Iran ii: The Pre-Islamic Period.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. link. ↩
- Danielyan, Eduard. “Fundamental Characteristics of Physical and Political Geography of Armenia: The Armenian Highland.” Fundamental Armenology 1 (7), 2018. Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. link. ↩