Sophene and Gordyene

Abstract Sophene and Gordyene crop up more than once as disputed territories in the various intrigues and negotiations concerning the disposal of Tigranes’ vast and transient empire. Sophene was indubitably Armenian. Two principalities broke loose from Seleucid control after the defeat of Antiochus the Great by the Romans, Armenia proper ruled by Artaxias, Sophene by Zariadres. The last ruler of the latter dynasty, Artanes, was deposed by Tigranes, who annexed Sophene. In his southward expansion towards Mesopotamia Tigranes also brought under his sway Gordyene, a Parthian vassal state. A king of that land, Zarbienus, was won over by the diplomatic arts of the envoy Ap. Claudius Pulcher in 70 B.C., suppressed in time by Tigranes, and posthumously honoured by Lucullus with a magnificent funeral.