Cappadocia in 218 B.C.

Cappadocia — Spring 218 BC · A Boy-King Beneath the Volcano.

A highland kingdom of inner Anatolia, ruled in 218 BC by the Ariarathid dynasty that traced its blood to the Persian Achaemenids. A land of volcanic uplands and horse-pastures, of feudal barons over a peasantry and of immense temple-states ruled by priest-princes, it has few Greek-style cities — Mazaca beneath the great volcano Argaeus being the chief. Its boy-king Ariarathes IV Eusebes rules under the long shadow of the Seleucids, to whose house he is now joined by marriage.

Cappadocia in 218 BC is a kingdom of the interior — cut off from the sea, ringed by the Taurus and the Pontic ranges, its plateau broken by the snow-crowned cone of Mount Argaeus. On its throne sits a child, Ariarathes IV Eusebes, "the Pious," raised to the diadem about 220 BC and ruling through his guardians. The dynasty has long lived in the Seleucid orbit, and the bond is now sealed by blood: the young king is given Antiochis, daughter of Antiochus III, in marriage. Beyond the royal court the real power of the land is scattered among baronial houses and, above all, the priest-kings of the temple-states, whose sacred domains command thousands of servants and rival the crown itself.