Sophene in 218 B.C.

Sophene — Spring 218 BC · An Orontid March on the Euphrates.

A small mountainous Armenian kingdom of the upper Euphrates and Tigris — Tsopk to its own people — ruled in 218 BC by a branch of the ancient Orontid house as a vassal of the Seleucid crown. Hemmed in by Greater Armenia, Cappadocia, Commagene and the great king’s satrapies, Sophene is a hard highland marchland: a chain of fortresses on the river passes, prized less for its wealth than for the roads and crossings it commands between Anatolia and Mesopotamia.

In 218 BC Sophene is an autonomous Armenian kingdom under its own Orontid line, holding the upper Euphrates from its fortress-capital at Arsamosata. Nominally a vassal of Antiochus III, it has so far kept its mountains and its dynasty largely to itself while the great king’s armies are far away in Coele-Syria. That respite will not last: within a few years Antiochus will turn east and march on Arsamosata itself, and the young ruler of these highlands, Xerxes, will be made to come out from his walls and submit. For now Sophene watches the passes — proud, defensible and waiting.