Kingdom of Commagene

The Kingdom of Commagene was a small Greco-Iranian state in the upper Euphrates region, centred on the city of Samosata in what is now south-eastern Turkey. It was ruled by a Hellenised branch of the Orontid dynasty, which claimed descent from Persian and Armenian kings, and it functioned as a buffer between Armenia, Parthia, Syria and Rome. Commagene had formed part of a larger state with Sophene until about 163 BC, when the local satrap Ptolemaeus declared himself independent after the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The kingdom remained independent until 17 AD, when Tiberius made it a Roman province; it was restored under Antiochus IV by Caligula and Claudius, and finally annexed by Vespasian in 72 AD. Its most famous monument is the hierothesion on Mount Nemrut, where Antiochus I Theos set up colossal statues of syncretistic Greek and Iranian deities. Commagene thus preserves an unusual fusion of Hellenistic and Persian royal culture.