For the kingdom, see Kingdom of Sophene.

Ծոփք Province of Greater Armenia 189 BC–530 AD Capital Arshamashat History  - Artaxias I declaring himself independent 189 BC  - Included into the province of Armenia 530 AD

Map showing Sophene right as it became a province of the Armenian Empire under Tigranes the Great.

Sophene (Armenian: Ծոփք Copʿkʿ, Ancient Greek: Σωφηνή Sōphēnē or Armenian: Չորրորդ Հայք, English: Fourth Armenia) was a province of the Armenian Kingdom and of the Roman Empire, located in the south-west of the kingdom. It currently lies in modern-day southeastern Turkey. ^[1]

The region that was to become Sophene was part of the kingdom of Ararat (Urartu) in the 8th-7th centuries BC. After unifying the region with his kingdom in the early 700s BC, king Argishtis I of Urartu resettled many of its inhabitants to his newly built city of Erebuni (modern day Armenian capital Yerevan). Around 600 BC, Sophene became part of the newly emerged ancient Armenian Kingdom of the Orontids.

According to Anania Shirakatsi's Ashkharatsuyts ("World Atlas," 7th century), Tsopk (Sophene) was the 2nd among the 15 provinces of Greater Armenia. It consisted of 8 cantons (gavars):

• Khordzyan
• Hashtyank
• Paghnatun
• Balahovit
• Tsopk (Shahunyats)
• Andzit,
• Degiq
• Gavreq (Goreq).^[2]

After Alexander the Great's campaigns in 330s BC and the subsequent collapse of the Achaemenid Empire, Sophene remained part of the newly independent kingdom of Greater Armenia. In the early 200s BC, at the instigation of the Seleucid Empire, which was trying to weaken the Armenian kingdom, Sophene, split from Greater Armenia, forming the Kingdom of Sophene. The kingdom was ruled by a branch of the Armenian royal dynasty of Orontids. Sophene later split from the Sophene-Commagene kingdom as well, forming an independent kingdom. Commagene was part of Sophene at this time.

Around 200 BC, in his attempt to finally subjugate Armenia, Seleucian king Antiochus III conquered both Greater Armenia and Sophene, installing Armenian generals Artaxias I and Zariadres as governors-strategoses respectively in each kingdom. Following Antiochus' defeat by Romans at the battle of Magnesia in 190 BC, both Zareh and Artashes declared themselves independent kings. Zareh and his descendants ruled the kingdom of Sophene until it was reunified with Greater Armenia by Tigranes the Great in the 80s BC.

Roman province of Sophene, in the year 120

Pompey gave Sophene to Tigranes, after defeating his father Tigranes the Great.^[3] Sophene later become part of the Roman Empire, and was made into a province of the Roman Empire. The capital was Amida (modern Diyarbakır). Around 54, the province was ruled by Sohaemus of Emesa.^[4]

In 530, Sophene was included into the province of Armenia IV.^[5]

Armenian population remained until 1915's Armenian Genocide.^[6]

See also[link]

• Kingdom of Sophene

References[link]

v t e Regions of Kingdom of Armenia Traditional provinces or Ashkhars Upper Armenia Sophene Aghdznik Turuberan Moxoene Corduene Parskahayk Vaspurakan Syunik Artsakh Paytakaran Utik Gugark Tayk Ayrarat Other Armenian regions Armenian Mesopotamia Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia Lesser Armenia Hamshen Commagene Karin Mardali Nor-Shirakan Taron Provinces during the reign of Tigranes the Great Armenian Mesopotamia Atropatene Adiabene Assyria Iberia Albania Cappadocia Cilicia Judea Osroene Parthia Syria

v t e Provinces of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent (117 AD) Achaea Aegyptus Africa Alpes Cottiae Alpes Maritimae Alpes Poeninae Arabia Petraea Armenia Asia Assyria Bithynia et Pontus Britannia Cappadocia Cilicia Corsica et Sardinia Creta et Cyrenaica Cyprus Dacia Dalmatia Epirus Galatia Gallia Aquitania Gallia Belgica Gallia Lugdunensis Gallia Narbonensis Germania Inferior Germania Superior Hispania Baetica Hispania Tarraconensis Italia Iudaea Lusitania Lycia et Pamphylia Macedonia Mauretania Caesariensis Mauretania Tingitana Mesopotamia Moesia Inferior Moesia Superior Noricum Pannonia Inferior Pannonia Superior Raetia Sicilia Syria Thracia