Cappadocia was a province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia (modern central-eastern Turkey), with its capital at Caesarea. It was established in 17 AD by the Emperor Tiberius (ruled 14–37 AD), following the death of Cappadocia's last king, Archelaus.
Cappadocia was an imperial province, meaning that its governor (legatus Augusti) was directly appointed by the emperor. During the latter 1st century, the province also incorporated the regions of Pontus and Armenia Minor.
Contents
History
Roman ally
Prior to direct imperial rule, Cappadocia was one of the successor kingdoms of Alexander the Great's empire. The Kingdom of Cappadocia was ruled by the Ariarathid dynasty from 331 BC until 95 BC. Under Ariarathes IV, Cappadocia first came into contact with the Roman Republic as a foe allied to the Seleucid King Antiochus the Great during the Roman–Seleucid War from 192 to 188 BC.
Following Rome's victory over Antiochus, Ariarathes IV entered friendly relations with the Republic by betrothing his daughter to the king of Pergamum, a Roman ally. The Ariarathid kings would thereafter become a major ally of Rome in the East. The kingdom supported the Republic as a counterweight against the Seleucid Empire, which claimed dominion over the Cappadocian kingdom. Cappadocia would also support Rome in the Third Macedonian War against Perseus of Macedon from 171 to 166 BC. Rome's defeat of the Seleucids and Macedonia established the Republic as a major power in the eastern Mediterranean.
When King Attalus III (138–133 BC) died without an heir in 133 BC, he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Eumenes III claimed the Pergamon throne, occupying the territory. In 130 BC, Cappadocian king Ariarathes V supported the Roman Consul Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus in his failed attempt to overthrow Eumenes III. Both Crassus and Ariarathes V fell in battle against Eumenes III. Ariarathes V's death resulted in his minor son, Ariarathes VI, occupying the Cappadocian throne.
King Mithridates V of Pontus exerted control over Cappadocia by betrothing his daughter Laodice to Ariarathes VI. Mithridates V would later launch a military invasion of Cappadocia, forming the kingdom into a protectorate of the Kingdom of Pontus. Though nominally independent, Pontic influence over Cappadocia was continued by his son Mithridates VI of Pontus.
In 116 BC, the Cappadocian king Ariarathes VI was murdered by the Cappadocian noble Gordius on orders from Mithridates VI. Mithridates VI then installed his sister Laodice, Ariarathes VI's widow, as regent over for the infant Ariarathes VII, further solidifying Pontic control over the kingdom. After King Nicomedes III of Bithynia married Laodice, he tried to annex Cappadocia into his kingdom and deposed Ariarathes VII. Mithridates VI swiftly invaded, expelling Nicomedes III from the region, restoring his nephew Ariarathes VII to the Cappadocian throne, and returning Cappadocia to Pontus's sphere of influence.
The Pontic king would later have Ariarathes VII murdered in 101 BC, with Mirthridates VI installing his eight-year-old son Ariarathes IX on the Cappadocian throne as his puppet king. As a child, Ariarathes IX was unable to maintain control of the kingdom, with the Cappadocian nobles rebelling against his rule in 97 BC and naming Ariarathes VIII, son of the murdered Ariarathes VII, as king. Mithridates quickly put down the rebellion, exiled Arirarathes VIII, and restored his son to the Cappadocian throne.
Roman client kingdom (95 BC – 14 AD)
In response to the turmoil in Cappadocia, in 95 BC king Nicomedes III of Bithynia sent an embassy to Rome, claiming dominion over the kingdom. Mithridates VI of Pontus likewise sent an embassy to Rome, seeking Roman approval of his dominion over Cappadocia. The Roman Senate, however, did not assign the kingdom to either.
Instead, the Senate demanded both Pontus and Bithynia withdraw from Cappadocia and guarantee its independence. The Senate ordered Ariarathes IX deposed. With military support from the Roman governor of Cilicia Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Ariobarzanes I was installed as king of Cappadocia. With Ariobarzanes I installed on the throne in 95 BC, Cappadocia became a client kingdom under the Roman Republic.
In 93 BC, troops from Armenia under Tigranes the Great, son-in-law of Mithridates VI, invaded Cappadocia at the behest of the Pontic king. Tigranes dethroned Ariobarzanes I, who fled to Rome, and crowned Gordius as the new client-king of Cappadocia. With Cappadocia as a client kingdom under Armenia, Tigranes created a buffer zone between his kingdom and the expanding Roman Republic.
With Cappadocia secured, Mithridates invaded Bithynia, defeating king Nicomedes IV in 90 BC. Nicomedes IV was forced to flee to Italy. A Senatorial delegation was sent east to restore both Nicomedes IV and Ariobarzanes I to their respective kingdoms. Though the Social War was still raging in Italy, Rome was able to successfully restore both kings due to the Republic's growing influence in the region.
In 89 BC, after having made peace arrangement with Rome and with Ariobarzanes I restored to the Cappadocian throne, Mithridates VI again invaded Cappadocia, reinstalling his son Ariarathes IX as puppet-king under Pontic rule. Mithridates's actions in Cappadocia sparked the First Mithridatic War (89–85 BC) between Rome and Pontus and its ally Armenia.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla assumed command of the Roman war effort in 87 BC and soundly defeated Mithridates VI and his allies in 85 BC. His attention needed in Rome due to rising political challenges, Sulla imposed mild terms on Mithridates VI: Mithridates was to relinquish his control over Bithynia and Cappadocia, reinstating Ariobarzanes I and Nicomedies IV as Roman client-kings. In return, Rome allowed Mithridates VI to retain his rule over Pontus.
Roman province
Cappadocia remained an important and trusted eastern client kingdom under Emperor Augustus's reign. Rome's policy towards Cappadocia changed, however, following Augustus's death in 14 AD and the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Years earlier, Tiberius had been slighted by Archelaus when the Cappadocian king showed favor to Gaius Caesar, one of Augustus's grandsons and chief heirs. While Tiberius was in retirement on the Greek island of Rhodes from 6 BC to 2 AD, though the nominal commander of the Eastern half of the Empire, in 1 BC Archelaus recognized Gaius Caesar, then a military commander subordinate to Tiberius, as Augustus's true representative. Though Gaius Caesar was Augustus's preferred successor, his death in 4 AD while on military campaign in Armenia forced Augustus to adopt Tiberius and name him as his successor.
Assuming the Imperial throne in 14 AD, Tiberius set about a change in Rome's eastern policy. Wanting direct access to Cappadocia's resources and seeking to reduce Archelaus, Tiberius summoned Archelaus to Rome in 17 AD. At the time, Archelaus had governed Cappadocia as Rome's client king for over fifty-years. When he arrived in Rome, Tiberius accused Archelaus of harboring revolutionary schemes and imprisoned him, where he died of natural causes soon thereafter.
Sending his adoptive son Germanicus to oversee Rome's affairs in the East, Tiberius then annexed Cappadocia directly into the Empire by reducing the kingdom into a Roman province. Tiberius awarded rule of the Roman client kingdom of Armenia to Archelaus's step-son Artaxias III and rule of the Roman client kingdom of Cilicia to Archelaus's son Archelaus II. Arriving in the East in 18 AD, Germanicus solidified Roman control over Cappadocia and the region. Under orders from the Emperor, Germanicus also annexing Cappadocia's southeastern neighbor, the client kingdom of Commagene, into the Empire as a part of the province of Syria.
For much the 1st century AD, Polemon II of Pontus ruled as a Roman client king over the remnants of the former kingdom of Pontus (Lesser Armenia and Colchis). However, in 62 AD, the Roman Emperor Nero deposed him and annexed his kingdom into direct imperial ruled by incorporating his former territory into Cappadocia.
Bording the Euphrates river to the east, Cappadocia was the most eastern province of the Empire. Its capital, Caesarea (modern Kayseri), was located in more central Anatolia, further back from the Parthian frontier. Upon annexation, the province was governed by a governor of Equestrian rank with the title Procurator. The Procurators commanded only auxiliary military units and looked to the Senatorial ranked Imperial Legate of Syria for direction.
Later developments
In the period 535–553, under emperor Justinian I, the two provinces were rejoined into a single unit under a proconsul. Throughout late Roman times, the region was subject to raids by the Isaurians, leading to the fortification of local cities. During the war of 602–628, the region was briefly captured by the Sassanid Empire. Following the eruption of the Muslim conquests, repeated raids devastated the region, which became a frontier zone under the new Byzantine themata of Anatolikon and Armeniakon.