The Aramaeans of north Syria are the next to be attacked by Tiglath-Pileser, and he thrice makes his way as far as the sources of the Tigris.

Artaxias and Zariadres unite their efforts to enlarge their domains at the expense of neighboring areas; they are considered the creators of historical Armenia.

The Greek geographer Strabo names the capital of Sophene as Carcathiocerta, identified as the now abandoned town-site of Egil on the Tigris river north of Diyarbakir.

However, its largest settlement and only true city is Arsamosata, located further to the north and founded in the third century BCE.

(Much of the site, which is not to be confused with Samosata, now lies submerged under the waters of the Keban dam.

Though the kingdom's rulers are Armenian, the ethnicity of the kingdom is mixed, having a population of Armenian descent and a population of Semitic descent, infiltrating from the South, a situation that will still exist at the time of the Crusades.

Amid(a), also known by various names throughout its long history, had been established as an Assyrian settlement, circa the third millennium BCE.

The oldest artifact from Amida (modern Diyarbakir, Turkey) is the famous stele of king Naram-Sin, also believed to be from third millennia BCE.

The name Amida first appears in the writings of Assyrian King Adad Nirari who ruled the city from about 1310 to 1281 BCE as a part of the Assyrian homeland, of which Amida had remained an important region throughout the reign of king Tiglath-Pileser-I (1114–1076 BCE).

The name Amida appeared in the annals of Assyrian rulers until 705 BCE, and also appears in the archives of Armenian king Tiridates II in 305, and the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (325–391).

Constantius II has enlarged and strengthened this city on the upper Tigris.

Marcellinus narrates vividly the episode of Shapur’s capture of Amida with the aid of Xionite auxiliaries.

War between the Roman Empire and Sassanid Persia erupts in 502, when Anastasius refuses to pay a share for the defense of the Caucasian Gates, a pass through which nomadic tribes often raid Persia and Constantinople.

Kavadh besieges the fortress-city of Amida (modern Turkey).

Amida’s defenders, although unsupported by Imperial troops, repel the Persian assaults for three months through the winter of 502-503 before they are finally beaten.

Emperor Anastasius I sends an army (fifty-two thousand men) to Armenia but it is defeated.

…eventually gaining the upper hand in Armenia with the renewed investment of Amida.

Kavadh I hands over the fortress-city of Amida and agrees to an armistice with Constantinople.

…Amida.

...in the north, the imperial forces are driven back to the old, pre-591 frontier before Khosrau II gave them most of Persian Armenia, parts of Mesopotamia and western half of Iberia.

The imperial campaigns of 624 and 625 have ranged across northern Syria and Mesopotamia.

Heraclius marches with his forces west through the mountains of Corduene.

In less than seven days, he bypasses Mount Ararat and, traveling along the Arsanias River, captures the strategic fortresses Amida and …

…Amida, up to the Ararat plain.