The Middle East: 189–46 BCE

From Seleucid Decline to Roman-Parthian Rivalry

The period from 189 to 46 BCE sees a dramatic reshaping of power dynamics in the Middle East, marked by the disintegration of Seleucid authority, the ascendance of Parthian power, and increasing Roman intervention in the region.

Seleucid Decline and Parthian Ascendancy

Following its defeat by Rome, the Seleucid Empire is severely weakened, as Rome rewards its allies—particularly Pergamon and Rhodes—with territories previously held by Seleucid kings. The Seleucids rapidly lose their grip, exacerbated by internal instability and external pressures. By 141 BCE, all Seleucid lands east of the Euphrates are lost, with the critical eastern capital of Seleucia falling under Parthian control.

Under the dynamic Parthian king Mithridates II (123–87 BCE), Parthian dominion reaches its zenith, stretching from India to Armenia, encompassing Bactria, Babylonia, Susiana, and Media. The Parthians, originally nomadic people from Turkestan, leverage their strategic position to control trade between East and West, greatly enriching Mesopotamia. Despite their dominance, the Parthians govern with minimal interference, often retaining existing social structures and allowing local autonomy, exemplified by their respectful treatment of Seleucia.

Roman and Parthian Rivalries

Roman ambitions clash with Parthian interests in the region. The disastrous Roman campaign led by Marcus Licinius Crassus into Mesopotamia in 53 BCE culminates in a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Carrhae, marking one of Rome's worst military setbacks since the Battle of Cannae. Crassus’s death at Carrhae precipitates the collapse of Rome's First Triumvirate, igniting internal Roman strife between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Parthian incursions into Syria in 52 BCE further exploit Rome’s weakened stance, although a major Parthian invasion in 51 BCE is repelled near Antigonea.

Mithridatic Wars and Roman Expansion

Concurrently, the region witnesses Rome's persistent campaigns against Mithridates VI of Pontus, whose efforts to resist Roman hegemony result in three protracted Mithridatic Wars (89–63 BCE). Rome’s victories under generals like Lucullus and Pompey further entrench Roman influence in the eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus, resulting in kingdoms like Armenia and Iberia becoming Roman client states. Armenia, under Tigranes II (95–55 BCE), reaches its greatest territorial extent and becomes a significant buffer state between Rome and Persia, a thriving center of Hellenistic culture.

Cultural and Economic Transformations

Significant cultural exchanges occur during this era, notably between the Greco-Roman and Persian worlds. Greek cultural practices deeply influence Armenia, Cyprus, and Georgia, with Cyprus annexed by Rome in 58 BCE, administratively integrated into Cilicia, and renowned for its copper (Latin aes Cyprium). Georgia (Kartli-Iberia) also becomes a Roman ally and client state following Pompey’s campaign in 65 BCE, reflecting Rome's eastward expansionist policy.

Emergence of New Centers

Cities like Hatra and Dura-Europos rise prominently due to their strategic locations along key trade routes. Hatra becomes an influential religious and commercial hub under Parthian influence, while Dura-Europos flourishes as a multicultural frontier city of the Parthian Empire, reflecting diverse cultural influences including Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, and Aramaic.

Ethnic and Cultural Developments

The Kurdish people, historically linked to the ancient Medes, become prominent in this period, settling in northern Mesopotamia and the Zagros Mountains. Despite uncertainties about their precise origins, Kurdish tribes solidify their presence as a significant ethnic group in the region.

Thus, the era 189–46 BCE encapsulates profound geopolitical shifts: the definitive decline of the Seleucid Empire, the meteoric rise of Parthian power, and escalating Roman ambitions and rivalries. These transformations fundamentally redefine the political and cultural landscape of the Middle East, setting the stage for centuries of interaction, competition, and exchange between these powerful civilizations.

Peace is restored between Pontus and Rome on the orders of Sulla, ending the Second Mithridatic War.

The Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BCE) is the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic.

The alliance between Mithridates VI and Quintus Sertorius, the main leader of the opposition to Sulla, joins these two threats into a unity much larger than its parts and has the serious potential of overturning Roman power.

The immediate cause of the Third War is the bequest to Rome by King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia of his kingdom upon his death in 74 BCE.

Having launched an attack at the same time as a revolt by Sertorius sweeps through the Spanish provinces, Mithridates is initially virtually unopposed.

The Senate responds by sending the consuls Lucius Licinius Lucullus and Marcus Aurelius Cotta to deal with the Pontic threat.

The only other possible general for such an important command, Pompey, is in Gaul, marching to Hispania to help crush the revolt led by Sertorius.

Lucullus is sent to govern Cilicia and Cotta to Bithynia.

Lucullus is wary of being drawn into a direct engagement with Mithridates, due to the latter's superior cavalry, but after several small battles, Lucullus finally defeats him at the Battle of Cabira.

He does not pursue Mithridates immediately, but instead he finishes conquering the kingdom of Pontus and setting the affairs of Asia into order.

His attempts to reform the rapacious Roman administration in Asia make him increasingly unpopular among the powerful publicani back in Rome.

Mithridates, now nearly penniless, has meanwhile been forced to …

…Armenia and the protection of Tigranes.

Lucullus. following the Roman occupation of eastern Pontic Cappadocia in the autumn of 71, sends his brother-in-law Appius Claudius to find Armenian allies and demand Mithridates from Tigranes.

Appius’ manner and speech offend Tigranes, the self-styled King of Kings, who for more than twenty years has been accustomed to groveling oriental court ceremony.

This is not just everday Roman frankness, but Claudian arrogance and appietas.

Tigranes refuses, stating he will prepare for war against the Republic.

Lucullus had perhaps sent young Appius with deliberate purpose, knowing full well that his manner was likely to be ill received at the court of the King of Kings.

He might have sent L. Fannius or L. Magius, both of whom had experience at the Pontic court, and his letter to Tigranes addressing him simply as King, rather than King of Kings, was almost certainly a deliberate insult of the more refined diplomatic sort.

Tigranes certainly regarded it as such.

It has taken Cotta two years to complete the siege of Heraclea; he sacks the city in 71 BCE.

During this time he has been forced to dismiss one of his quaestors, P. Oppius, charging him with bribery and conspiracy.

Tigranes, taking the ancient Achaemenid title “king of kings,” has built a new royal city, Tigranocerta, on the borders of Armenia and Mesopotamia (the actual site is disputed, but seems to have been located south of present Dyarbakir), where he accumulates all his wealth and to which he has transplanted the inhabitants of twelve Greek towns of Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Syria.

Rome's third war with Mithridates seems, by 70 BCE, to be over.

The able financial administration of Lucullus, now governor of Asia, has alleviated the crisis caused by the war in the Roman province and earned him the hostility of those Roman businessmen whose profits have been cut by his reforms on behalf of the provincials.

The Romans, concerned by the threat from Tigranes' expanding empire, dispatch an army against him, Mithridates having taken refuge with his son-in-law in the new Armenian imperial capital of Tigranocerta in the Arzenene district.

Lucullus leads a campaign into Armenia against Tigranes and begins a siege of Tigranocerta.

Tigranes returns from mopping up a Seleucid rebellion in Syria with an experienced army that Lucullus nonetheless annihilates in the fierce Battle of Tigranocerta, fought on the same (pre-Julian) calendar date as the Roman disaster at Arausio thirty-six years earlier, the day before the Nones of October according to the reckoning of the time (or October 6), which is Julian October 16, 69 BCE.

Lucullus takes the rich Armenian capital; …

…Tigranes retires to the northern regions of his kingdom to gather another army and defend his hereditary capital of Artaxata, while …