Sophene was part of the kingdom of Urartu in the 8th-7th centuries BC. After unifying the region with his kingdom in the early 8th century BC, king Argishti I of Urartu resettled many of its inhabitants to his newly built city ofErebuni. After Alexander the Great's campaigns in 330s BC and the subsequent collapse of the Achaemenid Empire, it became one of the first regions of Armenia to be exposed to Greek influence and adopted some aspects of Greek culture. Sophene remained part of the newly independent kingdom of Greater Armenia. Around the 3rd century BC, the Seleucid Empire forced Sophene to split from Greater Armenia, giving rise to the Kingdom of Sophene. The kingdom was ruled by a branch of the Orontids. The kingdom's capital was 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 was Arsamosata, located further to the north. Arsamosata was founded in the 3rd century B.C. and survived in a contracted state until perhaps the early 13th century A.D.
Etymology
The etymology of the name Sophene dates back to the ethnonym Suppani, a people who lived in the region dating back to the 1st millennium BCE. The Σωφηνή, was coined after the Armenian Cop'k, which stems from Suppani.
Religion
The Orontid dynasty in Sophene practiced Zoroastrianism. According to modern historian Michał Marciak, the well-attested existence of Iranian culture in Sophene could be understood as a derivation of Arsacid Armenia, which came from Greater Armenia and indirectly from Iran. However, he also adds that the strong existence of Iranian culture might have influenced Roman and Greek writers to regard the region as Armenian. Iranian cults were popular in Sophene amongst the nobility, who gave themselves theophoric Iranian names, and the peasantry, who sacrificed horses in the name of the goddessAnahita. Anahita was highly popular in the country, with animals such as cows and horses being regularly sacrificed in her name.
Language
was the common language that spoken by the people of Sophene. However, imperial Aramaic was used in governmental and court proceedings, which was rooted in Achaemenid practices from Armenia.
