Caucasian Albania
This article is about the specific polity Caucasian Albania and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics
Was an ancient country in the Caucasus. The name Albania is derived from the Ancient Greek name Ἀλβανία and Latin Albanía. The prefix "Caucasian" is used purely to avoid confusion with modern Albania of the Balkans, which has no known geographical or historical connections to Caucasian Albania. The Romans made the county a client during the Mithridatic Wars.
Establishment
January 199 BC: The kingdom of Albania emerged in the eastern Caucasus in 2nd or 1st century BC.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Were three conflicts fought by Rome against the Kingdom of Pontus and its allies between 88 BC and 63 BC. They are named after Mithridates VI, the King of Pontus during the course of the wars.
1.1.Third Mithridatic War
Was the last and longest of the three Mithridatic Wars, fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman Republic. The conflict ended in defeat for Mithridates, ending the Pontic Kingdom, ending the Seleucid Empire (by then a rump state), and also resulting in the Kingdom of Armenia becoming an allied client state of Rome.
January 65 BC: After the conquest of Armenia by the Romans in 66 BC it lost many of its areas, so that the southern border of Albania shifted to the Aras River.
1.1.1.Caucasian campaign of Pompey
Was a succesful Roman military campaign led by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the Caucasus during the Third Mithridatic War.
January 64 BC: The Caucasian Albani decided to act before the Romans could invade. Oroeses, king of the Albani, organized a concerted attack on the divided Roman forces. The attacks were to coincide with the Roman feast of Saturnalia to maximize their success. Unfortunately the capably led veteran Roman forces were more than a match for the Albani tribesmen and their attacks were easily repulsed. Oroeses was forced to submit to terms.
January 189 BC: The defeat of the Seleucid King Antiochos III by the Romans at Magnesia Sipylus in 190 BC redraws the political map of the Middle East. Under the terms of the Peace of Apamea (188 BC), Antiochus III could no longer intervene north of the Taurus, creating a political vacuum which was immediately filled by new independent kingdoms. From 190 BC. BC, the satrap of Armenia Artaxias, with whom the Carthaginian Hannibal took refuge, founded on his advice the city of Artaxates (south of present-day Yerevan) on the banks of the Araxes, and makes it the capital of a kingdom of Armenia of which he proclaims himself king, with the blessing of the Romans.
January 189 BC: In the 2nd century BC, Armenia was established in the parts of Caucasian Albania to the right of the Kura River.
Disestablishment
January 64 BC: The Caucasian Albani decided to act before the Romans could invade. Oroeses, king of the Albani, organized a concerted attack on the divided Roman forces. The attacks were to coincide with the Roman feast of Saturnalia to maximize their success. Unfortunately the capably led veteran Roman forces were more than a match for the Albani tribesmen and their attacks were easily repulsed. Oroeses was forced to submit to terms.
Selected Sources
Appian, XII - The Mithridatic Wars, 116-117
Plutarch: Parallel Lives, Pompey, 45.2-5
