Caesar, Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia

Krivolapov Gleb L.

Following the Alexandrian campaign Caesar waged war on Pharnaces in the summer of 47 BC. Passing through Cappadocia, the Roman politician bestowed a certain territory to Ariarathes, brother of king Ariobarzanes, as evidenced in De Bello Alexandrino. However, the meaning of this order is unclear, since part of the text has been lost. Various restorations of the missing section have been made by scholars, but no consensus has been reached yet. The article attempts to fill this gap relying on the analysis of the text of ‘The Alexandrian War’ itself, as well as on its comparison with information contained in other historical sources. The conclusion is that the lost fragment probably contained information about the transfer of a part of Lesser Armenia to Ariarathes by Caesar. This seems to shed some light on Caesar’s policy towards Cappadocia, Lesser Armenia and the Galatian tetrarch Deiotarus in 47 BC, and also to clarify the logic of our literary source.

Keywords: Eastern Policy of the Roman Republic, De Bello Alexandrino, Caesar, Asia Minor, Cappadocia, Lesser Armenia, Ariobarzanes III of Cappadocia, Ariarathes X of Cappadocia, Deiotarus I Philoromaios
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