Sophene
Σωφηνή
Sophene (Σωφηνή, Strab. et alii; Σωφανηνή, D. C. 36.36; Procop. de Aedif. 3.2, B. Pers. 1.21: Eth. Σωφηνός), a district of Armenia, lying between Antitaurus and Mount Masius, separated by the Euphrates from Melitene in Armenia Minor, and by Antitaurus from Mesopotamia. Its capital was Carcathiocerta. (Strab. xi. pp. 521, 522, 527.) It formed at one time, with the neighbouring districts, a separate west Armenian kingdom, governed by the Sophenian Artanes, but was annexed to the east Armenian kingdom by Tigranes. Sophene was taken away from Tigranes by Pompey. (Strab. xi. p.532; D. C. 36.26; Plut. Luc. 24, Pomp. 33.) Nero gave Sophene as a separate kingdom to Sohaemus. (Tac. Ann. 13.7.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.