Ascending Mount Nemrut
The earliest references to the area of south central Turkey that became the Commagene kingdom, are made by the Assyrians, who called in Kummuhu until the annexed it 708 BC. (After which they presumably referred to it as Assyria!) Later, in the 6th century, it was conquered by and became a part of the Achaemenid Empire, before being conquered again by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. After the breakup of the Alexandrian Empire, Commagene became a state and province in the Greco-Syrian Seleucid Empire.
With the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire following its defeat by the Romans at the Battle of Magnesia in 189/190BC, the local Governor, Ptolemy, declared himself independent and founded the Commagene kingdom and the dynasty that was to rule it. Commegene culture, while influenced by the Syrians and Persians, was essentially Hellenistic (Greek).
Ascending Mount Nemrut
The earliest references to the area of south central Turkey that became the Commagene kingdom, are made by the Assyrians, who called in Kummuhu until the annexed it 708 BC. (After which they presumably referred to it as Assyria!) Later, in the 6th century, it was conquered by and became a part of the Achaemenid Empire, before being conquered again by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. After the breakup of the Alexandrian Empire, Commagene became a state and province in the Greco-Syrian Seleucid Empire.
With the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire following its defeat by the Romans at the Battle of Magnesia in 189/190BC, the local Governor, Ptolemy, declared himself independent and founded the Commagene kingdom and the dynasty that was to rule it. Commegene culture, while influenced by the Syrians and Persians, was essentially Hellenistic (Greek).