After Anatolian Disaster of Antiochus III: Independent Cataonia at the End of the First Quarter of the 2nd Century BC

Abstract. The paper studies the fate of less-known but strategically important territories between the Taurus and Anti-Taurus ranges — Cataonia proper and other lands of the greater Cataonia of the early pre-Hellenistic (“ancient” in Strabo) authors, including Melitene — in the 4th–2nd centuries BC. This issue has not attracted attention, but Strabo provides sufficient relevant material. The key one is the well-known passage Strab.11.14.5 about the seizures of certain territories by the kings of Sophene and Greater Armenia after the defeat of the Seleucids in early 180s, which territories up to the moment of the said seizure were parts of certain territorial entities neighboring Sophene and Greater Armenia, including the entity of “Cataons”. Scholars have not asked themselves about the nature of these entities; a new analysis of the passage proves that they were polities. This reveals the existence of a special, previously unknown Cataonian polity at the end of the 2nd quarter of the 2nd century. Based on other data, it can be assumed that as a result of the defeat of Antiochus III and his ally Cappadocia, the southeastern territories
of the latter seceded and formed a special polity of the Cataons, and at the same time Melitene seceded from Cappadocia or from Seleucids, but both were quickly conquered by Ariarathes V.

Keywords: Cataonia, Greater Cataonia, Cappadocia, Melitene, Sophene, Acilisene, Strabo.