On The Reason of Pompey’s Second Campaign to Caucasian Albania

Abstract

In 66–65 BC Roman commander Gnaeus Pompey during the Mithridates Wars and his Caucasian campaign twice invaded the territory of Caucasian Albania. This was the first appearance of Roman legionnaires in the territory of a distant Caucasian country, previously familiar to the Romans only by the indirect news of ancient authors. If the first Roman invasion to Albania from the territory of Armenia in 66 BC was repeatedly and in detail analyzed in the scientific literature, the second campaign of the Roman troops, carried out after the conquest of Georgia in 65 BC, is still awaiting its explanation by researchers. To a large extent, this was due to the unusual route of Pompey's troops to Albania - not from the territory of Iberia, but again from the territory of Armenia. Such an opinion prevails in historical literature, that the reason of Pompey’s second march to the Caucasian Albania is that when Pompey was in Colchis, Albania’s king Oroys violated the peace treaty he had signed with Pompey, rebelled and began preparing for the new war with the Romans which led to the new intervention of the Romans in this country. However, detailed analysis of the events, as well as the acts of the Romans and Albanians during this second march gives reason to have some doubts on the historical reality of this cause and assume a desire, namely to take the complete control of the Transcaucasian area of the international trade route known in historical literature as the «Strabo’s Path».