kingdom · Mesopotamia and Iran

Corduene

100 BCE – 384 CE (approx.) · capital Pinaka

A mountain kingdom south of Lake Van that lay on the fault line between Rome and Iran, changing hands in their treaties for four centuries.

Origins

Corduene (Gordyene) occupied the rugged mountains of the upper Tigris, around modern Cizre and the Botan region. Xenophon met its warlike inhabitants, the Carduchi, in 401 BCE. A kingdom appears in the 1st century BCE, when Tigranes the Great of Armenia annexed it.

Rule and society

Its rulers were local kings or satraps who depended on stronger neighbours, Armenia, the Parthian Empire and Rome. Plutarch records that King Zarbienus negotiated secretly with Rome and was put to death by Tigranes, after which Lucullus honoured his memory. Christianity spread there in late antiquity. The name has often been linked with that of the Kurds, but the connection is uncertain.

Decline and legacy

By the Peace of Nisibis in 298 Corduene passed to the Roman Empire; in 363 Jovian returned it to the Sasanian Empire, which absorbed it as a province, with its autonomy fading by the late 4th century.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (3)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Corduene. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/corduene
MLA
“Corduene.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/corduene. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Corduene.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/corduene.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Corduene’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/corduene (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻