Armenians was divided between the Ottomans and the Safavid Empire in Iran. In the Bronze Age, several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power), Mitanni (South-Western historical Armenia), and Hayasa-Azzi (1600–1200 BC). Soon after Hayasa-Azzi came Arme-Shupria (1300s–1190 BC), the Nairi (1400–1000 BC) and the Kingdom of Urartu (860–590 BC), who successively established their sovereignty over the Armenian Highland. Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Under Ashurbanipal (669–627 BC), the Assyrian empire reached the Caucasus Mountains (modern Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan).
Cappadocia (Roman province) Pharsulus and Pompey's subsequent assassination in 48 BC, Ariobarzanes III declared his loyalty to Caesar. Caesar subsequently named Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus as Roman governor of Asia to act as his chief lieutenant in Asia Minor while he traveled to Ptolemaic Egypt. With the Romans were distracted by civil war, Pharnaces II, the Roman client king of the Bosporan Kingdom and the youngest son of Mithridates VI, decided to seize the opportunity and conquered Colchis and Lesser Armenia (territories of the Roman province of Pontus). The rulers of Cappadocia and Galatia, Ariobarzanes III and Deiotarus respectively, appealed to Calvinus for protection