Samosata lay in a broad, shallow valley, where in the second century BC it was one of the four cities of the Commagenian kingdom. (See Aramco World, September/ October 1974.) This name is almost certainly the Greek adaptation—which the Romans did not change—of Kummuh, a name that appeared regularly in the annals of Assyrian kings who had attacked and captured what was, in the late eighth century BC, a town of the Neo-Hittite Empire. Hittite relief sculpture has been found at the site, and the wars probably reduced it to little more than a large village or small fortified town by the time of its final capture by Sargon in 708 BC. Sargon exchanged Samosata's population with rebellious subjects from Babylonia. His chronicle states,

"Mutallum of the land of Kummuhu, a wicked Hittite ... saw the approach of my expedition, left his city and was seen no more. That city ... I besieged, I captured. His wife, his sons, his daughters ... together with the people of his land, I tore away."¹

In the last centuries BC, a notable city reemerges into the light of history. By 38 BC Samosata was sufficiently rich and secure to withstand a siege by Mark Antony, the greatest Roman general of the day. Perhaps more important, however, Samosata lay at a meeting point of empires and cultures. Over time it was inhabited by Iranians, Greeks and Semites, and intermarriage is well-documented, at least among the royal families of the Roman Near East.