The most important king of the Kommagene Kingdom, with his superscription “Theos Dikaios Epiphanes Philoromaios Philhellenos”, is Antiochus I. Not long after the king acceded, the reign of Roman Empire was given an end and Kommagene declared its freedom again after a long while. Very quickly after this, a stela was put up with the well-known handshake of Antiochus and Apollon. Describing himself as one of the Gods, Antiochus named Apollon as an ancestor, who was the respected founder of Seleukos dynasty.
On this stela, Apollon is depicted as uncovered as a classical Greek way of depicting and wearing the rare “kidaris” crown as the only one of his kind. Starting from this, Antiochus had continued the political discussion of that the kingdom was an inheritance to himself by Parthians and Greeks.
Not long after, Antiochus had to sign some agreements with both Parthians and Roman rulers. With the fall of Tigranes, Kommagene widened the borders at both south and east, including Zeugma which was now under control of Kommagene that made actually a great win for the kingdom.
In 53 BC, upon the fall of Carrhae, the hostility between Parthians – Rome increased affecting the political stability in a perfectly bad way and Antiochus trying to keep each side in a good balance, he allowed Parthians to use Kommagene as a bridge to Syria while marching, got Laodike married with one of the Parthian Kings and keep Rome informed at the same time.
During the civil war, Kommagene supporting Pompeius, helped it over to Ceaser who also got helped by Parthians. Samosata was conquered at this time by both Venditius and Marcus Antonius, which also ended up with great benefits for the area.
