The kingdom of Edessa or Osrhoene he handed over to a tribe of wandering Arabs, which he transplanted from southern Mesopotamia and settled in this region, with the view of commanding by its means the passage of the Euphrates and the great route of traffic.( 7) Cappadocia Armenian But Tigranes by no means confined his conquests to the eastern bank of the Euphrates.

Cappadocia especially was the object of his attacks, and, defenceless as it was, suffered destructive blows from its too potent neighbour.

Tigranes wrested the eastern province Melitene from Cappadocia, and united it with the opposite Armenian province Sophene, by which means he obtained command of the passage of the Euphrates with the great thoroughfare of traffic between Asia Minor and Armenia.

After the death of Sulla the Armenians even advanced into Cappadocia proper, and carried off to Armenia the inhabitants of the capital Mazaca (afterwards Caesarea) and eleven other towns of Greek organization.
Syria under Tigranes Nor could the kingdom of the Seleucids, already in full course of dissolution, oppose greater resistance to the new great-king.
Here the south from the Egyptian frontier to Straton's Tower (Caesarea) was under the rule of the Jewish prince Alexander Jannaeus, who extended and strengthened his dominion step by step in conflict with his Syrian, Egyptian, and Arabic neighbours and with the imperial cities.

The larger towns of Syria--Gaza, Straton's Tower, Ptolemais, Beroea--attempted to maintain themselves on their own footing, sometimes as free communities, sometimes under so-called tyrants; the capital, Antioch, in particular, was virtually independent.