Roman influence in Caucasian Albania

This influence started in the first century BC and lasted until around 250 AD, but around 299 Albania was again briefly a Roman vassal state under Emperor Diocletian.

[1] In 65 BC the Roman general Pompey, who had just subjugated Armenia and Iberia and had conquered Colchis, entered Caucasian Albania at the head of his army.

But the Albanians, influenced by the Parthian Empire were not slow to revolt against Rome: in 36 BC Mark Antony found himself obliged to send one of his lieutenants to bring an end to their rebellion.

Emperor Nero prepared in 67 AD a military expedition in the Caucasus: he wanted to defeat the barbarian Alans and conquer for Rome all the northern shores of the Black Sea from actual Georgia-Azerbaijan to what is now Romania-Moldavia, but his death stopped it.

The presence of a detachment of the Legio XII Fulminata at a distance of some kilometres from the shores of the Caspian Sea, in Gobustan National Park, near Qobustan (69 km south of Baku) is attested by an inscription drawn up between 83 and 96 AD in the reign of Domitian.

[9] Some historians argue that the actual settlement of Ramana near Baku was possibly founded by the Roman troops of Lucius Julius Maximus from "Legio XII Fulminata" in the first century AD[10] and derives its name from the Latin Romana.