There was an enduring relation of Caucasian Albania with
Ancient Rome. ) was a vassal of the Roman Empire around 300 AD (inside the red line the "Vassal States" of Rome: Albania, Iberia and Armenia) 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. He clashed with the forces of Oroezes, king of Albania, and quickly defeated them. Pompey ensured the control of Albanians nearly reaching the
Caspian Sea before returning to
Anatolia. 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. Zober, who was then king of Albania, capitulated and Albania thus became – at least in name – a "Roman protectorate", starting a condition of vassalage that lasted for nearly three centuries. A king of Albania appears in the list of dynasties whose ambassadors were received by
Augustus. In 35 AD King
Pharasmanes of Iberia and his brother Mithridates, with the support of Rome, confronted the
Parthians in Armenia: the Albanians proved effective allies, contributing to the defeat and temporary eviction of the Parthians. 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. Successively,
Vespasian was determined to restore and reinforce the full authority of Rome in the Caucasus as far as the Caspian Sea. He probably founded a Roman town called Laso, recently rediscovered inside the actual city of
Ganja. Despite the growth of Roman influence, Albania never ceased to remain in commercial, ethnical, and cultural contact with
Persia, but with
Trajan in 114 AD Roman control over Caucasian Albania was nearly complete, with top social levels fully Romanized. During the reign of Roman Emperor
Hadrian (117–138), Albania was invaded by the Alans, an Iranian nomadic group. This invasion promoted an alliance between Rome and the Albanians that was reinforced under
Antoninus Pius in 140 AD. Sassanians occupied the area around 240 AD but after a few years the Roman Empire regained control of Caucasian Albania. Indeed, in 297 the Treaty of Nisibis stipulated the re-establishment of the Roman protectorate over Caucasian Iberia and Caucasian Albania, but fifty years later Rome lost the area that since then remained an integral part of the
Sassanian Empire for more than two centuries. In the late sixth century, the territory of Albania became again an arena of wars between Sassanian Persia and the
Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire. During the third Perso-Turkic War, the Khazars (Gokturks) invaded Albania, and their leader Ziebel declared himself
Lord of Albania in 627 under the Roman Heraclius rule, levying a tax on merchants and the fishermen of the Kura and Araxes rivers, which was "in accordance with the land survey of the kingdom of Persia". The Albanian kings retained their rule by paying tribute to the regional powers. Caucasian Albania was later conquered by the
Arabs in 643, during the
Muslim conquest of Persia. ==Stone inscription from Legio XII Fulminata==