[Update 2 - 23/4/2019]
Chapter I: Humble Beginnings (Part 2)
In the following decades, Colchis witnessed a ruthless war being waged in the south by powerful kingdoms. It all started when the Gallic tribes of Asia Minor and King of Pontus went to war with each other. In the climactic Battle of Amaseia in 264BCE, the Gauls were beaten badly but Pontus also lost its most experienced contingents especially the phalangites, whose army traditions could be traced back to Alexander's era. Pontic army could not have recover its former strength for another decade.
Battle of Amaseia 264BCE
Armenians took advantage of this incident and joined war on the side of the Gauls and opened an eastern war theatre against Pontus. Sandwiched between two enemies, Pontus was hugely outnumbered and it had to give up its capital Amaseia to the Galatians but held on to Arsamosata and Tushpa for its survival. Then in 262BCE, Pontus lost Arsamasota to the Armenians.
And at that moment, King Hieronymos feared that Armenians would become too powerful. So he decided to join on the side of Pontus. In the summer of 261 BCE he declared war on Armenia and sacked the city of Carana, then moved on to sack Arsamasota. He defeated the garrisons of both cities. Armenians were terrified of this attack and were quick to sue for peace. The King was reluctant to such an early treaty but he heard a lot of things were out of place in Trapezos, and that loyalty of his new Trapezuntian nobles wavered as his armies were campaigning. He had little choice but agree to the peace terms. However he knew how rich the lands in the east had been. So he demanded the Armenians to pay 480,000 minae which they gladly did.
This gold was not that much a trouble for Armenians but for a small kingdom like Colchis this rather small fortune helped finance a growth of infrastructure and a firmer Colchian grip on Trapezos. Notably the King used a lot of money to organize games which were supervised by Bion, the heir of the leading political faction in Colchis. The king sought to strengthen royalty’s influence at the court, by wedding his elder sister to Damiskos, a nobleman from Trapezos, thus gaining a solid allegiance of Damiskos’ subjects.
The condition seemed to improve for the Pontic army, but they were in severely short supply of experienced and loyal soldiers. The King of Pontus had to rely heavily on the hill tribesmen to fill his ranks. Despite these setbacks, a year later in 259BCE, Pontus won a battle over much weakened Armenians at Arsamosata, thanks to our raids in the earlier year. They also fortified their position in Tushpa. Later that year, they won a decisive victory against the Armenians and even held Armavir, the capital of Armenia for a while, crippling their military. This was supposed to be good news but our spies also informed us of Media Atropatene aligning themselves with the Armenians. Later that year, Atropatene forces pushed back Pontic forces and annexed Armavir for themselves, leaving the poor Armenians with a sacked and pillaged Carana.