Zariadres, member of the Armenian Orontid dynasty who was appointed strategos (governor) of the Armenian kingdom of Sophene by the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 200 bce. After Antiochus was defeated by the Romans in the Battle of Magnesia in 190 bce, Zariadres and Artaxias—the strategos of the neighbouring state of Greater Armenia—received permission from Rome to establish themselves as independent kings in their respective territories. The two kings oversaw a period of Armenian cultural consolidation and expansion and are credited with founding an independent Armenian state that reached its apex under Tigranes II, a descendant of Artaxias.