You’ve probably never heard of a kingdom called Commagene, but it existed in the first century CE in parts of what is today southeastern Turkey and Syria. It was a short-lived kingdom, but the royal line continued as the kings of another kingdom, the Armenian. Before the Kingdom of Commagene was integrated into the Roman Empire by Vespasian, the kings would depict themselves as gods. The most common way these kings represented this concept  was showing themselves meeting the gods and shaking their hands, as if they were old buddies. At Arsemeia, near the headwaters of the Kahta River (in ancient times known as the Nymphaeas; within just a few miles it flows into the Euphrates) one can find this Commagenean relief sculpture showing Mithradates I (possibly his son, Antiochus I) shaking hands with his presumptive ally, Hercules. Hercules stands in heroic nudity, the skin of the Nemean lion hanging off his shoulders. He carries the club that was his usual identifying attribute. Mithradates is in full regalia, including a high, ‘Armenian’ style crown. They’ve clasped each others’ hands for almost two thousand years. Few people visit this remote area of eastern Turkey in the spectacular Antitaurus Mountains, although the nearby mountain-top tomb of Mithradates’s son, Antiochus I gets a lot more visitors.