Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)

The ancient Kingdom of Armenia, or Greater Armenia, ruled the Armenian Highlands between the Black Sea, the Caspian and Mesopotamia. Armenian kings first emerged from Persian governors after Alexander the Great's conquests, and the kingdom proper is usually dated from Artaxias I in 189 BCE to the deposition of its last Arsacid king in 428 CE. Under Tigranes the Great it briefly became an empire, and in the early fourth century it became the first state to adopt Christianity officially.

The first state to rule much of the highlands was Urartu, which fell in the sixth century BCE. Its lands became the Persian satrapy of Armenia, governed for generations by the Orontid family under the Achaemenid Empire. After Alexander defeated the Persians at Gaugamela in 331 BCE and died in 323, the Orontids came back to power, now as kings rather than governors. Overshadowed by the Seleucid Empire, the last Orontid, Orontes IV, was overthrown around 200 BCE by Artaxias, a Seleucid commander thought to be related to the old dynasty.

After Rome defeated the Seleucids at Magnesia in 190 BCE, Artaxias made himself an independent king. He united the highlands and founded a new capital, Artaxata, on the Araxes river at a junction of trade routes; according to Strabo and Plutarch, the exiled Carthaginian general Hannibal stayed at his court. His descendant Tigranes II, the Great, made Armenia the strongest power in the Roman East. From 83 BCE he ruled Syria, all but ending the Seleucid state, and his realm stretched over parts of the Caucasus, south-eastern Anatolia, Iran and Lebanon. He built a new capital, Tigranakert. His alliance with Mithridates VI of Pontus brought him into conflict with Rome, and after Pompey defeated Mithridates in 66 BCE, Armenia became a Roman client kingdom.

For the next three centuries Armenia was a buffer between Rome and the Parthian Empire, each backing rival claimants. After a long war under Nero, a compromise agreed at Rhandeia in 63 CE gave the throne to Tiridates I, a brother of the Parthian king, who travelled to Rome and was crowned by Nero in 66. His Arsacid line would rule Armenia as nominal Roman clients. Trajan briefly made Armenia a Roman province from 114 to 118. The capital moved to Vagharshapat in the second century, and later to Dvin, founded in the 330s.

Pre-Christian Armenia worshipped gods closely related to Iranian ones, among them Aramazd, the head of the pantheon, the goddess Anahit and the sun god Mihr, whose temple at Garni still stands. Zoroastrianism was widespread, and Tiridates I himself was said to be a magus. Greek and Aramaic served as written languages. Around 301, according to tradition, King Tiridates III accepted Christianity through Gregory the Illuminator and made it the state religion, though 314 has also been proposed. In 405 Mesrop Mashtots and the patriarch Sahak created the Armenian alphabet, mainly to translate the Bible.

After the Sasanian Empire replaced the Parthians in Iran, it sought to bring Armenia back under Persian control, occupying it in 252, until Roman armies installed Tiridates III in 287. In 387 Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire divided the kingdom between them. In 428 the Armenian nobility had their king deposed, and the Sasanians replaced him with a governor. Independent Armenian statehood returned only with the Bagratid kingdom in 885.

Our 323 BCE, 300 BCE, 1 BCE, 100, 200 and 300 maps label the kingdom Armenia, between Rome and the Persian empires. The modern country has its own page, Armenia.