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{{Short description|Period of Yervanduni kingdom}}
{{about|the ''']''' of Armenia|a list of other Armenian Kingdoms|Kingdom of Armenia (disambiguation)}}
{{About|the ] of Armenia|a list of other Armenian Kingdoms|Kingdom of Armenia (disambiguation){{!}}Kingdom of Armenia}}
{{Infobox Former Country
{{pp|small=yes}}
|native_name= Հայաստանի Սատրապ <br /> ''Hayastani Satrap''
{{Infobox country
|conventional_long_name = Satrapy of Armenia
| native_name = 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴
|common_name = Satrapy of Armenia
| conventional_long_name = Satrapy of Armenia
|national_motto =
| common_name = Satrapy of Armenia
|continent = Europe
| status = Satrapy
|region = Caucasus, Anatolia
| government_type = Monarchy
|country =
|era = Ancient | year_start = 570 BC
| year_end = 321 BC
|status = Satrapy, Kingdom
| event_start =
|government_type = Monarchy
| p1 = Urartu
|year_start = 6th c. BC
| p2 = Medes
|year_end = 2nd c. BC
| s1 = Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)
|life_span =
| s2 = Lesser Armenia
|event_start =
| image_flag =
|event_end =
|date_end = | flag_type =
|p1 = Urartu | image_coat =
| symbol_type =
|flag_p1 = 13-Urartu-9-6mta.gif
|s1 = Kingdom of Armenia (Antiquity) | image_map = Yervanduni Armenia, IV-II BC.gif
| image_map_caption = Territory of the ] in IV-II BC
|flag_s1 = Artaxiad standard2.svg
| capital = ] <br/> ]
|s2 = Lesser Armenia
| religion = ] <br/> ]{{sfn|Russell|1986|p=51}}
|flag_s2 =
| common_languages = ]<br/>] (South)<br/>] (East)<br/>
|image_flag =
| currency =
|flag_type = Standard of the ].
| leader1 = ] (first) <br/> Hydarnes (last)
|image_coat =
| title_leader = ]
|symbol_type =
| legislature =
|image_map = Orontid Armenia -250-en.svg
| stat_year1 =
|image_map_caption = Territory of the ] in 250 BC
| footnotes =
|capital = ], <br/> ]
| s3 = Sophene
|religion = Zoroastrianism
| flag_s3 =
|common_languages = ], <br/> possibly ]
|currency = | flag_s4 =
| s4 = Commagene
|leader1 = ] (first) <br/> Hydarnes (last)
|title_leader = ]
|legislature =
|stat_year1 =
|stat_pop1 =
|today = {{flag|Armenia}}</br>{{flag|Azerbaijan}}</br>{{flag|Georgia}}</br>{{flag|Iran}}</br>{{flag|Turkey}}
|footnotes =
|footnotes =
}} }}
{{History of Armenia|expanded=age2|BC=1}}
]
The '''Satrapy of Armenia''' (]: 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴 {{transl|peo|Armina}} or 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴𐎹 {{transl|peo|Arminiya}}), a region controlled by the ] (570–201 BC), was one of the ] of the ] in the 6th century BC that later became an independent ]. Its capitals were ] and later ].
{{History of Armenia}}
The '''Satrapy of Armenia''' ({{lang-hy|Հայաստանի Սատրապ ''Hayastani Satrap''}}; ]: ''Armina'' or ''Arminiya''), also known as '''Orontid Armenia''' ({{lang-hy|Երվանդունի Հայաստան'' Yervanduni Hayastan''}}) after the ruling ], was one of the satrapies of the ] in the 6th century BC, which later became an independent ]. Its capitals were ] and ].


== History == == History ==
=== Origins ===
{{Expand section|date=December 2010}}
Shortly after the collapse of ] at the hand of the ] and ], the territory was conquered by the ] and incorporated as satrapies of the land of "Armina" (in ]; "''Harminuya''" in ]; "'']''" in ]).


=== Orontid dynasty ===
]
=== Orontid Dynasty === {{Main|Orontid dynasty}}
The Orontid dynasty, or known by their native name, Eruandid or Yervanduni, was an Iranian<ref>{{harvnb|Facella|2021}}; {{harvnb|Sartre|2005|p=23}}; {{harvnb|Strootman|2020|pp=205, 210}}; {{harvnb|Michels|2021|p=485}}; {{harvnb|Toumanoff|1963|p=278}}; {{harvnb|Garsoian|2005}}; {{harvnb|Gaggero|2016|p=79}}; {{harvnb|Russell|1986|pp=438–444}}; {{harvnb|Drower|Grey|Sherwin-White|Wiesehöfer|2021}}; {{harvnb|Olbrycht|2021|p=38}}; {{harvnb|Ball|2002|pp=31, 436}}; {{harvnb|Canepa|2015|p=80}}</ref> hereditary dynasty that ruled the satrapy of Armenia, the successor state to the ] kingdom of ] (Ararat).{{sfn|Toumanoff|1963|p=278}} It is suggested that it held dynastic familial linkages to the ruling ].{{sfn|Allsen|2011|p=37}}{{sfn|Lang|2000|p=535}}{{efn|It is not known whether the Yervandunis were ethnically Armenian. They probably had marriage links to the rulers of Persia and other leading noble houses in Armenia.{{sfn|Panossian|2006|p=35}}}}{{efn|Although the origins of the Ervanduni family is not clear, historians suggest dynastic familial linkages to the ruling Achaemenid dynasty in Persia.{{sfn|Payaslian|2007|p=8}}}} Throughout their existence, the Orontids stressed their lineage from the Achaemenids to strengthen their political legitimacy.{{sfn|Payaslian|2007|p=8}}
{{Expand section|date=December 2010}}
{{Main|Orontid Dynasty}}
The Orontid Dynasty, or known by their native name, Yervanduni, was a Persian dynasty<ref>Sartre, Maurice, ''The Middle East under Rome'', (Harvard University Press, 2005), 23; "''The Commagene kings claimed to be descended from the Orontids, a powerful Iranian family...''".</ref><ref>Allsen, Thomas T., ''The Royal Hunt in Eurasian history'', (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), 37; "''The Orontid dynasty of Armenia, whose ruling house was of ]..''".</ref> or ] dynasty<ref>History of Armenia, ], http://www.vehi.net/istoriya/armenia/khorenaci/index.html</ref><ref>] mentions an ] king named ] in his '']''. He was an ally of ] with whom he hunted. Tigranes paid tribute to ].</ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> which ruled the Satrapy of Armenia. The Orontids established their supremacy over Armenia around the time of the ] and ] invasion in the ].<ref>Tiratsyan, Gevork. ''«Երվանդունիներ»'' (Yerevanduniner). ]. vol. iii. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: ], 1977, p. 640.</ref>{{Request quotation|date=April 2011}} Its founder was ] ({{lang-hy|Երվանդ Ա. ''Yervand I''}}). His son ] united his forces with ] and killed Media's king. ] calls him "the wisest, most powerful and bravest of ] Kings." From 553 BC to 521 BC Armenia was Achaemenid Empire's ally, but during ]'s reign, he decided to conquer Armenia. He sent an Armenian named Dâdarši to suffocate the revolt, later substituting him for the ] Vaumisa who defeated the Armenians on May 20, ]. Around the same time, another ] by the name of ], son of Haldita, claimed to be the son of the last king of ], ], and renamed himself ]. His rebellion was short lived and was suppressed by ], Darius' bow carrier. After five raids Armenia resisted.


Members of the dynasty ruled Armenia intermittently during the period spanning from the 6th to at least the 2nd centuries BC, first as client kings or ]s of the ]{{sfn|Payaslian|2007|p=8}} and ] empires and later, after the collapse of the Achaemenid empire,{{sfn|Stausberg|de Jong|2015|p=120}} as rulers of an independent kingdom, and later as kings of ] and ], which eventually succumbed to the ].{{sfn|Canepa|2015|p=80}}
Greek comander and historian ] provided important information on the Orontid Armenia. After Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC) Orontes III restored independence in Armenia. But in 201 BC, Armenia was conquered by ], an Armenian commander in Seleucid Empire, who was also a descendant of the Orontid dynasty. The last Orontid king Orontes IV was killed, but the Orontids continued to rule in ] and ] until the 1st century BC. In two inscriptions of king ] on his monument at ] an ], called ] (son of Artasouras and husband of Artaxerxes's daughter Rhodogoune), is reckoned, among others, as an ancestor of the Orontids ruling over ], who traced back their family to ].


Following the demise of the Achaemenid Empire, the Satrapy of Armenia was incorporated into ].{{sfn|Toumanoff|1963|p=73}} After Alexander's death, the Orontids gained independence from 321&nbsp;BC until 301&nbsp;BC when the ] fell to the ].{{sfn|Toumanoff|1963|p=73}} In 212&nbsp;BC, ] revolted against the Seleucids but capitulated when besieged at his capital, Arsamasota, by ].{{sfn|Chahin|1987|p=190}}
==Armenia as Xenophon saw it==


== Language ==
Greek mercenary soldiers, ten thousand in number, who had been aiding the younger Cyrus of Persia against his brother Artaxerxes, returned home in 401 B.C., after the defeat and death of Cyrus at Cunaxa. On their way back, they passed through Armenia, and the Anabasis (going up), written by Xenophon, their leader, contains some valuable information about that country. Their precise itinerary has not been definitely traced, but according to the generally accepted theory, they crossed the Centrites (Kentrides) River, the modern Bohtan‑Su, north of Til, reached the Teleboas River, the modern Kara‑Su, in the plain of Mush, and then the Euphrates near Manazkert, fording it where it was only knee-deep. Thence they marched to Olti, the country of the Taochci (the Armenian province of Taiq), south of Kars. From the "great rich and populous city" of Cumnias, in the Scythian country (the more modern Cumri, still later Alexandropol and now Leninakan), they proceeded through the area of Zarishat and south of Ardahan, and finally through the mountains of the Macroni and Kolchi tribes to the Black Sea port of Trebizond.
Despite the Hellenistic invasion of Persia, Persian and local Armenian culture remained the strongest element within society and the elites.{{efn|The Hellenistic invasion of Persia partially influenced Armenia as well, but Persian and local Armenian culture remained the strongest element within society and the elites.{{sfn|Panossian|2006|p=36}}}}{{sfn|Panossian|2006|p=36}}


The Orontid administration used ], where it was used in official documents for centuries.{{sfn|Bournoutian|2006|p=23}} Whereas most inscriptions used ].{{sfn|Bournoutian|2006|p=23}} Xenophon used an interpreter to speak to Armenians, while some Armenian villages were conversant in Persian.{{sfn|Bournoutian|2006|p=23}}
]
Armenia is described by Xenophon as a vast and rich country, with Orondas(Orontes) (Erouand, Ervanduni) ruling as satrap and Tiribaz as uparkos or vice-governor. In Xenophon's time the Armens had not yet occupied the plain of Ararat, which was then inhabited by Saspeirs, Alarodians (Urarteans) and the oldest native tribes. The Kartuchi (Korduq of the Armenian geography), living in the south of the Centries, were a warlike people, not subjects of the Persians. They and the Armens were in almost continuous conflict, which, says Xenophon, explains why there were no villages in existence on the right bank of the Centrides, in the vicinity of modern Serd.


The ] at ] indicate that the upper classes used Greek as one of their languages.{{sfn|Manandian|1965|p=37}} Under ] (r. ca. 210–200 B.C.), the structure of government had begun to resemble Greek institutions, and Greek was used as the language of the royal court. Orontes IV had surrounded himself by the Hellenized nobility and sponsored the establishment of a Greek school in Armavir, the capital of the Armenian kingdom.{{sfn|Payaslian|2007|p=12}}
==Armen kinship with Khald-Urarteans==


== See also ==
The Kartuchi were a sedentary people, with a comparatively high degree of civilization. Their dwellings were described by the Greek soldiers as elegant and furnished with many copper utensils. They had plenty of provisions and wine kept in cemented cisterns. According to Strabo, they were skilled architects, experts in the tactics of besieging fortresses. Their arms consisted of bows and slings. The bows were one and a half yards long, and the arrows more than a yard. This mode of life does not harmonize with cattle-growing nomadic people, such as the Kurds. The Armens therefore, thinks Marquart, must have been kindred of the Khald-Urarteans. The army of Orondas, says Xenophon, besides Armens, included Mards and Khaldian mercenaries. The latter were a doughty people, noted for their long shields and spears. The Khaldian soldiers of Orondas are considered to have been the inhabitants of Sassoun and the Khoyt Mountains, who maintained their independence until their assimilation with the Armens. As to the mercenary Mards, they were, according to Herodotus, an Iranian nomadic tribe, to be identified, in Marquart's opinion, with the modern Kurds. The tenth century Arabian historian Masoudi states that the Kurds acknowledged as their ancestor the chieftain Kurd, the son of Mard. In Armenian history the Kurds have been known as the "Mar people."
*]

*]
The district of Mardistan, in historic Armenia, corresponds to Artaz, west of the modern Maku, South Iran. The district of Mardali (Mardaghi) must have been located to the south of Erzerum, north of the Bingöl sources. The Mards of this section of the country were evidently immigrants from the South, says Adontz. The bulk of the tribe occupied one of the southern areas of Vaspurakan (Van), near the upper course of the Centrides River. Xenophon mentioned particularly the extremely fierce and hardy Chalyb tribe, called Chaldaioi by Strabo, living in the Pontic Mountains, and mostly engaged in iron mining and forging. (The Greek marchers covered the distance through this coastal area — 50 parasangs or 150 miles — in seven days.) Several authors classify this people as being of the same stock as the Khaldi-Urarteans. The Taochi and the Phasian tribes, neighbors of the Chalybs, who likewise offered stiff resistance to the Greeks, are represented in the Taiq and Pasian districts of Armenia.

The above-mentioned tribes and several others, including the Kimmerian-Scythian settlers from southern Russia, dating from the eighth century B.C., were all independent of Persia. Scythian tribes, the Saspeirs of Herodotus, had occupied considerable areas extending from Colchis to Media — around modern Nakhjavan and as far as Kars, Leninakan and the plain of Ararat. Alongside the Kimmerians and Scythians should be listed the Sarmatian tribe, which includes the Siraqs and the Gogs, after whom the Armenian provinces of Shirak and Gougarq seem to have been named. The Mesoch-Mushkians, the Outians and the Pactians were also among the inhabitants of the Armenian plateau, each having its own language or dialect, and particular kind of social life and culture. They were all eventually assimilated with the Armens, adding their numbers to the larger elements from the Khaldi and the Hittites.

==Armen economics and commerce==

Despite the agreement entered into between Tiribaz and the Greek chieftains, some of their soldiers "insolently" burned some of the villages where they were to stop. They even had the audacity to capture the tent of Tiribaz — who, relying on the treaty, seems to have been unprepared — and carried away his silver-footed bedstead and his cups, as well as his bakers and cup-bearers (Xenophon).

Finding the villages evacuated, the Greeks spent seven days in sumptuous eating and drinking. "The tables everywhere were loaded with the meats of lamb, goat, pig, veal and chicken, as well as bread of barley and wheat. They drank beer from a great jar, sucking it through a tube." The horses of Armenia, says Xenophon, were smaller than those of Persia, but livelier. Being told that horses were sacrificed to the sun, Xenophon gave his old horse, in exchange for a foal, to a village chief, to be sacrificed, after being fattened.

==Land of plenty==

Besides plenty of wheat, barley and cereals, the Armen villages had in store raisins, perfumed wine, sesame, fragrant oil of almonds and turpentine. The people were both cattle-breeders and agriculturists. They exported many horses. Herodotus calls the Armens polyprobatoi, "rich in animals." Distinction should be made, however, between the civilization in the different parts of the country. Stately houses with towers on the banks of the Centrides River were in striking contrast to the underground dwellings near the sources of the Euphrates. The rural life of the Armens was indicative of a patriarchal or family character. A group of villages was surrounded with barricades and was governed by a village chief or Komarch (archon tes komes) representing the satrap. Payment of taxes to the Persian king was made collectively. The absence of cities was noticeable. Various clans, settled in villages under local chiefs, supplied a specified number of soldiers to the army of the nearest petty king. A general of Darius was one of these kings. By the large numbers of the Armenian army serving under the Great Persian monarch — recruited from one section of the Armenian plateau — we are led to believe that all of the comparatively small number of new settlers were soldiers. The same was true in the Georgian and Albanian lands of the Caucasus, as pointed out by the Georgian historian, J. Tchavakhishvili. The word eri in the ancient Iberian (Georgian) language meant both people and soldiers. The Medes, after subduing the kingdom of Urartu, utilized the Armens in keeping that turbulent people under subjection. Marquart notes that the settling of the warlike Armen colonists in the strategic places in the Armenian highlands was because of their military capacity. From all this, Manandian reaches the conclusion that, as the ancient Slavons, so the ancient Armens were in the period of "warring democracy." The same may be said of the Medes and the Persians of old, whose democratic organization and public assemblies point to their having a soldier population.

Hence the destruction in the ancient East, even as in the medieval West, of the cultural great powers, had been mainly achieved by the so‑called "barbarian" new peoples, such as the Medes, Persians and Armens. Applying the principle to the Armens, Prof. Marr has remarked, "And now there succeeded, one after the other, warlike Aryan peoples, just as in later times came inrushing masses of Turks. These Aryan races who, at that time, were certainly savages by comparison with the natives, were nevertheless strong in their military organization, and subdued the culturally higher races, intermixed with them and created a new world."

Attention is called by Manandian to the fact that the commercial intercourse between Babylon and Armenia was carried on for the most part by the Assyrians. Business transactions, limited in Armenia in those days, were principally in the hands of the Semitic peoples, while the Armenians were essentially farmers and cattle-breeders.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}

== See Also ==
*]
*] *]
*] *]
*] *]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}


== References ==
{{reflist|35em}}


== Notes == ==Sources==
*{{cite book|last1=Allsen|first1=Thomas T.|title=The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History|date=2011|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0812201079|page=37}}
{{reflist|2}}
*{{cite book|last=Ball|first=Warwick|title=Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134823871|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQKIAgAAQBAJ}}
*{{cite book|last=Bournoutian|first=George|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00geor|title=A Concise History of the Armenian People|publisher=Mazda Publishers, Inc.|year=2006|isbn=1-56859-141-1|location=California|page=23|quote=Aramaic, the language of the imperial administration, was introduced into Armenia, where, for centuries, it continued to be used in official documents. Old Persian cuneiform, meanwhile, was used in most inscriptions. Xenophon mentions that he used a Persian interpreter to converse with Armenians and in some Armenian villages they responded in Persian.}}
*{{cite book |last=Canepa|first=Matthew| chapter=Achaemenid and Seleukid Royal Funerary Practices and Middle Iranian Kingship|date=2010|pages=1–21|url=https://www.academia.edu/348674|url-access=registration |title=Commutatio et Contentio. Studies in the Late Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Near East in Memory of Zeev Rubin |editor-first1=H. |editor-last1=Börm |editor-first2=J. |editor-last2=Wiesehöfer}}
*{{cite book|author-last=Canepa|author-first=Matthew P.|authorlink=Matthew P. Canepa|chapter=Dynastic Sanctuaries and the Transformation of Iranian Kingship between Alexander and Islam|editor-last1=Babaie|editor-first1=Sussan|editor-link1=Sussan Babaie|editor-last2=Grigor|editor-first2=Talinn|title=Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis|date=2015|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1848857513|page=80|quote=Iranian culture deeply influenced Armenia, and Iranian dynasties ruled Armenia during several important periods, including the Orontids (c. sixth century - c. early second century BCE) and Arsacids (54-428 CE).}}
*{{cite book |title=The Kingdom of Armenia: A History |first=M. |last=Chahin |publisher=Curzon Press |year=1987 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Drower|first1=M|last2=Grey|first2=E.|last3=Sherwin-White|first3=S.|last4=Wiesehöfer|first4=J.|title=Armenia |date=2021|journal=Oxford Classical Dictionary|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.777|isbn=978-0-19-938113-5|url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-777|url-access=registration}}
*{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/orontids-COM_362451|title=Orontids|first=Margherita|last=Facella|year=2021}}
*{{cite book |last=Gaggero |first=Gianfranco |chapter=Armenians in Xenophon |title=Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2016 |quote=The above mentioned Orontids....but also because the two satraps who were contemporaries of Xenophon's are explicitly stated to be Persian.}}
*{{cite encyclopedia | article = TIGRAN II | last = Garsoian | first = N. | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tigran-ii | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica | year = 2005 | quote = Tigran (Tigranes) II was the most distinguished member of the so-called Artašēsid/Artaxiad dynasty, which has now been identified as a branch of the earlier Eruandid dynasty of Iranian origin attested as ruling in Armenia from at least the 5th century B.C.E}}
*{{cite book |title= The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times |volume=I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century |first=Richard G. |last=Hovannisian |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1997 |quote="..but the existence of a local Armenian dynasty, probably of Iranian origin.." }}
*{{cite book |title=The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism |first1=Michael |last1=Stausberg |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |year=2015 |first2=Albert |last2=de Jong |chapter=Armenian and Georgian Zoroastrianism |pages=119–128 }}
*{{cite book |chapter=Iran, Armenia and Georgia |first=David M. |last=Lang |editor-last=Yarshater|editor-first=Ehsan|title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3: The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanid Periods|publisher=]|isbn=0-521-20092-X|pages=535 |year=2000 |quote=The most striking example of the syncretism of gods in ancient Parthia actually occurs in a former Armenian satellite kingdom, namely Commagene, the modern Malatya district. Here a scion of the Armenian Orontid house, King Antiochus I (69 — 38 B.C.) built himself a funeral hill at Nimrud Dagh.(..) '''We see the king’s paternal ancestors, traced back to the Achaemenian monarch Darius,''' son of Hystaspes, while Greek inscriptions record the dead ruler’s connections with the Armenian dynasty of the Orontids.}}
*{{Cite book|last=Manandian|first=Hagop|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pAAwvwEACAAJ|title=The Trade and Cities of Armenia in Relation to Ancient World Trade|publisher=Armenian library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation|year=1965|pages=37 }}
*{{cite book |last=Michels |first=Christoph |title=Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods: Commagene in its Local, Regional, and Global Context |chapter='Achaemenid' and 'Hellenistic' Strands of Representation in the Minor Kingdoms of Asia Minor |date=2021 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |pages=475–496|isbn=978-3515129251 |url=https://www.academia.edu/53107747 |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |last=Olbrycht|first=Marek Jan|year=2021|title=Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250-165 B.C.)|publisher=Brill|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OHkxEAAAQBAJ|isbn=978-9004460751}}
*{{Cite book|last=Panossian|first=Razmik|url=https://archive.org/details/armeniansfromkin00razm|url-access=registration|title=The Armenians From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2006|isbn=9781850657880|location=United Kingdom|pages=|quote=It is not known whether the Yervandunis were ethnically Armenian. They probably had marriage links to the rulers of Persia and other leading noble houses in Armenia. }}
*{{cite book|last1=Payaslian|first1=Simon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7J-g7Wld1vEC|title=The history of Armenia : from the origins to the present|date=2007|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1403974679|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=8–9}}
*{{Encyclopaedia Iranica | title = ARMENIA AND IRAN iii. Armenian Religion | last = Russell | first =J. R. | url = https://iranicaonline.org/articles/armenia-iii | author-link = James R. Russell | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica | volume = 2 | fascicle = 4| pages = 438-444 | location = | publisher = | year = 1986 | quote = Iran, however, was to be the dominant influence in Armenian spiritual culture. '''The Orontid, Artaxiad, and Arsacid dynasties were all Iranian in origin''', and the greater part of the Armenian vocabulary consists of Mid. Ir. loanwords. The Armenians preserved strong regional traditions which appear to have been incorporated into Zoroastrianism, a religion adopted by them probably in the Achaemenid period.}}
*{{cite book|last1=Sartre|first1=Maurice|title=The Middle East Under Rome|date=2005|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0674016835|page=23|quote=The Commagene kings claimed to be descended from the Orontids, a powerful Iranian family that had ruled the area during the Achaemenid period. They were related to the Achaemenids who had built a kingdom (...)}}
*{{cite encyclopedia | article = ORONTES | last = Schmitt | first = Rüdiger | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/orontes | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica | year = 2002 }}
*{{cite journal |journal=Dabir |volume=7 |last=Strootman|first=Rolf | title=Hellenism and Persianism in Iran |date=2020|pages=201–227|doi=10.1163/29497833-00701016 |hdl=1874/408015 |url=https://www.academia.edu/43017267|url-access=registration|hdl-access=free }}
*{{cite book|last=Toumanoff|first=Cyril|author-link=Cyril Toumanoff|title=Studies in Christian Caucasian history|url=http://rbedrosian.com/Ref/Oront/oront278.htm|year=1963|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Georgetown University Press|pages=278 |quote=The eponym's ''praenomen Orontes'' is as Iranian as the dynasty itself..}}
*{{cite book |first1=Philippa |last1=Adrych |first2=Robert |last2=Bracey |first3=Dominic |last3=Dalglish |first4=Stefanie |last4=Lenk |first5=Rachel |last5=Wood |editor-first=Jaś |editor-last=Elsner |title=Images of Mithra |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192511119 |year=2017 }}


{{Regions of Kingdom of Armenia}}
{{Armenia topics}} {{Armenia topics}}
{{Achaemenid Provinces}}
{{Empires}}
{{coord missing|Asia}}


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Latest revision as of 09:07, 9 November 2024

Period of Yervanduni kingdom This article is about the Satrapy of Armenia. For a list of other Armenian Kingdoms, see Kingdom of Armenia.

Satrapy of Armenia𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴
570 BC–321 BC
Territory of the Orontid dynasty in IV-II BCTerritory of the Orontid dynasty in IV-II BC
StatusSatrapy
CapitalTushpa
Erebuni
Common languagesArmenian
Aramaic (South)
Median (East)
Religion Armenian polytheism
Zoroastrianism
GovernmentMonarchy
King 
History 
• Established 570 BC
• Disestablished 321 BC
Preceded by Succeeded by
Urartu
Medes
Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)
Lesser Armenia
Sophene
Commagene
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Coat of Arms of Armenia
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Timeline • Origins • Etymology

The Satrapy of Armenia (Old Persian: 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴 Armina or 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴𐎹 Arminiya), a region controlled by the Orontid dynasty (570–201 BC), was one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC that later became an independent kingdom. Its capitals were Tushpa and later Erebuni.

History

Orontid dynasty

Main article: Orontid dynasty

The Orontid dynasty, or known by their native name, Eruandid or Yervanduni, was an Iranian hereditary dynasty that ruled the satrapy of Armenia, the successor state to the Iron Age kingdom of Urartu (Ararat). It is suggested that it held dynastic familial linkages to the ruling Achaemenid dynasty. Throughout their existence, the Orontids stressed their lineage from the Achaemenids to strengthen their political legitimacy.

Members of the dynasty ruled Armenia intermittently during the period spanning from the 6th to at least the 2nd centuries BC, first as client kings or satraps of the Median and Achaemenid empires and later, after the collapse of the Achaemenid empire, as rulers of an independent kingdom, and later as kings of Sophene and Commagene, which eventually succumbed to the Roman Empire.

Following the demise of the Achaemenid Empire, the Satrapy of Armenia was incorporated into Alexander's empire. After Alexander's death, the Orontids gained independence from 321 BC until 301 BC when the Kingdom of Armenia fell to the Seleucid Empire. In 212 BC, Xerxes, King of Armenia revolted against the Seleucids but capitulated when besieged at his capital, Arsamasota, by Antiochus III.

Language

Despite the Hellenistic invasion of Persia, Persian and local Armenian culture remained the strongest element within society and the elites.

The Orontid administration used Aramaic, where it was used in official documents for centuries. Whereas most inscriptions used Old Persian cuneiform. Xenophon used an interpreter to speak to Armenians, while some Armenian villages were conversant in Persian.

The Greek inscriptions at Armavir indicate that the upper classes used Greek as one of their languages. Under Orontes IV (r. ca. 210–200 B.C.), the structure of government had begun to resemble Greek institutions, and Greek was used as the language of the royal court. Orontes IV had surrounded himself by the Hellenized nobility and sponsored the establishment of a Greek school in Armavir, the capital of the Armenian kingdom.

See also

Notes

  1. It is not known whether the Yervandunis were ethnically Armenian. They probably had marriage links to the rulers of Persia and other leading noble houses in Armenia.
  2. Although the origins of the Ervanduni family is not clear, historians suggest dynastic familial linkages to the ruling Achaemenid dynasty in Persia.
  3. The Hellenistic invasion of Persia partially influenced Armenia as well, but Persian and local Armenian culture remained the strongest element within society and the elites.

References

  1. Russell 1986, p. 51.
  2. Facella 2021; Sartre 2005, p. 23; Strootman 2020, pp. 205, 210; Michels 2021, p. 485; Toumanoff 1963, p. 278; Garsoian 2005; Gaggero 2016, p. 79; Russell 1986, pp. 438–444; Drower et al. 2021; Olbrycht 2021, p. 38; Ball 2002, pp. 31, 436; Canepa 2015, p. 80
  3. Toumanoff 1963, p. 278.
  4. Allsen 2011, p. 37.
  5. Lang 2000, p. 535.
  6. Panossian 2006, p. 35.
  7. ^ Payaslian 2007, p. 8.
  8. Stausberg & de Jong 2015, p. 120.
  9. Canepa 2015, p. 80.
  10. ^ Toumanoff 1963, p. 73.
  11. Chahin 1987, p. 190.
  12. ^ Panossian 2006, p. 36.
  13. ^ Bournoutian 2006, p. 23.
  14. Manandian 1965, p. 37.
  15. Payaslian 2007, p. 12.

Sources

  • Allsen, Thomas T. (2011). The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0812201079.
  • Ball, Warwick (2002). Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge. ISBN 9781134823871.
  • Bournoutian, George (2006). A Concise History of the Armenian People. California: Mazda Publishers, Inc. p. 23. ISBN 1-56859-141-1. Aramaic, the language of the imperial administration, was introduced into Armenia, where, for centuries, it continued to be used in official documents. Old Persian cuneiform, meanwhile, was used in most inscriptions. Xenophon mentions that he used a Persian interpreter to converse with Armenians and in some Armenian villages they responded in Persian.
  • Canepa, Matthew (2010). "Achaemenid and Seleukid Royal Funerary Practices and Middle Iranian Kingship". In Börm, H.; Wiesehöfer, J. (eds.). Commutatio et Contentio. Studies in the Late Roman, Sasanian, and Early Islamic Near East in Memory of Zeev Rubin. pp. 1–21.
  • Canepa, Matthew P. (2015). "Dynastic Sanctuaries and the Transformation of Iranian Kingship between Alexander and Islam". In Babaie, Sussan; Grigor, Talinn (eds.). Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. I.B.Tauris. p. 80. ISBN 978-1848857513. Iranian culture deeply influenced Armenia, and Iranian dynasties ruled Armenia during several important periods, including the Orontids (c. sixth century - c. early second century BCE) and Arsacids (54-428 CE).
  • Chahin, M. (1987). The Kingdom of Armenia: A History. Curzon Press.
  • Drower, M; Grey, E.; Sherwin-White, S.; Wiesehöfer, J. (2021). "Armenia". Oxford Classical Dictionary. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.777. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
  • Facella, Margherita (2021). "Orontids". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
  • Gaggero, Gianfranco (2016). "Armenians in Xenophon". Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach. De Gruyter. The above mentioned Orontids....but also because the two satraps who were contemporaries of Xenophon's are explicitly stated to be Persian.
  • Garsoian, N. (2005). "TIGRAN II". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Tigran (Tigranes) II was the most distinguished member of the so-called Artašēsid/Artaxiad dynasty, which has now been identified as a branch of the earlier Eruandid dynasty of Iranian origin attested as ruling in Armenia from at least the 5th century B.C.E
  • Hovannisian, Richard G. (1997). The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. Vol. I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. ..but the existence of a local Armenian dynasty, probably of Iranian origin..
  • Stausberg, Michael; de Jong, Albert (2015). "Armenian and Georgian Zoroastrianism". The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. pp. 119–128.
  • Lang, David M. (2000). "Iran, Armenia and Georgia". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3: The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanid Periods. Cambridge University Press. p. 535. ISBN 0-521-20092-X. The most striking example of the syncretism of gods in ancient Parthia actually occurs in a former Armenian satellite kingdom, namely Commagene, the modern Malatya district. Here a scion of the Armenian Orontid house, King Antiochus I (69 — 38 B.C.) built himself a funeral hill at Nimrud Dagh.(..) We see the king's paternal ancestors, traced back to the Achaemenian monarch Darius, son of Hystaspes, while Greek inscriptions record the dead ruler's connections with the Armenian dynasty of the Orontids.
  • Manandian, Hagop (1965). The Trade and Cities of Armenia in Relation to Ancient World Trade. Armenian library of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. p. 37.
  • Michels, Christoph (2021). "'Achaemenid' and 'Hellenistic' Strands of Representation in the Minor Kingdoms of Asia Minor". Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods: Commagene in its Local, Regional, and Global Context. Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 475–496. ISBN 978-3515129251.
  • Olbrycht, Marek Jan (2021). Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250-165 B.C.). Brill. ISBN 978-9004460751.
  • Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars. United Kingdom: Columbia University Press. pp. 35. ISBN 9781850657880. It is not known whether the Yervandunis were ethnically Armenian. They probably had marriage links to the rulers of Persia and other leading noble houses in Armenia.
  • Payaslian, Simon (2007). The history of Armenia : from the origins to the present (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-1403974679.
  • Russell, J. R. (1986). "ARMENIA AND IRAN iii. Armenian Religion". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. II/4: Architecture IV–Armenia and Iran IV. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 438–444. ISBN 978-0-71009-104-8. Iran, however, was to be the dominant influence in Armenian spiritual culture. The Orontid, Artaxiad, and Arsacid dynasties were all Iranian in origin, and the greater part of the Armenian vocabulary consists of Mid. Ir. loanwords. The Armenians preserved strong regional traditions which appear to have been incorporated into Zoroastrianism, a religion adopted by them probably in the Achaemenid period.
  • Sartre, Maurice (2005). The Middle East Under Rome. Harvard University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0674016835. The Commagene kings claimed to be descended from the Orontids, a powerful Iranian family that had ruled the area during the Achaemenid period. They were related to the Achaemenids who had built a kingdom (...)
  • Schmitt, Rüdiger (2002). "ORONTES". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
  • Strootman, Rolf (2020). "Hellenism and Persianism in Iran". Dabir. 7: 201–227. doi:10.1163/29497833-00701016. hdl:1874/408015.
  • Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). Studies in Christian Caucasian history. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. p. 278. The eponym's praenomen Orontes is as Iranian as the dynasty itself..
  • Adrych, Philippa; Bracey, Robert; Dalglish, Dominic; Lenk, Stefanie; Wood, Rachel (2017). Elsner, Jaś (ed.). Images of Mithra. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192511119.
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