{{Infobox Former Country|native_name =
Մեծ Հայք|conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Armenia|common_name = Kingdom of Armenia|national_motto =|continent = Europe|region = Caucasus|country =|era =|status = Empire|government_type =|year_start = 190 BC|year_end = 66 BC|event_start =|event_end =|event1 =|date_event1 =|event2 =|date_event2 =|p1 =|flag_p1 =|s2 =|flag_s2 =|image_flag =|image_coat =|image_map = Armenian Empire.png|image_map_caption = Kingdom of Armenia at its greatest extent under the Artaxiad Dynasty after the conquests of Tigranes the Great,
80 BC.]|currency =|legislature =|stat_year1 =|stat_pop1 =|-->
The
Kingdom of Armenia (or
Greater Armenia) was an independent kingdom from
190 BC to
66 BC, and a client state of either the Roman or Persian empires until AD 428.Stretching from the
Caspian to the
Mediterranean Seas. Time Almanac - Page 724 by Editors of Time Magazine The New Review - Page 208 edited by Archibald Grove, William Ernest Henley
History
The predecessor of the Kingdom was the Satrapy of Armenia ("Armina" in the Old Persian, "Harminuya" in the Elamite and "Urashtu" (< "Urartu") in the Bablylonian parts of
Behistun Inscription of
Darius the Great) part of the Achaemenid Empire, which later became an independent Kingdom under the Orontid Dynasty with
Ancient Macedonians influence.
After the destruction of the
Seleucid Empire, a Hellenistic Greece successor state of
Alexander the Great's short-lived empire, a Hellenistic Armenian state was founded in 190 BC by Artaxias I. At its zenith, from 95 BC to 66 BC, Armenia extended its rule over parts of the Caucasus and the area that is now eastern
Turkey, Syria and
Lebanon. For a time, Armenia was one of the most powerful states in the Roman East. It came under the Ancient Rome sphere of influence in 66 BC.
Subsequently, Armenia was often a focus of contention between Rome and
Persian Empire. The
Parthians forced Armenia into submission from 37 to
47, when the Romans retook control of the kingdom.
Under Nero, the Romans fought a campaign (55–63) against the Parthian Empire, which had invaded the kingdom of Armenia, allied to the Romans. After gaining (
60) and losing (
62) Armenia, the Romans sent Legio XV Apollinaris from
Pannonia to Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo,
legatus of
Syria (Roman province). Corbulo, with the legions XV
Apollinaris,
Legio III Gallica,
Legio V Macedonica,
Legio X Fretensis and
Legio XXII Deiotariana, entered (
63) into the territories of Vologases I of Parthia, who returned the Armenian kingdom to
Tiridates I of Armenia.
Another campaign was led by Emperor Lucius Verus in 162-165, after Vologases IV of Parthia had invaded Armenia and installed his chief general on its throne. To counter the Parthian threat, Verus set out for the east. His army won significant victories and retook the capital. Sohaemus, a Roman citizen of Armenian heritage, was installed as the new client king.
The
Sassanid Persians occupied Armenia in
252 and held it until the Romans returned in 287. In 387 the kingdom was split between the East Roman Empire and the Persians. Western Armenia quickly became a province of the
Roman Empire under the name of
Armenia Minor; Eastern Armenia remained a kingdom within Persia until 428, when the local nobility overthrew the king, and the Sassanids installed a governor in his place.
By the second century BC the population of Greater Armenia spoke Armenian, implying that today’s Armenians are the direct descendants of those speakers. Patrick Donabedian, “The History of Karabagh from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century,” in Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabedian and Claude Mutafian, The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geo-Politics of Nagorno-Karabagh (London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1994), p. 53. Armenia and Azerbaijan:thinking a way out of Karabakh David D. Laitin and Ronald Grigor Suny Greek Geographer, Strabo,
References
Further reading
- M. Chahin, The Kingdom of Armenia (1987, reissued 1991)
- Vahan Kurkjian, Tigran the Great (1958)
- Ashkharbek Kalantar, Armenia: From the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, Civilisations du Proche Orient, Se´rie 1, Vol. 2, Recherches et Publications, Neuchâtel, Paris, 1994;ISBN: 2-940032-01-7;ISBN13: 978-2-940032-01-3
- Ashkharbek Kalantar, The Mediaeval Inscriptions of Vanstan, Armenia, Civilisations du Proche-Orient: Series 2 - Philologie - CDPOP 2, Vol. 2, Recherches et Publications, Neuchâtel, Paris, 1999;ISBN: 2-940032-11-4;ISBN13: 978-2-940032-11-2
- Ashkharbek Kalantar, Materials on Armenian and Urartian History (with a contribution by Mirjo Salvini), Civilisations du Proche-Orient: Series 4 - Hors Série - CPOHS 3, Neuchâtel, Paris, 2004;ISBN: 2-940032-14-9;ISBN13: 978-2-940032-14-3
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