Lesser Armenia

This article is about the region in Central Anatolia during Antiquity. For the Armenian kingdom during the Crusades, see Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia .

Lesser Armenia Փոքր Հայք
← 331 BC–72 BC →
Capital	Nikopolis
Language(s)	Armenian
Government	Monarchy
King	Mithridates
Historical era	Hellenistic Age
- Established	331 BC
- Disestablished	72 BC

Lesser Armenia (in greenish yellow, near the Black Sea) at the end of the 2nd century BC, just before the Roman conquest

Lesser Armenia (Armenian: Փոքր Հայք Pokr Hayk), also known as Armenia Minor and Armenia Inferior, refers to the Armenian populated regions, primarily to the west and northwest of the ancient Armenian Kingdom. In some sources, Lesser Armenia can also refer to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.

Geography

Further information: Western Armenia and Eastern Anatolia Region, Turkey

History of Armenia
This article is part of a series
Prehistory 2400 BC - 590 BC
Name of Armenia
Hayk
Hayasa-Azzi
Nairi  · Urartu
Antiquity 591 BC - 428 AD
Orontid Armenia
Kingdom of Armenia
Kingdom of Sophene
Kingdom of Commagene
Lesser Armenia
Roman Armenia
Dynasties:
Orontid · Artaxiad · Arsacid
Middle Ages 429 - 1375
Marzpanate Period
Byzantine Armenia
Sassanid Armenia
Arab conquest of Armenia
Emirate of Armenia
Bagratid Armenia
Kingdom of Vaspurakan
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
Zakarid Armenia
Dynasties:
Bagratid  · Rubenid  · Artsruni
Foreign Rule 1376 - 1918
Persian · Ottoman · Russian
Principality of Khachen
Armenian Oblast
Armenian national movement
Hamidian massacres
Armenian Genocide
Contemporary 1918 - present
Democratic Republic of Armenia
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
Nagorno-Karabakh War
Republic of Armenia
Armenia Portal

The Roman-Persian frontier and the Armenian provinces in the 5th century

Lesser Armenia (or Armenia Minor) was the portion of historic Armenia and the Armenian Highland lying west and northwest of the river Euphrates. It received its name to distinguish it from the much larger eastern portion of historic Armenia — Greater Armenia (or Armenia Major).

Lesser Armenia is a part of the Armenian Highlands.

Initial History

Early history

Prior to 4th century BC, the territory of Lesser Armenia was part of the ancient Armenian kingdom, which was ruled by the royal dynasty of Orontids (Yervanduni, Armenian: Երուանդունի) and, in the 4th c. BC, was subject to the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

Following the campaigns of Alexander the Great in 330s BC, as the Persian Empire collapsed, Mithridates, an Armenian general of the Persian army, declared himself king of Lesser Armenia. Thus two independent kingdoms emerged from the territory of the ancient Armenian kingdom — Lesser Armenia and Greater Armenia. By the 3rd century BC, the kingdom of Lesser Armenia reached its greatest extent and covered also the territories of southeastern coasts of the Black Sea, including the provinces of Trapezus, Rizon and Hamshen (the area where the ethnic Armenian Hamshenis originated).

Roman-Persian wars

Armenia was disputed kingdom between Rome and Parthia during the Roman-Persian Wars from 66 BC to the 2nd century AD. Roman influence was first established with Pompey's campaign of 66/65 BC, and again in 59 AD in the campaign of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo which resulted in the deposition of Tiridates I.

Roman Lesser Armenia

Further information: Roman Armenia

All of Armenia became a Roman province in AD 114 under Roman emperor Trajan, but Roman Armenia was soon after abandoned by the legions in 118 AD and become a vassal kingdom. Romans lost Armenia again to Vologases IV of Parthia in AD 161. In 163, a Roman counter-attack under Statius Priscus once again installed a favoured candidate on the throne of Armenia, and Roman influence in Armenia remained until the Roman temporary defeat at the Battle of Barbalissos in 253. But a few years later,at the end of the 3rd century, Rome was again in control of Armenia and successively promoted the christianization of all Armenia.

Lesser Armenia was reunited with the kingdom of Greater Armenia under the Arshakuni king Tiridates III in AD 287, until the temporary conquest of Shapur II in 337.

Then it was formed into a regular province under Diocletian, and in the 4th century, was divided in two provinces:

• First Armenia
• Second Armenia.

Its population remained Armenian, but was being gradually Romanized. Since the 3rd century many Armenian soldiers were in the Roman army: later -in the 4th century- they made up two Roman legions, the Legio I Armeniaca and the Legio II Armeniaca.

Byzantine Lesser Armenia

After the division of Armenia by Eastern Roman Empire and Sassanid Persian Empires in 384, Lesser Armenia, along with western regions of Greater Armenia, became part of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire.

In 536, the emperor Justinian I reorganized the provincial administration, and First and Second Armenia were renamed Second and Third respectively, while some of their territory was split off to the other Armenian provinces.

The borders of the Byzantine part of Armenia were expanded in 591 into Persarmenia, but the region was the focus of decades of warfare between the Byzantines and the Persians (Byzantine-Sassanid Wars) until the Arab conquest of Armenia in 639.

After this, the part of Lesser Armenia remaining under Byzantine control (in a lesser extent) became part of the theme of Armeniakon.

Later history

After the downfall of Bagratid Armenia in 1045 and resulting subsequent losses of Byzantine Empire in the East in 1071 (after the Battle of Manzikert), Lesser Armenia fell to the Seljuks and then was parts of Mongol Empire for 92 years and Ottoman Empire for the entire duration of the latter's existence.

During 11th-14th centuries the term Lesser Armenia (sometimes called "Little Armenia") was applied to the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, until the formation of Turkey in 1923.

Lesser Armenia was renamed as part of "Western Armenia" with the acquisition of Eastern Armenia by the Russian Empire after the Russo-Turkish War of 1829.

The Christian Armenian population of Lesser Armenia continued its existence in the area until the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23. Some Armenians still live in the area, because converted to muslim religion under Ottoman influence, mainly in the 17th century

See also

• Kingdom of Armenia
• Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
• Roman Armenia
• Hemshinli

Bibliography

• Bert Vaux, Hemshinli: The Forgotten Black Sea Armenians, Harvard University, 2001.
• Mack Chahin, The Kingdom of Armenia: A History, Routledge, London, 2001. (ISBN 0-7007-1452-9)
• Robert H. Hewsen, Armenia: A Historical Atlas, University Of Chicago Press, 2000. (ISBN 0-226-33228-4)