Satrapy of Armenia
| Satrapy of Armenia | |||||
| Սատրապական Հայաստան Satrapakan Hayastan |
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| Satrapy | |||||
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Territory of the Orontid Dynasty in IV-II BC
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| Capital | Tushpa Erebuni |
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| Languages | Armenian | ||||
| Religion | Paganism, Zoroastrianism |
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| Government | Monarchy | ||||
| King | Orontes I (first) Hydarnes (last) |
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| Historical era | Ancient | ||||
| • | Established | 522 BC | |||
| • | Disestablished | 331 BC | |||
| Today part of | |||||
| Warning: Value specified for "continent" does not comply | |||||
The Satrapy of Armenia (Armenian: Սատրապական Հայաստան Satrapakan Hayastan; Old Persian: Armina or Arminiya), a region controlled by the Orontid Dynasty (570-201 BC) (Armenian: Երվանդունիներ Yervanduniner) was one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, which later became an independent kingdom. Its capitals were Tushpa and later Erebuni.
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
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After the collapse of the Kingdom of Urartu (Ararat), the land came to be under the administration of the Median Empire and the Scythians. Later the territory was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire, which incorporated it as a satrapy, and thus named it the land of "Armina" (in Old Persian; "Harminuya" in Elamite; "Urashtu" in Babylonian)).
Orontid Dynasty[edit]
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The Orontid Dynasty, or known by their native name, Yervanduni, was a hereditary Armenian dynasty and the rulers of the successor state to the Iron Age kingdom of Ararat (Urartu).[1][2][3][4][5] Of probable Iranian origin,[6] members of the dynasty ruled Armenia intermittently during the period spanning the 6th to at least the 2nd century 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, who eventually succumbed to the Roman Empire.
The Orontids established their supremacy over Armenia around the time of the Scythian and Median invasion in the 6th century BC.[7] Its founder was Orontes I Sakavakyats (Armenian: Երվանդ Ա Սակավակյաց, Yervand I Sakavakyats). His son Tigranes Orontid united his forces with Cyrus the Great and killed Media's king. Moses of Chorene calls him "the wisest, most powerful and bravest of Armenian Kings." From 553 BC to 521 BC, Armenia was a subject to the Achaemenid Empire, but during Darius I's reign, he decided to conquer Armenia. He sent an Armenian named Dâdarši to suffocate the revolt, later substituting him for the Persian Vaumisa who defeated the Armenians on May 20, 521 BC. Around the same time, another Armenian by the name of Arakha, son of Haldita, claimed to be the son of the last king of Babylon, Nabonidus, and renamed himself Nebuchadnezzar IV. His rebellion was short lived and was suppressed by Intaphrenes, Darius' bow carrier. After five raids Armenia resisted.
Greek commander and historian Xenophon provided important information on Orontid Armenia. After the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), Orontes III restored independence in Armenia. But in 201 BC, Armenia was conquered by Artashes, an Armenian commander of the 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 Sophene and Commagene until the 1st century BC. In two inscriptions of king Antiochus I of Commagene on his monument at Nemrut an Orontes, called Aroandes (son of Artasouras and husband of Artaxerxes's daughter Rhodogoune), is reckoned, among others, as an ancestor of the Orontids ruling over Commagene, who traced back their family to Darius the Great.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Toumanoff, Cyril (1963). Studies in Christian Caucasian history. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. pp. 278ff.
- ^ (Armenian) Tiratsyan, Gevorg. «Երվանդունիներ» (Yerevanduniner). Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. vol. iii. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1977, p. 640.
- ^ History of Armenia, Moses of Chorene, http://www.vehi.net/istoriya/armenia/khorenaci/index.html
- ^ Xenophon mentions an Armenian king named Tigranes Orontid in his Cyropaedia. He was an ally of Cyrus the Great with whom he hunted. Tigranes paid tribute to Astyages.
- ^ Krause, Todd B. and John A.C. Greppin, and Jonathan Slocum. "The Yervanduni Dynasty." The A. Richard Diebold Center for Indo-European Language and Culture at the University of Texas. January 22, 2009.
- ^ Garsoïan, Nina (1997). "The Emergence of Armenia" in The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Volume I, The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 46-47. ISBN 0-312-10169-4.
- ^ Tiratsyan, Gevork. «Երվանդունիներ» (Yerevanduniner). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. iii. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1977, p. 640.[need quotation to verify]