Kingdom of Armenia
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| Early History | |||
| Haik | |||
| Armens | |||
| Hayasa-Azzi | |||
| Nairi | |||
| Kingdom of Urartu | |||
| Kingdom of Armenia | |||
| Orontid Armenia | |||
| Artaxiad Dynasty | |||
| Arsacid Dynasty | |||
| Medieval History | |||
| Marzpanate Period | |||
| Byzantine Armenia | |||
| Bagratuni Armenia | |||
| Kingdom of Vaspurakan | |||
| Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia | |||
| Foreign Rule | |||
| Persian Domination | |||
| Ottoman Domination | |||
| Russian Domination | |||
| Hamidian Massacres | |||
| Armenian Genocide | |||
| Early Independence | |||
| Democratic Republic of Armenia | |||
| Soviet Armenia | |||
| Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic | |||
| Modern Armenia | |||
| Republic of Armenia | |||
| Topical | |||
| Military history of Armenia | |||
| Timeline of Armenian history | |||
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.
The predecessor of the Kingdom was the Satrapy of Armenia part of the Achaemenid Empire, which later became an independent Kingdom under the Orontid Dynasty with Macedonian influence.
After the destruction of the Seleucid Empire, a Hellenistic Greek 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 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 Roman sphere of influence in 66 BC.
Subsequently, Armenia was often a focus of contention between Rome and Persia. 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 XV Apollinaris from Pannonia to Cn. Domitius Corbulo, legatus of Syria. Corbulo, with the legions XV Apollinaris, III Gallica, V Macedonica, X Fretensis and XXII, entered (63) into the territories of Vologases I of Parthia, who returned the Armenian kingdom to Tiridates.
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 384 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 (including today’s Karabakh) spoke Armenian, implying that today’s Armenians are the direct descendants of those speakers. [1] [2] [3] [4]
[edit] References
- M. Chahin, The Kingdom of Armenia (1987, reissued 1991)
- Vahan Kurkjian, Tigran the Great (1958)
- ^ 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,
