Armenia in the Ancient World

Related civilizations: Assyria, Greece, Persia, Rome.

Date: c. 2000 b.c.e.-653 c.e.

Locale: Asia Minor, Caucasus (modern Turkey and Armenia)

Armenia in the Ancient World

Ancient Armenia extended considerably to the south and west of the modern country, including much of what is now Turkey east of the Euphrates. The earliest known inhabitants were related culturally to the neighboring Hittites, who spoke an Indo-European language, but the language spoken in this area by these people belonged to the Caucasian group. As a result of an invasion by peoples coming from either the north or the west no earlier than the eighth century b.c.e., an early form of the present Armenian language, also Indo-European, was imposed. From about 830 to 640 b.c.e., the kingdom of Urartu, the same word as “Ararat” (the mountain where Noah’s ark landed according to the Book of Genesis), occupied the territory of the later Armenian kingdom. Much of the extant evidence is from Assyrian sources, indicating hostility between the kingdom and Assyria.

The word “Armenia” first appears in an inscription of the Persian king Darius the Great dating from 521 b.c.e. Under Assyrian and then Persian rule, the area provided horses and cavalrymen to the ruling group. The Persians restored partial independence to Armenia under two Armenian dynasties: Tirabazus in the north and Erwant or Orontes in the south. This political system continued under Alexander the Great and his successors in Asia, the Seleucids. After the Seleucid king Antiochus the Great was defeated by Rome in 189 b.c.e., complete political independence returned, although the country was not united for almost a century. Greek influence, attested by inscriptions, became extremely strong under the Seleucids and afterward in the north as well as the south. Greek poetry was studied, and Greek plays were read and may have been performed.

In about 98 b.c.e., the Parthian dynasty of Persia, Armenia’s eastern neighbor, set up Tigranes the Great as king in return for territory. Tigranes united Armenia in 95 b.c.e. and then conquered much of the area between the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and central Persia, giving internal independence to Greek cities that supported him and generally favoring Greek culture. He established Tigranocerta (modern Silvan) as his capital in southern Armenia, populating it in part with Greeks exiled from cities that had opposed him unsuccessfully, and called himself by the Persian title “king of kings.” In 69 b.c.e., Tigranes, owing to his alliance with Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, found himself at war with Rome. Three years later, after surrendering to the Roman general Pompey the Great, he lost his territory other than Armenia proper and became a vassal of Rome.

Under the descendants of Tigranes and the members of a later dynasty founded by Tiridates I in about 51 c.e., Armenia was fought over repeatedly by Rome and the Parthian and later Sāsānian Dynasties of Persia. Generally it was nominally a Roman protectorate while in fact sympathizing with Persia. During the war of 114-117 c.e., Armenia was temporarily annexed by Rome. Areas to the south, known as “lesser Armenia,” were held by a variety of kingdoms allied to Rome during the century beginning in 60 b.c.e., later becoming part of the Roman province of Cappadocia.

For about a century, beginning in the early third century c.e., Persian influence was strong and Zoroastrianism was the prevailing religion. However, circa 300 c.e., Saint Gregory, known as “the Illuminator” (240-332 c.e.), believed to have been a Parthian chief’s son sent to Roman Cappadocia to be educated, converted King Tiridates III (r. c. 287 to 330 c.e.) to the Christian religion ten years before the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. The Greek Christians had consecrated Gregory as vicar-general of Armenia, but not long afterward, an independent Armenian church, still in existence and using Armenian exclusively in its services, was established. In the opinion of modern scholars, much of Armenia had already been converted to Christianity in the forms of Nestorianism and other heresies, before Gregory’s time.

The new religious situation meant alliance with Rome after Constantine’s conversion, and strife with still-Zoroastrian Persia. Wars with Persia greatly weakened Armenia politically. Circa 387 c.e., Rome and Persia divided Armenia into spheres of influence, the divided country reverting to semi-independence. Culturally, Armenia continued to flourish with the invention of an Armenian alphabet by Saint Mesrop in about 400 c.e. and the development of a national literature, at first mostly religious. Since about 500 c.e., the Armenian church has been Monophysite, denying that Christ has two natures, one divine, one human. In this respect, the Armenian church resembles the Copts of Egypt and the Ethiopian church, differing from nearly all other branches of Christianity.

Most of the first Armenian Christian clergy were converted pagan priests; the hereditary nature of the priesthood is a pagan survival. Armenian priests wear hoods shaped like the peak of Mount Ararat.

In 451 c.e., a “holy war” between Armenia and Persia resulted in failure to conquer the latter country. In 653 c.e., the Muslim Arabs conquered the country, gradually becoming the majority of the population of the area now part of Turkey, although Armenians continue to live there. At an uncertain date, an Armenian diaspora, consisting mostly of merchants, began to spread through the eastern Mediterranean region.

Bibliography

Colledge, M. A. R. The Parthians. New York: Praeger, 1967.

Hovannisian, Richard G. The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

Luttwak, E. N. The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire from the First Century a.d. to the Third. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

Sherwin-White, A. M. Roman Foreign Policy in the East. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1984.