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 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, after the battle of Tigranocerta and the final defeat of Armenia's allied Mithridates VI of Pontus. Mark Antony invaded and succumbed the kingdom in 34 BC, but Romans lost hegemony at time of the Final war of the Roman Republic in 32-30 BC. In 20 BC, Augustus negotiated a truce with the Parthians, making Armenia a buffer zone between the two major powers.

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. But a result of an epidemic within the Roman forces, Parthians retook most of their lost territory in 166 and forced Sohaemus to retreat to Syria, аnd in Armenia Arsakid’s dynasty was restored.

After the fall of the Arsacid Dynasty in Persia, there succeeded the Sassanian Dynasty which aspired to establish control over Armenia. The Sassanid Persians occupied Armenia in 252. In 287 Tiridetes III the Great, was established king of Armenia by the Roman armies. He soon accepted Christianity. The traditional date is in 301, earlier than Constantine the Great.

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.