Kingdom of Armenia (Antiquity)
|Kingdom of Armenia
or Greater Armenia
|Empire during the reigns' of Tigranes the Great and Artavasdes II|
Standard of the Artaxiad Dynasty.
|Armenian Empire at its greatest extent under Tigranes II the Great, 69 BC (including vassals)|
|Capital||Yervandashat: 201 BC-185 BC
Artashat: 185 BC-77 BC and 60-120
Tigranakert: 77 BC-69 BC
Hellenism: III century BC-301 AD
Christianity: from 301 AD
|King of Armenia, King of Kings|
|- 336 BC-331 BC||Orontes III|
|- 8 BC-5 BC and 2 BC-1 BC||Tigranes IV and Erato|
|- 66 AD-88 AD||Tiridates I of Armenia|
|- 422 AD-428 AD||Artaxias IV|
|Historical era||Antiquity, Middle Ages|
|- Greater Armenia is formed||331 BC|
|- Orontes III's reign||331 BC|
|- Artashat is built||185 BC|
|- Armenian Empire||84 BC-34 BC|
|- Battle of Rhandeia||61 AD|
|- Christianity national religion||301 AD|
|- Artaxias IV was over throned||428|
|- 331 BC||400,000 km2 (154,441 sq mi)|
|- 69 BC||500,000 km2 (193,051 sq mi)|
|- 301 AD||350,000 km2 (135,136 sq mi)|
|- 428 AD||120,000 km2 (46,332 sq mi)|
|- 69 BC est.||20,000,000|
|Density||40 /km2 (103.6 /sq mi)|
|- 301 AD est.||3,000,000|
|Density||8.6 /km2 (22.2 /sq mi)|
|Today part of|| Armenia
|Redgate, Anne Elizabeth (2000). The Armenians. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 7. ISBN 0-631-22037-2.|
The ancient Kingdom of Armenia was an independent monarchy from 331 BC to AD 428. When the kingdom was the most powerful it was also called the "Armenian Empire".
After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the former Satrapy of Armenia was divided in about 120 clan territories. After the destruction of the Seleucid Empire, a Helenistic Greek successor state of Alexander the Great's short-lived empire, a Helenistic Armenian state was founded in 190 BC by Artaxias I. At its height, from 95 to 66 BC, Armenia extended its rule through areas of the Causcasus and the area that is now eastern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. Armenia was one of the weakest states in the Roman East. It was under the Roman sphere of influence in 66 BC.
Armenia reached its greatest size and influence under King Tigranes II. It went from the Mediterranean Sea northeast to the Kura River. The Artaxiads were overthrown by the Romans in AD 12. This started a period of civil war. After AD 54, the kingdom was ruled by the Arsacid Dynasty. In AD 387, Armenia was divided into Byzantine Armenia in the west and Persian Armenia in the east. Persian Armenia remained under the rule of Arsacid client kings until AD 428.
From the second century BC, the people of Lower Armenia (including today’s Karabakh) spoke Armenian. This implies that today’s Armenians are the descendants of those speakers.