Roman Armenia
Provincia Armenia Հռոմեական Հայաստան ἐπαρχία Αρμενίας | |||||||||
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Artashat | |||||||||
Historical era | Classical antiquity | ||||||||
• Established | 114 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 118 | ||||||||
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Today part of |
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History of Armenia |
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Timeline • Origins • Etymology |
Roman Armenia refers to the rule of parts of
In the late 4th century, Armenia was divided between Rome and the Sasanians, who took control of the larger part of the Armenian Kingdom and, in the mid-5th century, abolished the Armenian monarchy. In the 6th and the 7th centuries, Armenia once again became a battleground between the
History
After the fall of the Artaxiad dynasty after Pompey's campaign in Armenia in 66 BC, the Kingdom of Armenia was often contested between the Roman Empire and the Parthian Empire during the Roman–Parthian Wars. Throughout most of its history during this period, under the reign of the Arsacid dynasty, the Armenian nobility was divided among Roman-loyalists, Parthian-loyalists, and neutrals.
Armenia often served as a
Struggle over influence with Parthia
With the eastwards expansion of the Roman Republic during the Mithridatic Wars, the Kingdom of Armenia, under the Artaxiad dynasty, was made a Roman client kingdom by Pompey in 66–65 BC.[1] For the next 100 years, Armenia remained under Roman influence. Towards the middle of the 1st century AD, the rising Parthian influence disputed Roman supremacy, which was re-established by the campaigns of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo.[2]
This conflict ended after the
Roman province of Armenia (114–118 AD)
In 114, Emperor Trajan incorporated Armenia into the Empire, making it a full Roman province.[4]
From Antioch the emperor (Trajan) marched to the Euphrates and farther northward as far as the most northerly legion-camp Satala in Lesser Armenia, whence he advanced into Armenia and took the direction of Artaxata... Trajan was resolved to make this vassal-state a province, and a shift to eastern frontier of the (Roman) empire generally... Armenia yielded to its fate and became a Roman governorship... Trajan thereupon advanced and occupied Mesopotamia...and, like Armenia, Mesopotamia became a Roman province.
In 113, Trajan invaded the Parthian Empire because he wanted to reinstate a vassal king in Armenia (a few years before fallen under Parthian control). In 114, Trajan from Antiochia in Syria marched on Armenia and conquered the capital Artaxata. Trajan then deposed the Armenian king Parthamasiris and ordered the annexation of Armenia to the Roman Empire as a new province.
The new province reached the shores of the
The
Roman protectorate
After Trajan's death, his successor
Armenia was in frequent dispute between the two empires and their candidates for the Armenian throne, a situation which lasted until the emergence of a new power, the
In the second half of the 3rd century, the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon and areas of southern Armenia were sacked by the Romans under Emperor Carus, and all Armenia, after half a century of Persian rule, was ceded to Diocletian in 299 as a vassal territory.[6]
Eastern Roman Armenia
In 363, a treaty was signed between the
Another treaty followed between 384 and 390, the
Unlike
Under Roman rule, Melitene was the base camp of Legio XII Fulminata. It was a major center in Armenia Minor (P'ok'r Hayk'), remaining so until the end of the 4th century. Emperor Theodosius I divided the region into two provinces: First Armenia (Hayk', Armenia Prima), with its capital at Sebasteia (modern Sivas); and Second Armenia (Armenia Secunda), with its capital at Melitene.[10]
The
The situation remained unchanged for near a century, until a large-scale revolt by the satraps in 485 against Emperor Zeno (r. 474–491). In its aftermath, the satraps were stripped of their sovereignty and their rights of hereditary succession, being in effect reduced to the status of tax-paying and imperially-administered civitates stipendariae.[11][12]
Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) carried out a series of comprehensive administrative reforms. Already soon after his accession in 527, the dux Armeniae (responsible for Armenia Minor) and the comes Armeniae were abolished, and the military forces of the Armenian territories were subordinated to a new magister militum per Armeniam at Theodosiopolis.[13]
In 536, new reforms were enacted that abolished the autonomy of the trans-Euphrates territories and formed four new regular provinces. Armenia Interior was joined with parts of
In 591, the treaty between Khosrow II and Maurice ceded most of Persarmenia to the Eastern Roman Empire.
Later history
The region was the focus of prolonged warfare in the
With the ebbing of the Caliphate's power and the fracturing of its outlying territories into autonomous statelets, the Byzantines were able to re-assert their influence over the Armenian principalities during the campaigns of
Roman Christianity
The influence of
Apostle Bartholomew is said to have been executed in
Armenia became the first country to establish Christianity as its state religion when, in an event traditionally dated to 301, Gregory the Illuminator convinced Tiridates III, the king of Armenia, to convert to Christianity.
As a consequence of
Before this, the dominant religion in Armenia was
It is a well recognized historical fact that the Armenians were the first nation in the world to formally adhere to Christianity. This conversion was followed in the 4th and 5th centuries by a process of institutionalization and Armenization of Christianity in Armenia. Indeed, Gregory the Illuminator became the organizer of the Armenian Church hierarchy. From that time, the heads of the Armenian Church have been called Catholicos and still hold the same title.
St. Gregory chose as the site of the "Catholicosate" the capital city of
The continuous upheavals, which characterized the political scenes of Armenia in the next centuries, made the political power move to safer places often related to the
Episcopal sees
Ancient episcopal sees of the Roman province of Armenia III listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees:[18]
- Acilisene
- Camachus
- Citharizum
- Theodosiopolis in Armenia
For ancient episcopal sees in the Roman provinces of Armenia I and Armenia II, see Lesser Armenia#Episcopal sees.
See also
- Legio I Armeniaca
- Legio II Armeniaca
- Sasanian Armenia
- Lesser Armenia
- Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)
- Mamikonian
- Roman Georgia
- Byzantine Armenia
- Caucasian Albania
References
- ^ Patterson 2015, p. 77.
- ^ Vahan Kurkjian: Armenia and the Romans
- ^ Marciak 2017, p. 360.
- ^ Theodore Mommsen. The Provinces of the Roman Empire. Chapter IX, p. 68
- ^ Legio II Armeniaca
- ^ Zarinkoob 1999 p=199
- ^ Hovannisian (2004), pp. 85, 92
- ^ Hovannisian (2004), pp. 103–104
- ^ Kazhdan (1991), p. 175
- ^ (in Armenian) Hakobyan, Tadevos Kh. «Մալաթիա» [Malatya], Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1981, vol. vii, p. 145.
- ^ a b c Kazhdan (1991), p. 1846
- ^ a b Hovannisian (2004), p. 104
- ^ Hovannisian (2004), pp. 104–105
- ^ Hovannisian (2004), pp. 105–106
- ^ Fenlon, John Francis. "St. Bartholomew." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 6 May 2010 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02313c.htm
- ^ Spillman, Francis. The Twelve: Lives and Legends of the Apostles. 2017. https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Lives-Legends-Apostles/dp/1365640434
- ^ Armenian Catholicosate
- ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), "Sedi titolari", pp. 819-1013
Sources
- Garsoïan, Nina G. (1998). "Aρμενία μεγάλη καὶ ἐπαρχία Μεσοποταμίας". ΕΥΨΥΧΙΑ. Mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler (in French). Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne. pp. 239–264. ISBN 9782859448301.
- Hovannisian, Richard G., ed. (2004), The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume I - The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-4039-6421-2
- ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
- Marciak, Michał (2017). Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West. Brill.
- Migliorati, Guido. Cassio Dione e l'impero romano da Nerva ad Antonino Pio: alla luce dei nuovi documenti. Editore Vita e Pensiero. Roma, 2003 ISBN 88-343-1065-9
- Mommsen, Theodore. The provinces of the Roman Empire. Barnes & Noble Books. New York, 1996 ISBN 0-7607-0145-8
- Patterson, Lee E. (2015). "Antony and Armenia". TAPA. 145, No. 1 (Spring). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 77–105.