Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)

331 BC – 428 AD monarchy in Ancient Near East

The Kingdom of Greater Armenia or simply Greater Armenia or Armenia Major (Armenian: Մեծ Հայք Mets Hayk; Latin: Armenia Maior), sometimes referred to as the Armenian Empire under Tigranes II, was an Armenian kingdom in the Ancient Near East which existed from 331 BC to 428 AD. Its history is divided into the successive reigns of three royal dynasties: Orontid (331–200 BC), Artaxiad (189 BC – 12 AD), and Arsacid (52–428). The root of the kingdom lies in the Satrapy of Armenia of the Achaemenid Empire of Iran, which was formed from the territory of Urartu (860–590 BC) after it was conquered by the Medes in 590 BC. The satrapy became a kingdom in 321 BC during the reign of the Orontid dynasty after the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great, which was then incorporated as one of the Hellenistic kingdoms of the Seleucid Empire. Under the Seleucid Empire (312–63 BC), the Armenian throne was divided in two—Greater Armenia and Sophene—both of which passed to members of the Artaxiad dynasty in 189 BC. During the Roman Republic's eastern expansion, the Kingdom of Armenia, under Tigranes the Great, reached its peak, from 83 to 69 BC, after it reincorporated Sophene and conquered the remaining territories of the falling Seleucid Empire, effectively ending its existence and raising Armenia into an empire for a brief period, until it was itself conquered by Rome in 69 BC. The remaining Artaxiad kings ruled as clients of Rome until they were overthrown in 12 AD due to their possible allegiance to Rome's main rival in the region, Parthia.

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