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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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Tigran surrounded himself with the rulers of all the countries that he had conquered, as well as the Armenian princes and members of the Armenian aristocracy whom he forced to leave their palaces in the mountains and move to Tigranakert. Mommsen writes that Tigran, with his newly created life-style, could well be regarded as the successor to the Persian Darius and Xerxes.

Tigran's Way of Thinking and His Court

Tigran was a strange blend of the self-centred eastern ruler with distinctly Asian characteristics and a Greek way of thinking which, in spite of some mistakes on his part, was generally Hellenic in spirit. In this he was similar to Peter the Great.

He spoke fluent Greek and was constantly surrounded by Greeks. He built a new theatre in his new capital and brought the great Greek author Amphicrates from Athens to his court. The Armenian princes and the aristocrats around him spoke and wrote in Greek. His son Artavazd, who would later follow him on to the throne, wrote many tragedies, poetries and plays in Greek, which Plutarchos extolled. Even Greek stone cutters and sculptors helped with the ornamentation of the city.

We should also mention the tetra-drachmas (four drachma coins that were attributed to Tigran and are categorised as Greek coins made in Asia. 28

The Social Structure of Armenia

The geography of Armenia and its natural shape created an administrative system which would not appear in Europe until much later. The mountains divided the country into a number of provinces for each of which Tigran appointed a leader, who practically had unlimited local powers. These leaders were each given a palace and ruled their provinces independently. 30 The form of government which existed during this period in Armenia can be described as feudal , a system which appeared in Europe for the first time during the 10th century A.D.

Beside the upper class, the Armenians constituted the majority of the officials at the royal court as well as the entire rural population of the Armenian highland. However, it seems that the majority of the population in the cities, mostly south of the Taurus Mountains, and especially the bourgeoisie, the merchants and the craftsmen, were of foreign origin (especially Greek, but also Jewish and Assyrian 31).

The Military Power of Armenia

If Armenia had not had enough military strength, the country most probably would not have been able to gain and defend its independence sufficiently during Tigran's reign to be able to conquer the entire Middle East. During the coming centuries the Armenians defended also their system of self-government in order to, after a long time under foreign rule, once more become independent.

The source of this military power lay in the strength of the Armenian mountain people and its peasantry, i.e. the same group that provided the Byzantine Empire later on with its infantry, and which could be called upon to provide the last line of defence during battle.

In addition to that infantry there was a light cavalry with excellent archers. Chapot wrote: "What they say about Armenia bewilders us. How could this mountain people develop such a cavalry that was able to measure itself against the horsemen of the Medes? One thing which is certain is the fact that Armenia, as well as the Azerbaijan of the Medes, was a source of excellent wellbred horses. The people in this country had discovered that horses were not just an economic asset, but could also be used for military purposes." 32