Map Close  
Person info Close  
Information Close  
Source reference Close  
  Svenska
 
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

Previous page Page 13 Next page Smaller font Larger font Print friednly version  
Darius sent an army to conquer Armenia which defended itself excellently and repelled the attackers. After that Darius changed his strategy and concentrated his attack on Assyria. 5 Darius was subsequently forced to send a second army to conquer Armenia. According to Gray & Cary, Armenia was the only country able to withstand the Persian army for any length of time, before it also was finally defeated (the war against Armenia lasted for twelve months).

De Morgan noted: "The scripts from this war, which have been found in Bisutun, describe Armenia and its people at a stage in which they felt confident and powerful enough, after two centuries of independence with an organised governmental system, to go into battle against the immortal forces of the king of kings (the forces of Darius were called "the eternals" or "the immortals"). The stories imply that the Armenians were well trained in warfare and that Armenia, at the end of the 6th century B.C., was among those powers that had an important influence on global policy Middle East." 9

By this defeat Armenia was annexed to Persia, whose borders now stretched from the Hellespont (the ancient name of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles) to the Indus and from the Caucasus to Egypt.

Armenia within the Persian Empire

Since Armenia would during the future centuries (between 6th and 5th) and during the period of the Persian Empire's disintegration under the attacks of Alexander the Great, constitute a province, or Satrap, in the Persian Empire, it is in order that we take a look at its internal structure.

The organisational competence of men such as Cyrus and Darius had made them aware that it is not possible to rule over a huge empire with many different ethnic groups if one does not decentralize the ruling power. Therefore most of the conquered regions became provinces or satraps within the empire and Armenia was one of them. These satraps enjoyed relative independence and were ruled either by their own royal dynasties or, if the king of kings appointed a satrap or king of his own, then he was chosen above the native kings. The title "Shah-n-Shah" or "Shah-e-Shahan" that the Persian kings applied to themselves implied exactly this fact - that they were the "king of kings". The kings they ruled over not only had to pay them tribute but also, when needed, provide them with armies.

It seems that Armenia, during this period, was ruled by selected Armenian satraps and had total independence. The Greek historian Xenophon passed through Armenia during the great retreat of 10 000 Greek soldiers during the 5th century BC. His stories provide an invaluable source of the history of Armenia, its people and their ways of living.

Xénophon described the entrance of the 10 000 soldiers into the plain of Moush, after an extremely difficult passage through the mountains of presentday eastern Turkey. He repoted that they "found different kinds of food, fruits and crops of the highest quality, e.g. four-legged animals with very tasty meat, wheat and aging wines with delightful scent and taste and several different kinds of grapes and vegetables." He continued: "The horses in this country are not as big as the horses in Persia, but are much more intrepid and unafraid." Surely there could be no one who would know more about the Armenian highland and its mountains than someone who had witnessed the retreat of 10 000 soldiers, when they at the end of their march burst out with "Thalatha, thalatha!" (The sea, the sea!)