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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The General Situation in Armenia during the Roman Rule
Armenia under Roman rule was often an independent country, led by its own rules and its own army. The historian Mommsen pointed out that Armenia was actually never burdened by Roman taxes and fees. 68
Compulsorily enlistment, i.e. enlisting Armenians as Roman soldiers, never happened in Armenia and the Armenian soldiers who fought side by side with the Romans were either Armenians troops, under the leadership of Armenian commanders which the Armenian king had sent as a token of his friendship with Rome, or they were volunteer legionaries, a frequent occurrence in the legions in the east.
Even from an economic perspective, apart from some isolated cases where the country was looted after the conquests, Armenia paid only the expenses which were limited to providing for the Armenian troops in the service of the Roman army, and in some cases for only a part of their expenses. An even better fact was that Rome paid large sums to Armenia in order to have these Armenian forces at its disposal, since they were a good guarantee for the protection of the Roman Empire against the savages in north.
The Leadership of Armenia and its Organisation
The Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi has left us an interesting description of the administrative organisation of Armenia during the reign of King Vologuése I (117-140), which shows that the country had reached an advanced stage of administrative organisation. However, one must add that the rise of the Arshakounian dynasty meant that Armenia adopted a great amount of knowledge from the Persians and the influence of Persian culture is clearly noticeable in the Armenian culture of that period.
Movses Khorenatsi described how Belash I had a court with assignments and duties which were divided between the great noble families. For example the house of Bagratouni (which we will return to later in the history of Armenia) inherited the right to command the Armenian cavalry. It was this family which came to take over the Armenian throne in the future.
Other noble families had other tasks, such as managing the court, the private affairs of the king, overseeing his lands and properties, monitoring and controlling the storage of wheat, overseeing the royal hunting grounds etc. The king used to give large properties to these noble families. The king instituted also a number of laws for organising the army and the administration of the country. Among others he appointed two inspectors, with the task of putting forward in writing suggestions about different issues that the king should address and suggest how the king should act upon different cases of violating the law and how the guilty party should be punished. At the same time the first inspector was responsible for restraining the king from making hasty and unfair decisions when he was angry and to remind him about the principles of justice.
The king also appointed a judge in every city and village. He ordered the inhabitants of the cities to strive for a higher position than the peasants and demanded that the peasants should consider the towndwellers their superiors; and finally ordered the towndwellers to show consideration and respect towards the peasants.
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