Persian Armenia

Persian Armenia or Persarmenia (Armenian: Պարսկահայաստան Parskahayastan) corresponds to the Persian territory in which Armenians have lived until the Arab conquest of Persia. The size of Persian Armenia varied over time. It sometimes simply referred to as Eastern Armenia.

Armenians and the Achaemenid Empire

After the fall of the Median empire In 550 B.C. Cyrus the Great, King of the Persians, took control of the Median empire and conquered Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. Cyrus' son continued his father's campaign in Egypt. Eventually, Armenia became a dependency of Persia.

The Armenian contingents, cavalry and infantry, had taken part in Cyrus the Great's conquest of Lydia in 546 and of Babylonia in 539. A rebellion of ten subject nations — one of them Armenia — broke out against Persia during the reign of Darius the Great (522‑486).

Behistun inscriptions

In the Behistun inscriptions, Darius I talks of his multiple victories. The inscription includes three versions of the same text, written in three different cuneiform script languages: Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian. The name Armenia had been used for the first time, when Darius wanted to describe his conquests in the Armenian highland. The shahanshah speaks of bloody battles against the Armenians, and cites the names of three important battles.

The Armenians thus stayed under Persian rule from 519 to 330 B.C. Those years are considered to be relatively peaceful; trade flourished. Herodotus...
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