Satrapy of Armenia

The Satrapy of Armenia (; Old Persian: Armina or Arminiya), also known as Orontid Armenia () after the ruling Orontid Dynasty, was one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, which later became an independent kingdom. Its capitals were Armavir and Yervandashat.

History

Origins

Shortly after the collapse of Urartu at the hand of the Medes and Scythians, the territory was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire and incorporated as satrapies of the land of "Armina" (in Old Persian; "Harminuya" in Elamite; "Urashtu" in Bablylonian).

Orontid Dynasty

The Orontid Dynasty, or known by their native name, Yervanduni, was a hereditary Armenian dynasty and the rulers of the successor state to the Iron Age kingdom of Ararat. Tiratsyan, Gevorg. «Երվանդունիներ» (Yerevanduniner). Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. vol. iii. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1977, p. 640.History of Armenia, Moses of Chorene, http://www.vehi.net/istoriya/armenia/khorenaci/index.htmlXenophon mentions an Armenian king named Tigranes Orontid in his Cyropaedia. He was an ally of Cyrus the Great with whom he hunted. Tigranes paid tribute to Astyages.Krause, Todd B. and John A.C. Greppin, and Jonathan Slocum. "." The A. Richard Diebold Center for Indo-European Language and Culture at the......
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