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IRANIAN HISTORY: PARTHIAN EMPIRE
Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia
By: Prof. A. Shapur Shahbazi
Third dynasty of Armenia (in Armenian,
Arsakuni), from the first to [he mid-fifth century. The preceding dynasty
of the Artaxiads became extinct about A.D. 12, amid a successional chaos
caused by the perennial struggle of Iran and Rome over Armenia-the second
throne, after Media, in the Iranian scheme of vassal kingdoms. It was then
that the ex great king of Iran, Vonones I became king of Armenia. After
him, seven Arsacid princes from Parthia came at different times to occupy
the Armenian throne, interchangeably with six others, candidates of Rome.
A compromise was finally attempted in 63 (Treaty of Rhandeia). An Arsacid,
Tiridates I, was recognized by both empires as king of Armenia. Roman
"friendship" was imposed upon him ---and in 66 he journeyed to
Rome to be crowned by Nero-and. at the same time, as a Parthian prince, he
was bound to accept the family ascendancy of the head of the Arsacids, the
great king. The balance thus established between political and dynastic
allegiance proved, however, precarious. Dynastic allegiance often became
political as well, and Armenia continued to oscillate between the two
rivals. None of the first eight Arsacids who reigned in Armenia founded a
line of kings; it was left to the ninth, Vologases (Valars') 11 (180-191),
to achieve this: his posterity of thirteen kings formed the Armenian
Arsacid dynasty.
The Armenian historical tradition
(found chiefly in Ps.-Movsês Xorenac'i) represented the earlier, national
Artaxiads as also a branch of the Iranian Arsacids, and the Armenian
Arsacids as their direct continuation, creating thus an imbroglio from the
effects of which Armenian historiography has only recently succeeded in
freeing itself. A list of the Arsacid kings of Armenia will be found at
the end of this article.
Arsacid rule brought about an
intensification of the political and cultural influence of Iran in
Armenia. Whatever the sporadic suzerainty of Rome, the country was now a
part-together with Iberia (East Georgia) and (Caucasian) Albania, where
other Arsacid branched reigned-of a pan-Arsacid family federation.
Culturally, the predominance of Hellenism, as under the Artaxiads, was now
followed by a predominance of "Iranianism," and,
symptomatically, instead of Greek, as before, Parthian became the language
of the educated. However. since the Iranian Arsacids themselves took pride
in being philhellene, Armenian Hellenism was not destroyed
Kings of Armenis, CA 12-248 Arsacids are Numbered
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After a while, however, the Armeno-Iranian
symbiosis came to an end. Early in the third century. the Arsacids of Iran
were overthrown by the Sasanians; the family federation existed no longer;
instead, a family feud separated the Armenian Arsacids from the
"usurping" new rulers of Iran. Next, in 314, under King
Tiridates (Trdat) the Great and through the apostolate of 'St. Gregory the
Illuminator, Armenia, nearly simultaneously with the Roman empire.
officially accepted Christianity, a turning point in its history. An
unbridgeable gulf between the militant Mazdaism of Sasanian Iran and
Armenia's no less uncompromising Christianity, now replaced the unity of
the easy syncretistic paganism of the Armeno-Iranian symbiosis.
Politically, religiously, and culturally, this was a victory of the Roman
empire and Hellenism. But this, the "neo-Achaemenianism" of the
Sasanians could not tolerate. So the struggle of empires went on, more
intensely than before, until, finally, the Roman empire, occupied
elsewhere, was obliged to come to terms with Iran and to agree to the
partitioning between them of the apple of discord, especially as, quite
conveniently, the latter had just itself effected its division.
Parallel to the tension of imperial
rivalries outside, there was also a tension at home, one between the crown
and the great nobility. Armenia was a highly aristocratic society, its
peculiar feature being the presence, above the lesser, azat
nobility, of a group of dynastic princes, descendants and successors of
prehistoric tribal chiefs, who regarded themselves as minor kings and the
king of Armenia as a primus utter pares. The crown endeavored to
enhance its ascendancy over the princes. In an attempt to replace the
purely political subordination of sovereign princes to a more powerful
sovereign, the king, feudalism was introduced, reaching its fullest
development in the Arsacid period, with its fundamental conception of the
derivation of all authority from the king. The princes, on their part,
strove to preserve the older conception, their traditional dynastic
position. Hence both conceptions coexisted, in a typically Armenian- and
Caucasian- blend. Hence, also, the inner tension. So, while the crown was
drawn towards the autocratic and bureaucratic empire. the princes, albeit
Christians, gravitated towards the comparatively more aristocratic Iranian
monarchy. During one of the internal crises, the kingdom was divided in
384 between the pro-Roman Arsaces (Arsak) III and the pro-Iranian Chosroes
(Xosrov) IV. With this fait accompli before them, the Emperor Theodosius I
and the Great King Shapur III hastened to ratify in 387 the existence of
two Armenian kingdoms, one, western, a Roman, and the other, eastern and
vastly larger, an Iranian vassal. Arsaces I11 died in 390 and the western
kingdom became a part of the Roman empire; but the eastern kingdom (Persarmenia)
continued to exist. The crown, however, was fatally weakened; and,
finally, the princes, weary of all immediate authority over them, deposed
with Iranian connivance the last king, Artaxias (Artâshês) IV in 428 and
brought about the abolition of the monarchy. Thereafter Armenia was a part
of the Iranian empire, with the princes as its sovereign oligarchs,
vassals of the distant great king, whose suzerainty expressed itself in
the presence of his viceroy (marzpan) and in the obligation of
fealty and military aid imposed on them.
An event of importance in the Arsacid period was the invention. on the threshold of the fifth century, of the Armenian alphabet by St. Mashtoc' (Mesrop). With this Armenian became the language of the educated; it was introduced into the liturgy; and national literature was born (under Hellenistic and Syrian influences). Armenia's identity and individuality were thus saved and an absorption by either Byzantine or Iranian civilization was precluded.
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Source/Extracted From: Encyclopaedia Iranica
Please note: CAIS has the privilege to publish the above article originating from the above-mentioned source, for educational purposes only (Read Only). This article has been published in accordance with the author(s) / source' copyright-policy -- therefore, the ownership and copyright of this page-file remains with the author(s) / source. For any other purposes, you must obtain a written permission from the copyright owner concerned. (Please refer to CAIS Copyright Policy). Page Keywords: Parthians, Arsacids, Ashkanians, Ashakanids, Pahlavas
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"History is the Light on the Path to Future" |
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Encyclopaedia Iranica
The British Institute of Persian Studies "Persepolis Reconstructed"
The British Museum
The Royal Asiatic Society
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