The Artaxiad Kingdom of Greater Armenia by Germain Payen (Seleukid Perspectives 01)

This is an (English) introduction to the (French) research paper Dr. Germain Payen, LE ROYAUME ARTAXIADE DANS L’EMPIRE SÉLEUCIDE:
DE DOMINÉ À DOMINANT (190–55 A.C.), ch. 11 in A. Coşkun and R. Wenghofer (eds.), Seleukid Ideology – Creation, Reception and Response (Seleukid Perspectives 1), Stuttgart.

Abstract: After the Seleukid king Antiochos III had been defeated by the Roman legions at Magnesia (190 BCE), Armenia became an independent region divided between two king-doms, Artaxiad Greater Armenia and Orontid Sophene. In the subsequent decades, relations between the Artaxiad kings and the Seleukid throne fluctuated between dormant hostility and ruler-to-ruled domination. The reign of Antiochos IV saw a brief return of Greater Ar-menia under Seleukid control, immediately followed by an open conflict under Artaxias, king of Greater Armenia, as well as by the creation of a new autonomous power in Armenia, the kingdom of Kommagene, which resulted in an even more complex political situation. The Artaxiad state took a rather unclear place in the Asian geopolitical order in the periph-ery of the Seleukid Empire, but was partly integrated into the Anatolian landscape. This sit-uation was reflected in the cultural background and ideological choices of the kingdom, as well as in other policies pursued by its rulers. In the second half of the 2nd century BCE, as Seleukid influence declined further, the status of the king of Greater Armenia evolved in the context of the Roman Empire as well as the Parthian and Pontic kingdoms. After a sudden political unification of Armenia, Tigranes II of Greater Armenia managed to completely turn the tides by taking control of Antioch. This political shift saw the transfer of a Near-Eastern political centre from Antioch to Tigranokerta. Although only for a brief period, this shift impacted the Mediterranean balance of powers and resulted in the division of the for-mer Seleukid territories between the Romans and the Parthians, while a now united but re-duced Armenia fell back to a peripheral status between those two greater powers.

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