Armenia

The mountainous region lying directly north of Mesopotamia. Armenia was repeatedly attacked and/or conquered by rulers of various Mesopotamian empires as well as by other peoples. In the early first millennium b. c., and for many centuries to come, the region was called Urartu, and its inhabitants clashed with the armies of several Assyrian kings. In about 600 b. c. the Armenians, an Indo-European tribal people, entered and took over the area. Almost immediately, they came under the

An investiture of Ardarshir I by the god Ahura-Mazda. © Roger Wood/Corbis

Sway of the Median king Cyaxares II, whose own realm soon fell to Persia’s King Cyrus II.

About a century and a half later, the Greek mercenary soldier and writer Xenophon passed through Armenia during the retreat of the Greek army known as the Ten Thousand. He later described some typical Armenian houses and their contents, including primitive versions of straws to sip beer:

The houses were underground structures with an aperture like the mouth of a well by which to enter, but they were broad and spacious below. The entrance for the beasts of burden was dug out, but the human occupants descended by a ladder. In these dwellings were to be found goats and sheep and cattle, and cocks and hens. . . . There were stores within of wheat and barley and vegetables, and wine made from barley [beer] in great big bowls; the grains of barley malt lay floating in the beverage up to the lip of the vessel, and reeds lay in them, some longer, some shorter, without joints; when you were thirsty you must take one of these into your mouth, and suck. (Anabasis 4.24-26)

Not long after Xenophon wrote these words, Armenia became part of Alexander the Great’s empire. Then the region was ruled by the Seleucids, the dynasty established by Alexander’s general Seleucus, until the Romans defeated the Seleucids and backed a series of independent Armenian rulers. Much later, in the fourth century a. d., Armenia was divided into two sections, the western one controlled by Rome and the eastern part by the Sassa-nian Empire.

See Also: Assyrian Empire; Mesopotamia, history of; Cyaxares II