Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The issues of the history of Armenia during the Achaemenid era remain largely unclear, since historical sources have preserved either very fragmentary information or none at all. In such circumstances, the work of a historian is greatly hampered, and conclusions are not firmly founded. In this regard, the surviving information on the history of Satrapic Armenia at the end of the 5th century BC is scanty, which gives rise to disagreements. This time, our attention was drawn to the information of Ctesias of Cnidus. Despite the fact that Ctesias was considered an unreliable historian, his information on the internal affairs of the Achaemenid court is reliable, since the sources for Ctesias were the top officials of the state. Ctesias‘ account about the high-ranking officials Artoxares and Terituchmes is noteworthy in that the ancient author mentions Armenia in several episodes. Ctesias‘ information led to the conclusion in specialized literature that Artoxares and Terituchmes were satraps of Armenia. However, our investigation shows that the mentioned persons were not satraps of Armenia, but played a significant role in the life of the state. Ctesias‘ information allows us to assume that Armenia continued to be one of the important, vast and rich satrapies of Achaemenid Persia, whose satraps had familial ties with the Achaemenid king.
Source: SUSh Scientific Proceedings
Author: H. Khorikyan
Institution: Shirak State University
Language: English
Topic: Ancient Near East History
Subfield: Archeology (arts and humanities)
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7125795589