After the fall of the Kingdom of Van, at the beginning of the 6th century BC, the Armenian Highlands passed under the domination of Media and, from the 550s BC, of Achaemenid Persia. It is at this time that the names ‘Armenia’ and ‘Armenians’ first appear with certainty in written sources. Armenian tradition and the Greek author Xenophon’s Cyropaedia tell of an Armenian king allied to Cyrus the Great and of his son Tigran, but these stories are semi-legendary and their historical basis is hard to determine.
In 522–521 BC Darius I, on coming to the throne, faced many revolts, among them one that broke out in Armenia. His trilingual inscription carved on the rock of Behistun tells of it. In the Old Persian text the country is called Armina, while in the Babylonian it is still called Urashtu, that is, Urartu. The inscription describes several battles fought in Armenia, in which Darius’s troops were led by an Armenian named Dadarshish and by the Persian Vaumisa. The same inscription also mentions an Armenian named Arakha, who rebelled in Babylon and proclaimed himself king.
Under the Achaemenids Armenia was a satrapy that paid tribute to the Persian court. The reliefs of the Apadana palace at Persepolis show delegates of the empire’s various peoples, among them Armenians bringing a horse and a decorated metal vessel as gifts. The Greek historian Herodotus writes that the Armenians in Xerxes’ army were armed like the Phrygians, and he considers them colonists of the Phrygians. This last claim is a subject of discussion in modern scholarship. On the rock of Van a trilingual inscription of Xerxes I survives to this day, stating that the niche had been prepared by his father Darius. Erebuni continued to function as an administrative centre, and the silver ritual vessels found there show the influence of Achaemenid art.
Among the Achaemenid satraps one family stood out: Armenian historians call it the Yervandunis, while in Greek sources its members are known by the name Orontes. Some scholars regard them as a family of Iranian origin linked by marriage to the Achaemenid royal house, though opinions on this question differ. In 401 BC Xenophon mentions Orontes, satrap of Armenia, and Tiribazus, governor of Western Armenia. In 331 BC, at the battle of Gaugamela, the Armenian contingent, led by Orontes, fought on the side of Darius III against Alexander the Great.
In the winter of 401–400 BC about 10,000 Greek mercenaries, retreating from the Tigris towards the Black Sea after the failed campaign of Cyrus the Younger, crossed Armenia. One of their commanders, Xenophon, describes in his Anabasis the deep snow and bitter cold, the underground houses where people lived together with their animals, the drink made from barley that was sipped through reeds, and the horses that the villages raised as tribute for the king. This is one of the earliest detailed descriptions of life in an Armenian village to have survived.
After the destruction of the Achaemenid empire and the death of Alexander, the Orontids continued to rule Armenia in practice independently, though from time to time they recognised the overlordship of the Seleucids. The capital was Armavir, the former Argishtikhinili, where Greek inscriptions have been found. At the end of the 3rd century BC the last king of the dynasty, Yervand, founded a new capital, Yervandashat, near the confluence of the Araxes and the Akhurian, as well as the religious centre of Bagaran. Nearby lay the kingdoms of Sophene and Commagene, whose ruling families also regarded themselves as heirs of the Orontids. In the 1st century BC King Antiochus I of Commagene built a huge tomb sanctuary on Mount Nemrut, where he also depicted the Orontid kings among his ancestors.
Around 200 BC the Seleucid king Antiochus III decided to strengthen his power in Armenia. The last Yervand was defeated, and two strategoi were appointed to govern the country: Artashes in Greater Armenia and Zareh in Sophene. Thus ended the rule of the Orontids in Greater Armenia. The number of their kings, their numbering and the years of their reigns have been reconstructed by combining different sources and vary considerably from one scholar to another.
