The Armenians had taken refuge in the Lake Van region in the seventh century BCE, apparently in reaction to Cimmerian raids.

Their country was described by Xenophon around 400 BCE as a tributary of Persia.

A united Armenian kingdom that stretches from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea had been established by the first century BCE as a client of the Roman Empire to buffer the frontier with Persia.

More than a thousand years have elapsed between the time of the Bronze Age state of Hayasa-Azzi until that of Artaxias I, during which time the Hayasas, the Armens, the people of Nairi and other ethnic elements have integrated, become one nation, speak a common language, and live together in the country that had become known, from the sixth century BCE, as Armenia.

The kingdom of Armenia by the end of the third century BCE comprised around one hundred and twentydynastic domains ruled by nakharars, loosely united under the Orontid kings of Greater and Lesser Armenia.

Even though Alexander the Great had not conquered Armenia, Hellenistic culture has strongly impacted Armenian society.

When Antiochus the Great wrestled Armenia from Orontid rule, he appointed Artaxias as strategos.

Following his monarch's defeat by the Romans at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BCE, Artaxias and his co-strategos Zariadres revolt and, with Roman consent, begin to reign autonomously with the title of king; Zariadres over Sophene/Lesser Armenia and Artaxias over Greater Armenia and According to Strabo and Plutarch, Artaxias also founds the Armenian capital Artashat (Artaxata) with the aid of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who was being sheltered from the Romans within Artaxias’ court when Antiochus III could no longer protect him.

The population of the previous Yervanduni (Orontid) capital of Yervandashat is transferred to Artashat (Artaxata) on the Araks River near Lake Sevan.

Over a dozen stone boundary markers have been discovered on the territory of modern Armenia from the time of the reign of Artashes with Aramaic inscriptions; before their discovery, the existence of these stones was attested by Moses of Chorene.

In these inscriptions, Artaxias claims descent from the Yervanduni (Orontid) Dynasty: King Artaxias, the son of Orontid Zariadres.

…forces Artaxias of Armenia to recognize his suzerainty.

An unsuccessful attempt to end the division of Armenia into an eastern and a western part is made about this time, when Artaxias seeks to suppress his rival in Sophene.

Tigranes, the son or brother of Artavasdos I of Armenia and a member of the dynasty founded in the early second century BCE by Artaxias, had been given as a hostage to the Parthian king Mithridates II.

He eventually purchases his freedom by ceding seventy valleys bordering on Media, in northwestern Iran, and in his mid-forties becomes king of Armenia in 95.

Tigranes has meanwhile begun to enlarge his Armenian kingdom, first annexing the kingdom of Sophene (east of the upper Euphrates River).

The interference of the two kings in Cappadocia (in eastern Asia Minor) is successfully countered for a second time by Roman intervention in 92, when …

Tigranes, following the conclusion of hostilities in 84 BCE, initiates war with the Parthians, whose empire has been temporarily weakened after the death of Mithridates II (about 87 BCE) by internal dissensions and invasions of the Scythians.

He reconquers the valleys he had ceded and lays waste a great part of Media; the kings of Atropatene (Azerbaijan), Gordyene and Adiabene (both on the Upper Tigris River), and Osroene become his vassals.

He also annexes northern Mesopotamia, and in the Caucasus, the kings of Iberia (now Georgia) and Albania accept his suzerainty.

…Tigranes retires to the northern regions of his kingdom to gather another army and defend his hereditary capital of Artaxata, while …

Lucullus has by early 68 won victories in many battles against Mithridates, including those at Cyzicus, Cabira, and Tigranocerta.

Lucullus marches against Tigranes in the summer of 68 BCE.

Crossing the Ante-Taurus range, he forces his way north, heading for the old Armenian capital Artaxata.

Once again Tigranes is provoked to attack and in a major battle at the Arsanias River, Lucullus once again routs the Armenian army.

He now prepares to subjugate the rest of Armenia, but he had launched this campaign too late in the year.

When the wintry season comes on early in the Armenian Tablelands, frustrated by the rough mountainous terrain and inhospitable winter climate, and seeing the worsening morale of his troops, Lucullus moves back south.

Orodes himself invades Armenia and forces King Artavasdes, the son of Tigranes the Great, to abandon the Romans.

By the victory of Carrhae the countries east of the Euphrates are secured to the Parthians.

Plutarch relates that Orodes understood Greek very well.

After the death of Crassus, the Bacchae of Euripides is presented at Artavasdes' court, with the head of Crassus himself allegedly being used as an accessory for a scene actually including a severed head, on the order of the king.

There has been friction, since the expanding Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire had come into contact in the mid-first century BCE, betwen the two great powers over the control of the various states lying between them.

The largest and most important of these is the Kingdom of Armenia.

Tacitus says that in 20 BCE, the Armenians sent messengers to Roman Emperor Augustus to tell him that they no longer wanted Artaxias II as their king, and asked that his brother Tigranes III (then in Roman custody in Alexandria, Egypt) be installed in his place.

Augustus readily agrees, and sends a large army under Tiberius to depose Artaxias II.

Before they arrive, however, Artaxias II is assassinated by some of his other relatives, and the Romans put Tigranes III on the throne unopposed.

Tiberius is sent East under Marcus Agrippa in 20 BCE.

Around the time that Octavian had been named Augustus by the Roman Senate, becoming the first Roman emperor, Tiridates II of Parthia had briefly overthrown Phraates IV, who was able to quickly reestablish his rule with the aid of Scythian nomads.

Tiridates had fled to the Romans, taking one of Phraates' sons with him.

The Parthians had captured the standards of the legions under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus (53 BCE) (at the Battle of Carrhae), Decidius Saxa (40 BCE), and Mark Antony (36 BCE).

After several years of negotiation, Tiberius leads a sizable force into Armenia, presumably with the goal of establishing it as a Roman client-state and as a threat on the Roman-Parthian border.

In negotiations conducted in 20 BCE, Phraates arranges for the release of his kidnapped son.

In return, the Romans receive the lost legionary standards taken at Carrhae in 53 BCE, as well as any surviving prisoners of war.

The Parthians view this exchange as a small price to pay to regain the prince.

Armenia remains a neutral territory between the two powers.

Augustus hails the return of the standards as a political victory over Parthia; this propaganda is celebrated in the minting of new coins, the building of a new temple to house the standards, and even in fine art such as the breastplate scene on his statue Augustus of Prima Porta.