Lesser Armenia in the Second Half of the Second to the First Half of the First Centuries BC: Independence and the Pontic Phase

Abstract

Over several centuries of academic research on Hellenistic Asia Minor, Lesser Armenia has generally remained overlooked by scholars — a consequence both of the merely episodic appearance of this country in ancient sources and of the minor role it played in the fast-moving events in the region. Only recently, as it has become clear that historical reconstructions based exclusively on the Greco-Roman narrative suffer from one-sidedness, has the history of Lesser Armenia begun to attract closer attention from specialists, above all from scholars of Roman foreign policy and the Mithridatic Wars. Even now, however, the concern is usually not with the history of Lesser Armenia as such, but only with certain episodes in which it happens to figure. This in turn can give rise to several, often contradictory, reconstructions of events. Focusing directly on Lesser Armenian history will, in our view, make it possible to avoid such contradictions and to restore agency to the Lesser Armenian state, which is often denied statehood, a defined territory, or a distinct ethnic identity. The present study argues that Lesser Armenia maintained its independence for most of the second century BC. It came under the authority of neighboring Greater Armenia only occasionally (probably twice), without, however, being fully incorporated into the larger Armenian kingdom, as the local dynasty retained its power. Only at the end of the second century BC did Lesser Armenia become part of the Pontic Kingdom of Mithridates VI Eupator. Even then, however, Lesser Armenia retained a degree of subjecthood: Lesser Armenian troops, at least, were for a time deployed as distinct ethno-territorial units. This may be why, despite a fairly prolonged loss of statehood (approximately forty years), Lesser Armenia was not incorporated into the new Roman province by Gnaeus Pompey and instead regained a qualified independence.