Lesser Armenia

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Map of Armenia under Roman rule, with Greater Armenia in red and Lesser Armenia in blue.

Photo of a 15th Century map of the region now known as Turkey.

Lesser Armenia (also known as Armenia Minor and Armenia Inferior) refers to the Armenian populated regions, primarily to the west & north west of the ancient Armenian kingdom and north east of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. This included such regions as Hamshen, the area where the ethnic Armenian Hamshenis originated.

Lesser Armenia was the portion of historic Armenia and the Armenian Highland lying west of the river Euphrates. It received its name to distinguish it from the larger remainder of historic Armenia — Greater Armenia (or Armenia Major).

Prior to 4th century BC, the territory of Lesser Armenia was part of the ancient Armenian kingdom, which was ruled by the royal dynasty of Orontids (Yervanduni) and, in the 4th c. BC, was subject to the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Following the campaigns of Alexander the Great in 330s BC, as the Persian Empire collapsed, Mithrdates, an Armenian general of the Persian army, declared himself king of Lesser Armenia. Thus two independent kingdoms emerged from the territory of the ancient Armenian kingdom — Lesser Armenia (the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia) and Greater Armenia.

By the 3rd century BC, the kingdom of Lesser Armenia extended to the Black Sea coast. It was conquered by Romans in the 1st century BC. It was later reunited with the kingdom of Greater Armenia under the Arshakuni king Tiridates III. After the division of Armenia by Byzantian and Sassanid Persian Empires in 387 AD, Lesser Armenia, along with western regions of Greater Armenia, became part of Byzantine Empire. Its population remained Armenian, and the territory was included in the Byzantian military administrations of First Armenia, Second Armenia, Third Armenia, and Fourth Armenia. The Christian Armenian population of Lesser Armenia continued its existence in the area until the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23.