Greater Armenia

For United Armenia, a political goal of Armenian irredentists, sometimes known as "Greater Armenia", see United Armenia.
Territory of the Orontid Dynasty in 250 BC
Tigranes the Great's Armenian Empire

Greater Armenia (Armenian: Մեծ Հայք, Mets Hayk') is the name given to the state of Armenia that rose on the Armenian Highlands under the reign of King Artaxias I at the turn of the 2nd century BC. The term was used to refer to Armenian kingdoms throughout the classical, late antique, and medieval periods by contemporary Armenian and non-Armenian authors alike.

To the Romans it was known as Armenia Major and to the Greek-speaking peoples as Ἀρμενία Μεγάλη (Armenia Megale), to differentiate it with Lesser Armenia (Pok'r Hayk′, in Latin Armenia Minor).[1] It would later be used to distinguish it from the medieval kingdom that emerged in Cilicia, which was sometimes referred to as Little Armenia (not to be confused with Lesser Armenia). Though its borders were in a constant state of flux, Greater Armenia roughly encompassed the area stretching east of the Euphrates River to the region of Artsakh in the east, the modern state of Georgia to the north, with its southern tip touching northern Mesopotamia.

References

  1. ↑ (Armenian) Yeremyan, Suren. «Մեծ Հայք». Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1981, vol. 7, pp. 434-36.

Further reading

See also