The Macedonian Conquest and the Rise of Hellenism

In 334 BC, a small but mobile, well-trained army of Alexander the Great crossed the Dardanelles and dealt a crushing blow to the Persians in the very first battle. A few years later, after the decisive battle at Gaugamela, the Achaemenid Empire, which had stretched over a gigantic area from Egypt to India, ceased to exist.

The Macedonian conquest marked the beginning of a fundamentally new stage in the history of the peoples who had previously been under the rule of the Achaemenids. This was the era of Hellenism, a period of deep penetration of Western socio-economic institutions, Western forms of life, and Greek culture into the political structure, economy, and culture of the conquered countries.

The most significant innovation was the widespread spread of the polis organization, a self-governing city with its own rural district, with more developed forms of exploitation of producers of material goods than in the East.

The penetration of the West into the East was carried out not only through state reforms, but also through the masses of people who settled in the Hellenistic states – merchants, artisans, mercenaries, artists.

Of course, the new norms were combined with ancient traditions and often found long-prepared soil here. Hellenistic principles manifested themselves unevenly; the past of a particular country in all cases introduced its own peculiarities into the historical process.

The fusion of local and Greco-Macedonian principles was a characteristic feature of Hellenism. During the 3rd-1st centuries BC, Hellenism took root throughout Western Asia, predetermined many features of the social structure, economy and culture.

The Seleucid Empire

Hellenism also penetrated into those countries where the Greco-Macedonian conquerors had practically never set foot. One of these countries was Armenia. A small detachment sent to the northwest of the country was destroyed. It is known that the advance of the Macedonian army was accompanied by the founding of cities, which, in addition to their economic function, were intended to become strongholds for the new rulers.

There are no such facts attested in relation to Armenia. In the first decades of the Macedonian conquest, Armenia remained independent. Meanwhile, throughout the gigantic territory of Alexander the Great’s empire, there was a constant redistribution of forces – after Alexander’s death in 323 BC, his generals (diadochi) entered into a desperate struggle to assert their own power.

One of them, Antigonus, sought to create an empire in Asia Minor, but was defeated and killed in the Battle of Ipsus (301 BC). After this event, the position of another commander, Seleucus I, the founder of the largest power in the east, with its capital in Antioch on the Orontes, was significantly strengthened. During the 3rd century BC. Seleucus and his descendants sought to conquer Armenia, but to no avail. The Orontid kingdom was revived here, led by Orontes-Ervand, a former satrap who had fought in the army of Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC).

The Ervandids’ stronghold was the Lake Van basin and the Ayrarat region in the central part of the country. At the same time, a division had long been evident between Armenia Minor (west of the Euphrates River, part of the former 13th Achaemenid satrapy) and Armenia Greater (east of this river). At the end of the 4th century BC, the remaining part of the 13th satrapy, Tsopk (Sophene), emerged as an independent region under the rule of local kings. In the second half of the 3rd century BC,

Sophene was united for some time with the neighboring country of Commagene. Here ruled a branch of the same royal family of Yervandakans. The last Armenian king of the direct line was the king of Greater Armenia Orontes-Yervand. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus III deprived him of power, and the executor of his will was one of his generals of Armenian origin – Artashes (Artaxius), the future king of Greater Armenia.

The war between Artashes and Yervand ended with the death of the latter. The same was the fate of the king of Sophene Xerxes, who was poisoned by his wife – the sister of Antiochus III. Artashes’ comrade-in-arms, the Armenian Zarekh (Zariadr), was appointed to rule here. This happened at the very end of the 3rd century BC. Approximately the same thing happened with Lesser Armenia and Commagene.

The Macedonian conquest and the subsequent formation of the Hellenistic states created the conditions for the first, unprecedented in scale meeting of two worlds – the East and the West. Within the chronological limits of Hellenism, a second connection between East and West occurred – this time in the form of Rome.

Artatsolum

Based on the article: Gagik Sargsyan, Konstantin Khudaverdyan, Karen Yuzbashyan

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