The Demography of Ancient and Greater Armenia

In the 5th-century “History of Armenia”, an Armenian historian Agatangeghos described the baptism of 4 million Armenians in Greater Armenia in 301 AD. This number may be surprising, given the prevailing opinion about the population of the planet back then.

However, after 17 centuries, even more surprising is the fact that in today’s Armenia, the population is even less, only 3 million people. The diaspora is not taken into account, as it is not the population of Armenia itself. By the way, the Armenian diaspora already existed back in those days in quite big numbers.

But there is even more amazing information. With a population of 4 million people, taking into account the governmental system of the time, one can assume that the Armenian army consisted of 150,000 soldiers. These figures are quite logical and are confirmed by “Zoranamak”.

In his own “History of Armenia”, historian of the 5th century Movses Khorenatsi wrote on the Armenian king Aram I the Great (1827-1769 BC). Khorenatsi pointed out that in one of his campaigns to the west, Aram I gathered a 92,000 army. This army was operating on one front, and therefore, one can only imagine the entire might of the Armenian army of those years.

Estimating the approximate number of troops in other fronts and tasks, you can come to about the same figure as was with the case of Greater Armenia in the 4th century, that is, 150,000 soldiers.

The Han people have a history as long as the Armenians’, but today, there are 1,5 billion Chinese while there are only 10 million Armenians around the world. Today, we just have to wonder how many times the Armenians were on the verge of destruction and what nation they gave rise to.

Sources:
1. Movses Khorenatsi “History of Armenia”
2. Agathangelos “History of Armenia”
3. “Zoranamak” of the Great Armenia