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47-420: The remains of the great walls of the city and some of its buildings are still visible today. The name of the city is of Iranian origin. Artaxata/Artashat can be interpreted as meaning "the joy of Arta (truth)," although it is actually a shortening of Artaxšas-šāt , meaning "the joy of Artaxias," as reflected in the alternative Greek form Artaxiasata. Artaxata was named after its founder, Artaxias I, just as

94-575: A decisive battle. The Romans were marching towards Artaxata, the Kingdom's old capital, to force Tigranes into fighting a pitched battle . Tigranes, on Mithridates' advice, had been avoiding a battle after being defeated at Tigranocerta . He knew his untrained army was no match for the disciplined and battle-hardened Roman troops. Since the Romans' objective [Artaxata] was clear to them, Tigranes and Mithridates had been preparing and training their army for

141-522: A derivative of Proto-Indo-European language *ar-yo- , meaning "one who assembles (skilfully)". In the Iranic languages spoken on the plateau, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier, included in ancient inscriptions and the literature of the Avesta , and remains also in other Iranian ethnic names Alan ( Ossetian : Ир Ir ) and Iron ( Ирон ). When used as a linguistic term Iranian

188-661: A near mutiny in Lucullus' camp. His troops were worn out after marching for 960 miles (1,500 km) and fighting many battles with little to show for it. They refused to march after Tigranes and Mithridates and forced Lucullus to turn south and invade the Armenian possessions in Mesopotamia . Mithridates and Tigranes turned to guerrilla warfare and soon, Armenia was back in Tigranes' hands. Mithridates returned to Pontus where he

235-513: A third-century inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam , with the accompanying Parthian inscription using the term Aryān , in reference to the Iranian peoples . The Middle-Iranian ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic nouns ēr- (Middle Persian) and ary- (Parthian), both deriving from Proto-Iranian language *arya- (meaning " Aryan ", i.e. "of the Iranians"), recognized as

282-443: Is applied to any language which descends from the ancestral Proto-Iranian language . Some scholars such as John R. Perry prefer the term Iranic as the anthropological name for the linguistic family and ethnic groups of this category, and Iranian for anything about the modern country of Iran . He uses the same analogue as in differentiating German from Germanic or differentiating Turkish and Turkic . This use of

329-463: Is best attested in one of the three languages of the Behistun inscription, composed c.  520 BCE , and which is the last inscription (and only inscription of significant length) in which Old Persian is still grammatically correct. Later inscriptions are comparatively brief, and typically simply copies of words and phrases from earlier ones, often with grammatical errors, which suggests that by

376-408: Is indistinguishable from effects due to other causes). In addition to Old Persian and Avestan, which are the only directly attested Old Iranian languages, all Middle Iranian languages must have had a predecessor "Old Iranian" form of that language, and thus can all be said to have had an (at least hypothetical) "Old" form. Such hypothetical Old Iranian languages include Old Parthian . Additionally,

423-451: Is not known where that dialect (or dialects) was spoken either. Certain is only that Avestan (all forms) and Old Persian are distinct, and since Old Persian is "western", and Avestan was not Old Persian, Avestan acquired a default assignment to "eastern". Further confusing the issue is the introduction of a western Iranian substrate in later Avestan compositions and redactions undertaken at the centers of imperial power in western Iran (either in

470-581: Is only "Eastern Iranian" in the sense that it is not Western. The Iranian languages all descend from a common ancestor: Proto-Iranian , which itself evolved from Proto-Indo-Iranian . This ancestor language is speculated to have origins in Central Asia , and the Andronovo culture of the Bronze Age is suggested as a candidate for the common Indo-Iranian culture around 2000 BCE. The language

517-551: Is very archaic, and at roughly the same stage of development as Rigvedic Sanskrit . On the other hand, Younger Avestan is at about the same linguistic stage as Old Persian, but by virtue of its use as a sacred language retained its "old" characteristics long after the Old Iranian languages had yielded to their Middle Iranian stage. Unlike Old Persian, which has Middle Persian as its known successor, Avestan has no clearly identifiable Middle Iranian stage (the effect of Middle Iranian

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564-1193: The Achaemenid Empire ) and Old Avestan (the language of the Avesta ). Of the Middle Iranian languages, the better understood and recorded ones are Middle Persian (from the Sasanian Empire ), Parthian (from the Parthian Empire ), and Bactrian (from the Kushan and Hephthalite empires). As of 2000s , Ethnologue estimates that there are 86 languages in the group. Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān , first attested in

611-428: The 4th century BCE the transition from Old Persian to Middle Persian was already far advanced, but efforts were still being made to retain an "old" quality for official proclamations. The other directly attested Old Iranian dialects are the two forms of Avestan , which take their name from their use in the Avesta , the liturgical texts of indigenous Iranian religion that now goes by the name of Zoroastrianism but in

658-560: The Araks and Mestamor rivers and consequent flooding probably led to the settlement's final abandonment. The exact location of ancient Artaxata was identified during the 1920s. Archaeological excavations, however, only begun in 1970. The archaeological site is 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of the modern city of Artashat , near the monastery of Khor Virap . In 2024, a team of archaeologists from Armenia and Germany discovered in Artaxata

705-411: The Armenian king off guard. Tigranes assembled a large (but untrained) army and the two forces met at Tigranocerta, the kingdom's new capital, with Lucullus decisively winning the ensuing battle . Tigranes and Mithridates fled north to Armenia's old capital of Artaxata, where they recruited, trained and equipped a new army. The next year, Lucullus marched his army north intend on forcing his enemies into

752-464: The Avesta itself is simply known as vohu daena (later: behdin ). The language of the Avesta is subdivided into two dialects, conventionally known as "Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan", and "Younger Avestan". These terms, which date to the 19th century, are slightly misleading since 'Younger Avestan' is not only much younger than 'Old Avestan', but also from a different geographic region. The Old Avestan dialect

799-610: The Eastern category. The two languages of the Western group were linguistically very close to each other, but quite distinct from their eastern counterparts. On the other hand, the Eastern group was an areal entity whose languages retained some similarity to Avestan. They were inscribed in various Aramaic -derived alphabets which had ultimately evolved from the Achaemenid Imperial Aramaic script , though Bactrian

846-693: The Romans and gave up most of the territories which he had conquered. The city remained a hotly contested military target for the next two centuries. Mark Antony marched on Artaxata in 34 BC and took King Artavasdes II captive. In AD 58–59, it was occupied and razed to the ground by Capadocian legions under the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo during the first, short-lived, Roman conquest of Armenia . After Emperor Nero recognized Tiridates I as king of Armenia in AD 66, he granted him 50 million sesterces and sent architects and construction experts to aid in

893-446: The ancient speakers of Iranian languages. Of that variety of languages/dialects, direct evidence of only two has survived. These are: Indirectly attested Old Iranian languages are discussed below . Old Persian was an Old Iranian dialect as it was spoken in southwestern Iran (the modern-day province of Fars ) by the inhabitants of Parsa , Persia, or Persis who also gave their name to their region and language. Genuine Old Persian

940-515: The cities of Arshamashat , Eruandashat , and Zarishat were named after their respective founders (see also: -shat ). It was briefly renamed Neroneia in the first century AD after it was rebuilt by Tiridates I of Armenia with the help of the Roman emperor Nero . Artaxata was also known as Ostan Hayotsʻ , meaning "court/seat of the Armenians," which was also the name of the canton in which it

987-565: The confluence of the Yeraskh and Metsamor [rivers] and, taking a liking to the hill there, he chose it as the location of his new city, naming it after himself." The Greek historians Plutarch and Strabo relate an apocryphal story according to which the site of Artaxata was chosen on the advice of the Carthaginian general Hannibal . There is, however, no direct evidence to support this story. Artaxias I built Artaxata's citadel on

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1034-409: The existence of unattested languages can sometimes be inferred from the impact they had on neighbouring languages. Such transfer is known to have occurred for Old Persian, which has (what is called) a " Median " substrate in some of its vocabulary. Also, foreign references to languages can also provide a hint to the existence of otherwise unattested languages, for example through toponyms/ethnonyms or in

1081-698: The far northwest; and the hypothetical "Old Parthian" (the Old Iranian ancestor of Parthian) in the near northwest, where original *dw > *b (paralleling the development of *ćw). What is known in Iranian linguistic history as the "Middle Iranian" era is thought to begin around the 4th century BCE lasting through the 9th century. Linguistically the Middle Iranian languages are conventionally classified into two main groups, Western and Eastern . The Western family includes Parthian ( Arsacid Pahlavi) and Middle Persian , while Bactrian , Sogdian , Khwarezmian , Saka , and Old Ossetic ( Scytho - Sarmatian ) fall under

1128-458: The following branches: According to modern scholarship, the Avestan languages are not considered to fall under these categories, and are instead sometimes classified as Central Iranian, since they diverged from Proto-Iranian before the east-west division rose to prominence. It has traditionally been viewed as Eastern Iranian; however, it lacks a large number of Eastern Iranian features and thus

1175-569: The harassed Roman forces continued to move northeast in pursuit of the Armenian king, a second prominent battle took place, this time near Artaxata where, according to Roman sources, Tigranes II was defeated once again, although Lucullus was forced to turn back to Mesopotamia by the threat of mutiny and never took the city. Artaxata successfully withstood an assault by the Parthians allied with Tigranes's son , but then faced another attack by Pompey . In order to save Artaxata, Tigranes submitted to

1222-703: The height later called Khor Virap (best known as the location where Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned by Tiridates III of Armenia ) and added other fortifications, including a moat . Strabo and Plutarch describe Artaxata as a large and beautiful city and call it the "Armenian Carthage ." Excavations have revealed that Artaxata was a major urban center with paved streets, numerous bathhouses, markets, workshops and administrative buildings. The city had its own treasury, mint and customs house. A focal point of Hellenistic culture in Armenia, Armenia's first theater

1269-581: The reconstructed linguistic relationships of common Indo-European. Proto-Iranian thus dates to some time after the Proto-Indo-Iranian breakup, or the early-2nd millennium BCE, as the Old Iranian languages began to break off and evolve separately as the various Iranian tribes migrated and settled in vast areas of southeastern Europe , the Iranian Plateau , and Central Asia. Proto-Iranian innovations compared to Proto-Indo-Iranian include:

1316-482: The reconstruction of the ruined city. The city was temporarily renamed Neroneia, in honor of its sponsor. The Roman emperor Trajan conquered Armenia in 115/6 and briefly made it a Roman province. The Romans established a garrison at Artaxata during this time, as has been proved by the discovery of Latin inscription there mentioning Trajan. After Trajan's death, the Romans led by Statius Priscus invaded Armenia and destroyed Artaxata in 163/64. After this, Artaxata

1363-472: The recording of vocabulary, as Herodotus did for what he called " Scythian " and in one instance, Median ( σπάκα "dog"). Conventionally, Iranian languages are grouped into "western" and "eastern" branches. These terms have little meaning with respect to Old Avestan as that stage of the language may predate the settling of the Iranian peoples into western and eastern groups. The geographic terms also have little meaning when applied to Younger Avestan since it

1410-425: The remains of Armenia's oldest known church. The octagonal structure had square extensions on four sides, giving it an overall cruciform plan. Remains of wooden platforms found in the extensions were carbon dated to the mid-fourth century. The legend of Armenia's Christianisation dates that event to 301, which underlines the very early date of the Artaxata church. Its octagonal plan suggests a martyrion built over

1457-550: The south-west in Persia, or in the north-west in Nisa/Parthia and Ecbatana/Media). Two of the earliest dialectal divisions among Iranian indeed happen to not follow the later division into Western and Eastern blocks. These concern the fate of the Proto-Indo-Iranian first-series palatal consonants, *ć and *dź: As a common intermediate stage, it is possible to reconstruct depalatalized affricates: *c, *dz. (This coincides with

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1504-454: The state of affairs in the neighboring Nuristani languages .) A further complication however concerns the consonant clusters *ćw and *dźw: A division of Iranian languages in at least three groups during the Old Iranian period is thus implied: It is possible that other distinct dialect groups were already in existence during this period. Good candidates are the hypothetical ancestor languages of Alanian/Scytho-Sarmatian subgroup of Scythian in

1551-456: The term for the Iranian language family was introduced in 1836 by Christian Lassen . Robert Needham Cust used the term Irano-Aryan in 1878, and Orientalists such as George Abraham Grierson and Max Müller contrasted Irano-Aryan ( Iranian ) and Indo-Aryan ( Indic ). Some recent scholarship, primarily in German, has revived this convention. The Iranian languages are divided into

1598-737: The tomb of a Christian saint; the saint's name however has been lost. Iranian languages The Iranian languages , also called the Iranic languages , are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples , predominantly in the Iranian Plateau . The Iranian languages are grouped in three stages: Old Iranian (until 400 BCE), Middle Iranian (400 BCE – 900 CE) and New Iranian (since 900 CE). The two directly-attested Old Iranian languages are Old Persian (from

1645-515: The trade routes linking Persia and Mesopotamia with the Caucasus , the Black Sea ports and Asia Minor , contributing to its growth and prosperity, as well as that of the surrounding region. The city had a population of several thousand, consisting of Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and Syrians who worked as artisans, craftsmen, and merchants. During the reign of Tigranes II , the Armenian kingdom

1692-506: The turning of sibilant fricative *s into non-sibilant fricative glottal *h; the voiced aspirated plosives *bʰ, *dʰ, *gʰ yielding to the voiced unaspirated plosives *b, *d, *g resp.; the voiceless unaspirated stops *p, *t, *k before another consonant changing into fricatives *f, *θ, *x resp.; voiceless aspirated stops *pʰ, *tʰ, *kʰ turning into fricatives *f, *θ, *x, resp. The multitude of Middle Iranian languages and peoples indicate that great linguistic diversity must have existed among

1739-544: The two empires. In 449, prior to the Armenian rebellion of 450–451 , the political and religious leaders of Christian Armenia convened a council at Artaxata to discuss the threats of the Sasanian king Yazdegerd II . During the rebellion, the city was destroyed again by pro-Sasanian Armenian forces. With the rise in prominence of Duin as the capital and chief city of Armenia, Artaxata rapidly declined. The changing courses of

1786-429: The unavoidable battle but needed time. Lucullus was not inclined to grant them the time needed and marched straight for the capital. Eventually Tigranes had little choice and confronted the Romans. Lucullus made sacrifices to the gods, marched out from his camp and put his army into battle order. The Armenian force consisted of a significant cavalry and infantry array protected by mounted archers and Iberian lancers. There

1833-625: Was able to regain power after the Battle of Zela . Eventually, the Roman Senate sent Pompey the great to replace Lucullus and finish off Mithridates. Pompey was successful, and Mithridates was defeated at the Battle of Lycus in 66 BC, while Tigranes became a client-king of the Roman Empire. In 63 BC, the third Mithridatic war finally ended when Mithridates, at the age of 68, committed suicide after his son rebelled at Phanagoria , along

1880-510: Was an initial skirmish between these Iberians and the Roman horse, and soon the Iberians were in full flight. Tigranes then showed up with a huge contingent of cavalry. He halted his cavalry's pursuit of the Iberians and advanced the infantry on the Atropani who were massed opposite it. These were routed, and soon the entire Armenian army was in retreat. Soon after the battle, there was

1927-400: Was built here. Movses Khorenatsi writes that numerous pagan copper statues of the gods and goddesses of Anahit , Artemis and Tir were brought to Artaxata from the religious center of Bagaran and other regions, and that Jews from the former Armenian capital of Armavir were relocated to the new capital. Due to its advantageous position, Artaxata soon became an important junction on

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1974-474: Was expanded to include many territories to the south and west, ultimately reaching the Mediterranean Sea . Due to the remoteness of Artaxata within the expanded empire, Tigranes built a new capital called Tigranocerta in the region of Arzanene . However, in 69 BC, the Roman general Lucullus invaded Armenia, defeated Tigranes' forces in the outskirts of Tigranocerta and sacked the new capital. As

2021-513: Was located. King Artaxias I founded Artaxata as his new capital in 176 BC in the Ostan Hayotsʻ canton of the province of Ayrarat , on a peninsula of nine hills at the confluence of the Araks and Metsamor rivers. Archaeological evidence may indicate that Artaxata was built upon the remains of an older Urartian settlement. The story of its foundation is given by the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi : "Artashes [Artaxias] traveled to

2068-575: Was part of the Third Mithridatic War and ended in a Roman victory. After being defeated by the Romans in Asia Minor and in his native kingdom of Pontus , Mithridates VI of Pontus fled to his son-in-law Tigranes II of Armenia. Lucullus sent his brother-in-law Appius Claudius Pulcher to negotiate the surrender of Mithridates but this effort failed. In 69 BC Lucullus suddenly marched his relatively small army into Armenia catching

2115-608: Was replaced by Vagharshapat as the capital of Armenia, at least temporarily. In the mid-3rd century, during the reign of Khosrov III the Small , the royal court was moved to Duin . In the late 360s, Artaxata was thoroughly destroyed by the invading army of Sasanian king Shapur II , along with the other cities of Armenia. Following the partition of Armenia between Sasanian Iran and the Eastern Roman Empire, Artaxata became one of three authorized points for trade between

2162-498: Was situated precisely in the western part of Central Asia that borders present-day Russia and Kazakhstan . It was thus in relative proximity to the other satem ethno-linguistic groups of the Indo-European family , such as Thracian , Balto-Slavic and others, and to common Indo-European's original homeland (more precisely, the Pontic-Caspian Steppe to the north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus ), according to

2209-634: Was written using an adapted Greek script . Battle of Artaxata The Battle of Artaxata was fought near the Arsanias River in 68 BC between an army of the Roman Republic and the army of the Kingdom of Armenia . The Romans were led by proconsul Lucius Licinius Lucullus , while the Armenians were led by Tigranes II of Armenia , who was sheltering Mithridates VI of Pontus , his father-in-law and refugee King of Pontus . The battle

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