Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/234

 218 ABMENU. centarjf tinder Jacob Baradoens, bishop of Edessa, to which it continues to adhere. Little or no weight is to be attached to the accounts which the Greek and Roman writers give of the origin of the Armenians. Herodotus (vii. 73), in mentioning the fact that a bodj of this people served in the army of Xerxes, expresses his opinion that the Armenians were a colony of Phrygians. According to others they are to be considered of Tlessalian origin. (Strab. pp. 503, 530 ; Justin, xlii. 3; Tac. Arm. vl 34.) The history of the Armenian nation, though not so important or so interesting as that of other Eastern kingdoms, should be studied for the light it throws upon the great empires, which succ^sively established themselves in this region. This country has been the scene of almost con« tinual wars, either when its kings defended their independence against Persians, Greeks, Arabs and others, or when they stood passive spectators of the great struggles winch were to decide the &te of Asia. Passing orer Tigranes, the national hero and friend of Cyrus the Elder (^DicL of Biog, vol. iii. p. 1129), we find but little mention of Armenia till the deadi of Alexander the Great in the Greek his- torians, though from this period to that of the esta- blishment of the dynasty of the Arsacidae, recourse must be had to them, as the national chroniclers are silent on the history of this epoch. A Persian, named Mithrenes, was appointed governor by the Macedonian conqueror. (Arrian, Anab, iii. 16.) Availing themselves of the dissensions bet^•cen the generals of Alexander, the Armenians threw off the yoke under Ardoates (b.c. 317), but after his death were compelled to submit to the Seleucidae. Subsc* quently (b. c. 190), two Armenian nobles, Artaxias and S^rmdris, taking advantage of the moment, when Antiochus the Great had been defeated by the Komans, freed their country from the dominion of the Syrian kings. And it was at this time that the country was divided into the two kingdoms of Ar- menia Major and Armenia Minor. Artaxias became king of Armenia Major, and Zariadris of Armenia Minor. The Sophcnian Artanes, or Ansaces, a de- scendant of Zariadris, was conquered, and deposed by Tigranes, the king of Armenia Major, who thus became ruler of the two Armenias. (Strab. xi. pp. 528, 531.) The descendants of Artaxias reigned in Armenia till their conquest by the Arsacidae, and the establishment of the kings of that family. For the history of Armenia under the dynasty of the Arsacidae, from B. c. 149 to a. d. 428, ftiU par- ticulars are given in the Diet, of Biog. (vol. i. pu 361, seq.), with an account of the dynasties, which for a period of almost a thousand years reigned in this country after the fiill of the Ar- sacidae. This later history, till the death of the last king of Armenia, at Paris, a.d. 1393, has been detailed by St Martin, along with chronological tables and lists of the different kings and patriarchs. Ptolemy (/. c.) gives a list of Armenian towns, most of which are never met with in history, and their site remains unknown. The towns which are best known in connection with the writers of Greece and Rome are: Artaxata, or Artaxiasata; Ti- ORANOCERTA ; TBEODOSIOPOLIS ; CaRCTHIO- CEBTA ; Arhosata ; Artaoeira ; Naxuana ; MoRUNDA; BuANA; BiZABDA; Amida. (Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. x. ; St. Martin, Mhi. ewr VAr- menie; Chesney, Exped. Euphrat vol. i.; Kinneir, Memoirs of the Persian Empire^ and Travels ARMORICI in Armenia; Morier, Traods in Persia, voL i. ; Ker Porter, Travels; London Jottmal, Geog. vols. iii. vi. X.; Grote's Greece, ix. p. 157. [E. B. J.] ARME'NIAE PYLAE (^fipixMxav n<iXai), the Armenian gates of Eratosthenes (Strab. ii. p. 80), are identified by modem geographers with Gergen Kal'ah'Si, at the foot of the Taiunis. The Euphrates, sweejnng round through Mount Taurus, a few milea above JDtriskd, attains at that point its most easterly curve, rolls over rapids immediately above the village so named, and then turning again below the cliff of the castle of Gergen, passes through a very narrow gorge above 400 feet in depth. This is the second repulse the river meets with, as the first is placed at Tomisa (Tokhma-Su). (Rittcr, Erdhunde, vol. x. p. 985.) The bods in t-lie lower valley consist of red sandstone and sandstone conglomerate supporting limestone. (Ainsworth, London Geog. Journal, vol. X. p. 333 ; Chesney, Exped. Euphrat vol. i. pp. 70,71,293,350.) [E.B.J.] ARME'NIUM {'kpfjJyiov: MagUla), a town of Pelasgiotis in Thessaly, situated between Pherae and Larissa, near the lake BoebeTs, said to have been the birthplace of Armenus, who accompanied Jason to Asia, and gave his name to the country of Armenia. It is hardly necessary to remark, that this tale, like so many others, arose from the accidental similarity of the names. " The Afagula is a circular eminence three quarters of a mile in circtimferenw, which has some appearance of havmg been surrounded with walls ; and where though little is observable at pre- sent except broken stones and fragments of ancient pottery, these are in such an abundance as leaves no doubt of its having been an Hellenic site." (Strab. xi. pp. 503, 630; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 451.) ARMONPACUS (Tab. Pent.), ATIMUA (Plin. V. 3. s, 2 : Mafrag), a river of Numidia, betwTcn Hippo Regius and the Tusca. [P. S.] ARMO'RICI or ARMO'RICAE CIVITATES (Cae«. B. G. v. 53), are those people of the Celtics of Caesar who occupied the coast between the Ldre and the Seine. The name is derived frvsm the Celtic or, " on " or '* near," and mor, " the sea." The same ele- ment appears in the term Morini, who occupied the coast about Calais. It is likely enough, therefore, that Armorica had not a very definite geographical signi- fication. In the great rising of the Galli (vii. 75) Caesar speaks of all the states which border on the ocean, and which are called, according to their cus- tom, Armoricae: he enumerates the Curiosolites, Rhedones, Ambibari, Caletes, Osismii, Lemoviccs (as it stands in the texts), Veneti, and UnelH. For Lemovices we should read Lexovii, or omit the name. The Caletes were on the north side of tlie Seine, in the Pays de Caux. In this passage Caesar does not mention the Nannetes, who were on the east side of the Loire, near the month. The Ambibari in Caesar's list are a doubtful name. We must add the Abrincatui, Viducasses, Baiocasscs, and perhaps the Corisopiti, to the list of the Ar- moric states. These states seem to have formed a kind of confederation in Caesar's lime, or at least to have been united by a common feeling of danger and interest. They were a maritime people, and com- manded the seas and their ports. The most powerful state was the Veneti. [Veneti.] The name Ar- morica in the middle ages was limited to Bretague. Pliny (iv. 17) says "Aqtiitanica, Aremorica antca dicta," and he says notlung of the Armoricae Ciri- tates of Caesar. This looks very like a blunder