PLACES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Artashat (Capital of Ancient Armenia)
ARTASHAT (aka Artaxata) was the capital of Ancient Armenia from 176 BCE and remained so for over 300 years of the kingdom’s history. Located just south of Armenia’s modern capital Yerevan, according to the ancient historian Plutarch, the city’s original fortifications were planned by the Carthaginian general Hannibal. The city would need all the defences it could muster as it was attacked multiple times by Roman armies throughout its history until it was eventually replaced by Vagharshapat and Dvin as the country’s first city.
Around 200 BCE Artaxias I (aka Artashes or Artaxerxes), backed by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III (r. 222-187 BCE), was made the Seleucid Empire’s satrap in Armenia. Artaxias would reign until 165 or 160 BCE and found the Artaxiad dynasty which would rule Armenia until the first decade of the 1st century CE.
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