Moxoene or Mokk' ( hy, Մոկք, translit=Mokkʿ, ku, Miks) was a territory of
Kingdom of Armenia and later
Sasanian Armenia, located east of
Arzanene
Arzanene ( el, Ἀρζανηνή) or Aghdznik () was a historical region in the southwest of the ancient kingdom of Armenia. It was ruled by one of the four ''bdeashkhs'' (''bidakhsh'', ''vitaxa'') of Armenia, the highest ranking nobles below t ...
from south of
Lake Van
Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...
to north of Bohtan river. The territory was ruled by a local dynasty.
Toponymy
The name ''Moxoene'' only appears in ancient sources in the early fourth century. In later centuries, Armenian sources used the name ''Mokkʿ.'' The ancient name is preserved in modern times with the local
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...
using the name ''Miks'' for
the main town of the area.
Attempts have been made to find the pre-Armenian attestations of Moxoene and some
ethnonyms
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and u ...
have been suggested including ''Μύκοι'' by
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...
, ''Muški'' from Assyrian sources and ''τῶν Μοσχικῶν ὄρη'' or ''Μοξιανοί'' by
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
as attested by him in
''Geography''. However, none of these fit the geographical and linguistic criteria.
History
In 198, Moxoene was emerged into
Corduene.
During the
Battle of Samarra in 363, Roman soldiers likely marched through Moxoene under generals
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...
and
Sebastianus
Sebastianus (died 413), a brother of Jovinus, was an aristocrat of southern Gaul. After Jovinus usurped the throne of the western Roman Emperor Honorius in Gaul in 411, he named Sebastianus as Augustus (co-emperor) in 412. Coins bearing Sebastia ...
to join
Arshak II
Arshak II ( hy, Արշակ Բ, flourished 4th century, died 369 or 370), also written as Arsaces II or Aršak II, was an Arsacid prince who was King of Armenia from 350 (338/339 according to some scholars) until . Although Arshak's reign opened ...
. During the territorial negotiations that same year, the
Sasanian Empire demanded the area of Moxoene. After the war, Moxoene emerged as a new political entity part of the Sasanian Empire. The
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...
of Moxoene belonged to
Nestorianism.
The settlement was known in Roman times as Moxos, after the 8th century as Mokks or Moks, and after the 18th century as Mukus. Moxoene may have been named after the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
Mushki
The Mushki (sometimes transliterated as Muški) were an Iron Age people of Anatolia who appear in sources from Assyria but not from the Hittites. Several authors have connected them with the Moschoi (Μόσχοι) of Greek sources and the Geor ...
people, who according to Assyrian sources, settled in the region.
Notes
References
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Provinces of the Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)
History of Van Province
History of Kurdistan
States and territories established in the 360s
{{Armenia-hist-stub