Moxoene or Mokk' ( hy, Մոկք, translit=Mokkʿ, ku, Miks) was a territory of
Kingdom of Armenia and later
Sasanian Armenia
Sasanian Armenia, also known as Persian Armenia and Persarmenia ( hy, Պարսկահայաստան – ''Parskahayastan''), may either refer to the periods in which Armenia ( pal, 𐭠𐭫𐭬𐭭𐭩 – ''Armin'') was under the suzerainty of ...
, 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 Ir ...
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 used ...
have been suggested including ''Μύκοι'' by
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
, ''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 importanc ...
as attested by him in
''Geography''. However, none of these fit the geographical and linguistic criteria.
History
In 198, Moxoene was emerged into
Corduene
Corduene hy, Կորճայք, translit=Korchayk; ; romanized: ''Kartigini'') was an ancient historical region, located south of Lake Van, present-day eastern Turkey.
Many believe that the Kardouchoi—mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis as havin ...
.
During the
Battle of Samarra
The Battle of Samarra took place in June 363, during the invasion of the Sasanian Empire by the Roman Emperor Julian. After marching his army to the gates of Ctesiphon and failing to take the city, Julian, realizing his army was low on provisio ...
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 gener ...
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
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
demanded the area of Moxoene. After the war, Moxoene emerged as a new political entity part of the Sasanian Empire. The
diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, 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 Roman province, pro ...
of Moxoene belonged to
Nestorianism
Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...
.
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 pri ...
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 Georg ...
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