Orontes IV (

Old Persian Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...

: ''*Arvanta-'') was the son of King Arsames and is recorded as ruling Armenia from inscriptions found at the historic capital of the

Orontid The Orontid dynasty, also known as the Eruandids or Eruandunis, ruled the Satrapy of Armenia until 330 BC and the Kingdom of Armenia from 321 BC to 200 BC. The Orontids ruled first as client kings or satraps of the Achaemenid Empire and after t ...

dynasty, Armavir. He was the founder of the city of

Yervandashat Yervandashat or Eruandashat ( hy, Երվանդաշատ), was an Armenian city and one of the 13 historic capitals of Armenia, serving as a capital city between 210 and 176 BC during the Orontid rule over Armenia and the beginning of their success ...

. In his reign the religious site of Bagaran was founded. Large bronze statues in the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

style of the gods, Zeus ( Aramazd), Artemis (

Anahit Anahit ( hy, Անահիտ, fa, آناهید) was the goddess of fertility and healing, wisdom and water in Armenian mythology. In early periods she was the goddess of war. By the 5th century BCE she was the main deity in Armenia along with Ar ...

) and Herakles ( Vahagn) were brought there and set up in temples dedicated to them. He is also said to have founded a shrine at Armavir dedicated to Apollo ( Mithra), a golden statue of four horses pulling a chariot with Apollo as god of the Sun. This was later destroyed by the Sassanid Persian army in the 4th century AD. King Antiochus III instigated a revolt against King Orontes IV.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

, who wrote about this 200 years later, stated that it was general Artaxias I, who was also an

, who overthrew King Orontes IV. Aramaic inscriptions found at Armavir state that King Orontes IV died at the hands of his own army, in other words by betrayal from Artaxias I. This was most likely bribery of the Armenian army by King Antiochus III. Artaxias I took over as King of Armenia soon afterwards, according to Strabo. Orontes IV had a son, Ptolemaeus of Commagene, who served as the last

Satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...

of Commagene between 201–163 BC, became in 163 BC the first King of Commagene and died in 130 BC.

Ancestry

References

* J. M. Cook *

Richard G. Hovannisian Richard Gable Hovannisian ( hy, Ռիչարդ Հովհաննիսյան, born November 9, 1932) is an Armenian American historian and professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known mainly for his four-volume history o ...

The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, 2 vols. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997

Sources

* * 3rd-century BC kings of Armenia 2nd-century BC kings of Armenia Orontid dynasty 3rd-century BC births Year of birth unknown 200 BC deaths {{Armenia-royal-stub