Atropatene

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Greater Armenia within the borders of King Tigranes II's brief-lived empire (ca. 80 BC)

Atropatene (Old Persian: Ātṛpātakāna; Ancient Greek: Ἀτροπατηνή), also known as Media Atropatene, was an ancient Iranian kingdom established in c. 323 BC by the Persian satrap Atropates.

Variants

• Atropates (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 155, 239, 365, 374, 375, 393 395.)

• Atropatene (Pliny.vi.16, Pliny.vi.18, Pliny.vi.29)
• Atropatios Mēdia
• Tropatene
• Aturpatakan
• Adarbayjan

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Ajra = Azerbaijan = Atropatene (Pliny.vi.16, Pliny.vi.18, Pliny.vi.29)

• Atra = Atropatene (Pliny.vi.16, Pliny.vi.18, Pliny.vi.29)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Atra = Atropates (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 155, 239, 365, 374, 375, 393 395.)

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions Adiabene.... The kingdom of the Persians, by which we now understand that of Parthia, is elevated upon the Caucasian chain between two seas, the Persian and the Hyrcanian. To the Greater Armenia, which in the front slopes towards Commagene, is joined Sophene, which lies upon the descent¹ on both sides thereof, and next to it is Adiabene, the most advanced frontier of Assyria; a part of which is Arbelitis,² He alludes to the town of Arbela, where, as it is generally said, the army of Darius was defeated by Alexander the Great; by which engagement the conflict was terminated. It was the fact, however, that Darius left his baggage and treasures at Arbela, while the battle really took place near the village of Gaugamela, about twenty miles to the north-west of Arbela. This place still retains its name of Arbil, where Alexander conquered Darius, and which joins up to Syria. The whole of this country was called Mygdonia by the Macedonians, on account of the resemblance it bore to Mygdonia³ in Europe. Its cities are Alexandria,⁴ and Antiochia, also called Nisibis⁵; this last place is distant from Artaxata seven hundred and fifty miles. There was also in former times Ninus⁶, a most renowned city, on the banks of the Tigris, with an aspect towards the west. Adjoining the other front of Greater Armenia, which runs down towards the Caspian Sea, we find Atropatene⁷, which is separated from Otene, a region of Armenia, by the river Araxes; Gazæ⁸ is its chief city, distant from Artaxata four hundred and fifty miles, and the same from Ecbatana in Media, to which country Atropatene belongs.

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1 35 See c. 10.

2 He alludes to the town of Arbela, where, as it is generally said, the army of Darius was defeated by Alexander the Great; by which engagement the conflict was terminated. It was the fact, however, that Darius left his baggage and treasures at Arbela, while the battle really took place near the village of Gaugamela, about twenty miles to the north-west of Arbela. This place still retains its name of Arbil.

3 A district in the east of Macedonia, bordering on the Thermaic gulf and the Chalcidic peninsula.

4 Nothing is known of this place. Hardouin suggests that it may have been built on the spot where Alexander defeated Darius.

5 Also known as Antiochia Mygdoniæ, the capital of Mygdonia. Its ruins are still to be seen near a place called Nisibin. It stood on the river Mygdonius, now the Nahral Huali.

6 Or Nineveh, the capital of the great Assyrian monarchy, destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians about B.C. 606.

7 There is great difficulty in ascertaining, from the accounts given by the ancient writers, the exact limits of this district, but it is supposed to have included a considerable portion of the province now known by the name of Azerbaijan. It derived its name from Atropates or Atropes, who was governor of this district under the last Darius.

8 Most probably the place now known as Gazæa, the royal residence of the Parthian kings, and, as its name would imply, their treasure city. Colonel Rawlinson thinks that this place underwent many changes of name according to the rulers who successively occupied it; among other names, it appears to have borne that of Ecbatana.

Name

According to Strabo, the name of Atropatene derived from the name of Atropates, the commander of the Achaemenid Empire. As he writes in his book “Geography”: "Media is divided into two parts. One part of it is called Greater Media, of which the metropolis is Ecbatana. The other part is Atropatian Media, which got its name from the commander Atropates, who prevented also this country, which was a part of Greater Media, from becoming subject to the Macedonians".

From the name of Atropates, different forms of the name of this country such as Atropatene, Atropatios Mēdia, Tropatene, Aturpatakan, Adarbayjan were used in different sources. Nevertheless, medieval Arab geographers suggested another version associating this name with Adorbador (the name of a priest) that means “guardian of the fire”.

History

The kingdom, centered in present-day northern Iran, was ruled by Atropates' descendants until the early 1st-century AD, when the Parthian Arsacid dynasty supplanted them. It was conquered by the Sasanians in 226, and turned into a province governed by a marzban ("margrave"). Atropatene was the only Iranian region to remain under Zoroastrian authority from the Achaemenids to the Arab conquest without interruption, aside from being briefly ruled by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 BC).

The name of Atropatene was also the nominal ancestor of the name of the historic Azerbaijan region in Iran.

Mention by Pliny

Pliny mentions.....Adjoining the other front of Greater Armenia, which runs down towards the Caspian Sea, we find Atropatene⁷, which is separated from Otene, a region of Armenia, by the river Araxes; Gazæ⁸ is its chief city, distant from Artaxata four hundred and fifty miles, and the same from Ecbatana in Media, to which country Atropatene belongs.

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7 There is great difficulty in ascertaining, from the accounts given by the ancient writers, the exact limits of this district, but it is supposed to have included a considerable portion of the province now known by the name of Azerbaijan. It derived its name from Atropates or Atropes, who was governor of this district under the last Darius.

8 Most probably the place now known as Gazæa, the royal residence of the Parthian kings, and, as its name would imply, their treasure city. Colonel Rawlinson thinks that this place underwent many changes of name according to the rulers who successively occupied it; among other names, it appears to have borne that of Ecbatana.