Zoroastrianism Armenia

ıo8
100. Arm. G r ., 25-6.
101. See G. B. Akopov, 'К voprosu ob "ar'ya" v drevneiranskom obikhode,'
in G. X. Sargsyan et al. , ed. , Iran (Mer/jawor ew Mi.jin Arevelkci
erkmer ev zoirovurdner, 8), Erevan, 1975 > 186-91.
102. See E. Herzfeld, Am Tor von Asien, Berlin, 1920, U7•
103- M. Boyce, trans. and ed., The Letter of Tansar, Rome, 1968, 63 &
n. 2. On the history of the text, see the translator's introduction.
This division of the world into four parts is attested in
various cultures outside Iran, as noted by Boyce. The division
of the administration of the Artaxiad and Parthian kingdoms
amongst four bdeasx-kc or satraps, as discussed above, may reflect
a similar concept before the Sasanian period, applied in
microcosm.
10lt. The term Persarmenia must refer to the territories acquired by
the Sasanian Empire after the partition of Greater Armenia between
Iran and Byzantium in A.D. 387, or else to the smaller area
that remained in Persian hands after the second partition, in 591-
At the time of Ardat>Ir, Armenia was an independent kingdom ruled
by the Arsacids. It became the appanage of the candidate to the
Sasanian throne in the last quarter of the third century (see below
and Ch. U), but even if this comparatively brief period of
Persian rule is meant, the reference to Persarmenia still cannot
be contemporary with Ardaslr I and must be a later interpolation.
I0 5. See SKZ, II.ik, in M. Sprengling, Third Century Iran: Shapur and
Kartir, Chicago, 1953 and V. G. Lukonin, Kul tura Sasanidskogo
Irana, MoscoWj^ 1969, 56, 197-8; see also Cn. S. The text of the
inscription, SKZ, calls Hormizd-Ardaslr the 'great king of Armenia':
MP. 1.23, 1.25 LB' MLK' 'rrnn'n; Pth. 1.18, 1.20 HB’ MLK’
'rmnyn; Gk. l.Ul, 1.U8 (tou) basileSs Armenias (see M.-L.
Chaumont, 'Les grands rois Sassanides d'Armenie,' Iranica Antigua,
8, 1968, 8l). The word order of the MIr. here cannot support the
contention of W. B. Henning that the title should be read as
Vazurg Armenan Säh 'King of Great- Armenia', parallel to the Arm.
title tcagawor Hayocc Mecacc (op. cit. n. 96, 517 & n. ^), attested
in the Arm. historians and in the Gk. inscription at Garni
as BASILEUS MEGALES ARMEHIAS (see Ch. 8).
Юб. Sprengling, op. cit. , KKZ 11.11-13, pp. ^7, 51-2.
10 7. Cit. by Henning, o p . cit. , 517-18.
108. L. H. Gray, 'Two Armenian Passions of Saints in the Sasanian
Period,' Anaj°cta Bollandiena, 6 7 , Melanges Paul Peeters, I,
Brussels, 19^9, З63.
109. Ibid., 370.
110. G. Widengren, 'The Status of the Jews in the Sassanian Empire,'
Iranica Antigua, 1, 196l, 133.