L'Iran e l'Armenia nel periodo preislamico. Qualche riflessione

This paper discusses the long and contrasted relations between Iran and Armenia before the advent of Islam, trying to identify lines of continuity and transition between the two historical entities. Eastern Anatolia was at the boundary of the Iranian heartland, and Armenia was mentioned already in the Achaemenid royal inscriptions. Later on, during the Hellenistic period, dynasties such as the Orontids and the Artaxiads, gained a degree of independence. The influence of Middle Iranian languages and specifically Parthian on the Armenian languages cannot be underrated, proving the profoundness of relations under the Arsacid dynasts, to the extent that a cadet branch of this royal house ruled Armenia well into Sasanian times. Subsequently, when rule went from the House of Arsaces to the House of Sâsân, the heir to the Sasanian throne bore the title of “King of the Armenians”, though it is not easy to determine precisely what lands did he rule upon. Under the later Sasanians some of the Armenians regions were directly governed by the central administration, but the region never lost its uniqueness. Finally, the author presents the relationship between the two ancient countries as a representative case of the entangled history characteristic of Western Asia and the Mediterranean in antiquity.