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99-610: Armenians and the Assyrians of Iraq , northeast Syria , southeast Turkey , and northwest Iran still use Shamiram and its derivative Samira as a given name for girls. The real and historical Shammuramat , the original Akkadian form of the name, was the Assyrian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 824 BC–811 BC). She ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire as its regent for five years, before her son Adad-nirari III came of age and took

198-696: A brief period, from 1918 to 1920, Armenia was an independent republic plagued by socio-economic crises such as large-scale Muslim uprisings . In late 1920, the communists came to power following an invasion of Armenia by the Red Army ; in 1922, Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian SFSR of the Soviet Union , later on forming the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936 to 21 September 1991). In 1991, Armenia declared independence from

297-490: A common origin of the Armenian and Greek languages. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ) and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). This has led some scholars to propose a hypothetical Graeco-Armenian-Aryan clade within

396-611: A domed ceiling, similar to a Median-era structure from Tepe Nush-i Jan , interpreted as a Zoroastrian fire temple . Excavations have revealed a massive defensive wall made of mud-bricks, and dated to the Median period based on a comparison to Tepe Nush-i Jan and Godin Tepe . There are also two column bases from the Achaemenid period, and some mud-brick structures thought to be from the Median or Achaemenid periods. A badly-damaged stone lion sculpture

495-596: A few elements regarding identification of its pantheon with Greco-Roman deities). In the early years of the 4th century, likely 301 CE, partly in defiance of the Sassanids it seems. In the late Parthian period, Armenia was a predominantly Zoroastrian-adhering land, but by the Christianisation, previously predominant Zoroastrianism and paganism in Armenia gradually declined. This is the period that an Armenian community

594-520: A general under King Ninus , and she became an advisor to the king. Her advice led him to great successes. At the Siege of Bactra, she personally led a party of soldiers to seize a key defensive point, leading to the capture of the city. Ninus was so struck that he fell in love with her. He tried to compel Onnes to give her to him as a wife, first offering his own daughter Sonanê in return and eventually threatening to put out his eyes as punishment. Out of fear of

693-473: A high brick wall that completely surrounded the city. She built several palaces in Persia, including Ecbatana . She ruled Asia effectively and added Libya and Aethiopia to the empire. She went to war with King Stabrobates ( Supratika ) of India , having her artisans build an army of military dummies in the form of false elephants by putting manipulated skins of dark-skinned buffaloes over her camels to deceive

792-686: A popular site even before the 1st millennium BC. Along with Athens in Greece , Rome in Italy and Susa in Khuzestan , Ecbatana is one of the few ancient cities in the world that is still alive and important, representing the current-day Hamadan . According to Herodotus , Ecbatana was chosen as the Medes ' capital in 678 BC by Deioces , the first ruler of the Medes. Herodotus said that it had seven walls. Deioces' intention

891-458: A temporary museum. With an area of over 600 square meters, a significant amount of the findings from Ecbatana are kept at this museum today, with some others at the National Museum of Iran and Reza Abbasi Museum . The Noushijan fire temple is one of the most important and oldest fire temples in the world, which is near Ecbatana. It is also the oldest adobe temple in the world. In 1967,

990-465: A victorious military campaign she waged against them. One of the most popular legends in Armenian tradition involves Semiramis and an Armenian king, Ara the Handsome . According to that legend, Semiramis had fallen in love with the handsome Armenian King Ara and asked him to marry her. When he refused, in her passion she gathered the armies of Assyria and marched against Armenia. During the battle Semiramis

1089-745: A whole, Media , Persia , the Levant , Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Caucasus bore the name of Semiramis in slightly changed forms, even some named during the Middle Ages . She is credited with founding the city of Van in Turkey in order to have a summer residence and that city may be found referred to as Shamiramagerd (city of Semiramis). Herodotus , an ancient Greek writer, geographer, and historian living from c. 484 to 425 BC, ascribes to Semiramis

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1188-628: A woman who governed well. Powerful female monarchs Margaret I of Denmark and Catherine the Great were given the designation Semiramis of the North . The mother of the sultan in " The Man of Law's Tale " in Geoffrey Chaucer 's Canterbury Tales is compared to Semiramis, with the intention of suggesting that the mother of the sultan is an evil woman just like Semiramis. In the twentieth century, Semiramis has appeared in several sword and sandal films. She

1287-522: Is likely they never penetrated east of the Alvand despite two centuries of involvement in Median areas of the central Zagros . In 550 BC, Cyrus the Great defeated Astyages and conquered Ecbatana, forming the Achaemenid Empire . Although Ecbatana lost its former importance, it was located on the royal road, where it connected Persepolis to Sardis , and situated at the foot of Mount Alvand . So it

1386-623: Is of disputed date: it may be Achaemenid or Parthian. Numerous Parthian-era constructions attest to Ecbatana's status as a summer capital for the Parthian rulers. In 2006, excavations in a limited area of Hagmatana hill failed to discover anything older than the Parthian period, but this does not rule out older archaeological layers existing elsewhere within the 35-hectare site. Ecbatana was first excavated in 1913 by Charles Fossey . Fossey discovered fragments of column bases adorned with arabesques and inscriptions, glazed bricks, and faience tiles during

1485-421: Is one of the historical capitals of Iran and the present capital of East Azerbaijan province . The city, which was previously called Tauris, was put forward by John-Thomas Minadoi, who cited that his identification of the city was based on data collected from modern and ancient geographers, recent travel accounts, and local informants. This theory was also promoted by other historians, such as Sir William Jones and

1584-488: Is secure." Earlier, a lack of significant archaeological remains from the Median and Achaemenid periods had prompted suggestions of other sites for Ecbatana. Assyrian sources never mention Hagmatana/Ecbatana. Some scholars believed the problem can be resolved by identifying the Ecbatana/Hagmatana mentioned in later Greek and Achaemenid sources with the city Sagbita/Sagbat frequently mentioned in Assyrian texts, since

1683-418: Is the palace which is about seven stories in circumference, and its magnificence shows the wealth of its founders. During his time, no parts of the woodwork were left exposed. There were silver or gold-plated rafters, compartments in the ceiling, and columns in the porticos and colonnades, and silver tiles were used throughout the structure. In the invasion by Alexander , most precious metals were stripped, while

1782-622: The Divine Comedy ( Inferno V), Dante places Semiramis among the souls of the lustful in the Second Circle of Hell . She appears in Petrarch 's Triumph of Love (canto III, verse 76). She is one of three women exemplifying "evil love", the other two being Byblis and Myrrha . She is included in De Mulieribus Claris , a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by

1881-715: The Armenian Highland . Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Under Ashurbanipal (669–627 BCE), the Assyrian empire reached the Caucasus Mountains (modern Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan ). Luwianologist John D. Hawkins proposed that "Hai" people were possibly mentioned in the 10th century BCE Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Carchemish . A.E. Redgate later clarified that these "Hai" people may have been Armenians. The first geographical entity that

1980-637: The Armenian highlands of West Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and constituted the main population of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and the subsequent flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians . There is a wide-ranging diaspora of around five million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia ,

2079-523: The Armenian language is classified as an Indo-European language , its placement within the broader Indo-European language family is a matter of debate. Until fairly recently, scholars believed Armenian to be most closely related to Greek and Ancient Macedonian . Eric P. Hamp placed Armenian in the "Pontic Indo-European" (also called Graeco-Armenian or Helleno-Armenian) subgroup of Indo-European languages in his 2012 Indo-European family tree. There are two possible explanations, not mutually exclusive, for

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2178-512: The Behistun Inscription of Darius . Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus ( c.  330  – c.  400 ), who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity, credits her as the first person to castrate a male youth into eunuch -hood: "Semiramis, that ancient queen who was the first person to castrate male youths of tender age". Armenian tradition portrays Semiramis negatively, possibly because of

2277-662: The Bronze Age Trialeti-Vanadzor culture and sites such as the burial complexes at Verin and Nerkin Naver are indicative of an Indo-European presence in Armenia by the end of the 3rd millennium BCE. The controversial Armenian hypothesis , put forward by some scholars, such as Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov , proposes that the Indo-European homeland was around the Armenian Highland. This theory

2376-688: The Bronze Age , several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power in the 14th century BCE), ( Mitanni (South-Western historical Armenia, 1500–1300 BCE), and Hayasa-Azzi (1500–1200 BCE). Soon after Hayasa-Azzi came Arme-Shupria (1300s–1190 BCE), the Nairi Confederation (1200–900 BCE), and the Kingdom of Urartu (860–590 BCE), who successively established their sovereignty over

2475-663: The Euphrates . He knew her name because it was inscribed on a gate of Babylon. Various places in Mesopotamia , Media , Persia , the Levant , Anatolia , the Arabian Peninsula, and the Caucasus received names recalling Semiramis. While the achievements of Semiramis are clearly in the realm of mythical Persian, Armenian, and Greek historiography, the historical Shammuramat certainly existed. After her husband's death, she might have served as regent for her son, Adad-nirari III . Thus, during that time Shammuramat could have been in control of

2574-643: The Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio that was composed in 1361–1362. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. Semiramis always was admired for her martial and political achievements. Her reputation partly recovered in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. She was included in Christine de Pizan 's The Book of the City of Ladies , finished by 1405, and, starting in

2673-466: The Indo-Iranian sound /s/ became /h/ in many Iranian languages . The Sagbita mentioned by Assyrian sources was located in the proximity of the cities Kishesim (Kar-Nergal) and Harhar (Kar-Sharrukin). It is now proposed that the absence of any mention of Ecbatana in Assyrian sources can be explained by the possibility that Assyria never became involved as far east as the Alvand mountains, but only in

2772-673: The Macedonian general Parmenion by Alexander's order. Later, in 305 BC, the city was ruled by Seleucus I . The Battle of Ecbatana was fought in 129 BC between the Seleucids led by Antiochus VII Sidetes and the Parthians led by Phraates II , and marked the final attempt on the part of the Seleucids to regain their power in eastern Iran against the Parthians. After their defeat, the territory of

2871-575: The Mushki and the Kaskians . The Urumu apparently settled in the vicinity of Sason , lending their name to the regions of Arme and the nearby lands of Urme and Inner Urumu. The location of the older site of Armani is a matter of debate. Some modern researchers have placed it in the same general area as Arme, near modern Samsat , and have suggested it was populated, at least partially, by an early Indo-European-speaking people . The relationship between Armani and

2970-839: The Proto Indo-European words póti (meaning "lord" or "master") or *h₂éyos / *áyos (meaning "metal"). Khorenatsi wrote that the word Armenian originated from the name Armenak or Aram (the descendant of Hayk). Khorenatsi refers to both Armenia and Armenians as Hayk‘ (Armenian: Հայք) (not to be confused with the aforementioned patriarch, Hayk). Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European While

3069-646: The Russian Empire following Iran's forced ceding of the territories after its loss in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) and the outcoming Treaty of Turkmenchay . Western Armenia however, remained in Ottoman hands. The ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is widely considered a genocide , resulting in an estimated 1.2 million victims. The first wave of persecution

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3168-561: The USSR and established the second Republic of Armenia. Also in 1991, the ethnic Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (later the Republic of Artsakh ), declared independence from Azerbaijan which lasted until 2023. Armenians are believed to have had a presence in the Armenian Highland for over 4,000 years. According to legend, Hayk , the patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation, led Armenians to victory over Bel of Babylon and settled in

3267-534: The United States , France , Georgia , Iran , Germany , Ukraine , Lebanon , Brazil , Argentina , Syria , and Turkey. The present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian genocide with the exceptions of Iran, former Soviet states , and parts of the Levant . Armenian is an Indo-European language . It has two mutually intelligible spoken and written forms: Eastern Armenian , today spoken mainly in Armenia, Artsakh, Iran , and

3366-776: The battle of Nahavand in 642 AD, Ecbatana fell to the Muslims, and around 1220, the city was completely destroyed by the Mongol invasion . Ecbatana was sacked in 1386 by Timur , and the population was slaughtered as a result. The Greeks thought Ecbatana to be the capital of the Median empire and credited its foundation to Deioces (the Daiukku of the cuneiform inscriptions). It is alleged that he surrounded his palace in Ecbatana with seven concentric walls of different colors. There are some indications that

3465-564: The chastity belt to deter any romantic rivals before he eventually killed her. This seems to have appeared first in the reign of Augustus in the Universal History of Pompeius Trogus, which survives only in the later epitome of Justinius; the circulation of the story was likely popularized in the fifth century by Orosius in his universal history, Seven Books of History Against the Pagans , which has been described as an "anti-pagan polemic". In

3564-459: The "mother of harlots", even though this is not how she is depicted in any of the historical texts where she is mentioned. Ralph Woodrow also has been critical of this interpretation and has stated that Alexander Hislop "picked, chose and mixed" portions of various myths from different cultures. Armenians Armenians ( Armenian : հայեր , romanized :  hayer , [hɑˈjɛɾ] ) are an ethnic group and nation native to

3663-650: The 4th century in the Holy Land , and one of the quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem is called the Armenian Quarter . An Armenian Catholic monastic community of 35 founded in 1717 exists on an island near Venice , Italy. The region of Western Armenia was an influential part of the Eastern Roman Empire , which was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The Armenian population of

3762-533: The Alusjerd river, which flows from north to south, separates the city into two parts. The summit of the Moṣallā, an 80 m (260 ft)-high rock hill in the southeast sector, contains stone and brick remnants of a rectangular citadel marked by towers. It is believed to be the Median citadel, which dates back no earlier than the Parthian era. The Tell Hagmatana, also called Tepe Hegmataneh (thought to correspond to

3861-449: The Armenian Highland. Today, with a population of 3.5 million (although more recent estimates place the population closer to 2.9 million), they constitute an overwhelming majority in Armenia, Armenians in the diaspora informally refer to them as Hayastantsi s ( Armenian : հայաստանցի ), meaning those that are from Armenia (that is, those born and raised in Armenia). They, as well as

3960-463: The Armenians not to continue the war. In one persistent tradition in this vein, the prayers of Semiramis are successful and Ara returns to life. During the nineteenth century, it was reported that a village called Lezk, near Van in Turkey, traditionally held that it was the location of the resurrection of Ara. She is Semiramis, of whom we read That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse; She held

4059-538: The Armenians of Iran and Russia, speak the Eastern dialect of the Armenian language. The country itself is secular as a result of Soviet domination, but most of its citizens identify themselves as Apostolic Armenian Christian. While the largest Armenian diaspora populations reside in Russia , the United States , France , and other countries, small Armenian trading and religious communities have existed outside Armenia for centuries. A prominent community has continued since

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4158-530: The Assyrians regard her with particular reverence and that her achievements may have been retold over the generations until she was gradually turned into a legendary figure. The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia and Anatolia whose origins had been forgotten or unknown, even the Behistun Inscription of Darius . Herodotus ascribes to her the artificial banks that confined

4257-680: The Eastern Mediterranean world suddenly and violently collapsed. Armenians have since remained isolated and genetic structure within the population developed ~500 years ago when Armenia was divided between the Ottomans and the Safavid Empire in Iran. A genetic study (Wang et al. 2018) supports the indigenous origin for Armenians in a region south of the Caucasus which he calls "Greater Caucasus". In

4356-638: The Great of Persia refers to Urashtu (in Babylonian ) as Armina ( Old Persian : 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴) and Harminuya (in Elamite). In Greek , Armenios ( Αρμένιοι ) is attested from about the same time, perhaps the earliest reference being a fragment attributed to Hecataeus of Miletus (476 BC). Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. Some have linked

4455-457: The Great , a member of the Artaxiad (Artashesian) dynasty , the Kingdom of Armenia extended from the Caucasus all the way to what is now central Turkey , Lebanon , and northern Iran . The Arsacid Kingdom of Armenia , itself a branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia , was the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion (it had formerly been adherent to Armenian paganism , which was influenced by Zoroastrianism , while later on adopting

4554-490: The Great , who stayed there in the following year to attack Mithridates II . Ecbatana remained loyal to the Parthians until AD 226, when Ardashir I defeated Artabanus IV and conquered Ecbatana from the north, alongside Atropatene . There is conflicting evidence as to whether Ecbatana was used as the summer capital for Sasanians or not. According to Ibn al-Faqih , buildings were built between Ctesiphon (The Sassanid capital) and Mount Alvand, but not beyond that. After

4653-437: The Indians into thinking she had acquired real elephants. This ploy succeeded initially, but she was wounded in the counterattack and her army mainly annihilated, forcing the surviving remnants to re-ford the Indus and retreat to the west. Diodorus mistakenly attributed the Behistun Inscription to her; it is now known to have been produced by Darius the Great . The writings of Diodorus about Semiramis are strongly influenced by

4752-502: The Indo-European language family from which the Armenian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, and possibly Phrygian languages all descend. According to Kim (2018), however, there is insufficient evidence for a cladistic connection between Armenian and Greek, and common features between these two languages can be explained as a result of contact. Contact is also the most likely explanation for morphological features shared by Armenian with Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages . It has been suggested that

4851-407: The Ottoman Empire is estimated to have been between 1.5 and 2.5 million in the early 20th century. Most of the modern Armenian diaspora consists of Armenians scattered throughout the world as a direct consequence of massacres and genocide in the Ottoman Empire . However, Armenian communities in Iran , Georgia ( Tbilisi ), and Syria existed since antiquity . During the Middle Ages and

4950-429: The Seleucids was limited to the area of modern-day Syria . Ecbatana later became the summer capital of the Parthians , and their main mint, producing drachms , tetradrachms , and assorted bronze denominations. The wealth and importance of the city during classical antiquity are attributed to its location, a crucial crossroads that made it a staging post on the main east–west highway called High-Road. There

5049-447: The Universe, King of Assyria, Daughter-in-Law of Shalmaneser , King of the Four Regions of the World ." According to Diodorus , a first century BC Greek historian, Semiramis was of noble parents, the daughter of the fish-goddess Derketo of Ascalon and of a mortal. He related that Derketo abandoned her at birth and drowned herself. Doves fed the child until Simmas, the royal shepherd, found her. Semiramis married Onnes or Menones,

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5148-418: The ancient citadel of Ecbatana) has a circumference of 1.4 km (0.87 mi) and an area of about 40 hectares, which corresponds to a report from Polybius , although the ancient Greek and Roman accounts likely exaggerate Ecbatana's wealth, splendor, and extravagance. Relatively few finds thus far can be firmly dated to the Median era. There is a "small, open-sided room with four corner columns supporting

5247-478: The ancient site. In 1969, the Ministry of Culture and Art began buying property on the tell in support of archaeology, though excavation did not begin until 1983. By 2007, 12 seasons of excavation had occurred. In 1974, the Iranian Centre for Archeological Research performed some excavation in the Parthian cemetery located at southeast of Hamedan. The work on the tell is ongoing. Historians and archaeologists now believe "the identification of Ecbatana with Hamadān

5346-428: The artificial banks that confined the Euphrates and knows her name as borne by a gate of Babylon. Strabo , a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during 64 or 63 BC to 24 AD, credits her with building earthworks and other structures "throughout almost the whole continent". Nearly every stupendous work of antiquity by the Euphrates or in Iran seems to have been ascribed to Semiramis, even

5445-496: The centuries prior to the genocide, additional communities were formed in Greece , Bulgaria , Hungary , Kievan Rus' and the territories of Russia, Poland , Austria , and Lebanon . There are also remnants of historic communities in Turkey ( Istanbul ), India , Myanmar , Thailand , Belgium , the Netherlands , Portugal , Italy , Israel-Palestine , Iraq , Romania , Serbia , Ethiopia , Sudan and Egypt . Ecbatana Ecbatana ( / ɛ k ˈ b æ t ən ə / )

5544-462: The chief French orientalists. Ecbatana is the supposed capital of Astyages ( Istuvegü ), which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of the reign of Nabonidus (550/549 BC). Ecbatana Museum was opened in 1994. The museum is open all days of the week except Monday evening. Located in the east of Ecbatana hill, the museum building used to be a nursery school, but it has been put into changes and repairs to create

5643-400: The country of Ecbatana; the royal residence he seized; silver, gold, other valuables of the country Ecbatana he took as booty and brought to Anšan." In the 2nd Century BC, Polybius writes about Ecbatana. He mentioned that the wealth and magnificence of its buildings make it stand out among all other cities. It has no walls but an artificial citadel with amazing fortifications. Underneath this

5742-404: The course of the six-week excavation of Mosalla. Based on his chance discoveries, it looks like the 30 m (98 ft)-high mound, Tell Hagmatana, is the site of the Median citadel and the Achaemenid royal construction. The sculptured head of a prince was found during the three months-long excavation of the eastern section. Excavations have been limited due to the modern town covering most of

5841-478: The efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew . In the early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity as a state religion, followed by the first pilgrimages to the Holy Land where a community established the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem . The earliest attestations of the exonym Armenia date around the 6th century BC. In his trilingual Behistun Inscription dated to 517 BC, Darius I

5940-403: The excavations of this place began under the supervision of David Stronach , which led to the identification of three historical periods in three separate floors. The third floor belongs to the Parthians , the second floor belongs to the Achaemenids , and the first floor belongs to the Medes . This place was the most important fire temple of the Medes from the second half of the 8th century to

6039-475: The former Soviet republics; and Western Armenian , used in the historical Western Armenia and, after the Armenian genocide, primarily in the Armenian diasporan communities. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots . Most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church , a non-Chalcedonian Christian church, which is also the world's oldest national church . Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus' death, due to

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6138-503: The fourteenth century, she was commonly found on the Nine Worthies list for women . Semiramis appears in many plays, such as Voltaire 's tragedy Sémiramis and Pedro Calderón de la Barca 's drama La hija del aire , and in operas by dozens of composers including Antonio Vivaldi , Christoph Willibald Gluck , Domenico Cimarosa , Josef Mysliveček , Giacomo Meyerbeer , and Gioachino Rossini . Arthur Honegger composed music for Paul Valéry 's 1934 "ballet-pantomime" Semiramis , which

6237-408: The fourth blue, the fifth orange; all these colors with paint. The last two have their battlements coated respectively with silver and gold. All these fortifications Deioces had caused to be raised for himself and his own palace." Herodotus' description is corroborated in part by stone reliefs from the Neo-Assyrian Empire , depicting Median citadels ringed by concentric walls. Other sources attest to

6336-443: The head of the Catholic Church inherited and continued to propagate a millennia-old secret conspiracy , founded by Semiramis and the Biblical king Nimrod , to propagate the pagan religion of ancient Babylon . Grabbe and others have rejected the allegations in this book as based on a flawed understanding of the texts, but variations of them are accepted among some groups of evangelical Protestants. Hislop asserted that Semiramis

6435-421: The historical importance of Ecbatana based on the terms used by ancient authors to describe it such as Caput Mediae (capital of Media), the Royal Seat, and the Great City. It is said that Alexander the Great deposited the treasures he took from Persepolis and Pasargadae and that one of the last acts of his life was to visit the city. The citadel of Ecbatana is also mentioned in the Bible in Ezra 6 :2, in

6534-623: The king, and out of doomed passion for his wife, Onnes "fell into a kind of frenzy and madness" and hanged himself. Ninus then married Semiramis. Diodorus relates that after their marriage, Semiramis and Ninus had a son named Ninyas. After King Ninus conquered Asia, including the Bactrians , Ninus was fatally wounded by an arrow. Semiramis disguised herself as her son so the army would follow her instructions, thinking they came from their new ruler. Diodorus writes that her reign lasted for 42 years and that she conquered much of Asia and achieved many feats. She restored ancient Babylon and protected it with

6633-454: The land which now the Sultan rules.”  —Dante's Divine Comedy , Canto V, lines 60 to 62 Although negative portrayals did exist, generally, Semiramis was viewed positively before the rise of Christianity . During the Middle Ages, she became associated with promiscuity and lustfulness. One story claimed that she had an incestuous relationship with her son, justified it by passing a law to legitimize parent-child marriages, and invented

6732-534: The later Arme-Shupria, if any, is undetermined. Additionally, their connections to Armenians is inconclusive as it is not known what languages were spoken in these regions. It has also been speculated that the land of Ermenen (located in or near Minni ), mentioned by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III in 1446 BCE, could be a reference to Armenia. Armenians call themselves Hay ( Armenian : հայ , pronounced [ˈhaj]; plural: հայեր, [haˈjɛɾ]). The name has traditionally been derived from Hayk ( Armenian : Հայկ ),

6831-440: The legendary patriarch of the Armenians and a great-great-grandson of Noah , who, according to Movses Khorenatsi (Moses of Khorene) , defeated the Babylonian king Bel in 2492 BC and established his nation in the Ararat region. It is also further postulated that the name Hay comes from, or is related to, one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states— Hayasa -Azzi (1600–1200 BC). Ultimately, Hay may derive from

6930-419: The middle of the city for treasures and assets. Some weeks before Darius III was killed in a coup in July 330 BC, Ecbatana was conquered, and Persepolis destroyed by Alexander. These events marked the end of the Achaemenid Empire. In 330 BC, Alexander the Great captured the treasury of Ecbatana, and he looted all the gold and silver decorations of the palace. Ecbatana was the site of the assassination of

7029-417: The name Armenia with the Early Bronze Age state of Armani (Armanum, Armi) or the Late Bronze Age state of Arme (Shupria) . Armini , Urartian for "inhabitant of Arme" or "Armean country", referring to the region of Shupria, to the immediate west of Lake Van. The Arme tribe of Urartian texts may have been the Urumu, who in the 12th century BC attempted to invade Assyria from the north with their allies

7128-537: The next few centuries, Djenghis Khan , Timurids , and the tribal Turkic federations of the Ak Koyunlu and the Kara Koyunlu ruled over the Armenians. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell under Iranian Safavid rule . Owing to the century long Turco-Iranian geo-political rivalry that would last in Western Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between

7227-420: The one beyond it by the battlements. The nature of the ground, which is a gentle hill, favors this arrangements in some degree but it is mainly effected by art. The number of the circles is seven, the royal palace and the treasuries standing within the last. The circuit of the outer wall is very nearly the same with that of Athens . On this wall the battlements are white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of

7326-457: The reins of power. She ruled at a time of political uncertainty, which may partly explain why Assyrians may have accepted the rule of a woman when it was not allowed by their cultural tradition. She conquered much of the Middle East and the Levant and stabilized and strengthened the empire after a destructive civil war. It has been speculated that being a woman who ruled successfully may have made

7425-403: The remainder were stripped during Antigonus ' and Seleucus ' reigns. However, Antiochus found that the columns of the temple of Aene were still gilded and that several silver tiles were piled up around the temple along with some gold bricks (Polybius, 10.27). Topographically, Hamadan is characterized by three hills, Mosalla (place of prayer), Tell Hagmatana (Tappa-ye Hagmatana), Sang-e Sir, and

7524-563: The rivaling Byzantine and Sassanid Persian empires, until the Muslim conquest of Persia overran also the regions in which Armenians lived. In 885 CE the Armenians reestablished themselves as a sovereign kingdom under the leadership of Ashot I of the Bagratid Dynasty . A considerable portion of the Armenian nobility and peasantry fled the Byzantine occupation of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, and

7623-412: The speculations by Hislop as based on misunderstandings. Lester L. Grabbe has claimed that Hislop's argument, particularly his identification of Ninus with Nimrod , is based on a misunderstanding of historical Babylon and its religion. Grabbe criticized Hislop for portraying Semiramis as Nimrod's consort, despite that she has not been found in a single text associated with him, and for portraying her as

7722-545: The subsequent invasion of the region by Seljuk Turks in 1064. They settled in large numbers in Cilicia , an Anatolian region where Armenians were already established as a minority since Roman times. In 1080, they founded an independent Armenian Principality then Kingdom of Cilicia , which became the focus of Armenian nationalism. The Armenians developed close social, cultural, military, and religious ties with nearby Crusader States , but eventually succumbed to Mamluk invasions. In

7821-474: The time of Darius I , as part of the national archives. The Nabonidus Chronicle , an ancient Babylonian text from the 5th century BC, describes how Astyages , the last Median king, was dethroned and how Cyrus conquered Ecbatana. "King Astyages called up his troops and marched against Cyrus , king of Anšan [ i.e., Persis ], in order to meet him in battle. The army of Astyages revolted against him and delivered him in fetters to Cyrus. Cyrus marched against

7920-605: The two rivalling empires. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya , and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Iranian Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule. In the late 1820s, the parts of historic Armenia under Iranian control centering on Yerevan and Lake Sevan (all of Eastern Armenia) were incorporated into

8019-510: The vast Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), which stretched from the Caucasus Mountains in the north to the Arabian Peninsula in the south, and from western Iran in the east to Cyprus in the west. In the city of Aššur on the Tigris , she had an obelisk built and inscribed that read, "Stele of Shammuramat, queen of Shamshi-Adad , King of the Universe, King of Assyria, Mother of Adad Nirari, King of

8118-419: The walls of this complex might be an ancient ziggurat , which was a type of temple tower with multiple stories that were common in the ancient Near East . In the 5th century BC, Herodotus wrote of Ecbatana: "The Medes built the city now called Ecbatana, the walls of which are of great size and strength, rising in circles one within the other. The plan of the place is, that each of the walls should out-top

8217-479: The way of a war, or that killings of Armenians were justified by their individual or collective support for the enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Passage of legislation in various foreign countries, condemning the persecution of the Armenians as genocide, has often provoked diplomatic conflict. (See recognition of the Armenian genocide ) Following the breakup of the Russian Empire in the aftermath of World War I for

8316-507: The western Zagros . Sir Henry Rawlinson attempted to prove that there was a second and older Ecbatana in Media Atropatene on the site of the modern Takht-i-Suleiman . However, the cuneiform texts imply that there was only one city of the name, and that Takht-i Suleiman is the Gazaca of classical geography. There is also the claim that Ecbatana used to be the city of Tabriz , which

8415-539: The writings of Ctesias of Cnidus , although his writings about Semiramis do not always follow those by Ctesias. [...]Here are other three    Whose love was evil: and Semiramis, Byblis , and Myrrha are oppressed with shame For their unlawful and distorted love.”  — Petrarch 's Triumphs , Canto III, lines 75 to 78 Legends describing Semiramis have been recorded by approximately 80 ancient writers including Plutarch , Eusebius , Polyaenus , Valerius Maximus , Orosius , and Justinus . She

8514-534: Was a queen consort and the mother of Nimrod , builder of the Bible's Tower of Babel . He said that Semiramis and Nimrod's incestuous male offspring was the Akkadian deity Tammuz , and that all divine pairings in religions were retellings of this story. These claims are still circulated among some groups of evangelical Protestants, in the form of Jack Chick tracts , comic books , and related media. Critics have dismissed

8613-474: Was a reputation for horses and wheat in the area (Polybius, 5.44.1). Graphite, gold, platinum, antimony, iron, and various minerals are found there; however, the classics mention oil seeps and flares, and there is no evidence of exploitation of these resources. In 130 BC, with the intention of restoring the Seleucid power to Iran, Antiochus VII stopped in Ecbatana for a short period of time, just as Tigranes

8712-671: Was an ancient city, the capital of the Median kingdom , and the first capital in Iranian history . It later became the summer capital of the Achaemenid and Parthian empires. It was also an important city during the Seleucid and Sasanian empires. It is believed that Ecbatana is located in the Zagros Mountains , the east of central Mesopotamia , on Hagmatana Hill (Tappe-ye Hagmatāna). Ecbatana's strategic location and resources probably made it

8811-592: Was associated with Ishtar and Astarte since the time before Diodorus. The association of the fish and dove is found at Hierapolis Bambyce ( Mabbog , now Manbij ), the great temple that according to one legend, was founded by Semiramis, where her statue was shown with a golden dove on her head. The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia and Anatolia, the origins of which ancient writers sometimes asserted had been forgotten or unknown. Various places in Assyria and throughout Mesopotamia as

8910-509: Was built in the last inner fort, had hundreds of rooms and people also built their houses outside of these forts, next to the palace. Some archaeologists have also attributed its construction to Phraortes , the second king of the Medes. Other old legends attribute the origin of Ecbatana to the legendary Semiramis or Jamshid . Ecbatana has also been mentioned by other Greek historians such as Polybius , Ctesias , Justin and Xenophon . The Assyrians do not seem to mention Ecbatana, and it

9009-639: Was called Armenia by neighboring peoples (such as by Hecataeus of Miletus and on the Achaemenid Behistun Inscription) was the Satrapy of Armenia , established in the late 6th century BCE under the Orontid (Yervanduni) dynasty within the Achaemenid Persian Empire . The Orontids later ruled the independent Kingdom of Armenia . At its zenith (95–65 BCE), under the imperial reign of Tigran

9108-522: Was established in Judea (modern-day Palestine -Israel), leading to the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem . Later on, to further strengthen Armenian national identity, Mesrop Mashtots invented the Armenian alphabet , in 405 CE. This event ushered the Golden Age of Armenia , during which many foreign books and manuscripts were translated to Armenian by Mesrop's pupils. Armenia lost its sovereignty again in 428 CE to

9207-570: Was in the years 1894 to 1896, the second one culminating in the events of the Armenian genocide in 1915 and 1916. With World War I in progress, the Ottoman Empire accused the (Christian) Armenians as liable to ally with Imperial Russia , and used it as a pretext to deal with the entire Armenian population as an enemy within their empire. Governments of the Republic of Turkey since that time have consistently rejected charges of genocide, typically arguing either that those Armenians who died were simply in

9306-679: Was partially confirmed by the research of geneticist David Reich (et al. 2018), among others. Similarly Grolle (et al. 2018) supports not only a homeland for Armenians on the Armenian highlands, but also that the Armenian highlands are the homeland for the "pre-proto-Indo-Europeans". A large genetic study in 2022 showed that many Armenians are "direct patrilineal descendants of the Yamnaya ". Genetic studies explain Armenian diversity by several mixtures of Eurasian populations that occurred between 3000 and 2000 BCE. But genetic signals of population mixture cease after 1200 BCE when Bronze Age civilizations in

9405-587: Was portrayed by Rhonda Fleming in Queen of Babylon (1954) and by Yvonne Furneaux in I am Semiramis (1963). Despite a lack of supporting evidence in the Bible, the book The Two Babylons (1853), by the Christian minister Alexander Hislop , was particularly influential in characterizing Semiramis as the Whore of Babylon . Hislop claimed that Semiramis invented polytheism and, with it, goddess worship . He claimed that

9504-683: Was revived in 1992 after many years of neglect. In Eugène Ionesco 's play The Chairs , the Old Woman character is referred to as Semiramis. Semiramis was mentioned by William Shakespeare in Titus Andronicus (II.1) and The Taming of the Shrew (Ind.2). Portrayal of Semiramis has been used as a metaphor for female rulership. Sometimes she was referenced during political disputes regarding rule by women, both as an unfavorable comparison, for example, against Elizabeth I of England , and as an example of

9603-466: Was settled by the Achaemenid rulers. The city became the summer capital and a treasury of the Achaemenids. As mentioned in several sources, the city was also used as a royal archive. In ancient times, Ecbatana was renowned for its wealth and splendid architecture. In 330 BC when Darius III faced Alexander , Ecbatana was in ruins, but Darius III ordered the construction of hundreds of hiding places in

9702-435: Was to build a palace worthy of the dignity of a king. After choosing Ecbatana as his capital, Deioces decided to build a huge and strong palace in the form of seven nested castles. Herodotus says that each of them was in the color of a planet. The royal palace and the treasury were located inside the seventh castle. The outer perimeter of the castle wall was almost the size of the city wall of Athens. The royal palace, which

9801-440: Was victorious, but Ara was slain despite her orders to capture him alive. This legend continues that to avoid continuous warfare with the Armenians, Semiramis, who they alleged was a sorceress, took his body and prayed to deities to raise Ara from the dead. When the Armenians advanced to avenge their leader, she disguised one of her lovers as Ara and spread the rumor that the deities had brought Ara back to life, reportedly, convincing

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