Retreat of the ten thousand
Greek mercenary soldiers, ten thousand in number, who had
been aiding the younger Cyrus of Persia against his brother Artaxerxes, returned
home in 401 B.C., after the defeat and death of Cyrus
at Cunaxa. On their way back, they passed through Armenia, and the Anabasis
(going up), written by Xenophon, their leader, contains some valuable
information about that country. Their precise itinerary has not been definitely
traced, but according to the generally accepted theory, they crossed the
Centrites (Kentrides) River, the modern Bohtan‑Su, north of Til, reached the
Teleboas River, the modern Kara‑Su, in the plain of Mush, and then the Euphrates
near Manazkert, fording it where it was only knee-deep. Thence they marched to
Olti, the country of the Taochci (the Armenian province of Taiq),
south of Kars. From the "great rich and populous city" of Cumnias, in the
Scythian country (the more modern Cumri, still later Alexandropol and now
Leninakan),
they proceeded through the area of Zarishat and south of Ardahan, and finally
through the mountains of the Macroni and Kolchi tribes to the Black Sea port of
Trebizond.
Armenia is described by Xenophon as a vast and rich country,
with Orondas(Orontes) (Erouand, Ervanduni) ruling as satrap and Tiribaz as
uparkos or vice-governor. In Xenophon's time the Armens had not yet
occupied the plain of Ararat, which was then inhabited by Saspeirs, Alarodians
(Urarteans) and the oldest native tribes. The Kartuchi (Korduq of the Armenian
geography), living in the south of the Centries, were a warlike people, not
subjects of the Persians. They and the Armens were in almost continuous
conflict, which, says Xenophon, explains why there were no villages in existence
on the right bank of the Centrides, in the vicinity of modern Serd.
Armen kinship with Khald-Urarteans
The Kartuchi were a sedentary people, with a comparatively
high degree of civilization. Their dwellings were described by the Greek
soldiers as elegant and furnished with many copper utensils. They had plenty of
provisions and wine kept in cemented cisterns.
According to Strabo, they were skilled architects, experts in the tactics of
besieging fortresses. Their arms consisted of bows and slings. The bows were one
and a half yards long, and the arrows more than a yard. This mode of life does
not harmonize with cattle-growing nomadic people, such as the Kurds. The Armens
therefore, thinks Marquart, must have been kindred of the Khald-Urarteans. The
army of Orondas, says Xenophon, besides Armens, included Mards and Khaldian
mercenaries. The latter were a doughty people, noted for their long shields and
spears. The Khaldian soldiers of Orondas are considered to have been the
inhabitants of Sassoun and the Khoyt Mountains, who maintained their
independence until their assimilation with the Armens. As to the mercenary
Mards, they were, according to Herodotus, an Iranian nomadic tribe, to be
identified, in Marquart's opinion, with the modern Kurds. The tenth century
Arabian historian Masoudi states that the Kurds acknowledged as their ancestor
the chieftain Kurd, the son of Mard. In Armenian history the Kurds have been
known as the "Mar people."
The district of Mardistan, in historic Armenia, corresponds
to Artaz, west of the modern Maku, South Iran. The district of Mardali
(Mardaghi) must have been located to the south of Erzerum, north of the Bingöl
sources. The Mards of this section of the country were evidently immigrants from
the South, says Adontz. The bulk of the tribe occupied one of the southern areas
of Vaspurakan (Van), near the upper course of the Centrides River. Xenophon
mentioned particularly the extremely fierce and hardy Chalyb tribe, called
Chaldaioi by Strabo, living in the Pontic Mountains, and
mostly engaged in iron mining and forging. (The Greek marchers covered the
distance through this coastal area — 50 parasangs or 150 miles — in seven days.)
Several authors classify this people as being of the same stock as the
Khaldi-Urarteans. The Taochi and the Phasian tribes, neighbors of the Chalybs,
who likewise offered stiff resistance to the Greeks, are represented in the Taiq
and Pasian districts of Armenia.
The above-mentioned tribes
and several others, including the Kimmerian-Scythian settlers from southern
Russia, dating from the eighth century B.C., were all
independent of Persia. Scythian tribes, the Saspeirs of Herodotus, had occupied
considerable areas extending from Colchis to Media — around modern Nakhjavan and
as far as Kars, Leninakan and the plain of Ararat. Alongside the Kimmerians and
Scythians should be listed the Sarmatian tribe, which includes the Siraqs and
the Gogs, after whom the Armenian provinces of Shirak and Gougarq seem to have
been named. The Mesoch-Mushkians, the Outians and the Pactians were also among
the inhabitants of the Armenian plateau, each having its own language or
dialect, and particular kind of social life and culture. They were all
eventually assimilated with the Armens, adding their numbers to the larger
elements from the Khaldi and the Hittites.
Armen economics and commerce
Despite the agreement entered into between Tiribaz and the
Greek chieftains, some of their soldiers "insolently" burned some of the
villages where they were to stop. They even had the audacity to capture the tent
of Tiribaz — who, relying on the treaty, seems to have been unprepared — and
carried away his silver-footed bedstead and his cups, as well as his bakers and
cup-bearers (Xenophon).
Finding the villages evacuated, the Greeks spent seven days
in sumptuous eating and drinking. "The tables everywhere were loaded with the
meats of lamb, goat, pig, veal and chicken, as well as bread of barley and
wheat. They drank beer from a great jar, sucking it through a tube." The horses
of Armenia, says Xenophon, were smaller than those of Persia, but livelier.
Being told that horses were sacrificed to the sun, Xenophon gave his old horse,
in exchange for a foal, to a village chief, to be sacrificed, after being
fattened.
Land of plenty
Besides plenty of wheat, barley and cereals, the Armen
villages had in store raisins, perfumed wine, sesame, fragrant oil of almonds
and turpentine. The people were both cattle-breeders and agriculturists. They
exported many horses. Herodotus calls the Armens
polyprobatoi, "rich in animals." Distinction should be made, however,
between the civilization in the different parts of the country. Stately houses
with towers on the banks of the Centrides River were in striking contrast to the
underground dwellings near the sources of the
Euphrates. The rural life of the Armens was indicative of a patriarchal or
family character. A group of villages was surrounded with barricades and was
governed by a village chief or Komarch (archon
tes komes) representing the satrap. Payment of taxes to the Persian king
was made collectively. The absence of cities was noticeable. Various clans,
settled in villages under local chiefs, supplied a specified number of soldiers
to the army of the nearest petty king. A general of Darius was one of these
kings. By the large numbers of the Armenian army serving under the Great Persian
monarch — recruited from one section of the Armenian plateau — we are led to
believe that all of the comparatively small number of new settlers were
soldiers. The same was true in the Georgian and Albanian lands of the Caucasus,
as pointed out by the Georgian historian, J. Tchavakhishvili. The word
eri in the ancient Iberian (Georgian) language
meant both people and soldiers. The Medes, after subduing the kingdom of Urartu,
utilized the Armens in keeping that turbulent people under subjection. Marquart
notes that the settling of the warlike Armen colonists in the strategic places
in the Armenian highlands was because of their military capacity. From all this,
Manandian reaches the conclusion that, as the ancient Slavons, so the ancient
Armens were in the period of "warring democracy." The same may be said of the
Medes and the Persians of old, whose democratic organization and public
assemblies point to their having a soldier population.
Hence the destruction in the ancient East, even as in the
medieval West, of the cultural great powers, had been mainly achieved by the
so‑called "barbarian" new peoples, such as the Medes, Persians and Armens.
Applying the principle to the Armens, Prof. Marr has remarked, "And now there
succeeded, one after the other, warlike Aryan peoples, just as in later times
came inrushing masses of Turks. These Aryan races who, at that time, were
certainly savages by comparison with the natives, were nevertheless strong in
their military organization, and subdued the culturally higher races, intermixed
with them and created a new world."
Attention is called by Manandian to the fact that the
commercial intercourse between Babylon and Armenia was carried on for the most
part by the Assyrians. Business transactions, limited in Armenia in those days,
were principally in the hands of the Semitic peoples, while the Armenians were
essentially farmers and cattle-breeders.
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