ORONTIDS (Aram. ‘rwndkn; Arm. Eruandid or Yervanduni dynasty), members of a dynasty of Iranian origin who ruled Greater Armenia, Sophene, and Commagene (q.v.) during the Achaemenid and Hellenistic period (ca. 6th century-ca. early 2nd century BCE).

At the end of the 5th century BCE the satrapy of Armenia (see ARMENIA and IRAN i. Armenia , Achaemenid Province) was ruled by Orontes (q.v.), son of the Bactrian nobleman Artasouras and son-in-law of the Persian Achaemenid king, Artaxerxes II (q.v.) Mnemon (see ORONTES no. 2). From this powerful man descended the other Orontes who ruled the country before and after the Macedonian conquest (see ORONTES nos. 3 and 4; Schottky, pp. 76-139).

Literary sources only cursorily mention the political situation of Armenia and its partitions following the collapse of the Achaemenid empire; any reconstruction of the sequence of rulers is therefore tentative and subject to discussion, mainly based on epigraphic and numismatic evidence (Table 1). An Orontes, satrap of Armenia and friend of Peucestas, was involved in a snare contrived by Eumenes (ca. 317 BCE) against the satrap of Persis (Diodorus Siculus 19.23; Polyaenus 4.8.3; on Peucestas see Muccioli 2017). Probably following Curupedion, a “king of the Armenians” called Ardoates provided support to Ariarathes II of Cappadocia to free himself from Seleucid control (Diodorus Siculus 31.19.4). Another unnamed king of Armenia offered refuge to Ziaelas, son of Nicomedes in Bithynia (Memnon FGrHist 434 F 14.1), who then regained his throne-rights (255/4 BCE). All of these examples demonstrate the relevance of the dynasty in the Hellenistic royal network and the efficacy of its political support.

Strabo (Geography 11.14.5 and 11.14.15) states that following the last Orontes, Armenia was divided between two local generals (strategoi) of Antiochus III of Syria (see ANTIOCHUS III MEGAS): Artaxias (q.v.), who took Greater Armenia; and Zariadres, who ruled Sophene (Western Armenia) and other boundary territories. Only following Antiochus’ defeat to the Romans were Artaxias and Zariadres to become independent kings. This specification and the use of the verb hyparchein to indicate the authority of the last Orontes have raised questions on the titulature and political autonomy of the Orontids (see ORONTES no. 4; Traina, 2017, pp. 377-88). Local sources, however, make it clear that even if formally submitted to wider powers, the Orontids effectively ruled their territories as kings and presented themselves as such (Canepa, 2018, pp. 98-100). The claim of the Orontids to descend from Hydarnes (see HYDARNES no. 1), “one of the seven” (Strabo 11.14.15), also points in this direction.

A letter to the basileus (“king”) Orontes from the otherwise unknown king Mithras (according to Waldmann, pp. 39-40, Mithras was the “dynastic god” of the Orontids) is recorded among the rock inscriptions found at the feet of the acropolis of Armavir (q.v.) between 1911 and 1927 (IK Estremo Oriente 12). This Orontes has been identified by Hakob Manandyan and with further arguments by Jean-Pierre Mahé (pp. 567-86) with the ruler mentioned by Strabo and with the king Eruand, the founder of Eruandašat (q.v.) in the story of Movsēs Xorenac’i (q.v.; 2. 37-46; tr. Thomson, pp. 181-82; Ter-Martirosov, pp. 77-86). The historical context between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd century fits the paleography of Armavir inscriptions, which points to a date in the Hellenistic period (J. and L. Robert, no. 176, pp. 181-85). However, it has been suggested that the inscription might be a later engraving of a much older document referring to Orontes, founder of the dynasty (Traina, 2018, p. 302).

From Strabo’s passages emerges a caesura between the rule of the last Orontes and that of Artaxias and Zariadres.  On the contrary, in a few Aramaic inscriptions found in various regions of Armenia, especially around Lake Sevan (Dupont-Sommer, pp. 53-66; Perikhanian, pp. 169-74), king Artaxias calls himself Orontid (‘rwndkn). The name of Artaxias father is recorded as zrytr/zryhr, for which the Greek correspondent is Zariadres; whether he is to be identified with the other strategos is uncertain, but if this is the case (for example, Hewsen, pp. 347-48), then Zariadres might also have claimed a kinship with the Orontid house (Marciak, pp. 117-20 with full discussion).

Strabo’s narrative also raises a question on the division of Orontid Armenia, more precisely on the separation of Sophene from Greater Armenia. The involvement of Ardoates/Orontes in the Cappadocian royal struggles of the Ariarathids seems to imply that Armenia was one large territory that reached the Euphrates at that time (Toumanoff, p. 13; Jacobs, 2002, pp. 77-8). It has been assumed that a division of land was made only with the appointment of Zariadres (for example Toumanoff, p. 17 and ff.); yet, the possibility that a different branch of the Orontids separately ruled Sophene even prior to then is strongly suggested by a comparison of literary data with epigraphic and numismatic evidence. As far as the epigraphic material is concerned, the most telling documents come from the hierothesion (tomb-sanctuary) of Antiochus I of Commagene (q.v., ca. 70-36 BCE) at present-day Nemrud Dağı (q.v.; see in addition Brijder; Versluys, pp. 108-84; Canepa, 2018, pp. 240-50). In his hierothesion Antiochus displayed an Orontid descent. The king dedicated a row of 15 stelae to his paternal ancestors who preceded him in the rule of Commagene (Dörner and Young, pp. 254-306; Jacobs, 2002, pp. 75-88); the satrap Orontes (here called basileus, as all his successors) is a key figure because his marriage with Rhodogune (q.v.), daughter of Artaxerxes II, provided the link with the Achaemenid family and to Darius I (q.v.; Messerschmidt, pp. 37-43; Jacobs, 2017, pp. 235-48). Unfortunately many of these stelae are fragmentary and the identity of several ancestors is hypothetical (Dörner, pp. 361-77; Facella, 2009, pp. 381-91), but the following sequence can be reconstructed (Table 2).

From the gallery of Antiochus I of Commagene it is possible to infer that the family of the Orontids not only ruled Greater Armenia almost as a hereditary province, but also established a separate royal line in western parts of the country, such as Sophene and Commagene (see Honigmann, col. 980 and COMMAGENE). This emerges when comparing the data offered by the literary tradition with other sources, as it is possible to do in the case of king Arsames (see ARŠĀMA). The ancestor of Antiochus can in fact be identified with the Armenian ally of Antiochus Hierax, Seleucus’s younger brother, in the fight against Seleucus II (q.v.; Polyaenus, Strat. 4.17; 227 BCE); Arsamosata (Ir. *Aršāmašat), a royal capital of Sophene and two other cities of Commagene, Arsameia on the Nymphaios, near modern Eski Kâhta, and Arsameia on the Euphrates, near modern Gerger (Adıyaman province in Turkey), were probably named after him (Facella, 1999, pp. 135-37; Marciak, pp. 70-72). In contrast with the eastern branch of the Orontids, who are not known to have issued coins, Arsames struck a variety of monetary types where he is called basileus(Facella, 1999, pp. 138-41; see also Bedoukian, 1978 and 1985; Nercessian, 1995 and 2006; for a revised corpus of Armenian coinage in the classical period see Kovacs).

After Arsames, we find on the throne of Arsamosata a certain Xerxes (q.v.), who was besieged by Antiochus III of Syria (Polybius, 8.23; 212 BCE). Xerxes came to an agreement with the Seleucid: in exchange for a tribute, he received back his dominions and the hand of Antiochis, sister of Antiochus, in marriage.  According to John of Antioch (II. 122, Roberto), she later poisoned him on the orders of the brother. If Xerxes’ rule in Sophene, which is confirmed by various coins (Kovacs, p. 3), was around 212 BCE, then he was a contemporary, rather than successor, of the last Orontes (no.4), hence Sophene had already been separated from Greater Armenia before the appointment of Zariadres (so already Manandyan, 1965, pp. 30-40; Schottky, p. 120). Whether Xerxes had a space in Antiochus’ gallery (and ever ruled over Commagene) cannot be determined (Marciak, pp. 72 and 123).

Certainly, the destiny of Sophene and Commagene split with the reorganization of Antiochus III. In Commagene around 163/2 BCE we find a certain Ptolemaeus, a Seleucid officer, who revolted and made Commagene an independent kingdom (Diodorus Siculus, 31.19a). The Orontid house of Commagene, as traced by Antiochus, probably included Ptolemaeus among the ancestors, but he has left only faint traces in our documentation (Facella, 2006, pp. 199-205). His successor Samos II (ca. 130 BCE), Antiochus I’s grandfather, is known to us only from two types of coins and a couple of appearances in Antiochus’ monuments (Facella 2006, pp. 205-8; Kovacs, p. 39). A huge relief was dedicated to him by his grandson at Arsameia on the Euphrates (cf. OGIS, no. 402), where Antiochus built a hierothesion for his royal ancestors (Canepa, 2015, pp. 81-84). He seems to be distinct from a previous Samos (I) who gave his name to Samosata, the capital of Commagene already mentioned by Eratosthenes (Honigmann, col. 983). More is known about Antiochus I’s father, Mithradates I Callinicus (ca. 130 BCE-70 BCE; Facella 2006, pp. 209-24). He married a Seleucid princess, Laodice VII Thea, daughter of Antiochus VIII (q.v.) of Syria and adopted the epithet Kallinikos, which appears on his coins (Kovacs, p. 40), after a victory in competitions whose nature is unknown. His hierothesion was located at Arsameia on the Nymphaios, where a long inscription records the cult established for him by his son (Dörner and Goell, pp. 37-91).

None of Antiochus’ successors (on whom, see COMMAGENE) appears to have recalled the kinship with Orontes and his successors, a sign that the reference to the Persian past was no longer useful.