Orontes IV ( Old Persian: ''*Arvanta-'') was the son of King Arsames and is recorded as ruling

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

from inscriptions found at the historic capital of the Orontid dynasty, Armavir. He was the founder of the city of Yervandashat and Ervandakert. In his reign the religious site of Bagaran was founded. Large bronze statues in the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

style of the gods,

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

( Aramazd),

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

( Anahit) and Herakles ( Vahagn) were brought there and set up in temples dedicated to them. He is also said to have founded a shrine at Armavir dedicated to

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

( Mithra), a golden statue of four horses pulling a chariot with Apollo as god of the Sun. This was later destroyed by the

Sassanid The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

Persian army in the 4th century AD. Antiochus III, King of the Seleucid Empire, instigated a revolt against Orontes, headed by Artaxias I.

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

inscriptions found at Armavir state that King Orontes IV died at the hands of his own army, in other words by betrayal from Artaxias I. Artaxias I was appointed as King of

, by Antiochus. Orontes IV had a son, Ptolemaeus of Commagene, who served as the last

Satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...

of Commagene between 201 and 163 BC, became in 163 BC the first King of Commagene and died in 130 BC.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* * * * 512 3rd-century BC kings of Armenia 2nd-century BC kings of Armenia Orontid dynasty 3rd-century BC births Year of birth unknown 200 BC deaths {{Armenia-royal-stub