Although Alexander never penetrated as far as the Caucasus, the Albanians must have been included in the Macedonian Empire, since they belonged to the satrapy of Media. In the partition of 321 B.C., after the death of Alexander, the territory governed by Atropates was to be reduced to the part of Media in the northwest, later known as Media Atropatena or Atropatena. Between 286 and 281 the Macedonian Patrocles, general and admiral of Seleucus I and Antiochus I, undertook the circumnavigation of the Caspian Sea, beginning, it would seem, with the Albanian and Cadusian coast (Strabo 11.6.1; Pliny, Natural History 6.36; cf. F. Gisinger, Pauly-Wissowa XVIII/4 (1949), cols. 2263-64; K. Trever, Ocherki po istorii i kul'ture Kavkazskoi Albanii, Moscow and Leningrad, 1959, pp. 55-59). It was probably the first time that the Albanians came into contact with the western world.
The Albanian tribes, each of which had its own chief, spoke a multitude of dialects (Strabo 11.4.6; cf. below). During the Hellenistic period they joined with other neighboring tribes to form a unified state under a single ruler (Strabo 9.7.6; cf. below). It has been supposed that the unification took place towards the end of the 2nd century B.C., by reason of the wars waged between the Arsacid Mithridates II and Artavazd I, king of Armenia (Markwart, Eranshahr, p. 175; O. G. von Wesendonck, "Über georgisches Heidentum," Caucasica 1, 1924, p. 51; Trever, Ocherki, p. 149). There are grounds for believing that the unification of the Albanians was a slow process which allowed the diversity of languages to continue for a long time.
In 65 B.C. the Roman general Pompey, who had just subjugated Armenia and Iberia and had conquered Colchis, entered Albania at the head of his army. Crossing the arid province of Cambysene (Kambichan)—recently seized from the Armenians by the Albanians—he turned in the direction of the Caspian Sea. In fording the Alazan river, he clashed with the forces of Oroezes, king of Albania, and eventually defeated them (Plutarch Pompey 35; Dion Cassius Historia Romana 37.3-4). Theophanes of Mitylene, who accompanied Pompey, was to write an account of what he had observed and heard said in the course of that campaign (W. Fabricius, Theophanes von Mitylene, diss., Strasbourg, 1888, pp. 184ff.; R. Laqueur, Pauly-Wissowa V A/2, cols. 2012ff; Aliev, "Interpretatsii," pp. 162ff.). Theophanes' testimony formed the basis for Strabo's discussion of Albania and the Albanians (Geography 11.4). He described the Albanians as semi-nomadic shepherds who were enthusiastic hunters, knew little about agriculture, used no money, and practiced trading by barter (ibid., 11.4.4). Though they were subject to one king, they spoke twenty-six languages or dialects (ibid., 11.4.6). They were not very warlike, but were able to field up to 60,000 foot-soldiers and 22,000 horsemen; their cavalry was clad in iron (ibid., 11.4.4), a feature they may have borrowed from the Medes of Atropatena.
Strabo appears to have no knowledge of any city life in the Albania which he describes; not until the 1st century A.D. does Pliny refer to Cabalaca (= Kabala), the capital of Albania (Natural History 6.29), followed later by Ptolemy's list of twenty-nine cities of Albania, the most important being Gangara (Gaïtara), Albana, and Ossika (Geography 5.11.1-6, 8.19.7-9). Nevertheless recent archeological discoveries have supplied proof that at the time of Pompey's expedition towns already existed in Albania, or were in the course of being developed. Excavations conducted at Chuhur-Kabala, the site of the former Kabala, have yielded objects showing that relations existed with the Hellenistic world (Khalilov and Babaev, "O gorodakh drevnei Kavkazskoi Albanii," Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, 1974/4, p. 102 and fig. 3; Aliev, "Interpretatsii," p. 157); a hoard of coins dated from the 2nd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. (cf. Babaev and S. M. Kaziev, Epigrafiya i numismatika 9, 1971). Vestiges of another city, Shemakha, the Chemachia of Ptolemy, are found near modern Khynsla (Khalilov and Babaev, loc. cit., pp. 103-05, figs. 6, 7). A study of the archeological remains of ancient Albanian cities, especially those of Kabala, has made it possible to observe features which also occur in the town planning and architecture of the Parthians, such as the use of unbaked bricks of the same type, wooden bases of columns, and buildings of great length (cf. A. M. Akopian, "Svyazi Armenii i Kavkazskoi Albanii s Parfiei," Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, 1979/4, pp. 31ff.). Coins affirm the existence of a certain amount of commercial traffic with Parthia (cf. E. Pakhomov, Monetnye klady Azerbaidzhana, Baku, 1966, p. 9); a hoard of 321 coins discovered at the site of Shemakha includes 159 Parthian coins (Kh. A. Mushegian in Problemy antichnoi istorii i kul'tury I, Erevan, 1979, p. 194). An important commercial highway linked eastern Albania with Ecbatana by way of the Araxes and the Kura (cf. K. V. Golenko and A. Radzhabli, VDI, 1975/2, pp. 74-75), a road referred to by Aelian (On the Nature of Animals 17.32). Otherwise the use of money does not seem to have affected the barter system of the primitive tribes (regarding the validity of Strabo's evidence on this point, see Aliev, "Interpretatsii," pp. 162ff.).
Like the Iberians, the Albanians were not slow to revolt against Rome; in A.D. 36 Antony found himself obliged to send one of his lieutenants to bring an end to their rebellion. Zober, who was then king of Albania, capitulated and Albania thus became, at least in name, a Roman protectorate. A king of Albania appears in the list of dynasties whose ambassadors were received by Augustus (Res gestae divi Augusti 37.1; ed. J. Gagé, Paris, 1935, pp. 138-39). In A.D. 35 King Pharasmanes of Iberia and his brother Mithridates, with the support of Rome, confronted the Parthians in Armenia; the Albanians proved effective allies, contributing to the defeat and temporary eviction of the Parthians (Tacitus Annals 6.33-35). Vespasian was determined to restore the authority of Rome in the Caucasus as far as the Caspian. The presence of a detachment of the XII Fulminata at a distance of several kilometers from the shores of that sea (69 km south of Baku) is attested by an inscription drawn up between A.D. 83 and 93 in the reign of Domitian (Z. Dzhampoloskii, VDI, 1950/1, p. 272; Année Epigraphique, Paris, 1951, p. 75, no. 262; F. Grosso, Epigraphica 16, 1954, pp. 117ff.). Despite the growth of Roman influence, Albania never ceased to remain in close commercial and probably also cultural contact with Parthia. A hoard discovered at 'Ali Bahrami provides a good illustration of the continuity of this relationship (Golenko and Radzhabli, VDI, 1975/2, pp. 61ff.); the silver coins of the Parthian king Gotarzes II (about A.D. 40-51) were widely distributed over Albania.
The Sasanian period. In about A.D. 252-53 Shapur I made himself lord of Great Armenia, which was turned into a Sasanian province; Iberia and Albania were also soon conquered and annexed. Albania appears among the Sasanian provinces listed in the trilingual inscription of Shapur I at Naqsh-e Rostam (Parthian version, 1.2; Greek version, 1.3; see A. Maricq, Classica et Orientalia, Paris, 1965, p. 47). The vicissitudes of Sasanian policy under Narseh were to have no repercussions on the political situation of Albania; although the treaty of Nisibis stipulated the reestablishment of the Roman protectorate over Iberia, Albania remained an integral part of the Sasanian Empire.
Towards the beginning of the 4th century, at a date which is still under discussion, the Arsacid king of Armenia, Tiridates III, officially adopted Christianity, having been converted by St. Gregory. According to Movses Kaghankatuac'i (or Dasxuranc'i, History of the Albanians, ed. J. Emin, Moscow, 1860; repr. Tiflis, 1912; and ed. Chahnazarian, Paris, 1960, 1.11; tr. J. F. Dowsett, The History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movses Dasxuranc'i, Oxford, 1961, pp. 11-12), Ur'nayr the king of Albania soon arrived in Armenia with his dignitaries for the purpose of being baptized by St. Gregory. Christianity spread in Albania only gradually. Grigoris, a grandson of St. Gregory, consecrated bishop of Iberia and Albania, came to Albania, built a church, and established priests in the city-fortress of Tri (or Tsri), but the inhabitants killed the priests and revolted against the king of Albania, with the help of the king of Persia. The city was taken by the Argesac'ik' Persians (Movses, History 1.14, tr. pp. 22-23; cf. H. Manandian, Beiträge zur albanischen Geschichte, Jena, 1897, p. 25).
In A.D. 359 Shapur II was joined by the king of Albania on his march on Amida; the Albanians were deployed to the north of the city (Ammianus Marcellinus Res gestae 18.2.3, 18.6.12). King Ur'nayr of Albania (the above, or his successor) was still an ally of the Sasanian ruler when the latter invaded Armenia in 372. The battle took place near Bagavan on the Arsanias, but Ur'nayr was wounded by the Armenian general Mushegh Mamikonian, who allowed him to flee (P'awstos Biwzand, History 5.4, in V. Langlois, Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Arménie, 2 vols., Paris, 1877, I, p. 282). On his return to Albania Ur'nayr secretly informed Musegh that Shapur was preparing to attack him (ibid., 5.5, in Langlois, Collection I, p. 283). The more or less self-interested loyalty of the Albanians explains why the Sasanians helped them to seize from the Armenians the provinces (or districts) of Uti (with the towns of Xaghxagh and P'artaw), Shakashen, Koght', Gardman, and Arc'ax (P'awstos Biwzand, History 5.12, 13, in Langlois, Collection I, p. 288; idem, Armenian Geography, tr. A. Soukry, Venice, 1881, p. 39; cf. Markwart, Eranshahr, p. 118; H. S. Anassian, "Mise au point relative à l'Albanie caucasienne," Revue des études arméniennes 6, 1969, pp. 306ff.). These territories were to remain in the possession of Albania; a reconquest by Musegh (cf. P'awstos, ibid.) was unlikely.
Under Yazdegerd II (438-57) a royal edict requiring Christians of the empire to adopt Mazdaism was addressed, among others, to the Armenians, Iberians, and Albanians (Ghazar P'arpec'i, History of Armenia, ed. in Venice, 1891, 20; tr. S. Chesarian in Langlois, Collection II, p. 281; Eghishe Vardapet, Histoire de Vardan et de la guerre des Arméniens, ed. in Venice, 1950, 2; tr. in Langlois, Collection II, pp. 190-91). The Albanians sought the aid of the Armenians, who had revolted on the announcement of the proscriptive measures. In a battle near the city of Xaghxagh, in Uti, the Persians were defeated and took flight; the Armenians then launched an attack on the cities and fortresses occupied by the Persians in Albania, and took possession of the "pass of the Huns" (pahak Honac'), which must have been the defile of Chor (see, however, Trever, Ocherki, pp. 209, 271, according to which it was the defile of Barmak). The Persian guards were killed and the pass was placed under the custodianship of Vahan, an Albanian prince (Ghazar P'arpec'i, 28-30, in Langlois, Collection II, pp. 292-93; Eghishe, 2, in Langlois, Collection II, p. 208). Nevertheless, Mazdaism continued to make progress in Albania; the king Vach'e, son of Arsvaghen and grandson on his mother's side of Yazdegerd II, was converted to the official religion.
But Vach'e quickly reverted to Christianity. On the accession of Peroz in 459 he opened the pass of Chor (Darband) to the Massagetes and, with their support, attacked the Persian army. Peroz replied by letting the Huns through the Darial pass, and Albania was devastated. After a period of negotiation the two kings eventually reached an agreement: In return for handing over his mother (the sister of Peroz) and his own daughter, both of them Christians, Vach'e obtained from the Sasanian the 1,000 hearths (families) formerly granted him by his father as his share of the inheritance. He then withdrew from the world (Eghishe, 8, in Langlois, Collection II, p. 249; Movses, History 1.10, tr. pp. 9ff.).
After the death of Vach'e, Albania was to remain for thirty years without a king. It was the Sasanian Balash (r. 484-88) who decided to reestablish the Albanian monarchy in the person of Vach'agan, son of Yazdegerd and brother of the previous king Vach'e (Movses, History 1.16, tr. p. 25). According to this version, Vach'agan Barepasht (the pious) must have been descended from the royal family of Persia. He demonstrated great zeal for Christianity, commanding the nobles who had apostatized to return to the Christian religion and waging war not only on Magianism but also on pagan practices, idolatry, and sorcery (notably against the sect of the matnahatk' or "finger-cutters;" cf. below). He took the initiative in convening a church council at Aghuen (between 484 and 488); its canons were endorsed by high civil dignitaries and a certain number of nobles (Movses, History 1.26, tr. 50-54).
It is not impossible that, after the disappearance of the monarchy, certain dynasties may have asserted their authority on a regional basis and secured recognition of themselves by the Sasanian government (cf. Markwart, Eranshahr, p. 119). This would have been the position of the Mihrakan family, which claimed to be of Sasanian extraction (for genealogy, see Movses, History 1.17, tr. p. 109; on its doubtful authenticity, cf. N. Akinian, Handes Amsorya, Venice, 1953, p. 68; Dowsett, tr. of Movses, History, p. 107, n. 3).
In about 575, after a raid by two Byzantine generals on Albania, a delegation of Albanians presented itself in Constantinople to ask the Emperor Justinian II for their country to be reattached to the Empire. Justinian, however, advised them to remain under Sasanian rule (Menander Protector, Excerpta de legationibus, ed. Bonn, 1829, p. 394). It appears from the account of Movses Kaghankatuac'i that there was a rebellion of Albanian noblemen against Khosrow II at the beginning of the 7th century. The rebels were apparently held for twenty-five years at the Sasanian court; the Catholicos Viroy, who was one of them, took advantage of this long period of detention to acquire a thorough knowledge of Pahlavi. He was liberated by Kavad II (Movses, History 2.14, tr. pp. 93ff.).
Arriving from Azerbaijan in 624, Heraclius decided to spend the winter in Albania. On the orders of Khosrow, the Albanian nobles were obliged to abandon P'artaw in order to entrench themselves in fortified positions. Heraclius pitched his camp in the province of Uti and the Persian generals Shahrvaraz and Shahen took their stand, one facing him and the other at his rear. In the battle which followed Heraclius gained the advantage (Sebeos, History of Heraclius 26, tr. Macler, Paris, 1904, pp. 82-83; Movses, History 2.12, tr. pp. 76-81). In 626 the Khazars, who had just concluded an alliance with Heraclius, threatened to invade Albania. Khosrow sent to P'artaw a governor named Gayshak, with the responsibility of fortifying the city. Gayshak acted in full cooperation with the nobles and the townspeople; the Khazars, however, breached the Darband pass, and Gayshak fled to Persia (Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, Leipzig, 1883-85, p. 316; Movses, History 2.11, tr. pp. 83ff.; cf. Trever, Ocherki, pp. 239-40). In 628 there was a fresh invasion by the Khazars. The marzban Sema Vshtnas (Goshnasp ?) refused to answer the summons of their leader, Shath. The Catholicos Viroy presented himself at the Khazar camp established in Uti and came to an understanding with Shath, which did not prevent the latter from declaring himself lord of Albania and of Chor (Movses, History 2.14, tr. pp. 92-100; cf. Trever, Ocherki, pp. 239-40). In the following year the Khazar leader levied a tax on the fishermen of the Kura and of the Araxes, and also on the merchants; this tax was fixed "in accordance with the landsurvey of the kingdom of Persia" and was paid in silver coinage (Movses, History 2.16, tr. p. 104). At about the same time, mention is made of Varaz Grigor, a member of the Mihrakan family, consecrated "prince of Albania" by the Catholicos Viroy; he was to send his son Juansher, whose deeds are the subject of legend and epic, to represent him in Ctesiphon at the court of Yazdegerd III (Movses, History 2.18-16, 28, 34; tr. pp. 109-26, 127-30, 142-45).
Half-way through the 7th century, under the caliphate of 'Otman, the Arabs invaded Albanian territory and the eastern Caucasus and took possession of Paythakaran (Baylaqan), P'artaw (Barda'a), Shakashen, Kabala (Kapaghak), Shervan, Shaporan (Shaberan), and Chor (Darband); Aran was to be reunited with Armenia under a single governor.
The Albanian court must have been reorganised from the very beginning on the model of the court of Armenia, with the addition of direct borrowings from Parthian Iran. Among the dignitaries of king Vach'agan who were signatories at the Council of Aghuen may be noted the hramanatar (framadar) and the hazarapet (hazarabad), who took precedence over the "clan-chieftains" (azgapetk?) and the "nobles" (azatk?) (Movses, History 1.26, tr. p. 54; cf. above). The first of these dignitaries was equivalent to the wuzurg framadar of the Sasanians, a kind of prime minister. As regards the hazarapet (also mentioned under Yazdegerd II, see ibid., 2.2, tr. p. 65), it is not known exactly what were his prerogatives in Albania; it is possible that, as in Sasanian Armenia, he was immediately subordinate to the marzban.
All along the Caspian coast the Sasanians built powerful defense works, enclosing the space between the mountain and the sea and designed essentially to bar the way to invaders from the north. Firstly, north of the Apsheron peninsula, the two parallel walls of Barmak rise up, 220 meters apart; these are known from the Armenian Geography of Pseudo-Moses (ed. Patkanian, St. Petersburg, 1877, pp. 30-31) by the name of Xorsbem (cf. Trever, Ocherki, pp. 274ff.). Next are the walls of Shervan (or Shabran), remarkable for their 30 km length (cf. Pakhomov, "Krupneishie pamyatniki sasanidskogo stroitel'stva v Zakavkaz'e," Problemy istorii material'noi kul'tury, 1933/9-10, pp. 41-43 and fig.; Trever, Ocherki, pp. 269-71). To the north of Samur a third line of defense works could be the wall referred to as Afzut-Kavad in the Armenian Geography (p. 31) and thus have been built by Kavad (cf. Trever, Ocherki, pp. 271-72). The most celebrated of these fortifications are those of Darband, which shut off the pass of Chor (2-3 km between the mountain and the sea). The contribution of the Sasanians to the defense of this pass (mentioned in classical sources from the 1st century A.D.) covered a considerable area. Movses Kaghankatuac'i (History 2.11, tr. p. 83) speaks of "magnificent walls built at great expense by the kings of Persia." Yazdegerd II undertook the construction of a mighty wall of unbaked brick mixed with straw which extended from the sea to the slopes of Darband (cf. A. A. Kudryavtsev, "O datirovke pervykh sasanidskikh ukreplenii v Derbente," Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, 1979/2, pp. 243ff.). Khosrow II Anoshiravan—and perhaps his father Kavad I before him—set himself to reinforce the existing works with a solid wall of stone provided with iron gates (on Darband, cf. Geiger and Kuhn, Grundr. Ir. Phil. II, pp. 535-36; Barthold, EI 1 I, pp. 940-45; Trever, Ocherki, pp. 274ff.). Twenty inscriptions dated 700, are found on the northern wall (cf. Pakhomov in Izvestiya obshchestva obsledovaniya i izucheniya Azerbaidzhana 8/5, 1929, pp. 3-22; H. S. Nyberg, ibid., pp. 23ff.; Trever, Ocherki,pp. 346-53). If this date is related to the Seleucid era, it should correspond to A.D. 386 (G. Gropp, "Die Derbent-Inschriften und das Adur Gushnasp," Monumentum H. S. Nyberg I, Acta Iranica 4, Tehran and Liège, 1975, pp. 317ff.); but there are other, later datings (Trever, Ocherki, pp. 350ff.; Gropp, "Derbent-Inschriften," p. 317, n. 4; V. G. Lukonin in Kudryavtsev, "O datirovke," pp. 256-57).
It is probable that the cult of the Moon had existed for a long time, at least locally. However, the tradition of the Sasanian epoch reveals traces of other quite different beliefs, which were so deeply rooted that, towards the end of the 5th century, King Vach'agan III had to take vigorous measures to deal with them. There was the sect of the "finger-cutters," already proscribed by the marzbans, and that of the Poisoners; in each case the victim was designated by the Demon in person. According to another belief, the Demon blinded those who refused to make sacrifices to Evil, etc. (Movses, History 1.18, tr. pp. 30-32). There was thus a collection of practices of an essentially demoniac nature, far removed from the principles of Mazdean law and difficult to reconcile with what is known of the most ancient religion of the Albanians.
(M. L. Chaumont)
Originally Published: December 15, 1984
Last Updated: December 15, 1984