ARDASHIR

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ARDASHIR (Artaxata), ancient capital of Armenia, situated on an island in the Aras (Araxes) River. According to the fifth-century Armenian chronicler Moses of Chorene, King Arsaces (85–127 C.E.) transplanted many Armenian Jews, originally captured in Palestine by King Tigranes during the years 83–69 B.C.E. from the city of Ernandi and resettled them in Ardashir. Another Armenian historian, Faustus of Byzantium, relates that the Persian king Shapur II (310–380 C.E.) deported a large number of Armenians to the provinces of Iran, among them 9,000 Jewish families from Ardashir.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Faustus von Byzanz, Geschichte Armeniens, ed. by M. Lauer (1879), 137 ff.; Moses of Chorene, Histoire d'Arménie, ed. by P.E. Le Vaillant de Florival, 3 (1841), 80 ff.; Baron, Social, 2 (1952²), 204, 404–5.

[Isaiah Gafni]