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Arzanene () or Aghdznik () was a historical region in the southwest of the ancient kingdom of Armenia. It was ruled by one of the four ( bidakhsh, ) of Armenia, the highest ranking nobles below the king who ruled over the kingdom's border regions. Its probable capital was the fortress-city of Arzen. The region briefly became home to the capital of Armenia during the reign of Tigranes the Great, who built his namesake city Tigranocerta there. Arzanene was placed under the direct suzerainty of the Roman Empire after the Peace of Nisibis in 298. It was briefly brought back under Armenian control c. 371 but was soon lost again following the partition of Armenia in 387.
According the early medieval Armenian geography Ashkharhatsuyts, Arzanene was divided into ten cantons or gawars (their capitals or main fortresses, where known, are listed adjacent to the canton name):
As the domain of one of the four of Armenia, Arzanene can be divided into the core principality or "Arzanene proper" and the (viceroyalty or march) of Arzanene, which likely included all of the ten cantons of Arzanene listed above (according to Hewsen, probably excluding Np’rkert) and some further territories to the south. Josef Markwart and Toumanoff include the adjacent provinces of Moxoene (Mokk’) and Corduene (or part of it) in the viceroyalty of Arzanene, although this is rejected by Hewsen. The viceroyalty of Arzanene is also called the of Aruastan in some Armenian sources (Persian: , referring in this case to the area around Nusaybin), so it is referred to as the Arabian March by some historians.
In 298 AD, the entire of Arzanene came under the suzerainty of the Roman Empire as a result of the Peace of Nisibis. However, the 5th-century Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium (Book 3, Chapter 8) still speaks of the of Arzanene as a vassal of the king of Armenia in the 330s, which Toumanoff accepts as evidence that the Romans had effectively left Arzanene under Armenian suzerainty. In the 330s, Bakur of Arzanene attempted to defect to the Sasanian Empire, but was killed in battle and the province consequently remained under Roman (or Roman-Armenian) control. The emperor Jovian was forced to give up suzerainty over Arzanene to the Persians according to the peace treaty signed in 363 after Julian's failed Persian expedition. Faustus of Byzantium (Book 5, Chapter 16) names Arzanene among the provinces reconquered for Armenia by Mushegh Mamikonian c. 371, during the reign of King Pap. After the Peace of Acilisene of 387, Arzanene was divided between Rome and the Sasanian Empire (with most of it going to the Persians), and until 591 the Roman-Sasanian border passed through the western part of the province. During the Armenian rebellion of 450–451 against the Sasanian Empire, the Armenian rebels appealed to the of Arzanene as a foreign ruler; this is the last time that any of Arzanene is mentioned in the classical sources. By 591, all of Arzanene had been annexed by the Byzantine Empire. On the ruins of Tigranocerta, the Romans built a new city named Martyropolis or Np’rkert. In c. 640, the Arab general Iyad ibn Ghanm invaded Arzanene from Syria. Following the Arab conquest of Armenia, many Arabs tribes settled in Arzanene, especially in the lowlands. The Armenians population remained in the mountainous parts of the region until the Armenian genocide in 1915.
Arzanene was later a small Arab emirate under the Zurarid dynasty in the 9th century. In the 10th century the area fell under Hamdanid dynasty control. Hamdum, an Arab chief, conquered Arzanene and Amid around 962. In 963 a sister of Hamdum, whose name is not given in the original sources, governed the region for ten years. After 1045 it fell successively under Byzantine, Seljuk, Mongol and control. For many years the Armenians of Sasun maintained a semi-independent status and fought the Ottoman authorities; well known battles are the Sasun Resistance (1894) and Sasun resistance in 1915.
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