Atropatene

Atropatene
Ātṛpātakāna
c. 323 BC–226 AD
Atropatene as a vassal of Seleucids in 221 BC
Atropatene as a vassal of Seleucids in 221 BC
StatusAutonomous state, frequently a vassal of the Parthian Empire (148/7 BC–226 AD)
CapitalGanzak
Religion
Zoroastrianism[1]
GovernmentMonarchy
King 
Historical eraAntiquity
• Established
c. 323 BC
• Disestablished
226 AD
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Macedonian Empire
Adurbadagan

Atropatene (Old Persian: Ātṛpātakāna; Pahlavi: Ādurbādagān Ancient Greek: Ἀτροπατηνή), also known as Media Atropatene, was an ancient Iranian kingdom established in c. 323 BC by the Persian satrap Atropates. The kingdom, centered in present-day northern Iran, was ruled by Atropates' descendants until the early 1st-century AD, when the Parthian Arsacid dynasty supplanted them.[2] It was conquered by the Sasanians in 226, and turned into a province governed by a marzban ("margrave").[3] Atropatene was the only Iranian region to remain under Zoroastrian authority from the Achaemenids to the Arab conquest without interruption, aside from being briefly ruled by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 BC).

The name of Atropatene was also the nominal ancestor of the name of the historic Azerbaijan region in Iran.[4]

  1. ^ Boyce & Grenet 1991, p. 71.
  2. ^ Olbrycht 2014, p. 96; Gregoratti 2017, p. 138; Schippmann 1987, pp. 221–224
  3. ^ Schippmann 1987, pp. 221–224.
  4. ^ Yarshater, Ehsan (1983), The Cambridge history of Iran, Cambridge University Press, p. 1408, ISBN 978-0-521-20092-9, Atropatene see Azarbaijan