1. Establishment – Setting into the geographical unit of Pontus

The Early Byzantine province of Armenia II of the diocese of Pontica, in eastern Asia Minor, was founded during the reign of Theodosius I (379-395) on the south lands of the region known as Armenia Major (a province probably since 314),¹ and on the eastern lands of the region of Cappadocia. The limits of the province were probably fixed in 387, when the issue of the administration of the Armenian districts that had been annexed into the empire was finally settled. Melitene, an important city and an episcopal see, became the metropolis and the seat of the Armenia II province’s praeses and of the metropolitan of Melitene.²

From 390 onwards, the provinces of Armenia Ι, Armenia II, Helenopontos and Pontos Polemoniakos formed a military district under the purview of a dux, whose occasional seat was the city of Melitene. Leo I entrusted the military administration of the four provinces to a comes, the comes Utriusque Ponti et Utriusque Armeniae, in 472/3.

2. Administrative reforms (6th century)

During the reign of Anastasius I (491-518) and Justinian I (527-565), fortification works were carried out in Armenia II and walls were raised. Melitene was fortified during this period. In the Synekdemos of Hierokles, which was composed during the first quarter of the 6th century, six cities are attested in the province of Armenia II.³

Early in the reign of Justinian I (527-565), the praesidial province of Armenia II was elevated to the status of a consular province, i.e. under the jurisdiction of a consularius. Later, in the year 536, the Armenian lands underwent an administrative reform and were concomitantly renamed. The province of Armenia II was renamed and became the province of Armenia III, while its administration was entrusted to a comes.⁴ The magister militum per Armeniam had already assumed duties as the top-ranking military official in the extended province of Helenopontos and in the provinces of Armenia since 528, replacing the comes. His seat was probably the city of Theodosioupolis of the Justinianic Armenia Ι.⁵ At that time five duces were responsible for the defence of the Armenian provinces, two of which were seated in Armenia II. Justinian sought to romanize Armenia. For this reason he imposed the rule of Roman hereditary law in the region and strengthened political institutions so as to gradually absorb the ancient Armenian aristocratic houses through the obligatory participation of their representatives in the hierarchy of Early Byzantine administration.

During the 3rd quarter of the 6th century, the former Armenia II (now Armenia III) was invaded by the Persians; in the year 575 its metropolis, Melitene, was temporarily captured. In the year 591, after the administrative reform/rename of Emperor Maurice (582-602), the province of Armenia III, former Armenia II, now formed the province of Armenia I.⁶ According to the notitiae episcopatuum of the Constantinople Patriarchate, which follow the administrative division of Maurice, the metropolis of Melitene was responsible for the five bishoprics in the province of Armenia Ι.⁷

3. Contiguous regions

Armenia II bordered to the east with Inner Armenia and the Persian Empire (during 502-532); later it also bordered with the Province of Armenia IV, from 536 onwards. To the west it always shared borders with the province of Cappadocia Ι. To the north, it bordered with Armenia I (founded in the same period and renamed to Armenia II in 536), whose capital was Sebasteia. To the south it bordered with the provinces of the Diocese of Oriens, and with Cilicia Pedias and Cilicia II.

4. The lands of Armenia II during the Middle Byzantine period

The province of Armenia Ι (pre-Justinianic Armenia II) was absorbed into to the theme of Armeniakon during the second half of the 7th century, after 667, and subsequently, in the 10th century, its lands were absorbed into the themes of Sebasteia, Mesopotamia, Lycandus and Melitene. We should notice that during this period (7th-10th centuries) the Arabs conquered various parts of the former Early Byzantine province for long periods of time.