The Boundaries of Caucasian Albania (4th Century BC – 3rd Century AD)

Abstract

The issue of the borders of Caucasian Albania in the ancient period has long been discussed in the literature, and the inability of researchers from different countries to come to an agreed solution is explained not so much by the state of the sources as by the high degree of politicization of the problem. The only thing that unites the most disagreeing authors with each other is their resolute confidence in the invariability of the borders of Caucasian Albania throughout antiquity. However, we have no reason to speak of an “eternal and unchanging” border along the Kura, Aras or Alazani. Albania's borders were constantly changing in the wake of changes in the balance of power between it and its neighbors: Media Atropatena, Armenia and Iberia. In the future, the political situation in Transcaucasia and the configuration of borders were increasingly influenced by the struggle of the two superpowers of the Ancient World – the Rome and Iran – for domination in the Middle East. Thus, the establishment of the border between Armenia and Albania along the Kura is associated with the signing of the Nisibis peace between Diocletian and Narses. The only “eternal” was the eastern border along the Caspian Sea, but it also in the 4th–2nd centuries BC underwent major changes. Further clarification of the borders of Albania is possible only on the basis of an in-depth and honest analysis of the ancient narrative tradition and an ever-growing array of archaeological data, free from following the political conjuncture.