Olympias of Armenia

Olympias, sometimes called Olympias the Elder to distinguish her from her niece of the same name, was a Christian Roman noblewoman, betrothed to a son of Constantine the Great and later queen of Armenia by marriage to King Arsaces II. She died in 361, poisoned, according to the account, through the Holy Communion itself. Her death deepened the rift between the Armenian Church and the royal court. The sources preserved give no data on a liturgical feast of hers.

Family and betrothal

Olympias's family was of Greek descent. Her father, Flavius Ablabius, was a wealthy Cretan, active politically in both halves of the Roman Empire, and one of the most important senators of Constantinople. He was praetorian prefect of the East from 329 to 337 or 338 and consul in 331. Her mother's name is not preserved. Olympias had a brother, Seleucus. She was born and raised in Constantinople or in Antioch, where her father had his base. Her date of birth is uncertain, between 324 and 330, and little is known of her youth.

Ablabius gained great influence over Emperor Constantine the Great, who arranged the betrothal of Olympias to his son Constans. Constantine died soon after, in May 337, and Constans inherited the throne together with his brothers Constantine II and Constantius II. In 338 Ablabius was executed after falling out with Constantius II, and the marriage of Olympias to Constans never took place. The two nevertheless lived together and treated each other as husband and wife. After Constans's death in 350, Olympias remained in Constantinople among his surviving relatives.

Queen of Armenia

Arsaces II, king of Arsacid Armenia and a client of Rome, was much favoured by Constantius II, who remitted all taxes on the Armenian royal lands in Anatolia. As a sign of a renewed political alliance between Armenia and Rome, in the Arian Christianity of the time, Constantius married Olympias to Arsaces, around 358. Saint Athanasius of Alexandria criticized this choice in a letter to the anchorites, saying that Olympias deserved to marry a Roman emperor and not a foreign king. She was escorted to her new home by Saint Nerses I, the reigning Catholicos of Armenia. The Romans marked the occasion with special medals bearing the portrait of Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, with the Latin caption OLYMPIAS REGINA.

Olympias is the first known wife of Arsaces. Although she had no children with him, the marriage seems to have been happy, for the king loved her. The Romans considered her the legitimate wife of Arsaces, and she kept her influence over her husband. According to the Serbian sources, Arsaces had earlier had another, unknown wife, with whom he had a son, Anob. Arsaces remained faithful to the Roman and Christian alliance, and Olympias became a very powerful, wealthy and influential woman in Armenian society.

Pharantzem and her death

When Constantius II died in 361 he was succeeded as emperor by his cousin, Julian the Apostate. On Julian's accession Olympias's influence over her husband made his fidelity waver. Arsaces then married the Armenian noblewoman Pharantzem, the widow of his nephew, Prince Gnel. In the Persian fashion the king had more than one wife. Soon after the marriage Pharantzem became pregnant and in 360 bore a son, Papas (Pap), the only known child of hers and of Arsaces during his reign in Armenia.

Pharantzem was filled with envy of Olympias, since the king loved her more. She despised her husband, saying he was hairy and dark. After the birth of her son she plotted to kill Olympias with poison. In 361 she arranged for her to receive the poison through the Holy Communion, given by a priest of the royal court. Olympias was very careful from whom she accepted food and drink, for she took only what her maids gave her. She was poisoned through communion. A Ukrainian source says, however, that she was probably poisoned by Persian agents, because she had supported Armenia's alliance with Emperor Julian in the war against Persia.

The death of Olympias was one of the reasons why the Church became wholly estranged from the court of Arsaces. Saint Nerses I, thoroughly outraged, did not appear at court again as long as Arsaces lived. Pharantzem's deeds turned Armenian politics against Christian interests, and she was regarded as an impious woman. After Olympias's death, Pharantzem became queen of Armenia.