The article deals with the events related to Armenia after the defeat of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great. In the author’s opinion, this Persian satrapy submitted to Alexander shortly before the battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. However, it seems that at the end of his reign Armenia was no longer controlled by the Macedonians. In all likelihood, after Gaugamela its former Persian satrap Orontes fled to Armenia and regained power over this region some time later, eliminating the Macedonian presence in it. Orontes managed to retain the achieved headship there after Alexander’s death: despite the fact that in 322–320 Neoptolemus stayed in Armenia with troops, his actions in it were unable to seriously undermine the positions of Orontes, since the latter could restore them before 316. Moreover, by this time his rule in Armenia as its satrap was already recognized by the Macedonians (after the very probable establishment of friendly relations between Orontes and Peucestas in 317). What was Orontes’ participation in the further events is unknown, but it appears that he eventually, ca. 301, had to formally submit to Seleucus. Nevertheless, even so Orontes retained considerable independence: at some time, most likely, ca. 280, it was he who helped Ariarathes II of Cappadocia to reconquer his «paternal» domain in Asia Minor. As the author shows, such a reconstruction of events in post-Achaemenid Armenia is quite consistent also with the epigraphic evidence of the first Orontids that originates from the sanctuary of Antiochus I of Commagene on Nemrud Daği.