Rome’s involvement extends back to 200 BC and a little before. After the Romans defeated the Seleucid Antiochus in 189 BC, Armenia was divided into two seperate kingdoms, Armenia Major, and Armenia Minor. Rome ruled Armenia differently than it ruled most of its other provinces. Even though Armenia was a province for a short period, it was ruled by an Armenian king, usually appointed by the Roman emperor and watched by a proconsul. The king was to do as he wished within the Emperor's allowance. The proconsuls often became good friends with the Armenian kings. Nevertheless, the kings detested the Emperers.
Until 54 B.C., Armenia was able to defend itself against the Romans, but after that Rome had control. Before the birth of Christ, Tigrane was king. His empire, though vast, extending into Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Iberia, was not able to withstand the repeated attacks by the Romans and the Parthians. Armenia became a client state to Rome at this point and eventually was partitioned between the Romans and the Parthians. Armenia was used as a pawn between the two rivals all of its existence. The Romans would use them to attack the Parthians and vice versa. And even occasionally, the Romans and Parthians would ally together and attack Armenia. This happened all of the time.
To say the relationship between Rome and Armenia was strictly military would be absurd. The relationship they did share was modern day drama. For example, in AD 66 the Romans again defeated King Tiridates army and Nero wanted Tiridates to come all the way back to Rome so he could personally crown him. The trip interestingly enough took nine months. After recrowning Tiridates "King" again, Nero proceeded to sing with his lyre and ride in his chariot in full green attire and head dress up and down the streets of Rome. This disgusted Tiridates. Nevertheless, he said nothing. What he did comment about later to Nero was "Master, you have in Corbula a good slave." Nero liked this so much that he gave him 200,000,000 sesterces to rebuild Artaxata. Rome never really exploited Armenia’s natural resources simply because of the difficulty of hauling them back to Rome.
Rome eventually lost control three years after Armenia declared Christianity its official religion in AD 301. This decision made numerous regions upset and isolated Armenia from Rome. At this point, Persia and Byzantium took control with four-fifths of Armenia going to Persia.