the history of the armenian people from the remotest times to the present day preface by
TRANSCRIPT
jacques dc Morgan
Forme r Di rector-Gene ral of the Egyptian
Department of Archaeology and former General
Delegate in Persia of the French
Ministry of Education
The HISTORY OF THE
ARMENIAN PEOPLE
From th e Remote stTimes
to the Present Day
Preface by GUSTAVE SCHLUMBERGER
of the Academy ofAncient
Monuments and of Literature
V ictrix causa dus placuit,
sed victa Catoni.
(Lucan, Pbarsala, I. 1 28 )
Illustrated W ith 296 Maps, Plans, and Documentary Sketches
by the Author.
Translated by
ERNEST F. BARRY
D ED ICATION
To you, Armenians, I dedicate this book, in memoryof those happy days ofmy youth spent in your picturesquemountain villages, in your enchanting forests, among yourflower-spangled meadows all glistening in the beautifulEastern sunshine.
May this story of the deeds of your forefathers bringto your thought the dauntless and uprightmen of the pastwho have bequeathed you their nobility of heart and theirunconquerable love of national freedom,
and remind you
of your ancient lineage, one of the most ancient amongthe illustrious peoples of the earth, also of the twenty fivehundred years that your fathers have valiantly struggledto uphold the honor of your greatHaik.
May this dedication recall to some among you the
traveler who found such charm in your delightfulcountry
-side, in the silvery laughter of your children, thehappy songs of your shepherds, your village festiva ls, thezourna of your country
-folk, and the singing of yourmaidens.
O martyred people ! may you, by the time this bookappears, see the dawn of your final day of freedom : mayyou with your poet Tchobanian sing :
Behold the fire springing anew from out the night;The redding glow of themountain tops ;
’Tis the sweetest hour of a ll,the lovely reawakening to Life !
PREFACE
During th is seemingly end less wa r, the worst ever to
afll ict mankind,Armenia ha s undoubted ly been the most unfortunate
of a ll land s, the most ra cked and tortured
,more so even than Belgium,
more so than Serbia ! V ictim of the frightfu l ma ssacres by the
Turks,subjected to the cruelest horrors
,pa rtly del ivered by the Rus
s ians and then woeful ly abandoned by them,Armenia ha s seen her
fine and industrious rura l popula tion decima ted to'
an unth inkable ex
tent through a most abominable series of s laughters . Not only is she
the unhappiest of na tions,but no na tiona l history is so l ittle known
a s is hers, despite the fa ct tha t th is h istory wa s once so famou s.The rea son for this is that for severa l centuries Armenia ha s be en
constantly he ld down benea th the most unbea rable of servitudes, the
bloody Ottoman yoke . In our western civi l iza tion ha rd ly any but a
very few schola rs know the ea rly h i story of the Armenians,those
ancient and med ieva l times when th is then wa rl ike ra ce played a most
important r61e in the h interland of the Ea stern world,
first the Romanand then the Christian.
A few noble-minded men of th is long and sore ly tried na
tion, a long wi th some French friends devoted to the ir cause, fe l t i t
urgent to bring Armenia ’s h itherto neglected history to the
knowledge of the genera l French public and tha t of our Al l ies,through
a published work of h igh stand ing and pra ctica l va lue . Th is they deemed
one of the best ways to interest the world, and France in pa rticular,in
the sa lvation of so wo rthy a people . These friend s of Armenia , choos
ing a s spokesman one of the best among them, the great patriot ArchagTchobanian
,kind ly a sked my advice a s to whom they should appea l to
ca rry out th is d ifficult ta sk . One name came at once to my thought
tha t of my friend Jacques de Morgan, the intrepid explore r
,the
schola rly and enthus ia stic traveler and grea t a rchaeologist,
renownedfor his excavations at Susa and in Egypt. No one is better a cqua inted
with the va st regions around Armenia, and with Armenia itself, wh ich
he ha s trave led over more than anyone . No one has more carefully
stud ied the mysterious beginnings and the h istory of those races that
settled over the magnificent land s south of the Cauca su s. Many yea rs
of incessant labor had impa ired his hea lth, yet when upon my advice
my Armenian friends a sked him to write the h i story of the ir nation
and to compa ss its glorious but forgotten anna ls in a volume of strik
ing interest, to be widely d isseminated in behalf of th is sacred cause, he
at once a ccepted , despite his poor hea lth and comparative reclus ion.
He set to work immed iate ly, happy to be able sti l l to serve the sublime
cause of oppressed peoples . In two yea rs of ardent labor he completed
this important work, of such grea t interest to a va st public so la cking
in knowledge about Armenia . I have been done the grea t honor of
be ing a sked to write a few introductory l ines to th is volume. For th is
honor I am perhaps indebted to my own works on the Cru sades and
Byzantine h istory, in wh ich I so often had to refer to the va lorousdeed s in the Ea st of the i l lustrious Armenian race. Th is is the firsttime
,
” wrote Jacques de Morgan to me,,
“that I am not writing the prefa ce mysel f to one of my books !
” I a ccepted,however, th is pleasurable
task,w ith the stated intention of writing briefly
, not to te-introduce to
the public my friend Morgan a lready so well known,but i f possible to
draw the further a ttention of a ll the a l l ied nations to the unhappyArmenian people and to the abominable inj ustice they have enduredfor centuries .
I fond ly hope that very many F rench people, and very many of
our a ll ies, will read thi s admirable and clear outl ine,so understand
ingly set forth, of the h istory of Armenia, a h istory of centuries of
va lor, of energy, and of suffering,l ived under the shadow of the two
mounta ins of Ararat, the giants tha t tower ove r the land . For my pa rt,I fee l tha t of a ll the d ifferent period s of this people’ s constantly sub
l ime and tragic h i story, none offers more interest than tha t of the
Armenian na tion during the Crusades and the large part the ir doughtysovereigns took by the s ide of the La tin princes for the cause of
Christendom oversea s . I wish th is splend id volume the very great success i t deserves. May i t contribute, upon the final victory now so nea r,toward s the entry of Armenia
,freed from the unbea rable Turkish yoke,
into the rightful and definite pla ce to wh ich she is entitled in the futu reSociety of Nations !
GUSTAVE SCHLUMBERGERSeptember
,1918.
FOREW ORD
To my friend Gustave Schlumberger, member of the Institute of
F rance, the eminent Byzantinis t, and to the grea t Armenian poet ArchagTchobanian, I am indebted for the idea ofwriting this hi story ofArmenia .
It was with some hes ita tion tha t I undertook so bold and , I do not mind
saying, arduous task. Arduous on a ccount of the multiplicity and nu
fortuna te tang le of sources of informa tion, and of the fa ct tha t these are
ava i lable so often only in Armenian, a fact that clos ed to me a number
of doors . However, a t my friends’
urgent request, I set about the work. and
endeavored to write a his tory which should be within the range of a ll
readers without departing from the s trict limits of a ccura te s cholarship.
At the same time I crave the reader’
s indulgence because for many rea
sons outs id e the author’
s will it is necessarily incomplete . For one thing,the s torehouses of data in the libraries ofRussia , the Caucasus , and Cons tantinople, a re not a t my disposa l, and a lso there is so much written in
languages I do not know and not yet trans la ted , consequently unava il
able . As for a rchaeologica l ma teria l, it is pra ctica l ly non-exis tent. In Rus
s ian Armenia the excava tions which I began in 1887-88 were subsequentlyforbidden by the Imperia l Government, and have ha rdly yet been re
sumed by a Russ ian Commiss ion,—whilst in Turkish Armenia due to theinnumerable difficulties ra ised by the Ottoman government no searcheshave been a ttempted beyond a few excavations of sma ll extent a t Van.
We a re cons equently obliged to fa ll ba ck, so far as the earlies t periods are
concerned , on the s ta tements of class ica l Greek and La tin authors , minusany a rcha eologica l support.
As with the history of a ll Orienta l peoples , especia lly in the Midd leAges , the anna ls ofArmenia are extreme ly complex. The interla ced eventsare not only intima te ly re la ted to the evolution of the peoples of Asia . but
a lso frequently depend on the politics of western na tions ; so tha t onemus t often dea l with genera l history to explain the cause and effect ofpure ly Armenian happenings . As for the fa cts themse lves , the re levant
documents a re in mos t ca ses very wide ly sca ttered, spread among the
his tories and chronicles of foreign na tions . They had to be dis covered, discuss ed , and compared,—a task frequently difficult, they being often na r
rated difierently by the various chronic lers .
As ea rly a s 1889 I wa s interested in Armenian history, and I made a
brief incurs ion into this interes ting subject in a volume entitled zMissionscientifique au Cauca se
,Etudes a rchéologique s et h istoriques . Tome I I.
Recherches sur les origines des peuple s du Cauca se . But,a s the title shows ,
this research wa s not restricted to the Armenians , and the his tory ofArmenia was only included in its ma in a spects , my a ttention being more
particularly directed to the ques tions as to the origins of the Kartve lian
peoples .
Neverthe less , I had examined the ma tter of Armenia very carefullyboth as regards its records and the cha ra cter of the Armenian people, whomI knew from having lived a long time among them. These a re the reasons
why Messrs . G . Sch lumberger and A. Tchobanian urged me to write, andwhy 1 yie lded to their wishes .
M oreover, in the present circums tances , writing a history of Armeniais not only in the interes ts of s cience, but it is fulfil ling a duty to humanity,to a people fa r too little known, remembered only for its woes , and de
serving of a happier destiny.
During the near ly thirty years tha t have e laps ed s ince my book on
the Caucasus appeared , numerous works have dea lt with the ques tion ofthe Armenian people
’
s firs t beginnings , for the s tudy of mankind’
s earliest
times“
ha s a ctive ly engaged men’
s thoughts and the Armenians have not
been left out in thes e inves tiga tions . However, a few books in pa rticular arespecia lly to be commended for the sa fe scientific method their authors
have followed ; they a ll rea ch the s ame conclus ions from d ifierent view
points . A. MEILLET,in his Gramma ire compa rée de l ’Arménien cla s
s ique deduces from his ana lys is of the language irrefutable proofsof the Indo-European origin of the people ; Mess rs . Noe
'
l DOLENS and
A. KHATCH in their Histoire des anciens Arméniens ( 1907 ) and M .
Kevork ASLAN in his Etudes sur le Peuple a rménien ( 1909) a ll vigorous lyespouse and cla rify my own arguments of 1889, and so dispose of thema in problem.
While I wa s fina lly reviewing the manuscript of the present Historyof the Armenian People
,there appea red ( 1917 ) in Rome a book of some
importance by SANDALGIAN Histoire documenta ire de l ’Arménie destemps du pa ganisme
,in which the writer a rrives a t conc lusions contrary
10
to those ofMeillet, N. Dolens , A. Kha tch, and K. As lan. Unfortuna te lythe author of this voluminous work has a ccepted deceiving etymological
ana logies tha t have led him astray from scientific conclus ions .
The sources of Armenian history a re very numerous ; they divid e
na tura lly into three cla ss es , a ccording to the periods . The chronicles
of the Ara ra t region go back to very remote antiquity. The firs t eventsthere are re la ted in the Ninivite inscriptions and in those of Urartu ( Van) ,but anteda te cons iderably the a rriva l of the Armenians on the pla teau
of E rzerum. To dis cuss the peoples conquered and assimila ted by the
la ter a rriva ls would be to take up the his tory of Western Asia fromthe 15 th or l0th centuries B .C .
,thus going outs ide the framework of this
volume . The reader will find in the Histoire ancienne des Peuples de
l’
Orient, by G . MASPERO,and in my Premieres Civi lisa tions, a ll the
guidance he may des ire on these ques tions ; I sha ll therefore dea l withthem only indirectly.
Regarding the very earlies t times of the Armenians, we have in
the West : the Achaemenian inscri ptions of Beh istun, (published and
transla ted‘
by OPPERT) , HERODOTUS, the narratives of XENOPHON,
and the tra ditions handed down to us by PLINY,STRABO
,and
PTOLEMY; a lso in the E ast, the writings ofMOSES ofKHOREN with
a few pass ages from other Eastern authors .
As we enter the Alexandrian era we a re more abundantly documented,
for both Greek and La tin writers te l l us , chiefly during the Se leucidan
period , of the wa rs waged by the Sena te of the E terna l City aga ins t therulers of Syria , Pontus , and Armenia . ARRIAN
,DIODORUS OF
SICILY,STRABO,
APPIAN, ] USTIN, ] OSEPHUS, PLINY, PLUT
ARCH,TACITUS , SPARTIAN, SUETONIUS, DION CASSIUS, EU
TROPIUS,FLORUS , VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, are authorita tive not
only for da ta on the Se leucidan period but a lso for our knowledge of eventsin the Pa rthian era . These Wes tern writers enable us to verify and fill inthe s ta tements left us by AGANTHANGELUS , by MOSES OF
KHOREN,and other Ea s tern authors , whose re la tion of happenings
they did not witness a re often ques tionable.
During the time of the Roman Empire, when the legions were con
stantly fighting the Arsa cid Persians and waging war in Armenia , the
va rious emperors caused coins to be s truck commemora ting the chief
politica l or military events in the East. These coins are sometimes veryuseful in accura tely establishing dates .
Unfortuna te ly not a s ingle one rema ins of the many his torica l works
1 1
tha t were written in the Pehlevi language under the Sassanid kings . For
tha t period our chief sources a re Armenian, Syrian, La tin, and Greek.
MOSES OF KHOREN,E VAGRIUS , ] OHN MAMIGONIAN,
AGATHANGELUS , SOZOMEN,MICHAEL THE SYRIAN,
FAUS
TUS , EUSEBIUS , ZENOBIUS OF GLAK,ELISHA VARTABED,
SEBEOS, LAZARUS OF PHARP,AMMIANMARCELLINUS, are the
mos t important authorities .
F or the time of the Bagra tides dynas ty we come to MATTHEW
OF EDESSA, Ca tholicos ] OHN VI, ASSOGHIK,TH. ARTZRUNI,
SAMUEL OF AN] , ARISTACES OF LASTIVERT, the Arabian his
torians MAKRISI and IBN-AL-ATHYR,a long with others , and the
Greek chroniclers GEDRENUS, ZONARAS, GLYCAS, etc.
In writing the history of Armeno-Cilicia (New Armenia ) , I have
drawn ma inly on Historiens des Croisades, documents arméniens, by E .
DULAURIER,and on Sissouan
,by L . ALISHAN.
F ina l ly, for modern times , I have consulted the books and numerous
pamphlets published of la te years , such as : A. TOYNBEE ,TheMurder
of a Na tion ; A. TCHOBANIAN,Chants popula ires a rméniens ( Intro
duction) , l’Arménie sous le joug turc ; Les publica tions du Comité a rménien
d’Angleterre, de New York ; E . DOUMERGUE ,
L’Arménie, les Ma s
sa cres et la Question d ’Orient, K. BASMADflAN, Histoire modernedes Arméniens ; Viscount BRYCE ,
The Treatment of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire,1915-1916 ; Marcel LEART
,La Question a rménienne
a la lumiere des documents, etc.
To these specia l works should be added some writings of a mane
genera l na ture,
such as : H.F .B . LYNCH,Armenia ; MICHAEL
CHAMICH,History of Armenia ; F r. TOURNEBISE , Hi stoire pol itique
et rel igieuse de l’Arménie ; Vis count BRYCE ,Transcaucas ia and Ararat ;
Noel and Harold BUXTON,Travels and Pol itics in Armenia ; Reinhold
ROHRICHT, Geschichte des KOnigreichs Jerusa lem; SAINT
-MARTIN,
Mémo ire s sur l’Arménie ; N0 237 DOLENS and A. KHATCH,Histoire des
anciens Arméniens , Geneva , 1907 ; KBVORK ASLAN,Etudes h istoriques
sur le peuple a rménien,Pa ris 1909 ; id .
,L’Arménie et les Arméniens,
Constantinople,1914.
As regards chronology, I have made use of the very thorough work
by K. BASMADl N, Chronologie de l
’Histoire de l’Arménie, and
in my survey of re ligious ques tions , I have in addition to the above works
taken large ly from the article of R. ] ANIN in Les échos d ’Orient : lLesArméniens, a lso L
’Eglise a rménienne by Mgr. M . ORMANIAN.
_ 12 _
F ina lly, the writing and valuable advice of A. Tchobanian have
been my ma in source in a cqua inting my readers with Armenian litera
ture and poetry.
Bes ides these main sources I have a lso consulted a large number
of sca ttered documents in various reviews and newspapers .
My acqua intance with the country and with Eas tern life has beenmoreover very helpful to me me in compiling this work, enabling me
often to unders tand the cause and efiect of events . Writing a history has
meant going into innumerable deta ils , but in regard to ea ch principa l
period I have s triven to show the ma in lines of the evolution of the
Armenian people and their re la tion to the outs ide world at ea ch period ,
for from the remotest times Armenia by reason of its geographica l posi
tion had a very large rble to play in the outlook of the major powersconcerning Western As ia .
The reader will perhaps be often puzzled by the seemingly uncouth
names and pla ces in the volume . These I have had to use , however, forwe mus t not forget tha t throughout the centuries we have here to dea lwith s trictly Orienta l nomencla tures , in the Armenian, Arabic, ancientand modern Pers ian
,Turkish
,Kurd ish
,and Georgian languages . These
names , so s trange to European ears,become much s impler when their
meaning is known. Vagharschapa t, for instance, means buil t by Val
a rsace ;”Sa rkis is Sergius
”
; Karapet,“forerunner”; Alagheuz, blue
eye”
; Arpa-tcha i,
“ba rley river Gheuk—tcha i,
“blue river
”; whi le Vram
chapouh is the Armenian pronuncia tion of the Persian (Sassanides )double name Varahran-Chapour (Sapor) and so on. Sometimes a lso thenames assume the mos t varied forms ; George I , king of Iberia (Georgia )becomes , according to difierent writers and countries , Gorige, Korké
,
Ke’
orke’
,Ke
’
orki,Giorgi, Korike, Kourken. Therefore the sounds I have
had to keep to, in.
order to preserve the linguistic character of propernames
,should not look too formidable. Their use was unavoidable.
The geography of Western As ia is not genera lly known beyond its
ma in outlines , and here aga in the reader will be confronted with nu
avoidable difiiculties . But they have been mine a lso, for they have netes
s ita ted much research on my part, the forms which the geographica lnames assume being so numerous . Erzerum of the Turks , o
'
r Qa liqa la , is
the Theodos iopolis of the Byzantines ; the Armenians ca l l it Karin. Thekingdom of Albania is Aghouania , the Aghouanq of the Armenians ;Azerba idjan of the Turks and Pers ians is Atrpa takan in Armenian
,
Atropa tenes in Greek, not to speak of its names in Achaemenian and
Pehlevi. But, for the reader’
s guidance, I have general ly indica ted in footnotes the names most commonly found on current maps, and have not
hes ita ted to repea t myse lf occa siona lly to save having to turn ba ck to preceding pages ; and in addition I have il lustra ted my text with a largenumber of maps drawn mos t ca refully by myse lf, conta ining just the da taneeded for ea ch pa rticula r period .
Though the reader probably knows the history of the principal
As ia tic peoples , I have referred to their chief his torica l events and da tes
wherever I have thought it he lpful to cla rify the s tory. N0 one is expected
to know the order of succession of the Ca liphs , or the Sassanid kings ofPers ia
,any more than tha t of the Byzantine emperors ; and a s for his
torica l concordances , they a re even less known, and ignorance in theseconnections is definite ly excusable . I mus t confess , moreover, very franklytha t had I to read the his tory of China , I should be gra teful if the authorexpla ined to me innumerable deta ils of geography, language, and chron
ology.
To give more color to my narrative of subjects and events so nu
familiar to European readers , I have il lustra ted my text with a ll the in
teres ting documenta tion I have been able to obta in, such as coins
,s eals ,
autographs , s igna tures of rulers,coa ts of arms
,a rchaeologica l objects ,
ruins of ca s tles and towns , the mos t notable s tructura l rema ins , etc. I
have added topographica l plans and sketches , a ll from the mos t variedsources , and I have made it my care to draw a ll these illus tra tions myselfand to prepa re the drafts for the map-specia list. In my published scien
tific works I have a lways avoided so far as poss ible re lying on profess ionaldraughtsmen for my il lustra tions , because despite their skil l they do not
a tta in to the absolute documentary a ccura cy needed to convey the author’sexa ct purpose. My illus trations , it is true, are fa r from the professional
perfection of a skilled draughtsman, but I trust the reader will overlookthis a s he rea lizes the truly scientific cha ra cter of my documenta tion.
In the append ix to this volume wil l be found chronologica l tables .
I have thus endeavored to ass is t in every way poss ible the perusa l ofthis book
, and I hope , a s I commit it to press , tha t it wil l a cqua int verymany people with the ba ckground and g lorious his tory of a na tion ofwhom so little is known beyond the fa ct of its long ma rtyrdom under the
Turkish yoke . Thes e pages wil l show the world how little the Armenian
people deserved the terrible fa te tha t has hitherto been their crue l lot.
The two Ararats, a s seen from th e vall ey of th e Araxes
CHAPTER I
PHYS ICAL F EATURES OF ARMEN IA GEOGRAPHY GENERALITIES
In the regions of Ara rat,in tha t land of mystery in
ARARAT wh ich ea rl iest trad ition loca tes our nebulous human ori gin,the Armenians have dwe lt for about twenty-five centuries .
In th i s mounta in ma ss,in thi s we lter of grea t peaks
,the Armenian people
planted themse lve s,on thi s so i l they became a na tion. But the land wa s
a lready sacred,a land renowned to the peoples of ancient times
,for to
the ir rel igious sentiment th is wa s the scene of mankind ’s rebirth fol lowingthe most awful ca taclysm tha t through the d im corridor of memory ha s
rema ined in the mind s of men through countless genera tions .
In the imagina tion of the ancients,Ara ra t seemed a wonder
,the work
of a superna tura l power, and the colossus became sa cred,the abode of
geni i known a s“Dragon’s Sons .
”( 1 ) Its snowy summi t wa s a ssociated
with the d im memories of forgotten ages,with stories enhanced by trad i
tion, and Ara rat, the work of d ivine hand s,stood in contra st to tha t other
fabulous tower wh ich morta ls had sought in va in to bui ld to heaven. Such
power and grandeur,such command ing poetry
,emana te from the Volcano’s
( l ) V ichapazunk .
ma j esty, tha t s imple minds have ever been struck with overwhelming awe
and admiration in the presence of th is natura l wonder,when in the
mid st of the night’s da rkness, the Giant’
s summit sh ines forth in a ll its
luminous glory. Th is is the moment when Ara ra t, the messenger of the
powers of heaven, announces to men that the God of Zoroaster is getting
ready to cause his go lden d isk to ri se upon the old world . The Ma s is ( 1 )is the wonder mounta in of W estern As ia
,towering over
,crush ing a ll
around i t,seeming to have been forged by Vulcan to discomfit the soul of
the beho lder.When towa rd s the ea st the sky is aglow with the fires tha t hera ld
the dawn, whi le a ll Armenia is sti l l s lumbering deep in da rknes s,a blood
colored pa tch appea rs in the cloud , bright a s the stee l aglow on the bla cksmith ’s anvil . Slowly this pa tch spreads
,lengthens, and takes the form of
the sha rp-pointed head Of a giant a rrow,d irected threateningly to heaven.
Thi s is the snowy peak of Grea t Ara ra t,made crimson by the first rays
of the sun, whi le the orb i tse lf
,sti l l h idden to morta ls
,announces its com
ing by the gleams i t shed s in the cloud beyond the Black Mounta ins . (2 )Only the G iant’s summit is l it with the a rdent glow of dawn : i t seems tome lt and pa ss s lowly away Whi le Phoebus’ cha riot rises on the horizon.
To the left of the Giant rises another peak,lower but just a s sha rp
in outl ine, and a lso ba thed in blood,name ly
, the Lesser Ararat. It l ikewi se is touched by the first glows of daylight
, and this vis ion, evocative ofthe time when the two craters together be lched forth flames and lavasoon d isappea rs . Then, towa rd s the west, there comes soon into view the
summit of another extinct volcano, the brother of the two
Ara ra ts, the Alagheuz (4) whose eterna l snow ap
THE ALAGHEUZ pea rs pink in the now azured sky and stand s out
a ga inst the da rk hudd le of the mounta ins of W est
( 1 ) Name given by th e Armenians to Ararat, the Argh i-dagh of the Turks, theKouh-i-Nouh (mounta in of Noah ’ s ark ) of the Persians.
(2 ) The Qara-dagh and the Qara-ha gh .
( 3 ) In Turki sh : Al a-ghenz (Blue Eye ) ; in Armenian : Aragadz.
(4) The tabl e-l and of Iran and th at of Erzeroum emerged at the end of th e
tertiary period , together with the vol canoe s (Ararat, Al agh euz, Lelwar, etc ; Saval an,Sahend , Demavend, etc.) During the l atter part of th i s geological period (Pla isancian) , Azerba idjan and th e adjoining regions, not yet ra i sed , enjoyed a cl imate similarto th at of th e pre sent trop ica l zones, and ma inta ined the el eph ant. the rh inoceros,and al l th e animal s of warm and moi st l ands ( fossil fauna of Maragha ) . At theend of the Pl iocene period the ra ised surface s were formed, and during the qua
ternary period , Iran, Armenia , and th e Cauca sus were covered wi th snow. Thevol canoes rema ined active l ong a fter th e ir first eruptions and l asted perhaps until
men peopl ed th e se re gions freed from snow. (Cf. J. DE MORGAN, Les PremieresCivi l isations, p . 5 7 sq ., 91 sq ., 164
_ l 6 _
e rn Armenia . Gradua lly, hund reds of peaks come out of the da rkness,
announcing to every va lley the coming of Day, whi le shadow and morning
mist sti l l surround the whole Araxes pla in, includ ing Erivan, the ancienttown founded by King E rvand , and Etchmiadzin, the holy city of the
Armenians . In the d istance a re hea rd the church bel ls ringing the Ange lus,the blea ting of herd s leaving the villages, the s inging of shepherd s, the
barking of dogs : Armenia is awaking to return to its da i ly labors in its
ferti le fie ld s.
Now the sun pours its joyous smi le on the workers who have been up
before dawn, d i spels the shades of the mi st, tinges with blue the l ight
smoke hovering over the villages, and sends forth its waves of wa rmth .
Women clad in blue or red,ca rrying a ja r on head or shoulder
,come out
cha ttering from the ir houses of yel low clay, wh i le the men, wea ring heavy
sheepskin caps l ike the Ta rtars, come and go, take the horses to wa ter,and lead the oxen to the plow. Heed less of Na ture ’s awakening
,they s ing
,
chant love-songs or old legends preserved by the minstrels, and do not
even look at the G iant ma jestica lly stand ing beyond the pla in, an objectof admira tion for the traveler
,but of no concern to the countryman who
ha s seen i t ever s ince he wa s born.
Ara ra t ( 1 ) whose summit stands in the cloud s l ike an immense reg
ular cone,is over feet (2) h ighe r than the waters of the Araxes. Its
ba rren s ides,burned and furrowed by lava outflows
,incline abruptly
downwa rd in s lopes covered with crumbling scoria and fragments of vol
canic bomb s. No abutment,no minor mounta in
,h ides the Giant’s base
to take away from its grandeur. It stands in i solation,a s though i t had
ri sen at one thrust from the bowels of the earth by the force of an a l
mighty fiat. B eside i t stand s the Lesser Ara ra t wh ich,despite its tre
mendons sta ture ( 3 ) gives one the impress ion of a ch i ld a longs ide its
father, wa iting on his orders . About twelve mi les, as the crow fl ies, isthe d i stance to the top of the Grea t Arara t from the bed of the Araxes ;consequently the mounta in seems to crush wi th a ll its weight the va l leyof E rivan : a s ight unequa led
,i f not in the universe
,at lea st in the Old
World . For Mont-Blane Kazbek Demavend Everest
and a lmost a ll the h ighest summits in our own lands,ri se from huge bases
surrounded by large peaks, so tha t much of thei r ma jesty is lost to theSpecta tor. The E lburzMounta in (8 ) a lone, seen from the Russ ian Steppes
,
appears in a ll its magnificence,a lthough resting on an enormous pedesta l.
To the south of Armenia , in the Kurd ish cha in forming the border
of Iran, are nume rous he ights varying from to feet, but a ll
these peaks a re enclosed among ve ry h igh mounta ins , so tha t they a re lost
in the ensemble of that gigantic wa l l and never drew the a ttention
of the ea rly inhabitants : Zagros ( l ) overlooking B agdad , Zerd eKouh (2)the snow of wh ich is seen from eve rywhere in Sus iana
,have not played
in popula r imagina tion the pa rt they should Demavend a lone,among
these ancient civi l izations, Demavend, the Mounta in of the Geni i,is compa rable to Ara ra t a s rega rd s the impression made on the
trave ler. But a lthough this peak is about feet highe r than the Ar
menian vo lcano,i t doe s not strike one so forcib ly because i t stand s in the
midd le of the E lburz, a cha in h igher than the Alps . Ara rat itse lf when
viewed fro mthe south, from Khoi or B ayazid , does not give tha t fee l ing of
grandeur one ha s when looking a t it from Erivan or Vagha rchapat. ( 3 )
Ara ra t ri ses in the centre of Grea ter Armenia ; it overlooks on the
ea st the region of Lake Urumiah, (4 ) the Atropa tenes of the ancients
on the south the region of Lake Van the Ura rtu on the west and
south-west the wa tershed s of the Tigri s, the Euphra tes, and the Araxes,
rivers whose name s a re l inked with tha t of the crad le of mankind . The
Ma s is re igns over these celebra ted regions, just a s the Kazbek does over thetwo s lopes of the great Cauca s ian wa l l, a s the Demavend is seen over theCa spian Sea and the land of the Iranians
, and a s the great peaks of the
Hima laya s stand supreme between the frozen table land s of Tibet and therich pla ins of Ind ia .
In a ll land s,the s ight of giant mounta ins ha s a lways aroused mystica l
fee l ings in peoples’ souls,and just a s Fuj i-yams is sacred to the Japanese
,
and Mt. Olympus became the abode of the Greek god s,so in our time
Ara ra t is Sti l l a holy s i te both to Christians and Mos lems . Even prior to
( 8 ) ft.
( 1 ) De laho Kouh in southern Kurd istan.
(2 ) In the country of the Bakthyari s .
( 3 ) Etchmiadzin, founded and buil t by King V ala rsace (V agharchak ) .(4 ) Alt. ft.
( 5 ) Azerbadjan( 6 ) ft.
( 7 ) Th e Ararat of the Bible i s th e same name a s Ourartsa in Assyri an.
— 18
it climbs forest-covered s lopes, then i t s l ips through ba re rocks, or creeps
a long the foot of basa ltic cl iffs, of many-hued lava-flows, of swollen
scoria or bed s of black red-ve ined ob s id ian, the volcanic gla ss sparkling
in the sunl ight. Further on it s inks into deep and forbidd ing gorgesbrightened only by the bubbling waters of countless torrents
,and now
and then, fa stened l ike an eagle ’s nest to the mounta in-s ide, there appea rs
a village of clay dwe ll ings terra ced with bea ten earth and inhabited by
hospitable fa rm folk,mostly Armenians. Apa rt from th is road, or
causeway a s the Russ ians ca l l i t, there a re only mule-pa ths from vi llage
to village, just a s in the M idd le Ages and in the earl iest times.
Lake Sevanga one of the la rgest and finest
THE in the Old World,the fresh blue wa ter of which is ever
GHEUK-TCHAI transparent, is about 44 mi les long and 19 at its
OR SEVANGA widest po int . An amphi theatre of verdant mounta ins,ris ing over feet h igh, encircles i t and feeds i t
from a thou sand streams,wa tering the many vi llages on its shore. The
lakes ide dwel lers l ive off the ir crops and to a lesser extent off the i r fish ing,for the Gheuk-tchai is very deep and wel l-stocked, being noted for its finetrout.
During the summer the Sevanga region is de l ightfully cool and the
countrys ide rich and smi l ing,but a s soon a s the cold sets in and the north
wind strip s the trees, the land s i tuated a s i t is over feet above sea
leve l is covered wi th a th ick pa ll of snow,the surface of the freshwater lake
is ice-bound,and the pea sant stays ins ide his vi llage . The herd s go under
ground,whi le a round every dwe ll ing
,undernea th the snow
,stand pi les
of wood , a rgols (manure-fue l ) , and straw needed to wea ther the frosts .
The village is a s though dead,for four or five months of the yea r. Al l
is buried under the grea t white shroud,and the s ite of the loca l ity is in
d istinguishable save for the l ight wreaths of smoke tha t seem to issuefrom the frozen bowe ls of the ea rth .
In the days of the ca rriage-drive from Tifl is to Erivan,should the
trave ler a rriving from Tchoubouq lou and Ye lenovka be fortuna te enoughto reach the vi llage of Akhta a few moments ere the break of dawn
,he
wa s met with the awe-inspiring specta cle of Ara rat ablaze,a scene wh ich
would rema in with him a s the most ma rve lous human eye could wi tness .
But thi s wonderful road is today forsaken,now tha t a prosa ic ra i lroad
( 1 ) Lake Sevan, formerly call ed Lake Gegham.
20
l inks the capita l of Georgia to tha t of Azerba idjan via Alexandropol and
Erivan. Progress ha s swept a long these enchanting mounta ins, and the
wayfa rer no longer sees Lake Sevanga , he no longer witnesses the sunri se
over Arara t, nor does he now behold the awful gorges of Da ria ll nor
the glaciers of the Kazhak, the mona rch of the Cauca sus, now tha t the“Grouzinskéaya
-da roga is no more the grea t thoroughfa re between the
northern steppes and Transcauca s ia .
The Imperia l government ha s la id down some roads in the Armenian
mounta ins, but these roads have nea rly a ll been bui lt for pol itica l or
stra tegic rea sons, and the bulk of the country ha s sti ll to put up w ith its
old-time means of communica tion. However much one may regret th is
from a commercia l standpoint,it is quite an advantage a s regards the pres
ervation of the ancestra l trad itions,customs
,sentiments
,and language of
the inhabitants,and i t is due to th is i sola tion tha t Armenian communities
have been able to keep inta ct the ir na tiona l spirit. Secluded in the ir
deep va lleys, amid st the ir forests, and surrounded by often impa ss ib le
he ights,these mounta ineers l ive happi ly
,rich ly endowed by nature
,and
se ldom leave the ir nata l roof,unless i t be for a pi lgrimage to Etchmiadzin.
Th i s seclud ed existence,thi s l i fe away from the world , is the lot of a ll
Ea stern pea sants ; consequently one find s among them fami ly sentimentfa r more strongly deve loped than it is among our own country-people, whoa re losing it more and more under outs ide influences .
The Araxes,which is fed by the streams of the
THE ARAXES southern slopes of the L i ttle Cauca sus and runs at
the foot of Arara t,is the grea t river of northern
Armenia . It takes its rise in the mounta ins overlooking the ea st of
Erzerum 9 mi les from that city. Its waters come down fromPa landeukendagh (2 ) and Ka rghabaza r-dagh mounta ins belongingto the d ivide between the versants of the Pers ian Gulf and the Ca spianSea
, for i t is nea r E rzerum tha t the western Euphra tes itse lf takes itsrise .
Not so far a long its course the Araxes is joined by a la rger tributary
than itse l f, the Pa s in-sou, wh ich comes down from a ferti le but cold and
ba re table land , recently made famous by the victories of the Russ iana rmy over the Turks .
(2 ) The Gate of the Al ans”of the ancients.
( 1 ) Th eodosiopol i s of the Greeks and Romans, Carin of the Armenians .
( 2 ) Al t. ft.
( 3 ) Al t. ft,
Leaving these gloomy sol i tudes, the Araxes makes its way through a
labyrinth of mounta ins, for the most part wooded , and flows to the
ea st in a da shing torrent,the muddy wa ters of wh ich rush through deep
gorges, fa l l in cascades, and thus drop feet before reaching the
pla in of E rivan. On th is pla in,in a va stly wider va lley, the river te
ceives a number of tributa ries from the northern mounta ins,among them
be ing the Arpa-tcha'
i the Ani, the S i lav, the Karpi-tchai or Aba ran
sou which wa ters Etchmiadzin, and the Zenghi-tchai flowing from lake
Sevanga pa st Erivan. L ikewise the snows of Ara ra t,of Alagheuz and of
a ll the grea t mounta ins of Armenian Cauca sus send down thousands of
springs and streams wh ich keep cool the va l leys and da les during thesummer hea t
,wa ter the orcha rd s and fie ld s
,and only join the Araxes at
the time of the heavy Spring ra ins .
Formerly a ll the mounta ins in northern Armenia were covered w ithforests
,both north and south of the Araxes . Tod ay
,however
,there are
to be seen in these pa rts only scanty bushe s,wh ich the shepherd s rob yea r
by year, cutting down, every spring, the new growth to feed the ir herds. Asfor the va lleys
,they a re a ll extreme ly fertile due to the abundance of
water and the wa rmth of the sun in th is la titude In the da les, the
vegeta tion is nea rly a lways ahead of tha t of the country just outs ideErivan
,because a lthough we l l
"
sheltered from the north wind,the latter
wide pla in suffers hard winters . The vine and fruit-trees grow here,how
ever, in a bundance,and from the vineyards of the Masis there are still
made those exce llent wines of wh ich we a re told the patriarch Noahimbibed to excess .
The midd le va l ley of the Araxes ha s a lways played
THE PLAIN a cons iderable pa rt in the na tiona l l ife of the Armenians .
OF ERIVAN At the foot of Arara t,not fa r from the left bank of the
Araxes,is the ch ief sea t of the Armenian Church
,at
Etchmiadzin. In thi s ne ighborhood a lso stood the ancient capita ls,Armavir and Artaxa ta , and in the M idd le Ages Ani, the res idence of the
la st sovere igns of Greater Armenia . Here too the Pers ians fortifiedErivan, to gua rd the possess ions of the Shah-an-Shah north of the Araxes.Erivan became Russ ian in 1828, and today its popula tion is a lmost entirely Armenian.
The h istorian Laza rus of Pha rp ( 3 ) ha s left us a cha rming descrip
( l ) Barley river.
(2 ) Lat. N . 40°
(Taranto, Sard inia , Val encia , Lisbon) .( 3 ) Trans] . vid e LANGLOIS, Hist. Arm” V ol . II, p. 263 .
tion of the province of Erivan in the fifth century of our era and of the
l i fe led by the Armenian lord s at tha t time
The ma gnificent, renowned, and i llustrious province of
Ara ra t produces every kind of plant ; a ferti le and fruitful province,abound ing in useful th ings, and we l l supplied with a ll tha t man needs
for a l i fe of happiness and bl iss . Its pla ins a re va st and teem with game ;‘“the surround ing mounta ins, plea santly s itua ted and offering abundant
pa sture land,a re ful l of ruminant
,cloven-footed
,and other anima ls.
F rom its mounta in-top s flow plentiful streams tha t wa ter the fieldsneed ing no ferti l izing ; thus the city is a ssured of abundant bread and
wine,de l icious sweet-ta sting vegetables
,and a va riety of oil-yie ld ing
seed s,for its la rge popula tion. As one looks for the first time in the
d irection of the mounta in s lopes and the smooth surfa ces of the h i l ls,the multicolored flowers appea r l ike embro idered cloth ; the ir ferti leseed s enrich the sweet-smell ing pa stures where the abundant gra ss feed scountless herds of donkeys and untamed deer. The scented flowersexha le a keen fragrance tha t is hea lth-giving both to the skillful bowmen
and huntsmen,and to the shepherd s dwe l l ing in the open fie ld ; the
atmosphere is strengthening and bracing to the mind .
These fie ld s a re found not only to provide for men’
s needs,
but they d i sclose to a rdent seekers trea sures in the bosom of the ea rth,procuring
,for profit and mundane enjoyment
,a lso for rega l d i splay and
the roya l exchequer,gold
,copper
,iron
,and precious stones tha t the
cra ftsmen turn into ma j estic ornaments for monarchs,into j ewels spark
ling ou tia ra s,or into crowns or gold embroidery for vestments .
The rivers provide the table with fish of many kinds,both
la rge and sma ll,and of a ll sorts of shapes and ta stes The soi l a lso
feed s innumerable bird s for the plea sure and amusement of the hunting
noblemen ; coveys of sweetly coo ing pa rtridges and francol ins,fond of
steep pla ces , h ide in the rocks and nest in the nooks ; whi le fami l ies of
wild birds,fat and appetizing
,frequent a ll reedy pla ces and h ide in the
groves and bushes,and la rge fat aqua tic b ird s feed on seed s and water
weeds,together with countles s other land and wa ter fowl . Here the
“sa traps wi th the ir h ighborn off spring enjoy hunting with trap or net ;
others pursue the wi ld a ss or the deer, d i scuss ing bowmen and marksman“shi p among themse lves ; others aga in ga110p a fter herd s of stags and
“bufl
'
a loes and exce l a s a rchers ; sti l l others a rmed l ike glad ia tors with“daggers drive la rge herd s of boa rs down steep inclines and kill them.
- 23
Some of the sa trap ’s sons with the ir tutors and friend s supplement thereturn banquet with va rious birds caught by the sparrow-hawk ; everyone
“thus comes happi ly laden from the hunt. The fishermen’s chi ldren,“catching fish and swimming in the wa ter
,awa it the noblemen’s return
a s is customary, and running to meet them present them wi th theircatch, and with va rious wild bird s and eggs they have found in the
river-is land s . The satrap s,a ccepting w ith plea sure a pa rt of the ir
offerings, reciproca te wi th a bountiful gi ft from what they have takenhunting. Thus a ll
,laden wi th good things
, go to the ir homes . It is a
s ight, for those who love fish and viand s, to behold each festa l board
pi led h igh with the produce of the hunt.
Leaving the pla in of Erivan, the Araxes river
QARA-BAGH bend s off to the south-ea st and cuts the southern
QARA-DAGH edge of the mounta inous ma ss if of wh ich Lake
Sevan is the centre . It pa sses then into very nar
row gorges, leaving to its left Qara-bagh, or B lack Garden, which is on
Russ ian territory,and to its right Qara -dagh (the Black Mounta in) be
longing to Pers ia . In th i s region stood , before our era , the city of
Naxuana .
Towa rd s Julfa,the frontier sta tion of the ra i lroad tha t has for the
la st few yea rs connected Tifl is and Tabriz, the va l ley is st i l l some
mi les w ide ; but downstream i t shrinks gradua l ly unti l i t soon narrows
to the l imi ts of the river-bed,the Araxes flowing most of the time a long
s ide cliffs,hemmed in by h igh mounta ins . Here and there, torrents rush ing
down steep s10 pes form sma ll a l luvia l d eltas in the ma in va lley, whereonwe l l-she ltered from the wind there grows the most luxuriant vegeta tion.
Whea t grows in these gorges surpris ingly well, wh i le vine-branches entwine
the ta l lest trees, rea ch the top of huge-trunked wa lnut-trees, and spread
out into gigantic wrea ths above impenetrable th ickets of centuries of
growth. The villages a re lost to s ight under the verdure, buried in
veritable forests of fruit-trees,—incomparable orcha rd s replete w ith pea ch
trees,plum-trees, apricot-trees
,fig
-trees, pomegrana te-trees, apple-trees,and pea r-trees
,bringing rich harvests to the inhabitants who dry the fruit
in the sun and export it (not w ithout cons iderable d ifficulty) to the townsof Azerba
'
idjan and Transcauca s ia .
Each sma l l va lley of any note ha s its l ittle town or hamlet ; thehouses, however, cleave to the rocks
,for there i s l ittle ground ava i lable
for cultivation, and i t ha s to be most ca refully pa rce led out and arranged
in terra ces Upu c‘lu oy wa l ls of d ry stones . The mounta in torrents di
verted at h igh a ltitudes send,through countless streamlets, the i r wa ter to
the sma l lest plot of land , coo l ing and enrich ing the ea rth .
These oa ses a re often at quite a d istance from one another, and the ir
inhabitants a re dependent for inter-communication on the good plea sure
o f the torrent. Today a s in ancient times, they make for themse lves
in the ir vi llages a ll the necess ities of l i fe, woolen and cotton cloth, fa rming
instruments,horse-sadd les, pottery, and copper utens i ls . Na ture provides
them w ith cerea ls,vegetables
,fruit
,and cotton. The herd s feed ing on
the ir mounta ins supply them with wool,meat, da iry products, and h ides.
Game abounds, and l iving in such affluence, they d isda in the fish wh ich
swa rm in the Araxes,—carp
,sa lmon
,sturgeon
,a ll of them sometimes of
giant s ize. As for the ir need s from outs ide,these a re restricted to fire
a rms, ca rtridges, powder, and sa lt. Such people a re poor,some may say,
because they have but l ittle money, but rea l ly they are rich, very rich,for they fea r ne ither hunger nor cold , and the ir need s a re more bounti
ful ly suppl ied than those of our own townfolk at home .
At Qa ra-dagh a s we ll a s at Qa ra-bagh, the h ighest parts of the
country a re sometimes terribly ba re ; one sees ha rd ly any but a few weaklyfruit-trees a round the villages, and for lack of wood the people a re
obliged to burn dried manure. However,in these regions of rigorous
cl imate,most often fog-covered and wrapped in clouds
,ra ins a re frequent
and the dew fa l ls eve ry day, ensuring a bundant cerea l crops wh ich, w ith thecare of the herds
,form the mounta ineers’ sole occupation. There is noth ing
gloomier than these high table land s,tha t are the same in a ll la titudes.
Even inmidsummer i t is icy cold at night, and the damp piercing ; the ba rehi l ls fol low one another a s far a s the eye can rea ch
,and the very few
trees one finds bend ing before the w ind a round the villages remind one of
the spa rse wood s of our ocean coasts in the parts of B ri ttany most ex
posed to the storms,or of the steppes in southern Ru ss ia .
E lsewhere, whether on Pers ian or Russian territory, the he ights a re
covered with forests ; —in the ea stern Qa ra-dagh,for instance
,where
there a re Armenian co lonies ; but in those d i stricts too, the cultivation.
restricted to the sma l l va l leys,is tha t of the colder countries . The vine
grows wi th d ifficulty at these a ltitudes and can only endure the bigwinter frosts by be ing h idden underground for four or five months of
the yea r, a s is the ca se moreover throughout the table land of Iran.
Due to the forests, tha t reta in the moisture, springs abound . A sma ll
d istrict to the ea st of lake Sevan is ca l led Kirk-boulaq ,“forty springs”,
on a ccount of the many streams ca rrying the ir clea r wa ter from its
mounta ins to the Gheuk-tcha i’
; and this term would we ll fit many of the
cantons of Qa ra-dagh, of the region of Ka rs , of tha t of the Joruk and
many other d istricts of Armenia .
But Qa ra-bagh, a med ley of wooded mounta ins, of abrupt peaks,
and ba re pla teaus , with only the va lleys at a ll ferti le, is a region of very
limited resource s, where the inhabitants a re necessa ri ly restricted to the
limits set by the scanty amount of soi l fit for cultiva tion. Some writers,however
,who sure ly have never gone outs ide the ir a tla s, have cons idered
this ma ssi f a s the crad le of the whole Aryan ra ce . Th is hypothes is is un
tenable, not only because Qa ra -bagh la cks spa ce for any such expans ion
of a human fami ly of this s ize,but a lso because a ll the da ta obta inable
from languages,history
,and a rchaeology
,contrad ict it. ( 1 )
W e sha l l see in the next chapter tha t before the a rriva l of the
Armenians and the Ta rta rs in these mounta ins , the peoples inhabiting
them belonged most probably to an ethnic group tha t wa s non—Semiticand non-Aryan
,akin to the Ka rtve l ian fami ly, i.e . to the Georgians , the
Mingrelians, the Lazi , and other Cauca s ians of ancient stock,and tha t
the same th ing hold s for most na tions of the north of Western As ia ; tha t
the Ura rtaeans,the people of Na i ri
, the tribes who preceded the Iraniansin Atropa tenes
,probably be longed to one and the same ethnic group .
Those among these people who were not absorbed by the Semitic con
querors of Assyria , the Mede s or the Armenians,were concentrated in the
va l leys and mounta ins of the Cyrus , of the Pha s is,or the Joruk, and
occupy the countries in wh ich they a re sti l l to be found today . (2)
Archaeologica l d i scoveries prove tha t there were some Aryan in
va sions a cross the Lesse r Cauca sus in very ancient times,but those
movements of people left no la sting colonies apa rt from tha t of the
Ossetes from the south who took up the ir abod e in the center of the
Grea t Cauca sus . These Aryans came from quite d istant regions,some
by the southern shore of the Ca spian Sea , by the Derbend pa ss othersby the defile of Da ria ll . They a ll origina ted
,however
,from populations
to the north-ea st,very fa r from Qa ra-bagh .
( 1 ) In my Premieres Civil isa tions (p . 58 in 1909, I d iscussed thi s interestingquestion with al l its ramifica tions .(2) Cf J. DE MORGAN, Rech erches sur les Orig ines de s peuple: da Caucase,
m which work I went in grea t deta il into th ese movements of population inTranscauca sia , Persia and Armenia .
( 3 ) In Pers ian : “which closes the door
To the south-ea st ofAra ra t stretches the presentAZERBAIDJAN Pers ian province of Azerba idjan, the Atropatenes
of the ancient Pers ians,formerly the land of the
Medes, and today inhabited by Turks, Armenians, Kurd s, Mazdeans,and Cha ldeans. Here Zoroa ster is sa id to have been born, and it is here
tha t origina ted the re l igion of the Avesta , a thousand years or so before
the Ascanian people arrived in the Ma s is region. ( 1)
Th is province is fertile in some pa rts of its pla ins and in its val leys,but dry and barren in its mounta ins. It is an immense inland ba s in,
the bottom of which is lake Urumiah wi th Ararat in the north-west,and Sahend , a la rge volcanic cone with extinct crater, to the ea st. Thecha in of Kurd istan bounds Azerba idjan on the west, wh ile to the ea st
this province connects with the Iranian tableland properly speaking by
the h igh va l ley of the Kizi l-Ouzen or Sefidroud, the largest river in Pers ia ,
running into the Ca spian Sea .
Lake Urumiah is fed by many streams and a few la rge rivers. (Th islake wa s known to the ancients by the name of Mateana s .) Many of its
tributaries,however
,carry sa lt water
, so tha t by degrees the lake ha s
become a va st reservo i r of sa lt which l ike the Dead Sea conta ins no
l i fe . In the dry sea son when its level s inks,i t is ringed wi th sa l ine de
pos its a s wh ite a s snow, whi ch shining in the burning sun,form a dazz
l ing be lt a ll a round the blue surfa ce of Mateanas .
In rea l ity,Azerba idjan l ike a ll the Pers ian pla teau is a va st dese rt
with very many scattered oa ses . Each spring, ea ch stream, ve ry ski l lfully
d ive rted by the natives, spreads ferti l ity through th is w ilderness . But,
beyond the fie lds made a rable by wa tering, there is only stony sunburnt
ground,growing just a few scanty prickly plants . The mounta ins are
dry, bare, often impregnated with sa lt, sometimes covered w ith patches ofmotley flowers of the brightest hues. Ruddy he ights overlook the city ofTabriz. E lsewhere the hills ides show tiers of clay
,—grey, wh ite, yel low,
purple, and green,—intermingled with beds of sand stone or l imestone
1 ) In northern Azerba idjan,there are no traces of neol ithic man ; the oldest
burial places are dolmens of the Bronze Age ; iron i s found from the beginning of the12th century B.C. Later, buria l sites give way to Mazdean frame s for exposing deadbodies. Th is change took pl ace apparentl y about the 8th century at the time thatZoroa ster’s rel igion spread in Atropatenes, and the Median empire wa s formed.Hence, no further tombs are found until Moslem burial sites appear. ( Cf. J. DEMORGAN, Mis s ion scientifiq ue en Perse , vol . IV, l st part ; H. DE MORGAN.
Memo ires de la Delega tion scientifique en Perse , vol . VIII, p . 25 1
(2 ) Al t. ft.
28
a s multicolored a s an a rtist’s pa lette . Then towa rds the Sahend a re
found thick flows of da rk lava , and at the foot of tha t volcano immense
heaps of ye l lowish phosphorites conta ining a med ley of rema ins of en
tirely lost fauna : ( 1) e lephants, rh inoceros, huge boars, prehi storic horses,
monkeys, giant tortoises, and large birds, wh ich l ived hereabouts in the
tertia ry period . Whereas this was before the upheava l of the Iran
plateau, when these lands sca rce ly emerged from the ocean had a climate
l ike tha t of Ind ia today, here and there one find s, on th is chaotic desert
table land,green va lleys forested w i th popla rs, whi te-trunked tebrizis, w ith
compact upright branches ; these trees planted in profus ion are the
country’s only source of wood for bui ld ing and heating. Ta ll, sl im, and
pa le-leaved , the i r colorful forms add an original and cheerful note to the
otherw ise gloomy landscapes of Azerba idjan.
On the he ights, on Sahend, and in the Kurd istan cha in, a re the
summe r pa sture-lands of the nomads wh ich have caused constant stri fe
and ba rba rous wars between ne ighboring tribes for centuries and cen
turies. Down on the pla in, however, i t is over spring and streams thatvi llages qua rre l, for in these land s the sma llest stream is looked on a s most
precious property ; no s ingle drop of wa ter it suppl ies is wasted , and the
Turkish,Pers ians
,and Armenian fa rmers a re pastmasters in the science
of i rrigation. Both the d istribution of the wa ter supply and the ap
portionment of pa sture-land , i t is true, a re governed by customs datingba ck to the first settlements of the region; nevertheless respect for thesecustoms rests upon force
,and genera l ly might is right.
The ch ief towns of the Medes in Atropa tenes, Gazaka and Phraa spa ,
were s ituated far to the south in wha t were at that time the populousd istricts of Moukri and Gherrous in present-d ay Kurd istan, whereas thenorth wa s more sparse ly inhab ited, not offering suffi cient na tural te
sources for a la rge popula tion.
Between D i lman and Ouchnouw, on the weste rn
PERS IAN shore of lake Urumiah,at the foot of the Kurdish
KURDISTAN mounta ins abound ing in streams, the whole countryis verdant, and the h ighlands, shaded by forests, are
( 1 ) Cf. R. DE MECQUENEM, Anna les de la De legation scientifique en Parse,concerning th e fossil vertebrata of the Mara gha deposit.
covered with fa t pa stures . The same is true of the
region of the river Kia lvi (the lower l ab ) , and all
the western Slope of these mounta ins,in Ottoman
territory, is l ikewi se wooded , we l l wa tered , and fer
ti le in the va l leys . But these d istricts have a lways
been in the posses s ion of the Medes or the ir d escen
dants,the Kurd s , and if they had sought to venture
into them, the Armenians would have come up a ga inst
THE TOWN OFcountles s d iffi culties . They therefore turned away
SAMOSATA AND from the mounta ins and colonized only the pla in,THE EUPHRATES
a round Di lman, Sa lma s, and Urumiah . The Ghader(All egori ca l figureon an old coin.) tcha
'
i is the ir extreme l imit in the south .
The Armenians d id not find in Atropa tenes the
same fa ci l ities to expand tha t they found in the countries north,west,
and south-we st of Ara ra t, and moreover they met, on the shores of lake
Urumiah and in the region of the upper Zab,with the re s istance of a
powerful and wa rl ike people . On the other hand,in Transcauca s ia the
older popula tions were d ivided,and to the west the Assyrian and Ura rtian
provinces,d isorganized by the downfa l l of the ir capita l c ities
,were ih
capable of res istance . Armenian expans ion in Atropa tenes wa s thereforeve ry limi ted ; there were a few settlements
,but these fa rming colonies
were never more than sporad ic, and the ch ief centers of the na tion inPers ia deve loped only la ter in the towns where commerce and industrygave the newcomers means of l ive l ihood .
To the west and south-west of the Ma s isTHE PLATEAU OF stretches Turkish Armenia
, the la rgest of theERZERUM three modern pol itica l d ivis ions of the Ascan
ian people . Its chief center is on a very h ighpla teau conta ining today the towns of Erzerum Van ancient
Thospia,Bitlis ancient Batatesa
,Mouch a ll names renowned in
history ; the center of this province is the Bin-Gheul-dagh a verysqua t mounta in send ing forth many streams through its countless gull ies.It is on this plateau command ing the whole of W estern As ia tha t the
( 1 ) Al t, ft.
( 2 ) Al t. ft.
( 3 ) Al t. ft.
(4 ) Al t, ft.
( 5 ) Al t. ft.
most famous rivers of early legend s take the ir rise . The Araxes,just
mentioned,the western Euphra tes (or Qa ra -tcha i
’
in Turkish) wh ich risesnot more than 25 mi les north of the ci ty of Erzerum near the vi llageof Kiza il-Kilissa the ea stern Euphra tes or Mourad-tcha i
’
, the ancientArsania s
, flowing down from the Agri-dagh the height forming thefrontier outpost of Russ ian terri tory prior to 1914, and fina lly the Tigriscomposed of a hund red or more streams i ssuing from the grea t land eleva
REGION OF LAKE VAN
tion s itua ted to the south of lake Van,name ly
, the Armenian Taurus.
Just a s ea ch Russ ian and Pe rs ian provmce of Armenia ha s its lake,so ha s Turkish Armenia ,—the Dzov Vana of the Armenians
, the lake Vanof the Turks and Europeans
,and the Thospitis ( 3 ) of the ancient world
,
a va st sheet of s l ightly sa lty wa ter,75 mi les long
,and 56 wide in its
( 1 ) The Ye llow Church , in Turki sh . Alt. ft.( 2 ) Al t. ft
,
( 3 ) Al t. ft.
southern part, fed by the ma ss if of Ararat, the Kurd istan cha in, and the
Armenian Taurus . Here formerly, on the ea stern shore of lake Thospitis
stood the capita l of the kings of Ura rtu, and here upon the rocks the
Sardur and Argistis dyna sties engraved the story of their exploits
aga inst the ir terrib le subjects of Ashur, aga inst the inhabitants of Med ia .
The territories of these rulers then extended from the regions a round
Gheuk-tcha i’
on the north and the Kurd istan mounta ins on the ea st, a s
far a s and sometimes beyond the Armenian Taurus on the south. These
lords of Ura rtu were mighty monarchs ; they waged uncea s ing wa r often
V i ctoriously, aga inst the ir ea stern and southern ne ighbors . The ir country,moreover
,despite its cold clima te due to h igh a ltitudes
,produced a ll the
supplies need ful for the l i fe of a Sta te in those times . Its va l leys a re
ferti le,its pa sture-land s ri ch
,and its mounta ins wel l wooded and abound
ing in meta ls.
I f the trave ler crosses the pa ss of Kel-i-chin ( 1 ) by the path lead ingfrom Ouchnouw to Revandouz
,he enters Turkish Kurd istan, an un
cultivated but phys i ca lly favored land, covered with immense forests of
sweet a corn-bea ring oak-trees . Wherea s i f he leaves Pers ia by the pa sses
of Khoi,he meets only with me adows and wel l watered fa rm-land s . Th is
is because in spite of its centuries and centuries of neglect, in spite of a
lamentable government, the region is sti l l one of the most fertile of
As iatic Turkey,thanks to the industry of the Armenians who since they
a rrived in the land have a lways striven to develop the natura l richesof the so i l . The new-comers a lone endeavored to improve the ir native
land , wherea s the pi llaging Kurd s and the lazy Kartvelians made no at
tempt to enhance the ir province,and the only ambition of the Arabian or
Turki sh ma sters wa s to l ive off the work of the ir Christian serfs .
To the north-west of the Armenian plateau,LAZITAN AND the river Tcha roukh of the Turks, the Jorokh
THE PONTIC ALPS of the Armenians, makes a deep separation be
tween the lands of the Christian Aryans and
those of the Moslem Lazi . Thi s stream,ris ing in the ne ighborhood of
Baibourt runs pa ra l lel to the B lack Sea coast, crosses the Parkhalmounta ins, the ancient Paryadres, near Artvin (3 ) and empties itself into
( 1 ) In Kurd ish : th e Blue Stone, a name taken from a stel e of diorite rock placedthere once by a king of Urartu.
(2 ) Al t. ft.
( 3 ) Al t. ft,
—32
the B la ck Sea a l ittle to the south-west of Ba tum,a fter travel ing about
220 mi les . It is a rush ing torrent from its source to its mouth ; at a
hund red or more d ifferent points i t ha s dug i tsel f deep and impa ss
able gorges, and following its va l ley it is ea sy to understand the im
portant pa rt it played a s a d itch dug by Nature between the Armenian
Sta tes and the Greco-Roman territory of the Pontus .
Formerly the Pontic Alps north of the Tcha roukh belonged to
tribes ca l led the Macrones and the Mosch i ; today the La zi occupy thesemounta ins
,and i t is quite certa in tha t the Lazi a re none other than the
descendants of the tribes tha t Xenophon’s Greeks once vis ited
,for these
people, speaking a Cauca s ian tongue,undoubted ly a re sti l l dwe ll ing in
the land of the ir ancestors .
The re is noth ing more interesting,for anyone who is fortuna te
enough to be able to vi s i t Lazistan and to read once more the Anabarisa s he makes his way through thi s mounta in chaos, than to ob serve the
customs of these uncivi l ized peoples . Except for the ir rel igious bel iefs,
no change ha s come to the l ife of these mounta ineers during the twentyfive centuries sepa ra ting us from the time of Cyrus the Younger. Thevi l lages are sti ll today a s they were when the Ten Thousand pa ssedthrough, and the people have rema ined just a s fierce and inhospitable a s
they were in the pa st. On th is s ide Armenian expans ion came up a ga instthe precipice s of the Tcha roukh, and at the giant wa l l of the Pontic Alps(of wh ich many peaks reach feet) met with inpenetrable forestsand
,above a ll
, with wa rl ike, energetic inhabitants absolute ly determinedto drive ba ck any foreign intruders .
It is because of the Lazi on her north-west border tha t Armenianever had any outlet to the sea
,and this impossib i l ity of having d i
rect communication with the cente rs of Greek civi liza tion played an
important and baneful role in her destiny . For had they been in possess ion of the coa st, had they settled at the mouth of the Tcharoukh
,
at Rizeh, or at Trebizond , the Armenians would have been able to takepa rt in the genera l l i fe of the Greek world and Armenia would haveformed a grea t Sta te able to res i st the mighty Ea ste rn and W estern empires centuries before the Romans appea red in Western As ia . To undera
other rulers of his dyna sty ; for the kings of the Pontus a ccompl ished
grea t feats,and yet the people under them we re less gifted than the
Armenian nation.
L ike a ll h igh—lying lands,the cl ima te of the pla teau
CLIMATE of Erzerum is very severe . The winter is frigid,and
OF THE the very deep snow rema ins on the ground for months .
ARMENIAN On the other hand,due to the latitude, the summers
PLATEAU a re torrid,and the grea t hea t in conjunction with the
plenteous water supply and the natura l ferti li ty of the
soi l,make Armenia a fruitful land .
As in the northern pla ins of Europe,vegetation grows ve ry fast, and
i t can be sa id tha t,l ike in Scand inavia
,
“
you can hea r the whea t grow.
POSITION OF THE ARMENIAN PLATEAU COMPARED TO
NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
As for the orcha rd s, they a re a s fruitful a s any of our European gardens,
for the snow covering the mounta in-tops both in Kurd istan and in the
Armenian Taurus rema ins throughout the summer and the gardens can
be we l l watered during the whole d ry sea son.
— 34
overlord ship of Armenia , the rampa rts of Roman territory were at
N is ib is, Tigranocerta , and Amida , at the southern foot of the Armenian
Taurus,but the pol itica l center and stra tegic base were further north
on the pla teau i tse lf. The grea t Theodos ius ( 1 ) had no i l lus ions rega rd ing
the importance of the Armenian citadel, when he ordered one of his legates
to bui ld right in the midd le of this region the city of Erzerum wh ich ever
s ince ha s been the hea rt of Armenia . Moses of Khoren (2) ha s left us an
a ccount of the found ing of Theodos iopol is (Erzerum) a long with a des
cription of the s ite se lected by the Romans
“Genera l Anatolus, upon rece iving the order from the Emperor,
came into our land ; he trave led over many of our provinces and de“cided to bui ld in the District of Karin, ( 1) the center of the country,posse ss ing a we l l-wa tered, rich
,and ferti le soi l . This center is not very
far from where the springs of one part of the Euphra tes take their rise,
and these springs in the ir quiet flow spread out into a va st ma rsh or
inland sea . (2 ) There were grea t quantities of fish and of a ll kinds of
bird s,and the inhabitants l ived ent irely on eggs. The edges of th is marsh
are covered with rushes and reeds. The pla ins grow grass and seed
fru its . The mounta ins abound wi th cloven-footed and rumina ting an
ima ls. The herd s breed rapid ly,a re la rge and strong
, and fatten wonderfully.
At the foot of th is pleasant mounta in (3 ) are many clea r springs .Th is is the point which Anatolus chose for the s ite of the city ; he sur
rounded it wi th a wide d i tch,la id very deep the foundations of the
wa l ls,and erected on the ramparts a number of ta l l and tremendous
towers, the first of which he ca l led Theodos ia in honor of Theodosius.Further out he bui lt other towers wi th proj ections l ike ships’ prows, andhe a lso dug passages oppos ite the mounta in. He did the same on the
“s ide of the pla in towards the north ; and both on the east and on the
west he constructed round-shaped towers . In the midd le of the city, onan eminence, he bui lt a number of warehouses
,and ca l led the spot
Augusteum in honor of Augustus (Theodos ius ) . He conveyed wa ter
( 1 ) 3 79-395 AD .
( 2 ) V ol . III, LIX; transl . vol . II, p . 166.
( 1 ) Carani tis of Pl iny.(2 ) Sazlouk of th e Turks, i .a . pl ace of the reeds.
( 3 ) Top-da gh or“Cannon mounta in
”, of the Turks ; sourp-kha tch or
“the holy
cross”of th e Armenians.
— 36
to d i fferent po ints by underground conduits . He filled the city with a rms
and troops, and gave it the name of Theodos iopol is, so tha t its name
should immorta l ize tha t of Theodosius . F ina lly, Anatolus erected ed ificesof freestone over the therma l springs . (4)The perpetua l wa rs wh ich the Armenian people had to wage to pre
serve the ir independence,together w ith the ha rshness of the ir na tive
climate,made them a race of sturdy, hardy, and brave warriors, whose
love of country and na tiona l freedom increa sed in proportion a s they shed
the ir blood preserving the ir heritage . To th is specia l s ituation of Armenia
is due the a rdent pa triotism in the hea rt of every Armenian. It is a lso
the rea son why for centuries the kingdom of Ura rtu la sted,wh i le a ll the
grea t Ea stern Sta tes fel l succes s ive ly, under the Assyrian a ssault. In this
h istory,the reader will see the Armenian na tion ever fighting to keep the ir
land,the i r freedom,
the ir trad itions,and the ir rel igion
,and ever be ing at
tacked from every point of the compa ss because fa te had pla ced them in
the most vita l stra tegic pos i tion of a ll As ia .
During the grea t wa rs of the Romans and the Byzantines aga inst the
Pers ians,hosti l ities a lmost a lways broke out in Armenia where, i f the
Empire wa s d irecting its chief effort aga inst Ctes iphon, the Armenian arm
ies fighting a longs ide the legions constituted a threat on the north to
the King of Kings,compel l ing him to d ivid e his a rmy. W a s not the
capture of Erzerum by the Russ ians in 1878, and aga in recently, re
garded a s a fa ta l b low to Turkey ? Th i s pecul iar pos ition of the Armenian
home land expla ins not only the ma in pha ses of thi s va l iant people’sh istory, but the ir development of phys ica l and mora l character.
Although at d ifferent period s the Armenian doma inSOUTHERN greatly va ried in extent
,i t a ppea rs (except for the time
ARMENIA of Tigranes the Grea t ) never to have gone further south
than the left bank of the Tigris between D ia rbekir and
Djeziret- ibn-Oma r ; and in the Armenian Taurus the Armenians seem to
be a minority compa red to the Kurd ish population. Moreover the va stmounta in ma ss i f of the Djoud i-dagh at the south of lake Van has hardlvbeen explored geographica l ly. A few trave lers at the most have noted
the genera l d irection of the ma in streams running down from i t. Twola rge rivers
,tributa ries of the Tigri s, take the ir ri se in these mounta ins.
(4) Cf. PROCOPIUS, De Aed if., vol . III, p . 5 . Karin of the Armenians, Erzerumof the Turks (Ara-Rum or Arz-e r-Rum,
“the citadel of the
37
name ly, the Bohtan-tcha i into wh ich there runs the B itl is torrent, and
the Khabour, issuing from the he ights of the Persian frontie r, at about the
latitude of Di lman. Between these two rivers the maps show noth ing ;the rea son is tha t th is ma ssi f is inhabited by the most inhospitable tribes
of these pa rts,by the notorious ma ssa cring Kurds who, let loose in recent
yea rs aga inst the Armenians, descended on Bitlis,Van
, and Mouch,with the ir ad ja cent countrys ide
,and spread dea th and deva station in the
vi llages and towns.
All the mounta in region of the left bank of the Tigris, from D ia rbek i rto the outskirts of B agdad , is sti ll steeped in the most frightful savage ry.
Every va lley, every little d istrict, ha s its independent Kurd ish tribe, often
at wa r with its ne ighbors . They a re a ll more or less emancipa ted from
Turkish or Pers ian authority ; many have never been subdued . So much
is this the ca se that officia ls of the Shah or the Sultan ha rd ly ever venture
into th is labyrinth of mounta ins, rocks,forests
,precip ices
,and deep
gorges,where the Kurd s
,fa r from the outs ide world and sure of impunity
for the ir crimes, l ive to themse lves on the ir loot,ma inta in the fierce in
stincts of the ir ancestors, the Ca rducii, and repulse any fore ign interference, be the intruders corel igionists or not. One can ea s i ly understand the enthus ia sm wi th which the bloody orders of Abdul-Hamidand the Young Turks were greeted in these mounta ins ; i t wa s a terriblereviva l of ba rba ri ty, a del irium of murder
,pi llage
,and sad ism.
The cente r of Kurd istan is indeed in this vast
TURKISH region, where the tribes, (whose anna ls have been
KURDISTAN wri tten by Sheri f nameh ) have kept the ir ancientchara cter and customs with und iminished harshness
and abandon. These clans encroach wide ly on Pers ian terri tory,towa rds
Moukri, Serdecht, and Sineh, in the Avroman region; but they occupyma inly the Armenian Taurus and the mounta ins from wh ich flow the two
Zab rivers, the Zab-ala or upper Zab and the Zéb-el-asfa l,or lower
Zab . ( 3 ) Thi s country is one of the ch ief recru it-ing source s for the Turk ishgovernment of its famous Hamidiyehs, notorious for the horrors theycommit da i ly aga inst Christians.
( 1 ) Cf. Transl . Desire CHAMROY (St. Petersburg ) .( 2) Zaba s major( 3 ) Zeba s minor
Towa rd s the west, in the va lleys of the two
WESTERN Euphra tes, the Armenians expanded more vigorously
ARMENIA than towa rd s the south. There, in the regions once
crossed by the ir forefa thers a s they made the ir way
to Ara ra t, they founded very many flourishing colonies, both in the open
country and in the sma l l towns and cities . One need mention only the“Armenistans
”of Erzind jan on the ea stern Euphra tes and Kha rput on the
Arsania s,to have a proper idea of the expans ive force of the Armenian ra ce .
The sca ttered colonies l inking Grea ter Armenia with Armeno-Cil ic ia a re
very numerous ; they constitute a sort of a rch i pelago between Erzerum and
the mounta ins of the Amanus . Everywhere on th is long route , these
Christians founded villages deep in Mos lem land s, and they pa rceled out
the soi l,in spite of the dangerous proximi ty of Kurds, Turks, and C i r
ca ss ians . Most of the tributa ries of the Euphra tes run in ferti le va lleys,and these lands had been genera lly abandoned when gradua l ly during the
centuries the Armenians came and deve loped them.
In the principa l va lley, the a rable land s do not fol low a ccura te ly
the river banks,but crop up in i slets of a ll s izes
,running l ike a string of
oa ses from one bank of the river to the other a ccord ing to the wh im of
the current. E lsewhe re the river forms rapid s,and rushes through deep
gorges wh ich a re often flanked with h igh cl iffs . One of these gorges, theKamagh-Boghaz ( I) recently acquired sad renown. Turks and Kurds,at the orders of their Stamboul ma sters
,ma ssacred thou sands of Ar
meulan women, ch i ld ren, and old folk,a ha rmless mult itude d riven out
of the ir towns and villages and pushed forwa rd l ike cattle to these rocks,the scene of the ir martyrdom. Many of these unfortuna te people, rather
than wa i t for the fate their executioners had for them,put an end to the ir
sufferings in the turbulent wa ters of the Euphra tes.The Euphra tes is not navigable throughout its upper course
,e ithe r
its western or its ea stern branch Only a fter Biredjik, or ra ther
a fter Meskeneh, ( 3 ) can boa ts be used . Above th is spot,the river runs
violently in a bed ful l of rocks and inte rrupted by fa l ls and rapid s.
Usua lly ves se ls leaving Mesekneh go adri ft down the river,not with
out some d ifficulty, and stop at Feloudja a smal l vi l lage near Bag
( 1 ) Alt. ft. at 25 mi les downstream from Erzindjan where the altitude i sabout ft.
( 2 ) The junction of the two Euphrates ( alt. ft. ) i s 22 mil e s south-ea st of
Arabkir and 25 mil e s west of Kharput,( 3 ) A place on the l e ft river, 3 8 mil e s we st of Al eppo .
(4) At 3 8 mi le s we st of Ba gda d .
dad ; the Euphra tes current is so strong that no boa t can go upstream. On
a rriving at Feloudja these vesse ls unload the ir good s, and are then taken
to pieces,and the wood is taken on came ls to the capita l of the Ca l iphs
and there offered for sa le . As for the crew,they have a twenty or twenty
five-day journey overland ba ck to the ir country.
On the midd le Tigris, naviga tion, downstream only of course, is
ca rried on by means of keleks or ra fts of planks held together by a cross
work of tree-branches and supported by infla ted wa ter-skins. Th is mode of
transporta tion is a s old a s h istory itse lf in these lands, and is depicted in
Assyrian ca rvings . It is used between D iarbekir and B agdad , for only
beyond Sama ra or E ski-B agdad,not fa r from Harun-a l-Ra schid
’s city,
is two-way naviga tion on the Tigris poss ib le for boats and sha l lowd raught steamers .
Thus we see tha t the rivers coming down from the Erzerum pla teau
never served the Armenians in the ir pol itica l or commercia l expans ion
to the south and south-west . Th i s fa ct not only ha s an important bearing
on the growth of the Armenian people ’s outward connections, but itp layed a vita l pa rt in the h istory of Western As ia , first in checking the
westwa rd movement of Cha ldean civi l ization,and then by confining the
regions of the two grea t rivers to outlets on the Ea st, i .e . towa rd s sti l l
ba rba ric countries,and this at the time when the Med iterranean countries
had become the center of human progress .
When Jul ian the Ph i losopher left Antioch at the head of his a rmy toa tta ck the Persians
,he took the road to Ctes iphon
,fol lowing the left bank
of the Euphra tes, wh i lst the ships laden with his troop s’ mi litary supplies
were ca rried downstream; and when he reached Sapor’s capita l, knowing
tha t none of his vesse ls could return to Syria , he set fire to the fleet. Thereturn journey of the legions
,a fter the ir Emperor’s dea th
,wa s a downright
d isa ster.
When King Chosroes went out aga inst the Roman provinces of Syria .
aga inst Antioch or Jerusa lem,he and his transports moved overland , and
so it wa s always whenever As iatics set out to conquer Phoenicia or Egypt.The inhabitants of Coelo-Syria seem to have been in the best pos ition,but i t wa s sti l l a preca rious privi lege
,for the forty days march at lea st ( 1)
between Antioch and Ctes iphon,offered serious d ifficulties whether for
advancing a rmies or for trade-ca ravans,on these sometimes torrid
,some
times frigid de serts . These same d ifli culties blocked a ll northern peoples inthe ir des ire to obta in land s enjoying mi lder climates . The Armenians were
( 1 ) About 600 mil es.
no exception to the genera l law ; they stopped at the la titude of the midd le
Tigri s and only occa s iona lly, at the time of the conque sts of Tigrane s
the Grea t,d id they push a s fa r a s the northern l imits of the Sindja r
The unfortuna tes who today a re suffering th irst in the d esert nea r De i r
e l-Zor and Dama scus,d riven from the ir na tive land by the Turks into
the se wa ste s whence there is no return,a re pa rked in d istricts tha t were
never known to the Armenians .
At d ifferent times, the extent of the Armenian
FRONTIERS home land ha s va ried grea tly . The Achaemenian in
OF scriptions ( 1 ) show th i s na tion a s a lready settled on
ARMENIA the E rzerum pla teau ; but only in the first centuries of
our e ra wa s its geographica l pos i tion a ccura te ly stated
in writings rema ining extant . The geographe r Strabo (2 ) ha s left us quite
a clea r idea of wha t Armenia cons i sted of in his t ime . (3 )
Protected on the south by the [Armenian] Taurus , he wrote,Armenia is bordered on the ea st by Grea ter Med ia [the Kurd i stan of
Moukri and Sineh ] and by Atropa tenes [Azerba idjan] . To the north
i t is bounded pa rtly by the portion o f the Pa rachoathra s cha in s itua ted
ARMENIA IN ROMAN TIMES
( 1 ) Tril ingua l inscriptions of Da rius a t Bi soutun (Beh i stun ) .( 2 ) Strabo d ie d in the re ign of Tiberius (A.D. 14
( 3 ) STRABO, Geogr. vol . XI, p . XIV-I.
— 4 1
above the Ca spian Sea [western E lburz ] , by Albania [Daghestan] andIberia [Georgia ] —together with the C auca sus tha t includes these two
latter provinces and wh ich, connect ing on the very frontiers of Armeniawith the Moschian and Colchaean mounta ins [ea stern Lesser Cauca sus ]extend s actua lly into the land s of the Tiba reni [ towa rd s Qa ra-Hissa r ]and by Mount Pa ryadres [Pontic Alps of Lazistan] and the Skydises
[towa rds Kha rput ] a s far a s Lesser Armenia [to the west of the western
Euphrates ] and the va l ley of the Euphrates, which prolongs the sepa ra
tion between Armenia on the one s ide and Cappadocia [ S iva s ] and
Commagene [ea st of the Amanus ] on the other.
Accord ing to his inva riable custom, the Cappadocian geographer
not only describes the appea rance of the country (which ha s, moreover,undergone no grea t change for the la st two thousand years ) , but he sets
forth a lso,briefly
,the progress made by the Armenians in the ir country
from the time the Pers ians were subdued by the a rmies of Alexander the
Grea t to the date of his incompa rable work.
“The Kingdom of Armenia,
”he says
,owed its extens ion chiefly to
the conquests of Artaxia s and Zariad ra s,former l ieutenants of Antiochus
the Grea t,who on the fa ll of the ir ma ster were ca l led to reign
, the one
over Sophene [the ea stern bank of the Euphra tes ] , Antisene, Oromandris,and the surround ing d istricts [Erze rum pla teau ] ,—the other over the
province of Artaxata [E rivan province ] . These two by the ir unitedefforts captured in success ion : Ca spiana [the pla in of Moughan and
region of B aku ] from the Medes ; Phaunitis and Ba ssorOpeda [northerns lope of the Lesser Cauca sus ] from the Iberians ; the whole foot of Mt.
Pa ryadres [Pontic Alp s ] together with Chorzene [between the two‘
branches of the upper Euphrates ] , and beyond the Cyrus, Gogarene
[Gouga rq or Gougarkh of the Armenians ] from the Cha lybi and the
Mossina ecians ; Ca renitis and Derxene [high western Euphrates ] twoprovinces today ad ja cent to Lesser Armenia i f not pa rts thereof
,from
the Cataones ; Akilisene [north part of Commagene ] and a ll the dis
tricts of the Anti-Taurus from the Syrians ; and fina l ly Ta ronitis [Taron“of the Armenians, south of Lake Van] , -all of wh ich countries
,on ac
count of thi s grouping together under one rule speak today the samelanguage.
”
Undoubted ly the Armenians ’ glorious periods under Artaxias and
Za riadra s,and Tigranes the Grea t
,a re those of their country’s grea test
expans ion. Numerous colonies were founded in the va st States of thoserulers, co lonies so large and tha t became so prosperous tha t the Armenian
2 ) Sophene, or Fourth Armenia of the Greeks,bounded on the west
by the midd le Euphrates,and crossed by the ea stern Euphrates (the
Arsania s ) . Its chief city today is Kharput.
3 ) Aghtznik, extend ing south to the upper Tigri s (Dia rbekir) , ln
cluded Arzanene (Arm-Artzn) , the cities of Martyropolis and Tigranocerta ,— and today the town of l\Iouch .
4 ) Tourouberan, the ancient Chorzianene, comprises the whole
E rzerum region a s fa r a s the north shore of lake V an.
5 ) Mock,or ancient Gordyene, probably the Moxoene of Ammian
Ma rcel l inus,includ ing the northern s lope of the Armenian Taurus, a s fa r
a s lake Van,with Bitlis and Van a s its towns .
6) Kordja iq , on the left bank of the Tigris,south of the Armenian
Taurus,a s fa r a s the upper Zab . Djeziret-ibn-Omar is the ch ief town of
the region today .
7 ) Pa rskaha iq , or Perso—Armenia , a region stradd l ing the Kurd istan
cha in,belonging today pa rtly to Pers ia ; —includes Sa lma s, Urumiah
,and
the western bank of lake Urumiah .
8 ) V a spourakan, to the south-ea st of Ara rat (Pers ia and Turkey )with the towns of Ma rand
,Khor
,and Bayazid .
9) Siouniq , the Sissakan of the Pers ians,Syrians
,and Arab s
, to the
north of the Araxes,includes the Russ ian mounta in d istricts of Chahrour.
Da ra lagheuz, Djahouk, and Ghapan,and the towns of Nakhitchevan,
Djulfa , and Ordubad .
10) Artsakh or Qa ra -bagh of our time,with Choucha its ch ief town.
1 1 ) Pa itaka ran compri s ing the promontory formed by the junction of
the Kurah and Araxes rivers in the midd le of the Moughan pla in. In
this d irection the Armenians sometimes pushed tempora ri ly a s fa r a s the
Ca spian shore .
12) Outi, compri s ing the northern s lope of the mounta ins of Gheuk
tcha i (Rus s ian d istricts of Kazakh i , Chamchad il and Airioun) a s fa r a s
the bank of the Cyrus , with Ielisavetopol (Gandzek ) its ch ief modern
town. The Greeks ca l led thi s province Otene .
13 ) Gouga rq , the Goga rene of the Greeks , a mounta inous country
on the upper course of the Cyrus , north of the Araxes, the region of Ka rs,
Alexand ropol, Ardahan, and Artvin.
14) Ta rq, a d i strict s i tua ted between tha t of Erzerum and the right
bank of the Jorokh .
15 ) Al ra rat (Ara ra t) , the grea t Armenian center of E rivan and
Etchmiadzin. Here stood the cities of Artaxata , Armavir, B aga ran, and
Ani.
As we have seen, the ancient world d ivided
GREATER AND Armenia into two d i stinct Sta tes, Armenia Ma jor
LESSER ARMENIA or Grea ter Armenia and Armenia M inor or
Lesser Armenia . The la tter wa s bounded on
the north by the kingdom of Pontus,on the south by Cappadocia
,and on
the west by the d istrict of Polemon. It included the regions to the left
of the western Euphra tes a s fa r up a s its junction with the Arsania s . Th is
Sta te had therefore nothing to do with Armeno-Cil icia,wh ich did not
exi st unti l the 1 1th century of our era . The name of Lesser Armeniacannot
,consequently
,be applied to the Rupenian kingdom for which the
name of New Armenia is much more appropriate .
At the present time,we find the Armenian popu
NEW lation decreas ing a s,leaving Erzerum
,we go to
ARMENIA OR wa rd s the Euphrates,and increa s ing a s we leave the
S ISSOUAN right bank of the Euphra tes and descend from
Kha rput towa rd s the Cil ician shores of the Med
iterranean. The rea son is tha t we a re now entering the la st of the
Armenian kingdoms, New Armenia , ca l led Sissouan by the na tives . MostEuropean writers ca l l i t Armeno-Cilic ia
,but improperly so
,for in the
attempt thus to jo in together two periods of the country’s h istory, theya re committing a grievous anachronism.
45
E S5
KU RDE
A RA B m m
MAP OF THE REGIONS OF WESTERN ASIA INHABITED BY THE ARMENIANS
Regions inhabited by the Armcnians,
( Shaded ) z—Districts where the Armenians are more than a th ird of the population.
Ma ra sch, Ze i toun, Adana, Sis, Hadjm, Dortyol, etc. are the ch ief
Christian centers of this country. In those va l leys, on the southe rn
s lope of the great As iatic peninsula, are preserved to this day the te
ma ins of the Armenian popula tion over whom reigned, a fter the Rupenian
founders of the kingdom became extinct, the French dynasty of Lusignan,
New Armenia , which came into existence shortly a fte r the d isaster
of the Bagratids of Ani,had l ike a ll ea stern Sta tes its days of good and
ill fortune, and its frontiers varied accord ing to the success a ttend ing
its a rms . Nevertheless its average extent was at least equal to that of thesma l ler European countries such a s Swi tzerland
,Belgium,
Hol land, or
Denmark.
New Armenia occup ied a l ittle over 300 mi le s of the Med iterraneancoa st, from the Gulf of Alexand retta to nea r the mouth of the rive r knownto the ancients a s the Mela s
, and to the Turks a s the Manarga'
i-tchai .Its northern borders, which were a lways rather vague
, seem to have beenthe Taurus wa tershed, wh i lst the Amanus Mounta ins were its ea ste rnfrontier.
46
La rge streams water the pla ins lying between the two cha ins, a s wel l
a s the coa sta l region. On the west there is first the Ghenk-sou (or b luewa ter) , the Ca lycadmus of ancient times ; then, fu rthe r ea st, the river
Ta rsus or Sa i‘
houm, the former Sa rus, and the river Djihan, known to
the Greeks a s the Pyramis, not to speak of a large number of rivu letsdescend ing from the Taurus and Amanns cha ins .
MAP OF CILICIA
It ha s so happened tha t the Armenians have always been connected
wi th lands of fame,for
,a fter los ing the i r independence in the i r Ara rat
homeland, they settled around the famous Ci l ician Gates through whichAlexander the Grea t pa ssed , on his way to his victory in I ssus tha t was tospread Greek civi l ization throughout the world .
The new home then chosen by the Armenians is a land blessed of
heaven; abundantly wa tered, the ferti l ity of its pla ins, the coolness of its
southwa rd-exposed va l leys, make i t a veritable parad ise on ea rth. In
47
Cilicia,a s moreover in Syria , everything grows
in profus ion : the vine,the ol ive-tree
,the pome
grana te and orange trees , fi l l the orcha rd s
a long with eve ry va riety of our European fruittrees . The fa rmer ha s two crop s yea rly, and
the mounta ins a lso,above the ir shaded s ides
of century-old forests of ceda r and pine, have
rich gra ss-land s on the ir summits tha t a re
often over th irteen thousand fe et h igh . Onlyind eed some evi l genius could have surrendered
these regions to the ind ifference of the Turks, THE RIVER CYDNUScutting short the d evelopment of such bountiful (Al l
glgl
o
zl
l
c
gl
co
fi
igriil
e on
natura l riches .
For the first time in the course of the ir long na tiona l existence,the
Armenians of Cilicia were able to ma inta in d irect intercourse by sea with
the peoples of the west,and i f fa te had a l lowed they would have de
ve loped in a para lle l d irection and under the same influences a s the
peoples of Europe . During the Crusades,the
Armenian people, though of Ea stern origin,de
veloped rapid ly and pa rted company with the
Byzantine world wh ich for so many centuries hadh indered the ir progre ss
,and wh ich peri shed
,the
victim of its own ob stinacy and ancient prejud ices .
But the Armenians were not the only possessors of the rich land s of Cilicia . Before they
THE RIVER ANDCITY OF TARSUS a rrived , the country wa s a lready inhab i ted
,and
(Al l egorical figure on a a fter the ir own kingdom fe ll, the Turkish rulers
encouraged Mos lems to settle in the region. Today in the va l leys and pla ins a re to be found
not only Armenians but Turks,Kurd s (9th century emigrants ) , Arab s,
and,in the mounta ins
,Turkoman nomad s a long
with uncivi l ized tribes of unknown origin. There
a re a lso ha lf—breed s,pa rt Armenian and pa rt
Kurd,who have become Moslems and never leave
the mounta ins and forests . Due to th i s mix
ture of uncivi l ized clans,there is very l ittle THE RIVER PYRAMIS
security.
in the Taurus and the Amanns
mounta ins .
Consequently,the regions inhabited by the Ar
THE THREE menian na tion cons ist h istorica lly speaking of three
ARMENIAS d ist inct pa rts,the first two of wh ich
, Grea ter and Lesse r
Armenia,d a ting from ancient times, a re often merged
subsequent to Alexander the Grea t,wh i le the th i rd
,New Armenia
,d ates
from the M idd le Ages . It follows,therefore
,tha t the h istory of the Armen
ians d ivides into pha ses tha t correspond to its geograph ica l sections . The
first pa rt compri ses the anna ls of Ancient Armenia (Grea ter a nd Lesser)and sta rts with the Acha emenian period (6th century BC . ) and continues
unti l the Moslem conquests of the 10th century of our era . The second pa rt
d ea ls with New Armenia , the record s of wh ich cover severa l centuries of
the M idd le Ages and a re contemporaneous with the Crusades . F ina l ly
for both Armenia s there comes the period of martyrdom,of the Moham
medan yoke,wh i ch sti l l exi sts
,a la s ! The very cond itions under wh ich
the Armenian people have exi sted throughout the centurie s,a ccount for
the fact tha t a lthough mostly at the present time quartered in the irancient terri tory of Ara ra t
,they a re a lso spread out
,more or less densely
a ccord ing to loca tion,from the banks of the Kurah to the shores of
Cilicia,and from the Black Sea coa st to the borders of the Mesopotamian
d esert.
THE CITY OF ANAZARBUS(Al l e gorical figure on an old coin )
— 49
CHAPTER I I
OR IGIN OF THE ARMEN IAN PEOPLE . SOJ OURN OF THE ARMENO—PHRYGIANSIN THRACE. THE IR CROSS ING INTO AS IA. THE IR MARCH TO THE ARARATCOUNTRY. CONQUEST OF THE ERZERUM PLATEAU. THE HAIKIAN PATR I"ARCH S . THE LEGENDARY DYNASTY. MEDIAN ASCENDENCY. THE
KINGDOM OF ARMEN IA UNDER ACHAEMEN IAN SUZERAINTY. THE MACE
DONIAN CONQUEST. THE DYNASTY OF PHRAATAPHERNE S . RULE OF THESELEUCIDS or SYR IA.
W e are indebted to na rra tives of ancient writers, interpreted in the
l ight of inscriptions and a rcha eologica l resea rch, for our success of re
cent yea rs in d isentangl ing at grea t pa ins the earl iest movements Of thegrea t peoples of antiqui ty from the mass Of legend s surround ing them.
This fresh l ight on those beginnings presents in a new a spect humanity’s
Stirrings at the dawn of modern civi l ization. The first strivings Of
Cha ldaea , of E lam,and of Egypt a re revea led wi th sufficient clarity to
wa rrant the a ssertion today that six or seven thousand yea rs have elapseds ince the start of our own civil iza tion and tha t its first beneficent wavesemanated from those As iatic and African homes. Men then had justd iscovered how to record the ir thoughts in wri ting and were emerging
from the barba ri c era where in memory had no a id beyond rud imenta ryrepresenta tions of Objects cons idered worthy of remembrance.
But a lthough those na tions tha t were able to write have handed
down to us the story of the ir early pulsa tions,it is unfortuna te ly not SO
a s rega rds a ll peoples . The Greeks and the Ita l iotes were quite late inthe adoption Of writing, and to many nations this abi l ity, the most neededfor the spread of progress, rema ined unknown unti l the beginning of theChristian era
, in some ca ses to th i s day. The Armenians a re among
those who long rema ined in ignorance of writing, and did we not
have some sca ttered ind ications concerning the ir exi stence,from stray
mentions by non-Armenian writers,we should be utterly without knowl
edge Of the ir origin, just a s we a re today w ith regard to the Pela sgians,the Etru scans, the B a sques, and so many other peoples whose names crop
50
and a ll the ca re he took in col lecting h i storic lore , a lso how scrupulously
he quoted his authorities . In th i s ca se a s e lsewhere, when he Speaks of
o ra l trad itions , his sta tements cannot be doubted .
The definiteness with which Herodotus wrote conce rning the Armeno
Phrygians shows his ful l re l iance on the pa st memories of the Macedon
ians,a lthough such trad itions were a lready quite ancient, da ting then a
thousand yea rs ba ck. But the Macedonians had known the Phrygians in
the ir mid st before they left for As ia , and they must certa inly have ma in
ta ined intercourse with the se peop le who, there is every rea son to bel ieve ,were re la ted to them. The Armenians were then a section only
,a tribe
Of the E riges,and fol lowing the destiny of the whole na tion
,they em
igrated with them. Phrygians,Armenians
,and Macedonians
,a ll be
l onged to the grea t Aryan fami ly .
MIGRATIONS OF THE ARMENIANS
l st migration ca . 1250-300 B.C.
2nd migration ca . AD . 1000
(The shad ing shows roughly the re gions peopl ed today by th e Armenians.)
The pa ss ing of the Armenians through the B a lkans is recorded in
the h i story of Armenia of the pa tria rch John VI ( 1) for, a lthough thatwriter’s Sta tements a re mani festly ba sed on a des ire to l ink the ea rly
( 1 ) Transl . E. BORE, Arménie , p . 74
—52
Armenians to the B ible , i t is none the less true tha t, a ccepting the
theories of Bibl ica l expos itors who identify Torgom with Thra ce (because
of the s imi lar consonanta l sequence of the two names ) , the patria rch John
wa s thus led to record his fe l low-countrymen a s having once l ived in
Macedonia,a memory sti l l extant probably in his time in the trad i tions
of the Armenian people . Pe rhap s John even had a ccess to very ancient
writings,s ince lost ; in any ca se the trad itions recorded by Herodotus
together with many h i storica l fa cts subsequent to the migra tion of the
Armenians corrobora te his opinion,a s a lso do the affinities of language
between this ra ce and the other Aryan peoples who at that period took
pa rt in the inva s ions of Thra ce,As ia M inor
,and the ea stern Med iterran
ean regions.
Leaving the B a lkan peninsula , where they were lost among the
other Indo-European hordes (who probably came from Centra l As ia
via the Russ ian pla ins and the Danube va l ley ) , the Armenians crossed
the Bosphorus , a s Pliny affi rms on the authority of ancient trad ition
The names of the two Ascanian lakes,the one in B ithynia and the other
in Pi s id ia tha t of the Ascanian port perhap s a l so tha t of theAscanian I s land a re undoubted ly so many s ign-posts left by the
migra tions of Askenazou,the Ashkenaz of the B ible
,i .e . by the Phrygians
includ ing the Armenians .
Th i s took place twe lve or thirteen hund red
CENTURIES B.C. yea rs before our e ra,at the time the He l lenic world
XII V III wa s so confused ; but before the 8th century,the
Phrygians and Armenians had a lready spl it,and
the la tter leaving the ir kinsmen in the mounta ins a t the source of the
Ha lys , had a lready advanced towa rd s Ca ppadocia,taking advantage of
the neglect thi s region wa s in s ince the fa l l of the Hittite empire .
W e do not know why the Armenians on cross ing the Euphra tesmoved on to the Ara ra t region p refe rably ; but we know tha t about
( I ) PLINY, Nat. Hist., V. 40.
( 2 ) STRABO, XII. PLINY, Nat. Hist. XXXI, 10. Lake Isnik (Bithyni a ) .and l ake Burdur (Pi sid ia ) .
( 3 ) PLINY , Nat. Hi st. V. 3 2.
(4) PLINY, Na t. Hist., V. 3 8 ( in the Cycl ade s ) .
the time of the ir migra tion important moves were taking place in As ia
M inor and the sea-coa sts . The He llenes were spread ing a ll over the
B lack Sea Shore, found ing trad ing-posts and colonies ; Trebizond 8: Sh owboth da te from thi s period The k ingdom of Ura rtu wa s d isappearing
N ineveh even wa s fa l l ing whi lst the Scythians were ravaging all
W'
estern As ia . May not the settlement of the Armenians in their new
homeland have been fa cil itated by the inva sion of the northern hordes
who perhaps were akin to them? It would seem plaus ible, for these ia
vaders had just crushed the biggest States and sown ruin and desolation
among the former tributa ries of Assur. “There a re Meshech and Tubal,”
cried Ezekie l,
“and the ir graves a re round about them.
” And th is
frightful d isorder wa s most auspicious for the rea l iza tion of the Halkanians
’ambitions .
At this period, about the end of the 8th cen
THTE IRANIANS tury B.C .,the Med ian power appeared in the East
STH CENT. B.C. ern pol itica l world . In 713 , Sa rgon subdued the
sma ll Sta te of Dayakkou (Deiokes ) , and the suc
cessor of this Iranian ruler, Frava rti (Fraortes) , annexed to his kingdom
Pers ia proper,i.e . the countries south and south-ea st of Ecbatana . The
new king of the Medes had rega ined advantage over the Assyrians and
wa s ha rrying them so closely tha t he d ied under the very wa lls of
Nineveh that he wa s bes ieging.
With Cyaxares (Huvach-Chatra ) , Med ia rea ched the zenith of
its power, and, a fter the downfa ll of the Assyrian empire, this king and
his a l ly Nebuchadnezzar,king of Babylon
,sha red As ia between them.
E cba tana kept Assyria proper, se ized the kingdom of Ura rtu, extended its
sway over a ll the northern countries,and its a rmies advancing to the
river Ha lys a ttacked even the kings of Lyd ia (585
When in 5 59 the crown pa ssed from the Medes to the Pers ians, theArmenians, a lready settled on the Erzerum plateau
,were trea ted sim
( 5 ) Trebizond wa s founded 756 B.C. and Sinope about 780 B.C. by the Mil e sians.(6) Sardur III, who was apparentl y the la st king of Urartu, sent an emba ssy to
Assurbanipal about 644 B.C.
( 7) 606 B.C.
54
ilarly to other peoples brought under
Cyaxares’rule ; the Achaemenids placed
them in the ir 13 th Satrapy, wh i lst the
Ura rtaeans were joined to the Matians
and the Sa spires to form the 18th prov
ince . The text of Herodotus makes clea r
tha t in the 6th century the Armenians
had not yet a ss imi la ted the Vanni c population.
‘
d h h ACoins ASCRIBED TO KING
Some wri ters COIl Sl er t at t e rmen CROESUS OF LYDIAians might be descended from the former
subjects of the Argistis and Sa rdur
mona rchs .Th i s hypothes is is contrad icted by the above facts ; it sets a s ide,
moreover,both trad ition and l inguistic data . The two peoples were
clea rly d istinct and had nothing in common. The Aryans, who were new
comers,caused the older inhabitants of Nairi and Van whom they grad
ua lly a ss imi lated to lose the ir nationa l characteristics and language, and
soon a ll tha t rema ined of the once mighty Urartaeans were a few proper
names preserved in the Armenian language .
“The prince ly fami l ies of“Armenia
,such a s the Rechtuni, the Manavaz
,the Biznuni, the Arz
“eruni—who re igned over the Van country unti l the 1 1th century of our
era,have kept the names of Rousa s
,Menua s, Ishpuinis, Argistis, de
~
rived from the ancient kings of Bia i’
na . The fa l l of the kingdom of
Ura rtu did not therefore enta i l the d isappea rance of its va ssa ls, who
were ga thered into the ma in body of the Armenians,wh i le keeping the ir
se igniora l privi leges .
Th is surviva l of names be longing to lost tongues in the Speech of
new-comers,is a logica l phenomenon, and examples a re plenti ful in a ll
languages . La tin conta ins a good number of Etruscan words,and in
French we find names derived from Ce ltic and Ligurian vocabularies, a swell, we may be sure
,a s those of people of the Stone Age .
More than any other, the Armenian vocabula ry preslents great
d ifficulties . Into this language there have entered terms from a ll the
fol lowing tongues ; Assyrian, Hebrew, Med ian,Kartvel ian (Georgian,
M ingre l ian, Lazian) , Ura rtaean (of Nairi ) , Scythian, Greek, Arabic,
( l ) KEVORK ASLAN, Etud es h istoriques da peup le arménien, p. DE.
Turki sh,Mongol ian, Pers ian (old and modern) , Kurd ish, La tin, Russ ian,
and others . In ana lyzing the Kurd ish vocabula ries, (2) 1 have found in
each d ia lect a la rge non-Aryan res idue of ind ispensable elements, de
rived undoubted ly from lost languages, and the same th ing is true with:
the Armeni an.
Thi s mixture of the Armenians with the more ancient popula tions
to form the fina l na tion de serves some cons idera tion,nece ss ita ting our
turning ba ck to wha t composed the peoples of Western As ia in the
Assyrian period .
W e have l ittle authentic informa tion a s to the ethnic compos ition
of the people s l iving in We stern As ia before it wa s invaded in the south
by the Semi tic e lement . The only languages in which any inscriptions
have come down to us a re the Sumerian and the E lamite in the south ,the Hi ttite in the west, and the Vannic in the north . These tonguesa re ne ither Semitic nor Aryan ; they be long to the group termed Turanian
in wh ich a ll non-Semi tic and non-Aryan ma teria l ha s long been cla ss ified .
Of these four languages,two only have yie lded to scientific ana lys is
,viz ;
the E lamite and the Vanni c.
The E lamite , we ll known today through my own d iscoveries and the
resea rch of V. Scheil in the Sus ian texts, is Shown by the la tter to cover
a duration of about two thousand yea rs . It wa s sti ll spoken by the
Acha emenean Pers ians . The monosyllabic roots in E lamite are agglutina
tive,and the only rea son tha t the resulting word s can stil l be inflected
s imply, is tha t the agglutina tive language ha s been influenced by a
h igher form of speech (the Semiti c languages ) from wh ich i t ha s borrowedthe idea of inflection without a ppropriating the forms thereof.
The same is the ca se with Vanni c,spoken in the Ara ra t regions
(Ura rtu ) in Assyrian times and quite d istinct from the Semitic languages .
These da ta together with the many proper names found in the
Assyrian texts Show tha t twenty centuries B .C . the grea ter pa rt ofWesternAs ia wa s inhabited by a non-Semitic and non-Aryan group of people s .
I do not mean by the word “group” tha t the languages spoken by theseva rious peoples were inte r-rela ted ; fa r from i t ; but I cla ss i fy these non
Semi tic and non-Aryan peoples a s speaking languages less deve lopedthan those of the Semitic invaders . The numerous Ka rtvel ian tonguesa re appa rently the la st representa tives today of tha t ethnic collection
( 2 Miss ion scientifique en Perse , V ol . V, l st pa rt. (Paris,
which some writers have ca l led by the vague name of wh ite a llophylians.
Me i l let, in his Gramma ire compa rée de l’
a rme’
m'
en clarrique, ca l ls at
tention to grammatica l aflinities of Armenian with the Cauca s ian
languages ; these aflinities have come about through contact with native
popula tions in very ea rly times,wh ich is only natura l .
The first a ttempt to ana lyze scientifica l ly the Georgian language is
conta ined in an a rticle by J . A. Gatteyria s ; ( 1 ) and the lea rned trans lator
o f the Vanni c inscriptions,Professor A. H. Sayce recognized rea l
connections between the language of Ura rtu and the speech of the
Ka rtvelians . So tha t,on the one hand , Armenian conta ins Vannic terms
and Ka rtve l ian forms,and on the other
,Vannic is not unconnected w ith
the Cauca s ian tongues . These fa cts established by eminent l ingui sts sup
port the hypothes is tha t the ancient inhabitants ofWestern As ia who were
pa rtly ab sorbed by the Armenians be longed to the same l inguistic group
a s the modern Cauca s ians .
The Assyrians described a s Peoples of Nai ri a ll the na tions l iving
between the sources of the river Ha lys and lake Urumiah a s we ll a s those
dwe l ling further north,and d id not confuse th is group with theMouchkou
(Mosch i ) , the Khati or Hittites,Koummoukh (Commagene ) , and the
Kourkhi, sta tioned further south . They recognized therefore the
e thni c connections of these popula tions . Ura rtu wa s the ch ief of a ll the
Na i ri Kingdoms . Lake Van wa s ca l led the Nairi Sea,and the rulers of
Dhouspana (Van) extended the ir sovere ignty over the regions of
Noummé (E rzerum) , Kirouri (Mouch-B itlis ) , Bia i‘
na (Van) , Mouzazir
(B itl i s-Sa lma s ) , Ahkouza (Qa ra-bagh-E rivan) , and towa rds the north
in the Lesser Cauca sus cha in. These a re the very countries wh ich the
Armenians la ter conquered and made the ir rea lm. As for the peopleof Na iri
,i t is certa in that they did not d isappear. Some
of them may have withd rawn into the mounta ins, but they were mostlya b sorbed by the new Aryan e lement
,wh ich wa s much more deve loped
than the ancient inhabitants of As ia . The languages were lost and w ith
the ir d i sappea rance the memory of wha t Na iri wa s under the kings of
Ura rtu gradua l ly faded out.
Some trad itions, however, were sti l l extant in the first centuries of
our era,for Moses of Khoren ha s left us a curious description of the c ity
( 1 ) Revue d e Linguistique et d e Ph i lo log ie compa rée , Vol . XIV, July 1881, p.
2753 1 1 .
( 2 ) The Cune iform Inscriptions, of V an, p. 411 .
of Van and the works ca rried out by the k ings of Ura rtu in Dhouspa s,the ir capita l, which works he a ttributes to the legenda ry Queen Semiramis .
Semiramis,
he wrote,
having vis i tedTRADITIONS many s ites, a rrived from the ea st at the
CONCERNING THE Shore of the Sa lt Lake ; she saw on its bank an
KINGDOM OF oblong hi l l exposed to ihe west throughoutURARTU its length, curving somewhat on the north.
To the south a grotto stand ing stra ight up
to the sky, wh i le a l ittle furthe r southwa rd.she saw a fl at va lley
,wh ich
,borde red on
the e a st by the mounta in and lengtheningand broadening out towards the lake
,had
a glorious appea rance . Across these“ground s
,pure water coming down from
the mounta in in gullies and va l leys and
col lecting at the foot of the mounta ins,ran in veri table rivers . Right and left of
these wa ters stood numerous villages in
the va lley,and to the ea st of th is smil ing
hi ll rose a sma l l mounta in.
VANNIC WINGED BULL Semi ramis first had a cause
(British Museum) way bui lt a long the river,w ith blocks of
rock cemented together with l ime and
sand,a gigantic undertak ing both in extent and he ight, and which, i t is
sa id , sti l l exists today. Th is causeway, several stad ia long, reaches tothe town By continuous labor, the Queen finished these wonderful
works in a few years and had them surrounded with strong wa l ls and
bra s s ga tes . She bui lt a lso in the city many magnificent pa laces, adorned
with d ifferent stones of many colors, two or three stories high, each
one wi th a desirable southe rn aspect. S'he d istinguished be tween the qua rters of the city by bright colors, d ivided them into wide streets, and built ap“
propriate hot ba ths in the center of the town, admirably fa shioned . D i“verting pa rt of the river-water into the city, she had i t cana l ized wherever needed and for the wa tering of ga rdens and terraces All pa rts of
( 1 ) Hist. d’Arm. I. 16.
( 2 ) 4th century AD .
the Armenians had d riven back the Mouchkou and Kha ldis tribes, a s a lso
o ther clans of the Na iri land mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions a s
l iving in the va l leys of the upper Euphra tes .
It is probable , a s we have just seen, tha t the Nairi peoples belongedto the same ra cia l stock a s the Lazi
,the Mingrelians, and Georgians of
our time . Some of these na tions were absorbed by the Armenians, and
ARMENIA AND NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES ACCORDINGTO THE ASSYRIANS
the others who withd rew before them into the north,seem to have re
ma ined ever since unchanged ; they took wi th them in the ir hea rts a hatredo f the invader
,and this i l l-will ha s pers isted throughout the centuries,
ever apparent in the host i l ity of the Cauca s ians to the u surpers of the
land of the ir forefa thers . Th is enmity the Georgians sti ll cherished some
yea rs ago, even though the memory of the ir erstwhi le misfortunes had so
long d isappea red .
It is noticeable tha t the Kartvelians have rema ined d ivided into
c lans speaking d ifferent d ia lects of the same l inguistic group, with no
poli tica l connection wi th one another, and often mutua l ly hosti lea s they used to be in the time of the kings of Ura rtu. This pers istance in
spee ch and trad i tions le ads us to bel ieve tha t in the Caucas ians we see to
d ay the rema ins of the primi tive peoples conquered by the Armenians.
The resul ts of the grea t revolutions which at the beginning of h istory
d isquieted Asia a re not at a ll clea r to us ; our only source of knowledge,
—60
the Assyrian inscriptions, stop short with the downfa ll of Nineveh, and
there rema ined in Ura rtu no more rulers able to continue the record ing of
deeds and events such a s the Argistis and Sardur kings formerly engraved
on the rocks of V an. As for all those peoples who were destitute of the a rt
of wri ting,they receded into the oblivion from wh ich for a few cen
turies they were rescued by the triumphant inscri ptions of the Ninivite
monarchs . Therea fter a thick fog descends on As ia tic h istory, and th is
mi st lasts unti l the Achaemenids a scend the Persian throne.
The beginnings of the Armenian people in the Ma s is land a re d imly
recorded by Moses of Khoren but a s the documenta tion tha t th is
wri ter sta tes he obta ined from Ma r-Apa s-Katina (2) wa s systemati ca lly
garbled by h imse l f,it is very d ifficul t to uti lize the names he give s to the
ea rly heroes of Armenia . Haik,who apparently led the nation in the ir
ma rch from Cappadoc ia to the Ara ra t country, is sa id to have had four
sons : Cadmos,Khor
,Manawaz
,and Armenak. The la st-named,
one of the heroes of the nation, (3 ) had a son ca lled Aramai s, the
ancestor of Amas ia,father of Kegham,
who bega t Ha rma, the fa ther of
Aram.
The Assyrian empire, a s we have seen,had been destroyed and re
pla ced by tha t of the Medes . W e know that the latter extended the i r
empire to the river Ha lys, to the borders of the territory of Croesus, forat that period the kingdom of Lyd ia took in a ll As ia M inor except Lyciaand C i l icia ( 5 58 Perhaps the domina tion of the Mermnads caused
the Armenians to leave Phrygia ; in any ca se they were a lready on the
E rzerum plateau when the sceptre pa ssed from the hands of the Medes
to tha t of the Pers ians. Cyrus took only three years ( 549-546) to subduethe northern lands and conquer ancient Urartu together w ith a ll As iaMinor, and i t is l ike ly tha t the Armenians had to endure the Med ian yoke
( 1 ) The ch ief Armenian h istori an, who l ived at the end of the 4th century of
our e ra . (Cf. V. LANGLOIS, Hist. Armén Transl . Pari s, 1869, V ol II, p .
(2) Mar-Iba s ( or Apa s) Katina ( in Syr i ac, the subtle one ) , according to Mosesof Kh oren, wa s commi ssioned by king V a gharchak (V alarsace ) of Armenia about149 B.C. to search in th e records of the southern Semites for everyth ing relating tothe ancient h istory of the Armenians. Th i s statement i s, moreover, very questionable ,and it i s be l ieved today that no such person ever exi sted , and Moses used h im eachtime a s a mouthp iece for the trad itions and l e gends still current in h is day.
( 3 ) The Armenians ca ll themselve s Ha ik ians. As for the name Armenia , Arminia , Arma niya , of foreign extraction, th is i s apparently an appell ation of a part
of th e country subsequently taken to compri se all of it. Ha i’k i s the eponym of the
ra ce of peop l e entitled Hay or Ha i’
kazn ( de scendants of Hafk) .
- 61
prior to tha t of the Pers ians, for in a ll probabil ity they established them
se lves towa rd s the end of the period of confus ion following the Ninivite
downfa ll and preced ing the access ion of the Achaemenids .Accord ing to Moses of Khoren
,Ha rk
, ( 1 ) the hero
LEGENDARY who gave his name to the race, wa s the son ofThorgom,
DYNASTIES the son of Thiraz, the son of Gomer, the son of Japhet.
Th is genea logy wh ich is entirely B iblica l,perhaps cor
responds to genera l ethnic fact, but i t should not be considered a s ba sed
on Armenian trad itions, and therefore a s corroborative of the tabula tionof peoples in Genes is . Moses of Khoren confesses tha t he h imse lf madei t out “from wha t he had d iscovered a s Certa in in the ancient Histories
,
and to the best of his abil ity.
” These la st words set the sea l of improbability on a ll his na rratives of events with wh ich tha t writer wa s not
contempora ry.
The first four names of this genea logica l l ist a re taken fromGenes is,
there is no doubt, and these borrowings took place in the first centuries ofour era
, when Armenia wa s becoming
Christian, for the a ltered form of
Thorgom, from TOgharmah, is foundnowhere except in the Greek vers ion of
the Bible, ca lled the Septuagint. It was,therefore, from that vers ion of the Scrip
tures tha t the first Armenian Chron
o logists took the fami ly tree which theyadopted . B es ides
,with the newly con
ETHNOGRAPHY OF WESTERNverted Chri stians
, the genera l tendency
ASIA wa s to lmk up the i r racra l origin W lth
( from Genesis, ch . 10 the Bible,and the non-Aryan Georgians,
who were complete ly fore ign to the Ar
menians, did not hes i ta te about the same time to ca l l themselves l ike
( 1 ) Th e name of Ha'
ik ha s given rise to much re search and study. All the re
sources of etymology h ave been invoked , often beyond permi ssibl e scientific l imits,and none of the proposed solutions are a cceptabl e . Th e most rational i s the sup
positi on that Hay (pati ) means ch ief, a s Hayr (pater ) means paternal authority.It i s impossibl e to give any date to th is le gendary person who undoubtedly was one
of the great l eaders of the Armenian peopl e , but whose role has certa inl y been en
larged by tradi tion, a s i s the ca se with all heroes. It woul d seem best therefore to
l eave to Ha'
ik h i s mystica l va lue and to u se h i s name onl y a s a symbol of the ori ginand d ispl acements of the Armenians previous to the ir forming a nation in the Araratre gion. Ohanne s in Ch aldea , Menes in Egypt, Abraham among the Jews, Romuluswith the Latins, are hardl y anymore definite a s figures th an i s Ha il: to the Armenians ;each nation attributing to a singl e hea d its birth-throes.
62
wise the sons of Tha rgamos . The juxtapos ition of these two pseudo
trad itions shows wha t credence can be given to the stories of the ea rly
Christian hi storians concerning nationa l origins .
In. a curious pa ssage of his History, Moses of Khoren thoroughlyimbued with his read ings
,indulges in a strange mixing of hea then and
Bibl ica l trad itions :“Terrible, extraord inary, (he writes ) , were the first god s, who
created the chief b less ings of thi s world , the principles of the Universe and
of human reproduction. The race of the Giants stood out apart, a race
endowed with terrib le strength , a ra ce invincib le and of enormous sta t
ure . They in the ir pride conce ived and b rought forth the plan to bui ld
the tower [Babe l ] . They had set themse lves to the ta sk, but a furious
and heaven-sent wind,the breath of the wra th of the gods, overturned
the ed ifice . The god s, having given each of these men a language tha t
the rest understood not, spread trouble and confus ion among them.
One of the se men wa s Ha rk of thel
seed of Japhetos, a famous Ch iefta in,mighty and sk i ll ful to draw the bow.
But Moses d id not confine h imsel f to these fables, he a lso te
published an old trad ition pecul ia r to the Armenian nation,a narrative
tha t agrees on the who le with the Macedonian legends handed down to
us through Herodotus .
“As for Ha ik
,
” wrote the Syrian h istorian, ( 5 ) he went off with
the others of his company to the north-ea st, and settled on a pla in
“ca lled Ha rk (6) or the pla in of the Fa thers,i.e. the fa thers of the ra ce
of Thorgom. Then he bui lt a village which he ca l led Ha ika schen,mean
“ing built by Ha i ls . In the center of th is plateau near a mounta inof grea t width of ba se some men were a lready settled
,and these
will ingly put themse lves under the hero.
”
( I ) See inter a l ia , JORNANDES : De la Success ion des temps, a book in whi chthe writer commits the same abuse of Bibl ical tradition.
( 2 ) According to Mar-Apa s-Katina (Cf. V. LANGLOIS, op. cit., V ol . I, p .
( 3 ) The date at wh ich Mar-Apa s-Katina is supposed to have lived, if he ever
d id , i s uncerta in. Th is wr iter found , according to Moses of Khoten, in th e archivesof th e Persian kings a manuscript transla ted from Chaldean into Greek by ordero f Al exander the Great, History of the First Ancestors . The book of Mar-Apa s-Katinawa s sa id to have been transl ated into Syriac, th en into Armeni an, before being summarized by Mo se s of Khoren. Quatremere cons iders that the History of the FirstAncestors wa s only the work of Berosis.
(4) W e know tha t th e tower of Babel was the giant Ziggurat, the ruins ofwh ich stil l stand on the site of Babyl on.
( 5 ) Transl . V. LANGLOIS, vol . I, p 17.
( 6) D istrict of Hark, in Dourouperan.
( 7 ) Plateau of Erzerum.
( 8 ) Rath er the Bin-Gheul , than Ararat.
— 63
One could ha rd ly sum up more succinctly in a few l ines the h istory
of the migra tion of the Armenians from Cappadocia to the land where theysti l l l ive today.
Sta rting from the old Cha ldeo—Hebrew legend s and drawing a s the i r
fancy d i cta ted on the Semitic trad itions, the Armenians, following the
example of the so—ca l led Ma r-Apa s-Ka tina , re la ted in the ir writings that
an inva s ion by Be lus took place in the Erzerum and Van regions for the
purpose of putting an end to Ha i’
k’s conquests . No mention is made of
the Assyrians , the Medes, the Ura rtians, or of the Na iri peoples ; Belus
personifies a ll the opposition wh ich the new-comers met wi th. ( 1 ) But,
they add , Be lus wa s defea ted and killed in the battle of Ha'
iotztor, and this
event is placed by the native chronologists at 23 50 B.C . (2) Th is date
need s to be brought down about e ighteen hundred yea rs, to give any
l ike l ihood to the na rra tive, for in the 24th century B.C. the ancestors of
the Armenians were ce rta inly sti l l mingled with the ir Aryan brothers in
the Indo—Eumpean crad le-land and were fa r from the Danube and the
Thracian mounta ins . The Assyrian empire and the kingdom of Ura rtu
were not yet born, and the Semites of Cha ldaea were sti ll sta tioned in
southern Mesopotamia and the seaboard .
On the one hand , in th is fanci ful and confused rehearsa l of the
struggles the Armenians had to ma inta in to conquer thei r new doma in,
we certa inly see the remembrance of the oppos ition put up aga inst the ad
vancing newcomers by the newly emancipated vassa ls of Assyria, and
doubtless by the Ura rta eans . On the other hand, the Ninivite kingdom
a lthough tottering rema ined unfa l len for some years yet and the
kings of Assur, very d isqu ieted by the Med ian tribes uniting in a s ingleSta te, and threa tened by the Babylonians, in add i tion to the anxiety
caused by the Scyth ians entering the As iatic scene,could not bea r to
have fresh adversaries encamped on the ir Empire’s northern borders .
( 1 ) To th e early Armenian chroni cl ers, Chamiram ( Semiramis ) symbolizedAssyri a , a s Ara did th e l and s of Nairi and Urartu.
(2) Th e first Armeni an chronologi sts show Ha ik a s foll owed by thirty-sixpatriarch s (23 50-870 Then, seventeen kings rul ed , from 870 to 3 30 B.C. Butrecent book s give the names of these peopl e onl y for the record . (Cf. at the endof th is volume , m the Appendix, the l i st of l e gendary patriarch s and kings, accordingto K. J . BASMADJIAN, Chron. de I
’Hist. d e l’
Armenie , in Revue de l’
orient chre'
tien,vol . XIX,
( 3 ) The name of th e Armenians doe s not appear in th e Assyr ian inscriptions .
W e must conclude th at th e conque st of Armenia by Ha il: took pl ace in the l a st daysof the Assur monarchy onl y, perhaps even a l ittl e later than the fall of Assyria .
— 64
They fa i led , however, and B elus having been vanqui shed and killed
by Hank”, the Armenians were able to e stablish the ir dominion over the
Erze rum regions .
The occupa tion of W estern Asia by the
THE SCYTHIANS Scyth ians la sted,a ccord ing to Herodotus, twenty
eight yea rs ; tha t of Armenia and Transcauca sia
by them wa s certa inly much longer, for the hordes from the north had
only a s ingle road whereby to join th e bulk of their nation, and th i s road
passed by the gorges of Derbend or the so—ca l led Gate of the Alans
Few of them,however
,returned to their northern steppes ; they mostly
settled in the d i stricts of the upperHa lys river and of the riverThermodon
and gradua l ly d isappea red, lost in the adj acent na tions, the Cappadoc ians,the Ph rygians, the Armenians, Mosch i , and Tibarenes . We find no trace,however
,in Armenian chronicles of any Scyth ian domination, and th i s
s i lence leads us to suppose either tha t the Armenians were rela ted to the
northern nomads or tha t they made their migra tion to the east after the
scourge had pa st. In the first ca se, far from being hosti le to Haik’s wa r
riors,the Scythians would have helped them rea l ize thei r a ims. In the
second,the Armenians would only have taken advantage of the genera l
d i sorder tha t fol lowed thi s inva sion.
W e have seen that the Armenians a rrived
CONQUESTOF in Thrace a t the same time as other branches
ARMENIA BY HAIK of the Aryan fami ly, and that a ll these peoplescame from the Ea st via the Ru ssian steppes .
Nations belonging to the same ethnic group a scended at the same time
the va l ley of the Danube and reached western Europe, wh i lst others
spread over the countries of centra l Europe. The L igurians and our
ancestors the Gauls no doubt be longed to one of these tida l waves of
humani ty,for they had a lready been long settled in the west of the old
world when,six hundred yea rs B.C .
, the Greeks came into conta ct withthem on the Med iterranean coast.
Tha t wa s the time of those inva sions the variou s elements of which
( I ) Gorges of the Daria ll in O ssetia , in the center of the Greater Caucasus.
— 65
went to make up the world of our cla ssica l ancient times, a world wh ich
d eve loped fo r a period of two thousand yea rs , from the 15th century B.C .
to the 5 th century of our era,and wh i ch fina l ly achieved world leadersh ip .
For a lthough two thousand yea rs la ter other wave s,a lso from the Ea st
and over the same road s,changed for a time the fa ce of the old world ,
sowing ruin and plunging Europe ba ck into ba rba rism, yet the e lements
of the first inva s ions survived and gave birth to our mode rn Sta tes, to
those na tions which in the la st few centuries have ca rried the ir impetus
to the four corners of the globe .
During the d isorders that re igned in As ia,the Armenians
,establi shed
in the ir newly conquered home land,rema ined unshakable
,and by the ir
courage preserved to th i s day their nationa li ty,language
,and customs
,
—wherea s a lmost a ll the peoples whom they had known in the ir ea rlydays d isappea red from the ea rth . The ir brothers
,the Phrygians
,a re
only now a dim memory . Alone among the i r contempora ries , the Hel
lenes , the Ita l iotes, and the Gauls overcame the ca taclysms,not however
without rece iving many admixtures and forsaking many of the ir formercustoms . But apa rt from the Greeks
,we must not seek any kinsh ip with
the Armenians in modern na tions ; only in those na tions tha t were broughtfrom the northern steppes to the Med i terranean shores by the same
tida l wave tha t ca rried the ancestors of Haik to Thra ce . And thosepeop le s have unfortunately for the most pa rt been engulfed for very manycenturies in the d a rknes s of ob l ivion.
Such in the i r ma in l ines a re the beginnings of the Armenian people .
W e have sufficient documentation to a scerta in satisfactori ly the ch iefpha ses of the deve lopment of th i s ancient na tion,
but not to pe rmit of
deta iled a ccounts . It is certa in,neverthe le ss
,that the p roud l ineage of
the race goe s back to over three thousand yea rs ago and is cons iderably
more ancient than tha t of most European people s . Ind ia and Ch ina,d es
pite the ir fanciful legend s , ha rd ly show such remote beginnings. Only the
old nations of We stern As ia,the Syrians , the Cha ldeans
,the Kurd s
(Medes ) , and in North Afri ca , the Egyptians, have more ancient an
cestra l record s . As for the Pers ians , the i r pol iti ca l l i fe d id not begin
unti l about the time tha t Armenia a ch ieved sta tehood,and Rome wa s
not founded unti l the time tha t Haik’s people were leaving Cappadocia .
the means of record ing their thought. No doubt when they were in Cap
padocia , they knew the Hitti te h ieroglyph i cs (2) but the latter system of
wri ting, full of ideograms,d id not lend i tse lf to phonetic transcription.
Agathangelus, Moses of Khoren, Lazarus of Pha rp, agree with Diodorus
of Sici ly and Po lyaenus, in sta ting tha t for drawing up deeds, for cor
respondence, and the documents needed for da i ly life, the Armenians for
a long time used Greek,Pers ian (Pehlevi ) , and Syriac letters. They
perhap s tried to use the Pers ian cune iforms wh ich a re known to be phone
tic derivatives of the Cha ldeo—Assyrian system,see ing that ideograph ic
s igns had been used in Urartu a s we l l a s by several non-Semitic peoples
of Western Asia . But th is attempt, i f i t was made wa s short-l ived, and
the example shown by the Pers ians does not seem to have been followed
by the Armenians, the Medes,the Kartvelians, or the Nairi peoples.
W e indeed possess no inscriptions left by these nations.
The Ru ss ian archaeological Commiss ion d iscovered in 1900 near Ani,on a va se in a cemetery, a curious h ieroglyph ic or pictograph ic inscription
which seems to be of grea t antiquity and wh ich appears to show thatbefore the time of the Vannic cune iforms in this region
,perhaps during
the period of the Ura rtu kingdom, the
predecessors of the'
Armenians in the
pla in of Erivan used a very primi tive
HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION graph ic system. Th is attempt does
ATANI not seem to have been fol lowed up ,for i t is an i solated case . It proves
,
however,tha t from the remotest times the peoples of Transcaucas ia felt
the need of express ing the ir thought. The revolutions that occurred prevented the deve lopment of th is primitive conception
,which we only men
tion for the record .
At the time Ha l k arrived in Armenia, a phonetic wri ting wh ich wa s tohave a famous future wa s a lready in current use inW estern As ia
,viz. the
( 2 ) Th e recent German excavations a t Bogh az-Kem h ave brought to l ight a
l arge number of sl ate ta bl ets with cune iform characters in the Hittite l anguage , andfrom certa in word s Winckl er deduces in th e latter th e exi stence of Indo-Europeanconne ctions . If th is be so th e Hittite s woul d be the first precursors of the Aryanmigrations ; but the se l ingui stic resembl ances are too uncerta in to be accepted.Beside s, the Hittite system of h ieroglyph ics i s known to be independent of theEgyp tian, and it woul d be strange for an Aryan peopl e to work out for themselve sa system of ideograph ic writing without any of th eir fell ow ans having the sameidea .
68
Aramaean a lphabet. Originating in Phoenicia, i t had spread into As
syria and Cha ldaea for current documenta ry purposes, and had a lso
reached Arabia,deve loping d ifferently in each country. Undoubted ly
the Armenians knew th i s wri ting, but i t wa s created for Semi tic lan
guages in wh ich the consonants play the ch ief part, and the Aramaean
a lphabet wa s unsuited to the sounds of the Aryan languages wh ich have
inflections ma inly ba sed on vowels ; the Armeno-Phrygians, unl ike the
Greeks,did not know how to complete i t to fit the ir need . The Persians
were more far-see ing ; they composed the Zend a lphabet to transcribe the
sacred books of the Avesta . Th is innova tion, however, wa s at a much
later period,sub sequent to the forma tion of the Peh levi language.
Philostrates states tha t in the time of Arsaces ( 150 B.C.) the Armenians had a system of wri ting of the ir own, but th i s a ssertion
,which
contrad icts a ll tha t Moses of Khoren says on the subj ect,has no inscrip
tions to support i t,and seems inadmiss ible.
The Armenian language, bas ica l ly, constructive ly, and a s rega rds its
roots,is definitely Indo-European
,a point that must be empha sized . It
d iffers from the ea stern Aryan group, i .e. from the tongues of Iran, OldPersian
,Zend
,Pehlevi
,Kurd i sh
, Ossetian, etc. in the same way as do
European languages . However, in its va riou s provincia l forms, i t is today
frequently mixed with Semi ti c,Caucas ian
,Iranian
,and Alta ic elements,
due to the long contact that the descendants of Haik’s warriors had withpopula tions speaking languages of those group s. The Pers ian-Peh levi
language, among others,on account of the domination of the Parth ians
and the Sa ssanid s,ha s left very many traces in the vocabu la ry . As for
med ieva l Armenian and the modern l i terary language,wh ich are much
purer in thi s respect,they a re on account of the ir flexibi l ity first-cla ss
med iums of thought. The Armenian language ha s thus been very wel lpreserved throughout the centuries
, at least in its grammatica l forms,despite the viciss itudes of the people who speak i t. L ike a ll forms of
speech,i t ha s just developed .
Together wi th the trad ition of language,RELIGION OF THE of capita l importance to the preserva tion of
ARMENIANS nationa l character, there were the ance stra l religious bel iefs of the Armenians . They cer
ta inly had a na tiona l Pantheon, and in a ll probabi l ity it wa s very nea rly
akin to tha t of the Phrygians and fitted in with the re l igious ide a s of the
who le group of Indo-European peop les F ind ing themselves, how
ever,through the i r conquests in contact with the Semi tes of Assyria , the
sons of Ha ik adopted some of the ir southern ne ighbors’ d ivinitie s
The god Ba rchamin mentioned by Mose s of Khoren,and ca lled B a rcham
the As syrian by Anania of Ch irak, is none other than the Pa rchimnia of
the Semites . The sta tue of th i s god , long worshipped throughout Armenia ,wa s one day ca rried into Me sopotamia by Tigranes I I
,the son of Ar
ta shes . In another place, in the town of E rez,stood the golden image of
the goddess Amah i t, the Semiti c Anah i ta , and a ccord ing to P liny, th i s
sta tue wa s worsh ipped both by As ia tic and western peoples . The precious
idol wa s among the booty captured from the Pa rthians by M arcus Aure
l ius,and ended up by be ing destroyed by Tiridates when Chri stianity wa s
introduced into Armenia .
In the vi llage of Thi l stood the sta tue of the great Cha ld aean god
des s Nana,a ss imi la ted to the Artemi s of the Greeks
,and when in sub
sequent centuries,under Pers ian influences
,the Armenians accepted ofli
cia lly the Mazdean re l igion,Ahoura-Mazd a wa s given by them the name
of the Fa ther of the God s Los ing his Iranian qua l ities,he became a
sort of Zeus in rela tion to the ancestra l d ivini ties .
This convers ion of Armenia to the Zoroa strian cult,wh ich seems
to have been only very superficia l,d id not shut out the god s worsh iped
by Haik’s wa rriors ; Pers ian influence,a long with the fea r of a Sa s sanid
inva s ion,made the convers ion nece ssa ry . The inclusion of Ba rchamin
,
Amaita , Nana,and other Semi tic god s in the Armenians’ holy p la ces wa s
due a lso to the need on the pa rt of the rulers to he lp onwa rd the a s simila tion of the peop les whose land s they had inva ded . These gods of
Semitic o rigin were worsh ipped among a ll of Assyria ’s va ssa ls,and i t wa s
neces sa ry not to wound the rel igious convictions of the subdued nations .
The grea t god of Ura rtu,Kha ld is
,ve ry probably had l ikewi se his a lta rs
be s ide those of Bagd ia s, the Phrygian Jupiter.
In short, the Armenian pantheon in the—
century prior to the introduction of Chri stianity among thi s people
,wa s derived from a va riety
of sources . To the ancestra l god s were added those of Pers ia,of the
Mesopotamian Semites, of Syria,and of the Greek pantheon
,—but in
( I ) Strabo (vol . XI, p . 19 ) te l l s u s th at in the templ e s of Acil icene , the Armeniana observed mysterie s re sembl ing those of the He ll ene s .
( 2 ) Th i s hosp i tal ity to foreign god s wa s wide ly practi sed by the Romans .
most ca ses these d ivinities rep resented a ss imi la tions rather than innova
tions . Among a ll Indo-Europeans the d e ities were extremely numerous,
and so the Armenians ea s i ly found room in the ir pantheon for the god s
of the ir neighbors,of the ir overlord s
,and of the nations they themse lve s
subdued . The names of the i r god s a re a lmost a ll Iranian. The off
spring of Ormazd (Ahura -Mazd a ) , origina lly seven in number, later
numbered ten. M ihr,Anahit
,Nanca
,Ba rchamin
,Astlik
,Tiur
,a re the
chief ones,followed by V ahakn and Spand a rama t. But ranking above
a ll the god s wa s V ana tur,the god of the New Yea r who lavi shed his bless
ings on men,and whose supposed existence
,pecul ia r to the Armenian
people , seems to go back to the ea rl ie st days of the ir na tion. In add ition,the na turi s tic be liefs of the Indo-Europeans had under Pe rs ian influence
become personified in Armenia in the form of good and evi l geni i .
He lleni sm b rough t no new god s,but a number of a ss imi lations , most
of them quite rela tive . Ormazd became Zeus,M ihr wa s confused with
Hepha estus, Anahit with Artemi s, Nana with Athena , Astlik with Aphro
d ite,Tiur with He lios
,V ahakn with Heracles or Ares
,etc. As for the
be liefs themselves,they seem to have undergone l ittle change .
Every p rovince,eve ry d i strict
,had its loca l god or its p rotecting
d e ities . The ch ief temp le of Amah it wa s a t E riza (E rzindj an) , but th isgoddes s a lso had holy place s a t Armavi r
,Artaxa ta
,in the d i strict of
Ta ron,and e lsewhere . Astlik , the godd es s of Plea sure
,wa s worsh ipped
on the shores of lake V an.
W e have ve ry li ttle information a s
to the origina l rel igious idea s of the Ar
menians,but there a re some ind ica tions
tha t l ike most of the i r fe llow-Aryansthey sta rted with Na ture worship
,wh ich
gradua l ly wa s transformed to producethe na tiona l Pantheon. In any ca se,reverence for the ancestra l god s wa s so
deeply rooted in the people,tha t it sur
vived d es ite a ll tern ta t'
ous and a acks .
PAGAN BAS-RELIEF AT D P 1 tt
BAGREVANT, NEAR BAYAZID Th i s tena city of re l igious convictions,
moreover ha s never weakened amongthe Armenians s ince the time of Chri sti anity
,for few na tions have had
the strength to keep the i r fa ith so much a l ive for centuries and centuries,amid the most terrible persecutions.
—7 1
When he became ma ster of the Pers ians and
PERS IAN PERIOD the Medes, Da rius I . the son of Hystaspes, had
to a ssume the heavy ta sk of strengthening and
organizing the empire of Cyru s, and anxiety concerning the borde rs of
his dominions compel led him to seize the Armenian stronghold . He had
to have rule over the Erzerum plateau, not only to avert dangers tha t
might a ri se from tha t mounta in ma ss i f i f i t rema ined held by an energe tic
and independent people, but a lso to keep in check the turbulent tribes
of the Pha s is and Cyrus va l leys, and to control the northern hordes who
were a stand ing threat. The barrier of the Greater Cauca su s stood l ike
a formidable wa ll aga inst the Scythians of whom W estern As ia had ter
rible memories,but i t wa s necessary to ho ld the foot of th is rampa rt and
close the Ca spian Gates and Dariall . He had then first of a ll to make
sure of Armenia . Once Armenia was occupied,the Grea t King’s only
rema ining frontier ca re wa s on the Oxus, the steppes of wh ich were theninhabited by the famous Ma ssagetes, in whose territory Cyru s lost hisl i fe
,and by other no less formidable Scyth ian nations.
But th is grea t Pe rs ian Sta te, so speed i ly founded by Cyrus, wasba sed on feuda l principles . E ach people had kept its laws and its hered
ita ry rule rs,and consequently the pa lace revolution which resulted a fter
Cyrus’ death in Da rius’ a ccess ion reverbera ted among the vassa ls of the
Empire and revolts broke out in most of the provinces . Armenia,in the
hope of ga ining freedom,joined the coa l ition of the northern peoples, and
wa s perhaps even its instigator.
The Pers ians fought bitterly aga inst the Armenians, judging by theaccounts on the famous stele of Bisoutoun the only inscription of
note tha t rema ins to us concerning the wa rs tha t re sulted in the empireof the Achaemenids .
Da rius I . rela tes h imsel f the campa igns he had to conduct to overcome the ob stinate resi stance of the Armenians whose country thoughincluded in his dominions certa inly sti ll enjoyed considerable independence.
There is rea son to bel ieve that,e ither by force or by stratagem
, the
Pers ians succeeded in d ivid ing the Armenians . The pol iti cal structureof the latter wa s a lso on the feuda l system
,for i t wa s an Armenian in the
s ervice of the Acha emenids,sure ly a tra itor to his country
,that the King
( I ) Bi-soutoun (without columns ) , the modern name of Beh istoun ( in Persian,Bagh istana ) . These inscriptions were carved about 500 B.C. by order of Darius I.son of Hystaspe s.
commiss ioned to crush a na tiona l upri s ing,ca lled by him a revolt. The
tiara of a Sa trapy wa s no doubt to be the felon’s reward .
The record in stone reads thu s“And Darius
, the King, sa id : An Armenian named Dadarses, my“servant
,I sent into Armenia . I spoke in th is
manner to him :“Go aga inst the army of the
rebe ls that say they a re not mine ; ki ll them !”
Then Dada rses set forth. When he arrived
in Armenia,the rebe ls ma ssed together and
went out aga inst Dadarses to battle. Then
DOUBLE GOLDEN DARIC Dada rses fought them:The re was a fortress
OF THE ACHAEMENIDS named Zura in Armema . There Ormazd wa s
my support. By the favor of Ormazd mya rmy kil led many of the rebe ls ’ army . Th is wa s the eighth day of the
“month Thurava sha ra [May-June
,5 19 B.C. ] tha t thi s battle wa s fought
A second encounter took place near the city named Tigra (June
and a third one the same month aga inst a fortress ca l led Ethyama . But
in his narratives, Da rius spe aks only of the losses susta ined by the enemy,wi thout saying i f his tr0 0ps were victorious .
It seems l ikely,however
,tha t the Persians under Dadarses did not
meet with a ll the success expected by the King of Kings,or e lse th i s per
son who wa s undoubted ly an Armenian prince fel l under his su spicion,
for shortly a fter the above exped i tion Darius replaced him by a Pers iangenera l named Omises .
On the ir s ide, the Armenians apparently advanced to wel l beyondthe ir frontier, and were sub sequently the victors in the campa ign aga instDa rius . It wa s indeed in Assyria
,probably in the southern buttresses
of the Armenian Taurus tha t Omi ses met and defeated the insurgentstoward s the end of tha t year. A d eci s ive battle seems a ccord ing to the
inscriptions to have been fought in May 5 18 B.C. in a d istri ct ca l ledAntya rus, a loca tion we cannot identify. However
, the Achaemeneanstatements contrad ict the facts a s a whole
,for Omises
,a fra id to commit
himsel f and enter enemy terri tory,perhap s because of reverses
,deemed
i t wi ser to wa i t for his ma ste r,then engaged in besieging Babylon
, to
come and paci fy in person the north of his empire.
(2 ) Transl . J. Oppert, in Le Peup le et la Langue des Medes, p. 127 sq .
These ba ttle s of the a rmies of Da rius I . aga inst the Armenians a re
the olde st record s of Armenian p rowess tha t have come down to us,but
before them there were certa inly some exped itions of Cyrus into the
Ara ra t ma ss i f . These wa rs succeeded long efforts on the pa rt of Ha ik’ sdescendants to conque r the ir new homeland
,so tha t about 520 B.C. the
Armenian people had a lready a cquired much experience in the a rt of
war. Accord ing to the testimony of the Acha emenid s themse lves,it wa s
the Pers ians who had to repulse a ttacks,and not the Armenians who
were obliged to d rive back from the ir land the sold iers of Omises .
These few l ines, wri tten by the ir enemy,a re entire ly to the cred it
of the Armenian nation. They show th is people, two centuries a fter the i r
settl ing in the ir land,a regula rly constituted Sta te
,conscious of sufficient
strength to da re to cross sword s with the cohorts of the Immorta ls . Per
haps a lso th is upri s ing wa s a coa l ition of the northern peoples seeking
to compe l Da rius to ra i se the s iege of Babylon. In any ca se, the campa ign
of Omi ses and the way his und ertaking terminated , pla ce Armenia at the
end of the 6th century B.C . in the pos ition of a Power playing a very
important pa rt in the genera l pol itica l l i fe of the Ea st .
Inevitably, however, despite the ir va lor,the Armenians had to suc
cumb to numerica l force, and so after the above wa rs we see the ir country
included in the 13 th Sa trapy of the Pers ian Empire , together with the
d istricts of the Ligye s and the Ca rducii, wh i lst the mounta ins of the
Lesser Cauca sus not yet settled by the Armenians but inhabited by the
Sa spires and the Ala rodii were placed in the 18th Sa trapy a long with the
Macrones and the Mosch i of Lazistan, and the Matienes of Centra l Kurd
istan and Aberza i’
djan. It would seem tha t a t th i s period the Armenians
had not yet rea ched the midd le va l ley of the Araxes, tha t they owned ,i t is true
,the provinces of V an and E rzerum
,but the ir ma in center wa s
rather towa rd s the Euphra tes,at the modern s ite of the town of E rzind
j ian, on the road lead ing from Cappadocia to Ara ra t . In thi s connection,
however,we can only surmise .
The peoples of the 18th Sa trapy, ha rd ly yet subdued by the Pers ians
and hosti le to the Armenians,encircled the la tter on the north and ea st
in a vast semi-circle , wherea s towa rds the ea st and south-ea st the roya l
a rmy kept wa tch on the grea t stronghold .
The power of the Achaemenean empire,l ike tha t la ter of the
Pa rthians and the Sa ssanid s,rested on the feuda l system
,a conception
Thence they advanced three days ’ journey, fifteen leagues, to the
“sma ll river Teleboa s (S) , a stream of much beauty and with many vil
lages on its banks . Here begins Western Armenia , the deputy-governor
“of wh ich wa s Tiribazus, an intima te friend of the king of Pers ia , who
held
the king’s stirrup when he mounted his horse . He rod-e up to the a rmy
with a few horsemen and a sked through an interpreter to speak with the
commanders He offered to let the a rmy pa ss and to a llow the so ld ie rs
to take such provi s ions a s they required , provided no damage should
be done a s they pa ssed through , wh ich wa s granted . Thence theyproceeded , three days’ ma rch
,fifteen leagues through a la rge pla in.
Tiribazus fol lowed them with his troops, keeping at a d istance of about
ten stad ia , ti l l they a rrived at pa la ce bui ld ings, with severa l vi l lages
a round stored with abundance of provi s ion. Whi le they were encamped ,there fe ll in the night a grea t quantity of snow and in the morning it
wa s thought advi sable to take up qua rters in the ne ighboring vi llages
Here they found a ll kind s of provis ions in abundance, cattle, corn, dried“grapes
,vegetable s of a ll sorts, and fragrant old wines . (The Greeks)
l ighted fires and ano inted themse lves with o i ls of sesamum, turpentine,
and bitter a lmond s,of wh ich there wa s plenty around , with hog
’
s la rd ,and ointments made of a ll kind s of drugs They despa tched in the night
Democra tes of Temenos with a detachment of men to the h i lls where
fires had been seen He brought back a pri soner who had a Pers ian
bow and quiver,and a short ba ttle-ax such a s the Amazons have
( It wa s lea rned tha t Tiribazus ) with his own troops of the province and
some mercenaries from the Cha lybes and Taochians wa s prepa red to
a tta ck the Greeks at the foot of the mounta ins It wa s therefore re
solved to se ize the pa s ses The enemy were put to rout,some were
killed , and twenty horses were taken a s wa s a lso the tent of Tiribazus ;in the la tter were couches with s i lver feet and drinking-cups Thence
they proceeded three days’ journey through a desert tract of country, tothe river Euphra tes ( 1) wh ich they pa ssed not fa r from its sourceThey advanced in snow five or six feet deep ; many of the baggage slavesand bea sts of burden peri she d in i t a long with th irty sold iers .
The a rmy suffered severe ly from the cold on these high plateaus and
lost many men ; so they spread out into the vil lages . The Athenian
Polycra tes with his followers found in the vi llage a llotted to him“the
( 5 ) Probably the Qara-sou, a river of Mouch, tributary of th e ea stern Euphrates.( 1 ) The Arsania s.
head-man with a ll the vi llagers, together with seventeen colts tha t were
being bred a s a tribute for the king. The head-man’s daughter, who had
been ma rried but nine days, wa s there, but her husband had gone out to
hunt ha res . The ir houses were underground,the entrance l ike the mouth
of a well ; the people de scended by ladders, but there were other pa ssages
dug into them for the cattle . In the houses were sheep,cows, goats, and
fowls,a lso Whea t, ba rley, vegetables, and beer to drink, which la st wa s
very strong,unless one mixed wa ter with it
,and apparently plea sant
to those a ccustomed to it . I t wa s drunk with a reed from the vesse ls ; manyreeds of d ifferent kinds
,wi th no knots, lay in the beer, whereon a lso floated
the ba rley. Xenophon made the chief man of the village sup with him“and told him to have no fea r, tha t they would cause him no vexation i f
he would but lead the a rmy sa fe ly to the border. This the chief promised
and to rega le Xenophon showed him where the wine wa s h idden. The
sold iers spent the night in the mid st of great abundance, setting a guard
over the ch ief and keeping his ch i ldren under the ir eye . The fol lowingday Xenophon took the head-man and went wi th him to Cheirisophus,
and wherever he pa ssed he found the sold iers fea sting. The latter made
him d ismount and sit down to eat with them,serving him vea l
,lamb ,
pork, together with fowl and bread of Whea t and barley . To d rink toanyone’s hea lth
,however
,i t wa s necessa ry to go to the ca sk and drink
stooping down,l ike an anima l at the trough When they came to
Cheirisophus, they found them a ll fea sting,with wrea ths on the i r
head s made of d ried gra ss in l ieu of flowers,and be ing served by boys
in their na tive costumes to whom they had to make s igns for every
thing a s to mutes (The ch ief man when questioned ) sa id they werein Armenia , and that the neighboring country was that of the Cha lybes,and told them in wha t d irection the road lay.
After ten days’ ma rch, the Greeks reached the banks of the Pha s is
(Araxes ) and entered the land of the Taochii (Ka rs) , crossed the
va l ley of the Ha rpa sos the country of the Sa spires , and the
mounta ins of the Cha lybes (Lazistan) , fina lly arriving at Trebizond .
Xenophon sta tes tha t Tiribazus, on instructions from his king,Tigranes
,and following orders he had rece ived from Susa , had intended
( I ) Xenophon is mistaken in speaking of the Pha sis, a river of Mingrel ia .
a ttacking the Ten Thousand on the ir way through the Armenian territory'
wherea s his own a ccount shows tha t a ctua lly the Greeks se ized Tiribazuscamp without any p rovocation on the la tter’ s pa rt and mere ly because
of the statement of one pri soner. Th is atta ck seems a ll the less justifiablewhen one cons ide rs tha t the Armenian governor had taken no precautions
to protect his tent ; the hospita l ity tha t Xenophon’s sold iers subsequently
rece ived in Armenia and wh ich they seem to have abused,shows tha t the
inhabitants were we l l d i sposed towa rds them,and not hosti le .
Armenia thus wa s enjoying very cons iderableALEXANDRIAN freedom under the Acha emenid s when there cameCONQUEST the defeat of Da rius Codomannus
,first at Issus and
then at Arbe la . The conquests of Alexander theGrea t caused indeed the grea test revolution tha t ever changed the faceof the As ia tic world . The beneficent civi liza tion of the He llenes spread
a s fa r a s Ind ia , ex
tinguishing for centuries the obsolete princi
ples of the old Ea sternempires
,bringing to
the various peoples
nobler conceptions re
ga rd ing everyth ing .
It wa s the triumph
of civi l iza tion over
barba ri sm,
and th i s
a scendancy of the
He llenic spirit preva i led in As ia for six hundred years, unti l the access ion
of the Sa ssanid s to the Pe rs ian throne brought about a return to the old
Iranian culture .
TETRADRACHMA OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
The defea t of the Achaemenean monarchy by the Macedonian kinghad
,a s rega rd s Armenia
,the only pol i ti ca l result of exchanging Pers ian
for Greek authority,but find ing in th is new sta tus greater civi l and rel ig
ious freedom,the Armenians forsook Mazde ism tha t they had accepted
only under compuls ion and returned to the god s of the ir forefa thers .
They adopted p rogre s s with enthus ia sm and under the ir Greek rulers ’
influence made grea t strides .
W e have extreme ly l ittle l ight concerning the
ALEXANDER’
S events tha t took pla ce in th is pa rt of Western
SUCCESSORS As ia from the time of Alexander’s death unti l the
period of Mithid ra tes the Great,king of Pontus .
W e know,however
,through Armenian chronologists tha t in the year
324 B.C. the G re eks had sent into Armenia a governor named Phraata
phernes or Neoptolemaeus ; tha t in 3 22 the latter wa s replaced by Orontes
(Hran'
t or Ervand ) who ruled from 3 22 to 301 ; that in
ERVAND I 301 ( 3 ) the country wa s governed by Ardoates or
3 22-3 01 B.C. Artavazt ; and tha t a fter a series of rulers whose names
a re unknown,with the exception of Arsames who struck
coins (2 ) in the yea r 82 of the Se leucidan era (230 Artabazanes
or Artavaz (239-220 ruled over Armenia and wa s succeeded by Orontes
I I ( f) (220—2 15This Orontes (E rvand ) just mentioned is cred ited
ERVAND II by Armenian trad ition with having founded the city of
220-21 5 E rivan. With the ir southern border constantly
threa tened first by the Pers ians and then by the Greeks,and find ing the ir northern
enemies fa r less formidable
than those on the south,the Armenians entrenched
themse lves more and more
strongly in the d istricts
north of the Araxes . Ani,
a lready fortified,conta ined
holy place s venera ted by
TETRADRACHMA OF SELEUCUS I, NICATOR the people, and E rivan wa s
founded in the pla in com
mand ing on one s ide the ch ief pa ssages of the Araxes and on the other the
gorges communica ting from the Araxes va lley to tha t of the river Cyrus .
Moses of Khoren ha s left us a curious description of the new city
of Erivan“ I love to speak of the splend id c ity of Yervandakert bui lt by king
Ervand , who la id i t out de l ightful ly . In its center he bui l t magnificent
( l ) K. J . BASMADJIAN, op . la ud .
(2 ) E. BABELON, Numis . d es rois de Syrie , d’
Armenie, et de Commagene,Pari s, 1890.
ed ifices rad ia ting a s from the - pupil of the eye ; a round the dwell ings a re
ga rdens and pa sture s encircl ing like the eye ’s orbit ; numerous vineya rd s
a re l ike a rich and gra cious fringe of eye-la shes ; the ground to the north
in a handsome a rch is indeed compa rable to the lofty eye-brows of lovely
damsels ; on the south the smooth surfa ce of the meadows remind one
of a ttractive tender cheeks : the river opens a s a mouth between the
two banks tha t a re its l ips . And th is love ly scenery seems to look up
wa rd to the eminence whereon stand s the mona rch’s pa lace .
The Armenians long cons idered the success ion of princes just
mentioned to be the first period of the ir kingdom,but th i s wa s a grievous
mistake for it robbed them of the ir oldest cla im to roya lty. B efore the
Achaemenean period , during the re ign of Cyrus, Armenia is known to have
be en governed by its own kings. W e d o not know the name s of the
sovere igns of Armenia during the two centuries fol lowing Ha ik’s conquest,any more than we do those of the tributa ry kings under the Acha emenid s ;only the record of one Tigranes , the contemporary of Xenophon, ha s been
preserved ; but we do know neverthe less tha t these dyna sties existed .
Therefore, to pa ss them over unmenti oned would be stripping Armenian
h istory of its opening pages .
In any ca se, a fter the dyna sty tha t wa s contemporary with the first
Se leucids in Syria,the native chronologers pla ce a period of Greek
domina tion la sting from 215 to 190 B .C ., to the defeat of Antiochus
the Great by the Romans at Magnesia . Armenia then became free,and
split into two kingdoms,GreaterArmenia
,on the ea st of the Euphrates, and
Le sser Armenia bounded on the ea st by tha t same river.
( 1 ) MOSES OF KHOREN, II, 42, transl . A. TCHOBANIAN, Le Peuple ar
menian, son pa ssé. sa culture , son aven ir, p . 3 7, Paris, 1913 .
( 2 ) Moses of Khoren, and the Armenian h istorians who drew from h i s writings,give a l ist of 36 name s of the Ha ik ian patriarch s and make th is succe ssion l ast 1480years, thu s a l lowing about 41 years to each re ign. Th is estimate of duration is in
a dmissible . Moreover, from 870 to 3 3 0 B.C., seventeen are supposed to have re igned,wh ich woul d give 3 1 years apiece , wh ich figure we cannot a ccept e ith er. But if wetake th e onl y certa in date in th is l e gendary chronology, viz. 3 30 B.C., and reduce to
a probabl e ratio th e d ifferent re igns, we se e that the l i st of kings correspond s to thetime of the Achaemenean mona rchy, and that th e serie s of patriarch s can very wel lb e included in the two or three centuries taken up by the nation
’
s advance fromCappadocia to the Ararat country and by the ir occupation of th e new homel and .
In th i s ca se , th e succe s sions l isted by Armenian traditions woul d correspond to
a ctua l ity, the onl y mi stake be ing the chronological e stimates. The se e stimates are ,
moreover, of compara tive ly la te comp il ation, they date from the time that Chri stianauthors endeavored to make Armenian h istory ta lly with the Bibl ica l record.
— 80
At,this same period , about 180 B.C . a prince of the name of Sames,
probably d riven from Armenia by the Pa rth ian inva s ion and bel ieved to
have been the son of Antiochis , a concubine of Antiochus IV,who ma rried
the Armenian king Xerxes, ( 1 ) decla red h imsel f independent at Samosata ,
on the Euphra tes, and founded the kingdom of Commagene, the destiny
TETRADRACHMA OF ANTIOCHUS THE GREAT
of which wa s so close ly linked to tha t of Armenia M inor. The empi re of
the Seleucid s wa s at tha t time d i s integrating into a multitude of sma l l
states.
The first king of Grea ter Armenia wa s Artaxia s
ARTAXIAS or Arta shes I,a former genera l of Antiochus I I I . Thi s
CA. 1 60 B.C. king founded the city of Artaxata on the Araxes,at the
foot of Qa ra -bagh,and made i t his ca pita l . The shape
less ruins of thi s city a re sti l l to be seen near the vi llage of Khorvirah,about nineteen mi les to the south of E rivan.
During the early days of the re ign of Artaxia s, Armenia enjoyedindependence ; but about 165 or 159 B .C . i t wa s atta cked by Antiochus IV
Epiphanes, and fe l l once more under Seleucidan control . In th is fight for the inde
pendence of his kingdom Artaxias was de
fea ted by Antiochus Epiphanes and lost hisl i fe . W e do not know how long the new period la sted
,but Justin informs us that at the
beginning of the first century B.C . a kingCOIN OF SAMES, KINGOF COMMAGENE of Armeni a named Ortoad i stes wa s fighting
aga inst the king of Pontus. This Armenian
( 1 ) Cf. E. BABELON, Les Rois d e Syr ie , d’
Armenie et de Commagene, 1890,p . CCVIII sq .
8 1
ruler would appea r to be the predecessor of one of the grea test among the
sovere igns of Armenia,viz. Tigranes I I
,who ga ined such b ri ll iant d is
tinction by his a ll iances with Mithidrates and his wa rs with the Romans.
W e know through Strabo tha t the re ign ofArtaxia s wa s an era of con
quests for Armenia . Th is king, by forming a powerful mona rchy uphe ld
by Roman sta tecra ft,became a menace to the kings of Syria
,and we may
be certa in tha t Antiochus Epiphanes only atta cked him to be rid of a
dangerous ne ighbor. With the Pa rth ians press ing them on the ea st, and
Roman power ever on the increa se, the Se leucid s for the sa fety of the ir
dominions had to stifle this kingdom in its early stage s a s i t wa s growing
d a ilsr strong er and becoming a greater cha llenge .
Wh i lst Artaxia s wa s reconstructing the kingdom of
ZARIADRAS Grea ter Armenia,Za riadra s
,l ikewise a former genera l
of Antiochus the Grea t,wa s found ing Lesser Armenia
,
a State wh ich continued to be ruled by his d escendants until the time of
Mithidrates .
The names of these two rulers,Artaxia s ( in Armenian Artashes) and
Za riad ra s (Za reh ) a re Pers ian,and we cannot th erefore know whether
they were Armenians or Iranians . On the one hand, the Achaemeneans
had spread the ir princes a round over a ll the provinces of the ir va st empire
,a s viceroys , and these sa trap s fretting under the Greek overlordsh ip ,
were inclined to a s sert the ir freedom ; on the other hand,the Armenians
had often adopted I ranian names through the Pers ian influence ; con
sequently the na tiona l ity of the se two kings rema ins uncerta in. In any
ca se,they re l ied on the Armenian e lement to shake off the yoke of the
Se leucid s . Accord ing to Cicero,Antiochus a fter his defea t wa s ordered
by the conqueror to make the Taurus the bounda ry of his dominions,and
thi s stipula tion wa s a grea t he lp in furthering the independence of the
princes governing in his name in both Armenia s .
These kingdoms were then the only rea l ly civi l ized countries of the
Transcauca s ian region. The ir inhabitants were intell igent and industrious ,wide-awake , and thoroughly permea ted with He llenic influence . Theyhad adopted the Greek language for the ir writings
,and s ince the Mace
domian conquest had become quite fami l ia r with the use of money. The
gold da rics and the s i lver sheke ls of the Acha emenid s and the coins
( 1 ) W e have no Armenian coins of the Ach aemeni an period, whereas duringthat same peri od, in Phoenicia and Cappadocia , the satrap s of the Great King strucks1lver money with the ir own names ins cribed in Aramaean characters.
_ 32 _
I ranian culture d id not meet the a spira tions of th is people,wherea s Greek
civi liza tion in l ine with the trad itions of the Aryans of Europe found inArmenia a favorable soi l for deve lopment.
Such is the h istory of the beginnings of the Ar
menian nation. These anna ls,h itherto l ittle known,
a re such a s to inspire with pride thi s people who, holding an outpost of Indo-European civi l iza tion amid st
As iatic powers,never fa i led to uphold firmly the
Aryan standa rd . In hea then times the Armeniansma inta ined for centuries Greek culture, and a s Christ
ians they became the grea t champions of our fa i th and
western civi l iza tion; consequently the ir role in h istory
ha s a lways been a famous one,ever s ince the con
quest of As ia by the Ma cedonians . But before Al
exander the Grea t even,when the Hel lenic peoples
were themse lves struggl ing ind ividua l ly,Armenia wa s
a powerful Sta te with wh ich the mighty sovere igns
of As ia had to reckon. Th is is the pa rt of Armenian h istory that
is lea st known, a lthough i t is the most
interesting,for the whole l i fe of the Ar
menian people, up to our times, is but the
consequence of those ea rly pages, and the
rea son tha t the Armenians for twentycenturies have shown such energy, such
va lor,
and such a ttachment to the ir COIN OFna tiona l spirit
,is tha t “noblesse oblige .
”( l )
( 1 ) Th e l ead ing facts conta ined in th is chapter were publ i shed in leFrance, ( Sept.-Oct., 1916) vol . CXVII.
PORTRAIT OF KING TIGRANES II, THE GREAT(From a tetradrachma in the British Museum)
CHAPTER I I I
RE IGN or T IGRANES I I, THE GREAT.-LUCULLUS AND POMPEY IN AR
MEN IA.~—THE COUNTRY DIVIDED BY THE ROMANS . —THE LAST K INGS or
THE DYNASTY or ARTAXIAS
Unti l the beginning of the first century B.C ., the Armenians had
encountered on the ba ttlefi e ld only As ia tic peoples,who
,though ad
mitted ly powerful, were la cking in the organiza tion and d iscipline tha ta re an a rmy’s ch ief strength. Themse lves a ccustomed to Ea stern prin
ciples wh ich ne ither the Greek influence nor the conquest by Alexanderhad succeeded in uprooting
,and governed accord ing to the feuda l system
l ike the Pers ians, they ra ised troops through the med ium of noblemen whorema ined at the head of their contingents
,and whose obed ience to the
roya l power wa s not a lways what i t should have been for the nation’swe lfa re . But among the Pa rthians
, the rulers of Pontus, a ll the -pettykings of As ia M inor
,and even among the Se leucid s themse lves
,adminis
trative and mi l ita ry inexperience wa s the same a s in Armenia . Couse
— 85
quently the Armenian people were able to hold the ir own, often verysuccessful ly, aga inst any of the ir neighbors seeking to encroa ch on them.
From the time of Tigranes the Grea t, however, the opposing e lements
took on new a spects due to the a ppearance of the Roman legions . Pitted
a ga inst equa l numbers, the As ia tics’res istance became myth ica l . The
grea t Republic, relying on its genera ls and d ip lomats and on its mi l i ta ry
strength, used the latter, a lterna te ly with its pol itica l shrewdness, to getpossession of the na tura l stronghold of Armenia command ing Western
As ia and constituting a bridgehead aga inst Med ia,Syria
,and Pontus . As
soon a s opportunity occurred,therefore
,the Roman genera ls lost no time
in taking the very oppos ite course from tha t pursued formerly by the
Acha emenid s,even sti ll by the Pa rth ians , and resumed later by Sa s
sanid s,Arab s
,and Turks . The possess ion of Armenia wa s to be fought
over for centuries, and the Armenians were to be sub jected to a ll kinds ofinfluences which often were d i sa strous when they became d ivided in
purpose . Some of the ir feuda l nobi lity favored the Pers ians,others the
Romans,and many of them too often
,a la s ! forgot the pa ramount in
terests of the ir king and na tion.
During the re ign of Artavazd I I about 1 12
ARTAVAZD I I B.C .,his ne ighbor
,M ithidrates V. the Great
,k ing
CA. 1 1 2 B.C. of Pontus,extended by conquest the borders of his
dominions . Recognizing a ll the danger his kingdom
would incur one d ay from the
p roximity of the newly ac
quired possess ions of Rome,this ruler conce ived the ideaof found ing a va st empiretha t could hold its own
aga inst the Roman genera ls .
The blood of the Achaemenid sflowing in his ve ins inspiredhim with the thought of re TETRADRACHMA or MITHIDRATEScovering for As ia M inor its THE GREAT
e rstwh i le splendor and power,(NET-
1
3
1
533
3; fili l
li ic
ih’
iiiintzim i
but his idea wa s a He l lenized
( 1 ) o r Artoad i stus ( 123-94
As ia , combining not only the old trad itions of the Ea st but a lso the Greek
culture now threa tened with ruin by the West. With profound pol itica l
fores ight, he saw the schism tha t would eventua te la ter between Rome
and Byzantium,between the West and the Ea st . Within seven yea rs ,
Mithid rate s had added to his dominions Colch is the Black Sea
coa st the Tauri c Che rsonese and a pa rt of Armenia When,however
,he sought to expand to the ea st of the Euphrates , he wa s
stopped in tha t d irection by the va lor of the Armenians, and the people sof the Cauca sus leagued together to pre serve the ir home lands . To the
ea st,Mithid ra te s ’ kingdom never went beyond the pa ss of Souram ( 1)
and the inhabitants of the va l leys of the Cyrus and Araxes,and those of
the pla teau of E rzerum, prese rved the ir independence . These countries
were split up into a la rge number of petty kingdoms,principa l ities
,and
minor doma ins , whose wa rl ike lord s brooked no authority but the i r own
good plea sure . In Transcauca s ia and in the mounta ins,there were
ga the red a number of sti l l very uncivi l ized tribes who were ever at wa r
with the ir ne ighbors includ ing the Armenians,and only the power of
Rome wa s able to subdue them eventua l ly, even nomina l ly.
Such wa s the s itua tion pol i ti ca l ly in the north
TIGRANES II of westernAsia , when Tigranes I I , ca l led the Great
THE GREAT, 94 (94-54 B.C .) (2 ) a scended the th rone of Ar
5 4 B.C. menia . With him began the most glorious mi l i
ta ry period in the country’s h istory.
Sti ll a young man, Tigrane s had once been a hostage in Pers ian
hand s,and i t was the Pa rthian king Mithidrates 11 who caused him to
be given the crown. The King of Kings, moreover, exacted in payment
s ixty-six valleys of Artavazd Il’s dominions .
( 2 ) The ba sin of the river Pha s is .
( 3 ) Afkh a sia , Lazi stan, Treb izond , a s fa r a s Amisus
(4) Th e Crimea .
( 5 ) Le sser Armenia , on the we st of the Euphrate s .
( 1 ) Between the vall eys of the Pha sis and the Cyrus.
( 2 ) E. Babe lon, Les Ro is d e Syria , d ’Armenie et d e Commagene , p . 213 (numi sma ties ) , call s th is prince , Ti grane s I and sta te s that he re igned from 215 to 256 ofthe Seleucidan era (97-56
The defini te h i story of Armenia may be sa id to
begin with the new king,for the sta tements of native
Chri stian wri ters, often so questionable unfortunately,
can henceforth be verified by the many wri tings leftus by Greek and Latin authors . As for the anna ls of
hea then Armenia,wh ich no doubt once existed ei ther
in Greek or in Pehlevi,they have not been preserved
to us .
The king of Pontus,Mithidrates, rea l izing that
he would never be able to subdue the Armenians and
tha t Tigranes would be a very dangerous neighbor in
DRACHMA OF his way, unless he could have him a s an a l ly,did a ll
THE PARTHIAN he could to draw Tigranes into his war aga inst Rome.
KINGMITHIDRATES H
Tigranes, to whom the Pontine kingdom rel inquishedthe Whole of the south of Asia M inor
,thought th is a l
liance would a ssure to his dominions a status enabling him to treat a s anequa l both wi th the Romans and the Pe rsian Arsacids . He thereforedecided to espouse the a ims and share the dangers of Mithidrates.
The young king, who a lre ady owned vast terri tories, began by con
quering Sophene, then turning his army aga inst the Pa rth ians,he re
covered from Pers ia the d istri cts h e had been obliged to give up on his
a ccess ion. F ina lly,taking advantage of a pa lace revolution at Ctesiphon
and of the a ssa ss ina tion of Mithidrates I I by Orodes I, Tigranes—whohad had time to establish his power and whose ambi tion wa s unl imitedremembering the humi l iations he had known at the Parth ian cou rt, ar
rogated to h imse lf the title of King of Kings This title had beenborne by the soverei gns of I ranfrom the time of the Achaeme
nid s. Tigranes thus fol lowed theexample set by the Seleucids
,and
showed tha t he wa s contemplat
ing great conquests. He had a l
l ied h imself by marriage wi th thefami ly o f the shrewd k ing of
Pontus, the sworn enemy of the TETRADRACHMA OF THE PARTHIANKING ORODES I
Romans. Consequently he d id
not hes ita te to attack the rulers under the protection of Rome, and about
( 1 ) Basil eus Ba si leon, V ide coins of Mithidrate s II Orode s I.
— 88
91 B.C . he invaded Cappadocia which he considered, probably from tra
d i tion,a s belonging to the Armenian patrimony. Driving out Ariobar
zanus,whom Sul la had just p laced on the
throne of this region,he put in his stead
Aria rathes, poss ibly the son of his a l ly M ith
id rates . The king of Pontus undoubted ly
joined in this exped i tion,for Cappadocia
had hard ly been conquered be fore Aria
GOLD COIN OF SULLA rathes set out to a ttack the legions then inAttica . The young prince d ied , however,
on the way, and Mithidrates vanquished by Sul la wa s compel led by thetreaty of Da rdanus to rel inquish his cla ims to As ia M inor and Cappadocia .
The former king of the la tte r province,Ariobar
MITHIDRATES V. zanus,retu rned to his throne.
CONQUERED BY Tigranes,however, taking warning from the
SULLA repulses suffered by his a lly,deemed i t w is er not
to pursue his a ims on lands protected by Rome
and turned to his other frontiers . With in a few years he had subdued
Gordyene Med ian Atropatenes Adiabenes the region of
N i s ib i s and fina lly the kingdom of Edessa,or Osrhoene
,over which
he appointed an Arab fami ly, of wh ich Abgar and Manou were la ter members . His ambitions
,however
,were not yet sati sfied
,for then
, throwingcaution to the wind s a s regards the Romans
,he aga in took arms aga inst
the West. After subduing Sophene for the second time, he ravaged Cappadocia where he captured very many s laves and rich booty and marchedon Cilicia and Syria .
During these campa igns Tigranes had encountered no opposi tionfrom the Romans . It seemed to him that the ir genera ls were a fra id to
come to blows with a monarch whose dominions had grown to such an
extent in a few yea rs . On his way to Antioch, the king ofArmenia stoppedawhi le in his province of the Tigri s to d raw up the plans and supervise thebui ld ing of the grea t city of Tigranocerta wh ich he had decided to foundsouth of the river. The pri soners taken in Cappadocia , Ci l icia , and Syria,were engaged in th is work when suddenly
, a fter the king had left forAntioch, Lucul lus appeared at the head of the Roman legions.
( 2 ) Northern Kurd istan.
( 3 ) Azerba idjan.
(4 ) Mosul .( 5 ) Nis ibin (Antioch of Mygdonia ) .
Th is wa s the first time tha t the Armenians had come face to face
with the Roman a rmy,for h itherto the Sena te had spa red the king of
Armenia . As a ma tte r of fa ct, a lthough the ambitions of the king of
Pontus ran counter to Rome ’s pol itica l a ims in Asia,i t wa s not so
,at
lea st for the time be ing, a s rega rd s Armenia . Th i s kingdom,stand ing
between the Pa rthian dominions and those of the Republic, and be ingitse lf hosti le to the Pers ians, wa s of cons iderab le service by its very exis
tence,and the Armenians bes id es we re the only intermed ia ries for the
trade of the Med iterranean with Centra l As ia now tha t re la tions were
broken betwe en Rome and Ctesiphon. However,Tigranes ’ exped itions
into Cappadocia,Cilicia
,and Syria
,a ll under the Sena te ’ s protection,
had
a roused in Ita ly both annoyance and anxiety . It wa s known tha t a lthough
he had not taken pa rt in the la st aggression of M ithid ra tes V,Tigranes
wa s neverthe less the a l ly of his father-in—law and brother-in—law, the king
of Pontus . An a ctua l coa l ition of the two kings might become verydangerous
,should a s wa s p robable these two powerful Sta tes join up
with the Arsa cid s of Pe rs ia to d rive out the legions from As ia . A firm
hand wa s therefore necessa ry in dea l ing with the Armenians,whose king
must be made to understand that he had to respect the te rri tories under
Roman protection and keep to his own frontiers of the Tigris and the
Armenian Taurus .
The Sena te hes itated to undertake a wa r aga inst a ruler who seemed
to them l ike another M ithid ra tes,and were wonde ring whether the results
of any such campa ign would be commensura te with the risks to the Re
public and the enormous expense i t would enta i l,when Antiochus and
his brother, the he i rs of the Se leucid s who had been d riven from As ia,
appea led to the Conscript Fa thers for the restitution of the ir dominions.
Thereupon Lucullus,more fa rs ighted than the Sena tors
,lost no time in
e spous ing the cause of Alexander’s succe ssors ousted from the ir heritag
His late success a t Cabira,nea r the source of the river
LUCULLUS Ha lys , over the king of Pontus urged him on,more
over,to p roceed with his plans
,and without awa iting
orders from Ita ly he haughti ly summoned Tigranes to de l iver up to him
M ithid rates . The la tter upon the loss of his a rmy had fl ed to the Ar
menian court,a fter first slaying a t Pha rnacia his two s i sters and his wives
to save them from s lavery .
Tigranes wa s a t Antioch when Appius Clodius , sent to him by Lucul lus,presented h imself. Upon the king’s refusa l to hand over his gue st and
— 90
pursued by the victors . Tigranes owed his l i fe only to his swift steed,and the Romans, ca rrying the day at the end of a short encounter, pickedup his roya l head-d ress and d iadem on the ba ttle-field .
KINGDOMS OF PONTUS AND ARMENIA DURING THE WARSWITH THE ROMANS
At Tigranocerta, Mankeos tried to ma inta in the garrison’s couragefol lowing th is sudden overwhelming d is a ster
,but the countless Greek
prisoners wi thin the wa lls opened its gates to the Romans. Lucullusfound in the city
’
s grana ries 20 mi ll ion med imni of corn ( 1 ) and in the
trea sury ta lents of gold an enormous sum for the time,which
enabled him to defray a ll the cost of the war and to pay each sold ier a
bonus of one hundred dena ri i
Thi s ba ttle l iberated from Armenian rule a ll the midd le va lley ofthe Tigris and the provinces south of tha t river taken by Tigranes a shortt ime before from the Parthians and Syrians . Lucul lus kept the terri toryand went on to invade Commagene, the throne of wh ich country he gaveto Prince Antiochus Theos . He then took the city of Samosata, passed
( 1 ) about mil l ion bushels.(2 ) 9 mi l l ion dol lars.( 3 )
—92
triumphantly through Syria, Phoenicia,Cilicia
,Ga la tia, and Sophene, and re
establi shed the kingdom of the Se leucids.
Th is wa s a terrible blow for Tigranes, but the king of Pontus soon te
stored his courage. Wh i le the battle of
Tigranocerta was 0 11 , Mithidrates was a l COIN OF ANTIOCHUS THEOS,ready on the way to his a l ly’s aid wi th KING OF COMMAGENE
ten thousand Armenians. He arrived toolate to prevent Lucu llus’ victory but he did come in time to save the
Armenians from sti l l greater defea t. Tigranes thence forth wa s d i scred ited
wi th the Romans, and i t was to the interest of the k ing of Pontus that
the war should go on, for i f the king of Armenia were to make terms wi th
the victors, the cause of Pontu s wa s irretrievably lost. Consequently M ithidrates u sed a ll his influence and a ll his persuas ive powers w ith his son
in-law and b rother-in-law to induce him to continue fighting and to en
trust him (Mithidrates ) with the genera lsh ip . He was then s ixty years
old and his age and experience wi th the enemy’s tactics and strategy werea guaranty of the success of their a l l ied a rms.
The two kings sent ambassadors to a ll the rulers of As ia a sking them
to a rise aga inst the common enemy,aga inst the desecrator of the ir gods,
for Lucul lus had no scruples in le tting his tr0 0ps sack the i r most reveredtemples. Had he not ju st p i l laged the famous holy place of Anahit ?
Most of the rulers responded to the appea l of Mithidrates and Tigrane s . The king of the Parthians, Ph ra at 111, howeve r, declined all
the proposa ls made to him,even though he was offered the recovery of
Mesopotamia and Adiabene that had been taken from him. The Persianking then poss ibly had his hands ful l on his ea stern borders, or pe rhap she wa s not unwi ll ing to see the downfa l l of Tigranes who had caused the
Arsa cid s of Iran so many grievances. We have too l i ttle knowledge of
Persia ’s anna ls to be able to d iscern the reasons for his refusa l ( l ) .
A new army wa s speed i ly ra i sed,and the two kings, recognizing that
As iatic troop s were unable to rema in in l ine aga inst the legions,decided
to use the tactics of the Parth ians, i.e. to ha rass the enemy uncea s ingly
wi thout ever joining battle . The grea t amount of cava lry at the two
a l l ie s ’ d i sposa l, practica l ly ha lf their army, enabled them to give the enemy
( 1 ) All the h i storical records of Persia were destroyed by order of the cal iphswhen the country wa s invaded by the Arabs.
— 93
no resp ite . Noth ing could be more fa ta l for Lucul lus whose p restige wa swaning every d ay in Rome, and who wa s sure to be reca l led a t the s l ight
est fa ilure . Th i s gene ra l’
s p ride and luxurious and a ristocra tic ta stes,had
ra i sed him up many enemie s in I ta ly, and those j ea lous of h im a ccused himof premed ita ted slowness in waging the wa r. It wa s cla imed
,and
justifiably so,tha t the procon
sul wa s much more concernedwith winning trea sures than battles . Moreover the Roman a rmy
,
tired of cea seless fighting,of i ron
d i scipline,and of long and wea ri
some ma rches,and sha ring very
TETRADRACHMA OF THE PARTHIANlittle in the lunder with wh ichKING PHRAAT III P
the i r ch ief wa s enrich ing h imse lf
so shameful ly,were murmuring and threa tening to revolt. Lucullus must a t
a ll costs ca rry off a striking v ictory to ra i se his sold iers ’ mora le and s i lence
the d i ssa tisfaction in Rome .
After staying some time (68 B.C . ) at Tigranoce rta , Lucul lus left
there about mid summer and crossed the Sindja r mounta ins, the Tigris
va l ley,and the Armenian Taurus
,and pa ss ing by the ea stern s ide
of lake V an entered Grea ter Armenia and the Arsania s va lley . After
routing the Armenian cava lry,he cros sed the latter river and wa s about
to bes iege Artaxa ta when he wa s caught by th e severe winter wh ich sets
in so e a rly on these h igh table land s . His sold iers mutinied,and
,in the se
land s so ill-known to the Romans both a s rega rd s the p rob lem of sup
plies and the na tura l d ifficulties,Lucullus wa s a fra id of endangering his
a rmy . He therefore withd rew into sou thern Armenia to winter at N i s ib i s,
wh i ch important town he took by a ssault und er cover of a d a rk and
stormy night. Th i s withd rawa l though caused by the inclement wea therwa s neverthe less made much of by his enemies in Ita ly .
Upon hea ring tha t Lucullus had gone north,the
LUCULLUS Armenians had returned to Tigranocerta . The ci ty hadRECALLED been left with only a sma l l garri son under the genera l’ s
lieutenant F annins, and the la tter unable to man the
rampa rts had evacua ted i t and taken refuge in a detached fort whe reTigranes wa s bes ieging him. Lucullus
,d espite his promise to his sold iers
to return them to Ita ly, left N i sibi s to extrica te his l ieutenant,but tha t
s a s fa r a s his offens ive went . Bad news reached him both from northern
As ia and from I ta ly . M ithid ra tes had just wiped out the a rmy corps of
Tria rius a t Zie la (Zi llah ) not fa r from the river I ri s,and reconque red
his kingdom of Pontus ; whi lst the Sena te yield ing to the clamors of the
demagogues and financiers whose exorbitant d ea l ings Lucul lus had in
terfered with or d ive rted to his own p rofit,had reca l led the commander
of the campa ign in the Ea st together with his troops,and were send ing
in the i r place a fresh a rmy under Pompey . Lucul lus wa s a t Ta laurawhen the orders of the Conscript Fa thers rea ched him. He continued on
his way in a memorab le retrea t through very d ifficult country,wh i lst
M ithidrate s,de live red from a ll anxiety and a ss isted by a la rge a rmy
b rought him by Tigranes,set about ree stab lish ing h imse lf.
Lucul lus came ba ck from the E a st a fter a ba rren but none the les snotable campa ign, laden with enormous trea sure s a s his only triumph .
Pompey on the othe r hand,more fortuna te
,found on his a rriva l in As ia
h is enemies d ivided . Tigranes,who wa s of a na tura l ly crue l d ispos ition,
embittered by his i l l-fortune,had s la in two of his own sons
,and Tigranes
the Younger, the grand son of the king of Pontus by his mother Cleopa tra
,incited ei the r by fea r or ambition
,joined the new Roman genera l
and took up a rms aga inst his father. F ina lly by a clever stroke of d iploma cy the Pa rthian king of I ran
,Ph ra a t III
,a l lied h imse lf with Rome
and for his he lp wa s p romi sed his old p rovinces of Mesopotamia extend edto the Euphra tes . The contingents of the King of Kings ra i sed Pompey ’ sa rmy to fifty thousand men
,whe rea s M ithid ra tes had only th irty thousand
infantry and three thousand horsemen.
The fi rst encounter of the two opponents took‘CN. POMPEIUS place on the left bank of the river Lycus ( Iechil
I rmak ) , nea r the future s ite of the city of Nicopol is,and the Roman succe ss due to a surp ri se a ttack wa s d i sa strous for the
enemy .
Pompey had occupied the he ights ove rlooking the mounta in pa s ses
through which the Pontine a rmy had to come,and M ithid ra tes i ll—informed
by his scouts had unsuspectingly h a lted by the gorge to rest in the hea t
of the d ay. The legiona ries se ized the opportunity to fa ll suddenly on
the i r enemy ’s b roken ranks and ca rry out a frightful ma ssacre . The king
fled with a hand ful of officers and one of his wives who had fought by
his s ide,and reached the Euphra te s , whe re he wa s rejoined by the rem
nants of his a rmy . Thence he proceeded to Armenia hoping to find
95
shelter and a ss i stance from his son-in-law. Tigranes, however, had been
obliged h imself to fl ee into the mounta ins to escape from his son and the
Pa rthian king Phraat 111 then besieging Artaxata , and consequently could
give his a lly no he lp . Shortly a fterwards,however, Tigranes learned of
the withdrawa l of the Persian king and drove out the body of enemytroop s left in his capita l, putting to fl ight his own son
’s contingents .
De spite these minor successes, the king of Armenia felt the weigh t of
Rome’s power, and see ing himse lf doomed unless he could free his throne
from the wrath of the Sena te, sent peace te rms to Pompey. He promi sed
to forsake Mithidrates and even offered one hundred ta lents ( 1) reward
to whomsoever should de l iver up his former a l ly. He a rrested his father
in-law’s envoys and de l ivered them to the victorious genera l who, ha lting
his pursui t of Mithidrates fleeing towards the Pha s is,Afkha sia, and Cri
mea , crossed the Araxes and pitched his camp w ith in s ight of Artaxata .
Pompey certa inly wa s not refusing to negotiate with Tigranes, but hemeant to impose his own terms on Armenia in order to keep it in obe
dience to Rome and to make the country a rampart for the legions aga inst
the Parth ians with whom Rome ’s a l l iance,running counter to the Senate’s
genera l Ea stern pol icy,could not la st long.
Recognizing a ll resistance a s u se le ss and fea ring the intrigues of his
son,Tigranes accepted the hard terms of the conqueror. The old king,
d iscard ing his purple mantle and wea ring only his head-band and roya ld iadem,
rode to the Roman camp and,hand ing the victors his steed and
his sword,wa s led before the proconsul to whom he del ivered his tia ra
and d iadem and did obeisance .
Satisfied wi th th is complete submiss ion,Pompey ra ised the king
kind ly,returned him his roya l insignia
,and treated him a s a mona rch .
The te rms Tigranes had to accept,however
,were very hard . He sur
rende red to the Romans Syria and Phoenicia,Cilicia and Cappadocia ,
Sophene and Gordyene, abandoned a ll future cla ims to those provinces,and wa s to pay the victors an indemnity of six thousand ta lents
With Armenia thu s vanqui shed and reduced a s i t were to a Roman
protectorate,and Mithidrate s in fl ight and stripped of his dominions
,
Pompey h ad no further reasons for any a ll iance with the Parth ians . On
fl imsy pretexts, he proceeded aga inst Phraat and seized Gordyene and
( 1 )
( 2) About
northern Mesopotamia , wh ich he gave to Tigranes in order to prevent
any reconci liation of the Armenians and the Pers ians . On the north,the Iberians and the Albanians having a ttacked the Romans during the
winter of 66-65 B.C . the proconsul threw the Albanians back to the north
bank of the Cyrus and d rove into the mounta ins the Iberian king,Artoces . F ina l ly he ca rved out for Deiota rus
,a former tetra rch of the
Ga la ti an tribe of the To lostobogii, a new kingdom of Armenia M inor,compri sing Pontic Armenia a s fa r a s the borders of Colchi s and the ter
ritory of Tigranes,the ea stern ha lf of the kingdom of Pontus wi th the
cities of Ph a rnacia and Trapezus (Trebizond ) . The former possessionsof De iota rus were included in th is new State
,name ly
,Ga latia and the
provinces between Amisus and the mouths of the river Ha lys .
Pompey’s exped ition left Asia consequently in a very favorables i tuation pol i tica lly for Rome. On the north
,Armenia Major and Armenia
M inor,both p rotectorates of the Republic
,were a stand ing threat to the
Arsacid s of Iran,and enabled the legions to take the offens ive aga inst
the Pers ians a s soon a s circumstances we re favorable. It would havebeen prema ture to exa ct harder terms and make Roman provinces of
these countries,for the Senate ’s pol icy had a much longer range and fore
saw the day when, wi th the conquest of the Pa rth ians,Rome ’s power
should extend over the whole of both the Tigris and Euphrates bas ins,over the land s to the north of the Araxes
,and over the Pe rs ian Arabistan
or Khouzistan of our times . These ambitions included not only an im
mense expans ion of Rome’s As ia tic provinces,but a lso and above a ll
,
possess ion of the s i lk ca ravan routes through Syria and the Persian Gulf.Two thousand ~
years a fter these events,a la rge empire a lso dreamed of
world dominion and to sa ti sfy that same ambition let loose the mostfrightful wa r
,a imed a t se izing th i s gre at Ea stern h ighway .
On his depa rture from Asia,Pompey left Armenia not only conquered
but humi l ia ted . Tigranes the Younger,in cha ins
,was sent to Rome for
the Victor’s triumph . As for the Arsacids of Pers ia,they were just as
much wounded in pride ; d riven from Gordyene, and stripped of that province and of northern Mesopotamia in favor of the old king Tigranes
,they
could d ream only of a resumpt ion of a rms to get back the ir lost territory.
By crush ing Mithidrates and Tigranes, the Romans had put an end
to Macedonian civi l ization in Asia,for nothing rema ined of a ll the States
97
born of Alexander’s conquests but mere ruins,pe tty kings quite unable
of susta ining the Hellenic name . The two grea t kings of Pontus and Ar
menia were the la st who could ever have revived in the i r lands the splen
d id civi l ization of Greece .
Among the finest trea sures
of Greek numisma tics in As iawe must give first place to the
splend id tetradrachma s of M i thidrates and Tigranes
,two rulers
of cultured ta stes whose a ctivere igns ea rned them the title of“G rea t.” No co in of the Syrian
TETRADRACHMA OF KING Se leucid s,nor of the Egyptian
TIGRANES II OF ARMENIA Ptolemie s, can be compared with
( on reverse , the Fortuna o f Antioch ) the superb portra i ts Of the kingsof Pontus and Armenia . The
misfortune tha t befe ll these two thrones a rose from both mona rchs da ring
to stand up to the power of Rome. Had Tigranes and Mithidrates l ivedin other times, they would have founded grea t empires, for the ir pol i ticalideas were va st in scope . They both do honor to Greek culture not onlyin the courage they showed in giving ba ttle to the grea test genera ls of
ancient time s,but a lso in the ir breadth of view and perspica city.
L ike Alexander, Tigranes founded cities . At his command Tigranocerta rose a s in a d ream in the south of his kingdom
,whi le in the new
capita l of Armenia Athenian actors a rrived a s soon a s the thea tre wa sbui lt to play the ma sterpieces of Gre ek litera ture. Greek sculptors weresummoned to adorn the city
,a nd just a s Mithid ra te s ga the red art trea sures
at Panticapaeum, ( in the Crimea ) , so d id Ti granes cause to be brought
to him in his dominions the d ivinities of ancient Greece . At the roya lcourt a ll the d ignitaries of the kingdom
,l ike a ll the princes there present
,
spoke and wrote in the language of Demosthenes,and Artavazd
,the king’s
own son, composed Greek traged ies and d iscourse s of wh ich we sti l l re adP lutarch’s pra ises . Thus Tigranes
,engros sed as he wa s with wa r and
va st pol itica l schemes,devoted neverthele ss his few le isure hours to cul
tura l plea sures . Both at the Pontine court and the Armenian court therewa s a s much menta l refinement a s at Rome , at Athens, or at Alexandria ,the court of the sumptuous Cleopa tra .
Th e Senate se lected for the exped i tion the member of
MARCUS the triumvira te (Caesar, Pompey, and Marcus Crassu s )CRASSUS the lea st fitted for the ta sk. Ma rcus Cra ssus
,an old man
notorious for his ambition,his incompetence
,and his sor
did ava rice,wa s appointed over the Roman army. He left the Eterna l
City during the autumn, 54 B.C .,sa i led from Brund is ium wi th seven
legions, d isemba rked at Dyrrach ium,and crossing Epirus
,Macedonia
,
and Thr‘
a ce by the V ia Igna tia , reached Asia M inor by the Hel lespont,and proceeded to the Euphra tes . On M. Cra ssus’ a rriva l at the frontier
ofArmenia , Tigranes’son
,Artavazd, whom his fa ther had made co-regnant
ever s ince the battle of Tigranocerta , had been re igning a lone s ince the
p revious year, the probable d ate of the old king’s dea th .
In Persia , Phraat 111 had prepa red an immense
ARTAVAZD III exped ition aga inst the Armenians,and he would um
5 6-34 B.C. doubted ly have taken back his former provinces hadhe been able to carry out his plans
,but he had just
been s la in by his sons Mithidrates and Orodes. After commi tting thisod ious crime, the two brothers were fighting one another for the throneof the King of Kings . Mithidrates feel ing his s ide wa s the weaker hadappea led for help to Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria , when he wa s defeated by an army under the Surena or grand vizier of his brother. Hewa s captured and put to dea th in his brother
’s presence at Babylon.
Rid of his riva l by this fresh murde r,and no longer embarra ssed by a civi l war,Orodes resumed the execution of his ia
ther’
s plans,and his forces sta rted out
aga inst the king ofArmenia . Cra ssus who,
a fter occupying Nicephorium (Rakkah )
COIN OF THE PARTHIANbeyond the Euphrates
,wa s back in Syria
,
MITHIDRATES III crossed the r1ver aga in W 1th men,
uncerta in a s to wh ich road he should taketo advance aga inst Orode s . Artavazd, a rriving wi th horsemen
,
advi sed the genera l to go forward through Armenia where his army wouldhave no d iffi culties and run no danger. Cra ssus however chose the southern route a cross the desert. Abga r I I I , king of Osrhoene
,who occupied
Edessa and Ca rrhae,wa s an a l ly of the Romans
,and the triumvir expected
that the grea t Greek cities of the Euphrates and the Tigris would ri seaga inst the Persians and render him much a ss istance . Abgar encouraged
— 100
these hopes in Cra ssus ’ mind and urged him to take the southern road .
Fea r lest the Pa rthian king should ca rry away the trea sures of Ctes iphon
into the interior of the empire a lso we ighed much in the greedy genera l’s
deci s ion,for mindful of the riches tha t Lucullus brought back wi th him
from As ia,he thought he saw his own chance of making a tremendou s
fortune .
Cra ssus crossed the Euphra tes at Zeugma (Biredjik) with seven
legions,
men. On arriving there his l ieutenant Ca ss ius advi sed him
to fol low the river bank and have a floti lla of boats laden with supplies
and materia l fol low a longs ide on the water, (the method la te r adopted
by the Emperor Jul ian) , so as to strike his enemies a big blow by ap
pea ring before the ir capita l cities of Seleucia on the right bank of the
Tigri s and Ctes iphon on its left. But,lured by the plan of the king of
Osrhoene,Cra ssus marched d irectly on Ca rrhae across the desert of
ea stern Mesopotomia . By way of Tigranocerta and N is ib is the Romana rmy wa s to reach the Tigri s and going down that river’s bank via Hatrarea ch Se leucia
,rema ining protected in the d irection of Pe rsia . Th is cam
pa ign plan wa s much less favorable than that of having the legions fol lowthe Euphrates
,for i t necess itated transporting the war ma teria l and sup
pl ie s on camels,and the enormous supply caravans h indered and delayed
the a rmy ’s advance . Cra ssus in command for the first time in these a ridlands did not rea l ize p roperly the natura l difli culties . He went forwardconfidently, therefore, but when a few days late r the legions reachedthe Ba lissos river (the Nahr-B el ik ) , they saw in the d i stance a detachment of enemy cava lry . Abga r and his Arab s set off in pursui t of thelatter, but these men of Osrhoene did not come back. The fol lowing day,the Roman a rmy wea ry and thirsty was six mi les south of Carrhae
(Ha rran) , a l ittle to the north of Ichuac,when the Parthian squadrons
appea red with the ir standards of gold-embroidered si lk. The Grand
Vizier was in persona l command,and near him wa s seen the tra i tor Abgar
wi th his Arabs.
Publiu s Cra ssus, the son of the Roman genera l,command ing a corps
of Gauls, wa s a fra id lest he be surrounded ; he rushed on the enemy,
but the latter going backwa rd drew him away from the ma in body of
his a rmy. Then the Pers ian heavy cava lry cha rged down on him froma ll s ides, wi th the ir long spears and the ir steel sca le-a rmor covering man
- 101
and steed, and the Gau ls, obliged to form a ring,were submerged on
th i s shelterless pla in under a deluge of a rrows . Publius Cra ssus wa s
wounded , and see ing his s ix thousand men ma ssa cred , ordered his atten
dants to kill him.
A few hours a fter th is first d isa ster,the host of Parthian bowmen
under the protection of ma i led lancers were busy d estroying two-thirds
of Cra ssus’ army. The remnants of the seven legions took refuge firstof a ll in the city of Carrhae , but proceeded during the night to wi thdrawto the Armenian mounta ins
,led by Caius Ca ss ius . The Parth ians, how
ever,did not me an to lose the ir hold and
,ha rra s s ing unremittingly the
Roman a rmy,forced Cra ssus to sue for terms . Once they had drawn
him into a trap,they slaughtered him and his escorting offi ce rs .
Ten thousand Roman sold iers fe l l into the enemy’s hand s and weresent to the Pers ian a rmy of Margiana . Caius Cass ius pa infu lly rega inedSyria
,bringing back e ight or nine thou sand men
,a ll that were left of
the splend id a rmy of sold iers that had left I ta ly . The grand viziersent the Roman genera l’s head to his ma ster Orodes
,who wa s then ia
vad ing Armenia . Artavazd 111 ( 56-34 B.C .) wa s on the throne of the
latter country.
Th i s ruler,the son and he ir of Tigranes the Grea t
,wa s loya l during
the early pa rt of his re ign to his father’s commitments towards the R0
mans,and he suppl ied Cra ssus a t the opening of the campa ign with a
corps of men. Whether he forsook the Roman genera l upon the
la tter’s refusa l to pa ss through Armenia,or whether he wa s getting ready
to come to his a ssi stance, we cannot say. However,the invas ion of his
kingdom by the Pa rthians seems to have been his chief rea son for wi thdrawing to his own land . Cra ssus’ d isa ster prompted him to make pea ce
,
and he therefore came to terms wi th the Pers ians. To sea l the new a l
liance he gave his s ister in marriage to Prince Pacorus,Orod es
’ favoriteson.
The news of the grea t victory won by the Surena reached the Pers iancourt during the celebration of th is marriage
,and a Greek company of
players were giving Eurip ides’ “Bacchantes” before the two assembledroya l cou rts, both sovereigns and the ir courtiers be ing we ll versed in
102
wa s ba ck in Syria with the army of Pacorus . Thus the civi l war in Romeb rought the Pa rthians unexpected a id . Orodes had himse lf schooled in
Roman method s of wa r and the tactica l formation of armies,and wa s be
coming every day a more formidable adversary .
Despite these d isturbing signs, good fortune sti l l attended the Eterna lCity. Antony
,his qua rre ls with Octavius having sub sided
,wa s able to
send Ventid ius B a ssus to As ia M inor. Labienus wa s bea ten and fled
to Cilicia where he wa s taken and put to dea th, and the ski llfu l Ventid ius,in possess ion of the gorges of the river Amanns
, defeated the Parth ian
genera l Pha rnapates . Pacorus a fter be ing compe l led to return to the
other s ide of the Euphra tes l ikewise suffered defeat at Glinda ra , to the
north-ea st of Antioch,where he wa s ki l led Meanwhi le
,Publius
Canid ius Cra ssus vanquished in battle the Armenians together with Phari
nabazus,the king of the Iberians
,and Zober, prince of Albania , who had
joined with the Parth ians aga inst Rome . The sovere ignty of the Re
public thus extended from the deserts of Syria to the shores of the Ca spianSea .
Tired,however
,of these seemingly interminable wars
,Rome de
termined to strike a decis ive blow,and her opportuni ty for such action
wa s grea tly enhanced by events taking place at the Pers ian court.The dea th of Pacorus and the loss of the
Syrian provinces threw the Arsacid king Orodesinto despa ir. He had just appointed his son
,
Phraat IV,a s his successor
,when the latter in
his impa tience to don the d iadem of the Kingof Kings
,caused the a ssa ss ina tion of his fa ther
,
his own brothers and eldest son,and a ll the
nobles who showed loya lty to the sla in king.TETRADRACHMA OF These crimes impel led many of the Persian noTHE ARSACID KING
OF PERSIA b i l i fy and sa traps to flee thei r country and take
PHRAAT IV refuge with the Romans . Menoeses, one of the
highest among the ch ief Iranian lords, wa s one
of the refugees. Thus the stri fe in Pers ia had enabled Rome to take Armenia aga in under her wing.
The quarrels in Rome seemed sti lled for the
MARK ANTONY p resent,and no longer worried in tha t d irection,
Ma rk Antony with the support of his colleague
( 1 )'
June 9th , 38 B.C.
- 104
and brother-in-law Octavius,set out for the Ea st at the head of
infantry, auxi l ia ries and Spania rd s . Armenia supplied the
triumvi r with a contingent of horsemen. The Roman a rmy con
s i sted a ccord ingly of fighting men. Their genera l,reverting to
Ca esa r’s plans, and re lying on his numeri ca l strength,hoped to recapture
a t Ctes iphon or Ecbatana the standa rds lostby Cra ssus.
The ir crue l defea ts had taught the R0mans fina lly tha t the pla ins of Mesopotamiawere too unsa fe for any exped i tiona ry force .
The triumvir p roposed,therefore
,to make Ar DENARIUS OF MARK
menia his bridgehead and strike through Med ia Aéi
JE’iiia’
i fifiD
to the hea rt of Iran. But though dauntless in ARMENIA DEVICTA
action,he d id not have those qua l i ties of caution
and fores ight,of dominion ove r h imself and his
pa s sions,needed to succeed in great undertakings . After wa sting in id le
ness severa l month s of the favorable sea son,he set out for the Euphrates,
a ccompanied by Cleopa tra . Then,impatient to return to his l i fe of
p lea sure with the Egyptian queen,who had left him when he rea ched
the river,he d id not take the time to winter in Armenia . Anxious to
fini sh a s soon a s poss ible with the Pers ians,he crossed the Armenian
mounta ins and entered the pla ins of Atropatenes . In th i s too rapid ad
vance,the Roman genera l wa s so unwise a s to leave in his rear his
ca ravan of bes ieging engines,and th is tra in of heavy equipment wa s sud
d enly attacked by Artavazd,the son of Ariobarzanus
,king of Atropatenes,
and by Menoeses who had made pea ce with the Pa rth ians ; both of the
legions who were in cha rge of these engines of wa r under the commandof Oppius were overwhe lmed by the Pers ians.
On a ccount of th is loss Antony wa s unable to take Phraa spa , one
of the strongholds of Atropa tenes inhabited by the Sagartii (modern
Gherrous ) , and he wa s abandoned by the king of Armenia who returned
to his kingdom with his six thousand horsemen. The Roman genera ld id not begin his retrea t unti l later
,much too late even. He wi thdrew
eventua l ly by way of Gazaka the shore of lake Mateanas and
( 1 ) Cha hr-e-viran (Kurd i stan of Moukri ) .( 2 ) Lake Urumiah.
105
the mounta ins south of the Araxes . But in th is ma rch of three hundred
Roman mi les across d ry and ba rren lands, no less than of his
legiona ries peri shed from fa tigue, cold , and hunger, or e lse under the
a rrows of Pa rth ian horsemen who, notwithstand ing Phraat’s pro
mises,hara ssed the retrea ting a rmy uncea singly .
Fa r from acknowledging his own la ck of caution,Antony accused
Artavazd, the king of Armenia,of be ing respons ible for his d isa ster, by
withdrawing and taking back his cava lry . Nevertheless, so anxious wa s
he to get back to the queen of Egypt that he refused to winter in the
Ara ra t terri tory and,postponing his vengeance aga inst Artavazd , he
pushed on to Antioch in Syria , los ing another men on the way from
s ickness and cold .
Amid the shameful fea sts he gave at Antioch,however, Antony
d id not forget his grievances . In va in d id he try to induce Artavazd to
come to him. In the fol lowing spring (34 B.C . ) the triumvir returned
to Armenia and succeeded through Q . Dellius in persuad ing the king that
he should a ccept an interview wi th Antony for the sake of keeping his
throne . Hard ly did the unhappy prince a rrive in Roman hands than indefiance of plighted fa i th he wa s placed in cha ins and paraded a s a cap
tive through his own dominions where he wa s forced to throw openhis stronghold s and to bring forth the ir trea sures . Antony kept him to
adorn his triumph in cha ins a long with his wi fe and sons,and to wa lk
captive through the streets of Al exandria . Consequently,a lthough van
quished by the Pa rth ians and with his army de stroyed,the triumvir d id
score a triumph neverthe les s ; his only captives,however
,were his former
a l l ies .
Antony dreamed of restoring in the E a st an Alexandrian empire,
able to hold its own with tha t wh ich the Roman Sta te wa s about tobecome . He knew the ambitious scheme s of Octavius and wa s pre
pa ring to ca rve out for himse lf his share of the Republic’s provinces .
As for king Artavazd of Armenia,he wa s ousted to make room for the
son of Antony and Cleopa tra,named Alexander
, and a lso to reward the
king of Atropatenes . The la tter who bore a lso the name of Artavazd
wa s the only ruler who had suffered,from the Roman incurs ion into
Persia ; his suzera in, Phra a t, reaped a ll the advantages of that campa ign.
— 106
a lone to carry out the above ambitions,and feel ing herself too weak, she
refra ined . Meanwhi le, Cleopatra having beheaded her prisoner, Arta
vazd,the son of that unhappy mona rch took his revenge by s laying a ll
the Romans within his dominions .
In the meantime,however
, the battle of Actium te
sulted in giving Octavius the supreme power,and he
,
tired of the uncea s ing confl icts e ither because of Armeniaor about Armenia
,decided to place a ll the regions on the
ea st of the Euphrates,north of the Tigri s
,and above the
Araxes,under Roman protection. Thus the terri tories of
the Iberians and the Albanians, i.e . a ll the peoples south DENARIUS OFof the Grea t Caucasus cha in
,were included for the first AUGUSTUS
MENIAtime . Th l S planmeant a downright check to the power of1
3s A”
Pers ia and Octavius would stop at noth ing to ca rry out
his intention. B ribed by Roman gold, the Armenians rebelled aga inst Artaxes I I
,put him to
death, and Tiberius Claud ius Nero,then 22
years old, came and crowned a s king of Ar
menia the younger brothe r of Artaxes,Ti
granes I I I . Armenia then wa s given up to
COIN OF TIGRANES III ana rchy . Tigranes I I I wa s ca rried _off appa rKING OF ARMENIA
ently by s ickness, but more probably by poison.
Tigranes IV demanded investi ture by the Romans
LAST SUCCES wh i le two other cla imants to the throne made the irSORS OF a ppea rance, name ly E rovaz ( i ) and Artavazd IV.
ARTAXIAS
Thi s period of Armenian h istory is very ob
scure . The Pers ians and Romans fought long forinfluence in the country. F ina lly
, in the first yea rTIGRANES In of our era
, Phraat, who had recovered the throne ofAND IV I ran, re l inqui shed a ll cla ims to the kingdom of Ar20 B.C. TO menia , and left his brothers a s hostages with theA.D. 1 Romans .
But, a s we have seen in the forego ing pages,
the word of a ruler wa s of l ittle va lue
in those days . Ea ch one,whether Ro
man or Pers ian,
spoke a ccord ing to
his momenta ry interest. Crimes and
treacherie s fol lowed one another um
cea singly and the Armenian question re
ma ined ever the chief concern of the
two grea t riva l Sta tes,both pursuing COIN OF TIGRANES IV KING
their own a ims rega rd ing genera l pol icy OF ARMENIA, WITH HISSISTER ERATO
in the Ea st
( 1 ) For the facts re la ted in th is chapter, consult : PLINY, Na t. Hist. ; PLUTARCH, Lucul lus , Pompey ; FAUSTUS, TACITUS, Anna ls ; STRABO, APPIAN,
DION CASSIUS and MOMMSEN, Rom. HUBSCHMANN, Die Altarrnen.
0 rtsn. ; Fr. TOURNEBISE, Histo ire po l itique et re l ig ieuse d e l’
Armenie .
CHAPTER IV
THE FORE IGN DYNASTY (A.D. 2 THE ARSAC IDS or ARMEN IA
(A.D. 5 3—429) TIRIDATE S I I TH E GREAT (A.D . 2 17 CONVERS IONOF ARMEN IA To CHR ISTIAN ITY . SAINT GREGORY THE ILLUM INATOR.
The success ion of rulers named by the h i storians of Armenia
the Fore ign Dyna sty” co incides with the period when the Armenians
,
though nomina l ly independent, we re subj ected inturn to Roman and Pers ian influence. Divided bythe ir powerful ne ighbors’ pol icies
,they wavered ac
cord ing to circumstances towards the one or the otherof these temporary overlords, too weak to assertthe ir na tiona l independence . The a rmies of the Ca esa rs
,l ike those of the King of Kings
,imposed for a
wh i le the ir wills on the Armenian court,and the
crown wa s given to the p arti sans of Rome or those
Of Pers ia a s the exi
gencies of the day de
manded . Thi s wa s fol
DRACHMA OF lowed by peaceful periONONES OR
VONONES ASOd s When the Persxans
KING OF PERSIA and Romans, too busy
e lsewhere,left Arme IMITATION OF
nia a lone and enabled her to throw Off the DENARIUS of AUGUSTUS ( 1 )yoke . Even then
,however
,she rema ined
TRiNéggUdANSIAin a state of indecis ion a s to her course of
action.
But na tiona l l i fe wa s sti l l vigorous in ArARIOBARZANUS menia ; her a rmy furnished contingents some
A,D, 2 times to the Pers ians, sometimes to the Romans .
The feuda l lord s ma inta ined very cons ide rableindependence, and thought continued to develop a long the trad i tiona l
( 1 ) Obv. Laure ate h ead of Augustus, ri ght : CAESAR . AUGUSTUS.DIVI
.F
.
PATER . PATRIAE. Rev. Ga ins and Lucius stand ing each with spear and shield ,C . L. CAESARES,AUGUSTI . F. COS. DESIGN. PRINC. IUVENT.
l a dl e and stafi . Silver.
F l el'd A11 8“? 8
ARTASHE S III enthroned by Germanicus to rule over Armenia a s
1 8 -3 1 Arta shes I I I . For s ixteen yea rs (A.D. 18-34) the
la tter governed the dominions under W estern va s
sa lage . But the Pers ians rega ining the a scend ancy,
ARCHAK I in the pla ce of the Romans the Arsacids appointed
3 4-3 5 one of the i r number,Arsaces or Archak I (A.D.
3 4-3 5 ) a s king of Armenia .
In this period,a t the beginning of the Chri stian era
, (A.D . is
recorded the access ion to the throne of Osrhoene of a branch of the roya l
fami ly of Armenia . Presumably the Arabian princes who had succeeded
Osrhoes ( 13 7—13 2 B.C . ) had feuda l connection with Armenia . In any
ca se,Moses of Khoren and Va rtan both inform us tha t Abga r V. Uchama ,
the“Apka r
”of the Armenians
,a grandson of Arta shes and consequently
a descendant of Tigranes the Great, left Med in and transfe rred his
capita l to Edessa , and that his descendants ruled over Osrhoene untilthe time of Gord ian I I I
,when about AD . 240 that emperor d ispossessed
Abga r XI of his kingdom and made i t a Roman
province . Thi s expansion of Armenian influenceinto Syria p layed an important pa rt in Ea stern pol
itica l l i fe,but we have insuflicient information on
thi s point,and what we have is vague and often
contrad ictory .
F resh wa rs result-cd in the
MITHIDRATES Armenian throne pa ss ing to the3 5 -3 7 47—5 1 hand s of the Iberians in the
person Of Mithidrates (A.D. 3 5
3 7 and 47—5 1 ) who drove out the Arsa cid ruler. He
wa s succeeded by his nephew Rhadamistus (A.D .
5 1-53 ) the son of Phra a smanes 1,king of Georgia
,
COIN OF ABGAB XI who murdered him in a da sta rd ly statagem. Ta citusOFggfigfif
’gEIéND
( 1 ) ha s given us the a ccount of th is crime in terms
depi cting vivid ly the infamous customs of thosed isturbed times .
Rhadamistus a rrived at his uncle ’s court,a l
RHADAMISTUS legedly flee ing from the unjust severi ties of his
5 1-5 3 father and stepmother. He craved hospita l ity of
the Armenians,and wa s rece ived with open a rms .
( 1 ) Anna ls XII, 44-52.
112
He wa s not long in making friends among the nobles of the country, and
taking advantage Of his uncle ’s good na ture he ere long formed a power
ful pa rty . When the time wa s ripe, he sent word to the king of Iberi a , who
suddenly invaded Armenia and put his son on the throne . Mithid rates,taken by surpri se and betrayed by most of his feuda tories
,took refuge
in the stronghold of Gornea the ruins of wh ich town a re sti ll to
be seen at the foot of the mounta ins nea r E rivan. It wa s then held by a
Roman ga rri son,for Armenia wa s at tha t time a va ssa l Sta te of the Em
p i re,and the king re l ied on the legions to protect him. But the prefect of
the fort, Coelius Poll io, seduced by gifts from the Iberians, planned to
d e l iver up his guest, and wh i le appa rently negotia ting with Phraa smanes,
urged the king to accept a meeting proposed him by Rhadamistus . M ith
id rates,however
,wa s not without mi sgivings . Be ing a Georgian
,he
knew he had everything to fea r from his nephew’s trea chery. But as
the Romans thre a tened to abandon him,he at la st yielded . The meeting
wa s a rranged nea r a sacred wood at the foot of the mounta in where thefriendship of the two p rinces wa s accord ing to custom to be sea led by a
sa crifice to the gods .
The Iberian custom on such occas ions wa s to join the two righthand s
,tie both thumb s together
,and prick them so that b lood flowed
from each . The riva ls then each ra i sed the other’s bleed ing thumb to
his l ips and swore the oa th,rendering the mutua l promise more sacred ly
b ind ing.
When about to go through th i s ceremony, Mithidrates wa s se ized and
pinioned . Rhadamistus had sworn not to kil l his uncle by the sword or
by poi son,and so he had him suffoca ted under cush ions, wh i le the victim
’s
wi fe,Rhadamistus ’ si ster
,wa s strangled and her ch i ldren slaughtered .
These he inous crimes,though committed
by ba rba rians,were a shameful record for the
Roman authorities who bore a ll the respon
sibility. Neverthe less the governor Of Cappadocia
,Jul ius Pa elignus, Coelius Pollio
’
s su
perior, recognized the new king of Armenia .
The Iberian gifts had done the ir work even DENARIUS OF
to the ha l ls of Caesa re a . But the Emperor’ s GERMANICUS W ‘TH’
representa tive in Syria,Numidius Quadra tus
, CR’
OV
Xfl fNEH
gFwa s rightly d i sturbed a s to the public reaction ARTAXIASto the mi sdeed of Coelius Pol l io
,and wa s con
s idering punish ing him. His counci l,however
,were of a d ifferent Opinion.
—1 13
Of wha t consequence wa s it, anyhow,tha t the throne Of Armenia should
be fi lled by the uncle or the nephew, or tha t the ba rba rians should ki ll oneanother ; d id not their quarrels serve Rome’s pur
pose ? The Pers ians had very little influence overIberia where Rome wa s a ll-powerful ; was i t notbetter to let a Georgian dyna sty settle in a ll the
d istricts of Armenia bordering the Parth ians ?After the dea th of Phra a smanes
,Rhadamistus
COIN OF ANTIOCHUS would unite the two kingdoms and thus form a
IV Epnigfipg’
WITHsta te strong enough to hold the Pa rth ians in check.
Rome,moreover
,missed no opportunity to
strengthen its power by means of the sma ll na tions . Antiochus IV. Epi
phanes (A.D. 3 8-72) king of Commagene, had helped Corbulo in his
Ea stern campa ign,and Nero to rewa rd him for his a ss istance took advan
tage of d isturbances in Armenia to add a part of that country to his
dominions.
Thi s epi sode in one of the most troubled periods in Armenia ’s history
gives an idea of the frightful upheava ls th i s unhappy kingdom under
went. Not only did they suffer from Roman and Pers ian trea chery,and
that of the ir northern ne ighbors,but they were d ivided among themse lves
by the riva lries and greed of the ir feuda l lords Ana rchy wa s rampant.Every d ay the frontiers Of kingdoms were a ltered
,Armenia was separated
into upper and lower countries,whole d i stri cts were taken away from or
added to the doma ins of the va rious rulers,and with continua l bloodshed
and towns and vi llages afl ame,ruin and mourning spread over the land .
The Pers ians,apprehens ive of the increa sing
Roman power,then invaded Armenia intend ing to
dethrone the Georgian usurper and make the se
mounta in people accept a king whom they them
selves could rely Ou. Rhadamistus fled at ful lspeed
,with his wife Zenobia behind him on his
horse,she be ing severa l months pregnant. Th i s
Zenobia wa s the daughter of the uncle he had
COIN OF murdered . Fa inting and unable to bear the mad
ANTIOCHUS IV fl ight,the queen begged him to end her agony .
EPIPW SMM g($
1
531,cOF Plunging his d agger into her brea st
,the son of
Phra a smanes threw her into the Araxes and rushed
114
Rome viewed with misgivings the oc
cupancy of the Armenian throne by the
brother of the king of Persia . For a rulerhosti le to the Empire to be thus ra i sed to
power augured the early downfa ll of Romaninfluence in those regions so important pol
itica lly to the Imperia lCORBULO Sta te . Nero entrusted
Corbulo with the ta sk of
driving out the ArsacidTIGRANES VI king and putting on the
60-62 t h r o n e Tigranes VI
(A.D . 60 the nephew
of the la st king of tha t name, and grandsonSILVER COIN OF EMPEROR of Archelaos , king Of Cappadocia . Th i s
EggfisEvfififiififif
’Tfifi'
p rote'
gé of Rome‘
died,however
,a fter reign
BRONZE COIN SHOWING ing two yea rs,and Vologeses induced Cor
HIMinggéé
A
851”ENIA bulo to agree to his brother rece iving the
Emperor’s investiture in Rome . Tiridates
went a ccord ingly to be crowned by Nero. But th i s step meant no humi l ia
tion for the Armenian king. He had ha rd ly crossed into Roman te rritory
when he wa s rece ived a s a
sovereign and welcomed in
every city with s igna l honors .
Tiridates wa s accompanied by
a ll the ch ief lords of the king
dom and by the Queen and
her chi ldren,a lso by an escort
of three thousand horsemen,
in short a ll the splendor of
E a Stem PomP Tadms’Pliny, COIN or EMPEROR ANTONIUS PIUS
D lon Ca ssms,have all given SHOWING HIM CROWNING THE
us accounts of the vi s it of the KING OF ARMENIAking of Armenia to Ita ly. He
entered the city of N icopol i s on a cha riot to greet the Emperor who wa sthere at the time
,but the corona tion took pla ce further on at Rome
( 1 ) Obv. L . VERUS,AUG. ARMENICUS . Laurea te hea d of L . Verus on ri ght.
Rev. T.R.P. IIII . IMP,II. COS. II REX . ARMEN. DAT. SC .
- l l 6
where the Senate had voted the a rrangement of sumptuous fea sts . Nero
sea ted on a throne placed the roya l crown on Tiridates’
head,the latter
knee l ing. Once he wa s back in his dominions, be restored the city of
Artaxata wh ich he renamed Neronia,and took ba ck, wi th the help of the
legions,from the Albanians the land those people had se ized from Armenia
during the d i sturbances of the Foreign Dyna sty.
Exeda res (A.D. 100 Tiridates’ successor, added
EXEDARES Lower Armenia to his doma ins,surrendering it later to
100-1 1 3 the Romans . Lesser Armenia had a lready become a
province of the Emp ire, a fter having pa ssed from the
COINS OF EMPEROR TRAJAN, COMMEMORATINGHIS CAMPAIGNS IN ARMENIA
hand s of Polemon,King of Pontus
, to those of
Archelaos,king of Cappadocia
,and then to Cotys
,
king of the Cimmerian Bosporus, (Crimea )—her
la st rulers be ing Aristobulus under Nero and Ti
granes under Vespa s ian. Thus the l imi ts of the
Roman Empire gradua l ly moved forward from
the banks of the Euphra tes to those of the Tigri s,and a s the Arsa cid dyna sty of Armenia seemed
more loya l to their suzera in power than they wereTETRADRACHMA OFVOLOGESES I, ARSA
to the i r k insmen, the kings of Pers i a
,Rome had
CID KING OF PERSIA every rea son to support themPa rthama siris (A.D . 1 13 Pa rthama s
( 1 ) The title ARMENICUS in the inscriptions on co ins , i s g iven to Marcus
Aure l ius and Lucius Verus . That of PARTICUS is given to Tra jan, Hadrian, MarcusAurel ius, Lucius Ve rus, Septimius Severus, Ca raca l la , and Ca rus . The se titles cea se
be fore the time of Constantine I, and a re never found on Byzantine co ins a l thoughlong used in Imperia l rescripts. Justinian I ca l l s h imse l f All emanicus, Goth icus,Germanicus, Franci scus, Alamicus, V anda l icus, e tc.
- 1 17
pa tes ( 1 16 Vologe ses (V agha rch ) ( 1 17
FIRST Sohemus ( 140-162, 163 Pacorus ( 162 San
ARSACIDS OF atruces ( 178 Vologeses I I (V agha rch I I ) (217
ARMENIA a ll these rule rs of the Arsacid l ine fol lowed one
1 1 3 -23 8 another on the throne of Armenia . Constantly at
stri fe wi th the ir Pers ian kinsmen a s we l l a s wi th the irRoman suzera ins
,these kings dea l t very tactfully
TIRIDATES with the ir powe rful ne ighbors,a lways a cting so as
Hto prevent any setback having irretrievable couse
( CHOSROES I )quences . The se riva lries
,however
,caused the
KING OF grea test ca lamities to fa l l on Armenia during theARMENIA
re igns of the first Arsa cid kings . F ina l ly,Ti ridates
21 72 3 8 11 . a lso ca l led Chosroes I the Grea t (A.D. 2 17-23 8 )a scended the throne
,and from his time began the
grea t development of the Armenian people,la ter destined by the adoption
of Chri stianity to ] 0 111 forever with We stern civi lization and brea k awayfrom E astern culture .
A grea t revolution had just transform-cd
ADVENT OF THE I ran. Artakchater (Artaxe rxes ) , the son of Pa
SASSANIDS IN pek, of the l ineage of Sa ssan,prince of the prov
PERSIA, A.D. ince of Pers i s, had overthrown the Arsacid mon226 a rchy, and a scended the throne of the King of
Kings . Descended from the Mazdean h igh-priests
DRACHMA OFARTAXERXES I,SON OF PAPEK,
FIRST OF THESASSANIDKINGS OFPERSIA
(rev. the FireAlta r)
contempt the Pa rth ian rule,and with one accord
Arda sh ir,son of Sa ssan
,wa s chosen to be thei r king.
Chosroes [Tirida tes I I ] , the king of the Armenians,
lea rned of Artaban’s dea th . Chosroes he ld se cond
rank in the Pers ian [Arsacid ] monarchy. Althoughhe had the news ea rly
,he made no prepa ra tions to
fight. He returned to his country extreme ly sad,not
having been able to foresee these events or put themright.
“But ea rly the following yea r (227 ) Chosroes,
king of Armenia,ra ised an a rmy. He ga thered the
a rmie s of the Aghouank [Albania ] , and the Georgians,opened the Ga te of the Alans [the gorge s of Da ria ll ]( 1 ) and ca lled forth the Huns to a ttack the frontiersof Pers ia . He ravaged the land s of Assyria , a s fa r a s
the ga tes of Ctesi phon ; he sacked and put to fire and
sword the populous c itie s and flourishing towns and
ruined the country,leaving it uninhabited . He sought
to destroy everything ; he leveled citie s to the ir foun
da tions and sought to change the laws of the Pers ian
mona rchy . He had sworn to avenge his ra ce de
spoi led of the ir kingdom. Relying on his la rge number of sold iers and
expecting much from the ir might, he became inflamed with pride, hatred,and des ire for vengeance. Many va l iant cohorts of
we l l-a rmed cava lry from the Aghouans, the Lepins,
the Ga sp s and many othe rs from that region,flocked to his s ide to avenge the blood of Artaban.
He wa s so d i stres sed tha t the Pers ians should haveforsaken his kinsmen and submitted a s va ssa ls to
the new rule of the Sdahrs [Prince s of Istakhar] thathe sent envoys to those same kinsmen to urge them
to gather together with the help of the warl ike inhabitants and brave sold iers of the Kouschans (3 ) and
beyond,a lso that of the ir own subj ects. But his
kinsmen,the head s of fami l ies and the notables among
the Pa rthi ans did not l isten to him,for they had
a lready submi tted to Arda shir and were content tobe his subjects ra ther than those of the ir compatriot
a,and re la tive .
(Footnote s on p . 121 )
120
COIN OF THELAST OF THEARSACID KINGSOF PERSIAARTABAN V
The Mazdean regress ion,wh ich the sa trap rulers of Pers is had long
been prepa ring in the people ’s thought had been we l l rece ived throughout
the Empire . Only the grandees of the Arsacid stock had attempted any
res istance aga inst the new King of Kings . Yie ld ing,however
, to a rmed
strength, and fee ling tha t the people looked with favor on the old Pe rsianre l igion be ing restored , and tha t the irs wa s a lost cau se, they accepted thenew state of th ings. Armenia a lone held out.
“Meanwhi le Chosroes [Tiridates I I ] ga thered his host of sold iersand of auxi l ia rie s that had a rrived from a ll s ides to fight for him. Whenthe king of the Pers ians saw this host rush ing so
furious ly a t him,he moved forwa rd to meet i t de
p loying every uni t at his command . But,unable to
stem the enemy,he began to flee . He wa s pursued
and the whole Pe rs ian army routed . The ir s la in weresca ttered over a ll the h ighways and field s
,whi le those
who escaped the sword were d i spersed in a ll d irec
tions .
”
THE
Were we in pos session of the chronicles of the Sa s ZOROASTRIANsanid kings
,unfortunate ly systematica l ly destroyed by FIRE TEMPLE
the Arab s, we should certa inly find tha t the first en “mm the reverse
of a tetradrachma
counters between Artaxerxes and the Armeni an Arof the prince s of
sacid were less glorious for the Armenians than Aga pen is )
thangelus re la tes . There wa s , no doubt wha tever, a
coa l ition of the northern peoples aga inst the new regime, for what l i ttle
we know of the Sa ssanid h i story shows these kings a s engaged in constant
struggles with the nations of Transcauca s ia and the Oxus,but i f the Per
s ian forces did suffer a few reverses in the early days of this dynasty,they could certa inly have been only minor ba ttles.
Agathangelus concludes his na rra tive ( 1 ) a fter the manner of the
Assyrian kings,enumera ting the booty taken by Tiridates in th is a l leged
deva sta ting exped i tion into Pers ian terri tory :“The king of the Armenians a fter this sangu inary exploi t returned
(Footnote s p . 120)( 1 ) In Pers ian Der-i-Alan, gate of the Al ans (Cf. PLINY, VI, 1 1 ; PROCOPIUS,
De Be llo Goth IV, I ) .( 2 ) Noma d s of north ern Armenia and Georgia , Cauca sian mounta ineers .
( 3 ) Peopl es of the Transca sp ian territory, probably Sogd ians and Bactrians.
(CF SAINT-MARTIN. Mem. sur l’
Arménie , vol . II, p . 436
(Footnote th i s pa ge )( 1 ) AGATHANGELUS, ch . I, transl . LANGLOIS, Hist. Arm., vol . I, p . 1 17.
See a l so, for th is campa ign, MOSES OF KHOREN,II
, 71-73 ; and UKHTHANNESOF EDESSA, both of them doubtle s s influenced by Agathange lus’ narrative .
- 12 1
joyous ly to Armenia,to the city of Vagha rchapat [Etchmiadzin] in the
province of Ara ra t, having ga ined the day and taken much plunder. He
ordered messengers sent out and lette rs to be wri tten in various p laces,for thanksgivings to the god s to be celebra ted in the temples of the Seven
Altars [d istrict of Phaidaga ran. ] He orda ined that in the Arsacid tra
ditiona l s ites consecra ted to the na tiona l worsh ip,there be presents of
white bulls and goa ts,a lso of gold and s i lver vestments with bri ll iant
fringes,a lso s i lk cloths adorned with wrea ths and festoons
,golden crowns
,
s i lver ornaments,magnificent s i lver and gold va ses set with precious
stones,splend id ga rments and supe rb decora tions . To a ll th is he added
be sides a fifth pa rt of a ll the booty he had taken, and munificent awa rd s
to the priests . The sold iers a lso who had a ccompanied him were gene rously rewa rded before they were d isbanded .
”
Weste rn write rs ( I ) throw qui te another l ight on the above events .
Artaxerxes,ha i led on the 28th of Apri l A.D. 227 a s King of Kings and the
restorer of the re l igion and language of the Pers ians,and ca l l ing himself
“The Mazdean, offspring of the god s , King of Kings of Iran and Aniran”
revived the Achaemenean cla ims over a ll As ia,and summoned the
Roman Empire to return to him the old-time provinces of Darius . Alexander Severus sent immed iate ly a large a rmy wh ich wa s joined by the
Armenians and the people s of the North . The cente r ma rched on Meso
potamia , the right wing on Cha ldea,and the left wing on Armenia and
Atropatenes . But the center wa s stopped by the ma in body of the Pers iana rmy commanded by the king himse if; the left wing had to withdrawfrom Med ia and return to Armenia
,wh i le Artaxerxes would have d riven
he Romans from Mesopotamia had he been able to keep his troops on a
wa r foo ting. Abandoned, however, by his troops who clamored to be
d isbanded , he had to withd raw to his own dominions wi thout obta iningdecis ive results . Armenia rema ined under Roman suzera inty
,and Alex
ander Severus wa s the hero,on the Forum
,of imaginary victorie s .
The restora tion of a nationa l monarchy in Persia wa s, from the stand
point of Ea stern statesmansh ip,a h ighly important occurrence, for th e
Sa ssanid rulers never genuine ly gave up the ir cla ims to the countries for
merly included in the Achaemene an dominions . The new dyna sty by
( 1 ) Cf. ZONARAS, XII, 18 ; HERODIAN, VI, 5 , 7 ; Amm. MARCELL, XXIII,5 , 7, 17, e tc.
( 2 ) Inscription on h is co ins : Ma zd ia sn ba gh i a rtah cha tr Ma lkan Ma lka Iran on
Anirén minoutche tri men yezd fin.
122
a dopted , —thirteen yea rs before i t triumphed in the West, i.e. before the
d a te of Constantine’
s victory a t the Milvian B ridge. Only one hundred
yea rs la ter did Theodos ius i ssue his decrees aga inst paganism. Armenia
consequently wa s, accord ing to its hi storians, the first of any people to
a dopt Chr i stianity officia lly ( l ) .
The grea t evange l ist of Armenia wa s Sa int Gregory Loussavoritch,i .e. The I lluminator, a lso ca lled by the chroniclers Grigor Pa rtev (Gregory
the Pa rth ian) .Gregory wa s born A.D. 257, of roya l Arsacid descent. His fathe r,
Prince Anak,wh i le out hunting caused the dea th of Tiridates I I, a crime
instigated by the king of Pers ia who wa s irked by the la tter’s power and
authority as an a l ly of the Romans . Tiridates I I on his de ath-bed ordered
the extermination of Anak and a ll his fami ly,a command wh ich wa s
ca rried out. G regory a lone escaped and wa s taken to Ca esarea in Cappa
docia,Where his foster-brother, a Chri stian
,received him and brought
him up in the Chri stian fa ith . His place of re fuge and the facts of his
b irth were not unknown, however, for on reach ing his majority he married
the daughter of an Armenian prince, a lso a Christian. Two chi ldren were
born to them,a fter wh ich the couple sepa ra ted to enter mona stic l i fe, and
Gregory went to Armenia where he hoped to make amends for his father’scrime by converting his native land .
After the death of Tiridates I I,the Pers ians
TIRIDATES se ized Armenia (23 8 but with the help of theIII Romans Tiridates III a scended the throne. This
25 0-3 3 0, ruler had been brought up in Rome, wa s of an
ST. GREGORY enl ightened mind and wel l versed in the Western
languages and l i tera ture,and properly understood
the duties of a king. Accord ing to legend he wa s of Herculean strength.
“His breath,
” wrote Agathangelus,“burst river-d ikes and stopped the
raging of waters .
” He frequently proved his va lor and mettle a s a sold ier.At the beginning of his re ign
,however
,he had the same feel ings a s his
tutors in Rome rega rd ing the Christians, who at that time despite the verywide spread of the ir rel igion were sti l l cons idered a s d isturbers of the
s ocia l order. A fe rvent worshiper of the god s,he was at first extremely
( 1 ) Th is a ssertion made by a ll the Armenian h istorians is not corroborated byth e statements of the Greeks and Latins , with the exception of Eusebius. Severa lmodern authors conclude that Armenia became Chri stian at the same time as theRoman Emp ire .
124
opposed to the new fa i th, and to put an end to Gregory’s preaching and
his da i ly increa se of converts,he had the evangel ist seized and kept him
twelve or fourteen yea rs in a dungeon of the citade l at Artaxata where he
wa s most cruelly trea ted .
Meanwh i le,say the chroniclers, the king fell i ll, and appea led not
only to the most renowned phys icians of the day but a lso to his ancestra l
de ities. Re ce iving no help, he had Gregory brought out of prison,and
wa s hea led by him. Moved by gra titude and touched by the unshakable
fa ith of the martyr, Tiridates accepted Christianity a long with his whole
court,and made his e rstwh i le pri soner his mini ster.
Gregory,who wa s sti l l only a monk, then
CONVERS ION OF proceeded to Caesa rea in Cappadoc ia where the
ARMENIA TO Exa rch Leontius orda ined him both priest and
CHRISTIANITY bi shop . He thereupon returned to Armenia,bap
tized the king,and began his officia l evange l iza tion
of the country.
Armenia ’s convers ion to Christiani ty wa s not without d ifficulties in the
way, for the heathen priests were both enormously rich and very powerful .They had from time immemoria l reaped profit from every fortunate cir
cumstance a ttend ing the kings of Armenia,and a l though the ir temples
had often been ravaged by war, they owned huge trea sures and va st lands
on which the pea sants, the ir serfs,were turned into the ir sold iers when
necessa ry.
Gregory,wi th Tiridates’ support
,converted peaceful ly many d istricts
where the people were ready for the change . In others,however
,the
bishop accompanied by the chief satraps and a body of troops traveled
over the country sacking the pagan sanctua ries, breaking their idols, and
slaying without pity any priests offering a rmed oppos i tion. Accord ing to
Zenobius of G lak res i stance wa s extremely vio lent in the d i strict ofTa ron among others, a lso in the terri tory of Pa lounik. In the large town
of Kisané a regular battle occurred between the priests’ a rmy and that of
Gregory . The victorious bishop “ordered the idol of Kisané to be thrown
“down ; i t wa s made of bra ss and twelve cubits h igh . When those who re
ceived the command entered into the temple, the mini sters of the holypla ce see ing them coming rushed at them and a ttacked them
,crying
,
Let us d ie ra ther than let Great Kisané be destroyed .
’ The sold iers sur
( 1 ) Hist. du d istrict d e Daron. Transl . V . LANGLOIS, p . 3 50.
125
rounded the priests and killed six of them. After which the sold iers
overturned the Ga tes of Death . Thereupon the demons ra ised the ir
voices,crying : ‘Though you d rive us hence
,there will be no rest for
tho se who would dwel l here .
’ It seems incred ible ! L ike the city ga testhrough wh i ch pour hosts of sold iers
,th is pla ce wa s the Demons’ Gate,
the ir number wa s a s grea t a t Kisané a s in the depths of the abyss .”
Unfortuna te ly the prophecy of the devils of Kisané seems to have come
true,for Armenia ha s never yet found rest.
Although Gregory ’s campa ign wa s intended to convert the people
and overthrow paganism, yet the sa trap s were not d isda inful of the
riches pi led up in the temples .
Zenobius continue s : “Next day a pagan priest wa s brought to the
prince of Siunia they [the Christians ] pre ssed him to tel l where the
trea sures were h idden and d isclose the door lead ing to the undergroundchamber. He refused and d ied on the ga llows under torture . Theywere consequently unable to d iscover the trea sures .
”
As regard s the lands be longing to the pagan sanctuaries, the new
churches were the beneficia ries .
“After laying the foundation of the
church and p la cing re lics the reon,St. Gregory erected a wooden cross a t
its entrance,on the spot formerly occupied by the idol Kisané, and ap
pointed a s church admini stra tors Antony and Gronites . He made Epi
phanes the Superior of the mona stery,and gave him forty-three monks
,
a lso granting him twe lve vi llages to supply the mona stery’s need s.
”
The Armenian writer goe s on to enumerate the villages d istributedto the new clergy ; a ltogether they amount to houses
,and a re able
to furni sh horsemen and infantry,a smal l a rmy of ove r
men The chronicler adds
All these villages had been from the ir inception affected to the idols’
service . The princes confirmed the granting of them to the churches,and St. Gregory a rranged a ccord ingly.
”
Afterwa rds”, sa id Korioun“ i t wa s decided to fight the bold and
inso lent sect of the Borborides . [Th i s sect made its appea rance in the
2nd century and denied the la st judgment ] Those who would not
yie ld to the word of truth were given over to terrible puni shment, to
impri sonment, cha ins, and a ll kinds of torture . I f these God less menthen refused to turn to the ir own del iverance
,they were burned
,or e lse
( I ) Armeni an nobl e belonging to the bishop’s escort.
l g) K
I
OI
RIOUN, Biogr . d e Mesra b. Transl . LANGLOIS, Historiens dc l
’Armeni e ,
vo p .
—126
foreign influence, for Rome accord ing to na tive writers sti l l rema ined
heathen for some years, and Pers ia had restored the re l igion of Zo roa ster. It meant therefore a sserting Armenian na tiona l ity and giving Haik’speople increa sed ind ividua l character tha t would foster the ir racia l in
tegrity and thereby the ir nationa l independence .
Meanwh i le Tiridates’ convers ion to Chri stianity,together with that
of Constantine,caused the Pers ians anxiety for the future . To foresta l l
the danger they foresaw in an a ll iance of Chri stian rulers aga inst Ormuzdworship ing Iran
,the ir emi ssa ries inve igled a large number of princes and
h igh officia ls of Armenia into a p lot for the restora tion of paganism in theland s of Ara ra t. Accord ing to Agathangelus, Tiridates was murdered
when out hunting,probably a t the instigation of the Pe rs ians
,but th is
a s sa ss ina tion had no success in restoring the old worship,for the king’s
dea th wa s a cause for na tiona l mourning throughout the country.
The body of Tirida tes,”
says the wri ter of thi s king’s biography,wa s transferred to Thortan, and placed in a s i lver-mounted coffin
adorned with precious stones,which wa s drawn by golden-harnessed
mules . Bod ies of a rmed sold iers with standards escorted i t on both s ides,
wh i le ahead of the coffin funera l songs were chanted,and incense was
burned . Beh ind the bier trumpets and harps played d i rges to the
accompaniment of voices of weeping womenThe S a ssanid government’s a im in oppos ing the Christian rel igionwas,
a s we see,pol i tica l . Every time the Pers ians made a victorious entry into
Armenia,their troop s were accompanied by Mazdean priests commanded
by the ir King of Kings to implant the Iranian re l igion in the country,lest if i t rema ined Chri stian it should become the advance post of Romanpower aga inst Pers ia . Along with the Chri stians
, the remnants of ad
herents to the ancestra l hea then fa ith of Armenia were a lso included inthe Mazdean persecution.
“Ardashir (Artaxerxes I ) , says Mose s of Khoren
,widens the
temple functions, and orders the fire of Ormuzd to burn continua l ly on
the a ltar of Pakaran. As for the statues erected at Armavir by V a larsace
(V agha rchak) to his ancestors, and to the sun and moon, whi ch had beentransferred first to Paka rau and then to Arda shad
,Arda shir demol ishes
them. Our country is placed under tribute to him by decree,and his
authority imposed everywhere.
”( 1 )
These a ttempts of the Ctesiphon court to bring back Armenia into
( 1 ) MOSES OF KHOREN, II, 77. Trans] . LANGLOIS, I, 49.
128
the Pers ian sphere of infl uence by converting i t to Mazdeism, went on
a s long a s the Sassanid dynasty la sted .
“At a fixed time, the s ixth month, says E l isha Va rtabed they
[the Pe rs ian satraps and magi ] sought to enforce a royal order tha t in
a ll places under the dominion of the Great King (3 ) all church cere
monies be abol ished, the doors of temples of worship be closed and sea led ,“the sacred ornaments be de l ivered to the treasury officers, and that a llpsa lm-s inging be forbidden. The priests were to give no further in
struction to the people in the ir homes, and the books of the true prophetswere no longer to be read to them. Men and women ded icated to Christand l iving in monasteries were to change the ir garb for that of laymen.
Also governors ’ w ives were to be instructed in the doctrine of the Magi,wh i le the la tter were to teach publicly the sons and daughters both of the
nobi lity and the people. The institution of holy matrimony received of“the ir fa thers a ccord ing to the tenets of Chri stianity wa s to be abol ished ,“and instead of having one w ife only
,ea ch man should have severa l so
that the Armenian na tion be increa sed ; a lso that there be marriages of
fa thers and daughters, brothers and s isters
,mothers and sons
, and grandfathe rs and grand-daughters. No anima ls were to be ki lled for foodwithout be ing first sacrificed
,and no dough must be kneaded wi thout
wea ring the phantam Manure must not be u sed for fuel . Beavers,foxes, and hares must not be ki lled . All snakes
,l izards
,frogs, ants
,
and vermin of every sort must be exterminated,whi le one
’s hand s must
be wa shed in cow’s urine. (2)
Thu s new-born Christianityin Armenia was threatened from
its cradle both by Mazde ism and
the old pagan be l iefs tha t sti llsmouldered . Faustus of Byzan
tium informs us in fact that more
than a century after the Illuminator
’s death
, the worsh ipers of
the Haikian gods attempted up
risings . One of the revolts took DRACHMA OF THE SASSANID TYPE 01:place during the patria rcha te of THE GEORGIAN ERISTHAW GOURGENSchahag I of Manazkert (373
( 2 ) Transl . LANGLOIS, Hist. Armen., vol . I, p . 99.
( 3 ) Yezdedjerd .
( 1 ) In Zend : peete-dane , a kind of ve il used in rel igious ceremonies.(2) In order not to defile water.
129
but a ll such a ttempts weresupp ressed .
W e a re without any a rcha eologica l structura l rema ins con
nected with Armenia during theSa ssanid period
,but a few ra re
co ins struck by the rule rs o f
Iberia show tha t in those daysPers ian influence extended to the
DRACHMA OF THE SASSANID TYPE OF foot of the grea t Cauca s ian cha in,
THE GEORGIAN ERISTHAWSTEPHANOS I and consequently to I ran 3 ne igh
bor,Armenia . One of these
d ra chmas minted in the Pers ian style,bears the monogram of the Eristhaw
Gourgen (3 ) and by the fire—a lta r shown on the reverse of the co in we haveproof that the Iberians l ikewise were reached by Zoroastrian prea ching .
On another coin bea ring in ful l the name of the E risthaw Stephanos I ( l ) ,the pyre is replaced by the Christian cross .
“The recognit ion of Chri stianity by Tirida tes
THE ARMENIAN and the investiture of Gregory the I l lumina tor withCHURCH the title of Ch ief B ishop brought the Armenian
Church into be ing without any intervention
of the Greek Church such a s la ter occurred in the Slavonic countries whenCyri l and Method ius preached there . The found ing of the ArmenianChurch wa s there fo re a na t1ona l unde rtaking
,and the inve stiture given
Gregory by the Metropol itan of Caesa rea had no more s ignificance thana mere act of ord ina tion.
”(2 ) Th is Church , whose dogma at first wa s
that of Rome and Byzantium,sepa ra ted from Constantinople in the yea r
491 on account of the Counci l of Cha lcedon for i t refused to admittha t there were in Jesus Chris t a s ingle person and a s ingle na ture . Thusthere arose a sepa ra te church wh ich Orthodox and Ca thol ics a l ike ca l l theGregorian Church from the name of its founder
,St. Gregory
,but wh ich
the Armenians name : Ha'
i Yéleéghetzi, or Armenian Church . Th is churchha s p roduced an abundant sacred l itera ture . In 1 166 the pa tria rch Nerses
the Gra cious set forth in his Outline of the Armenian Fa ith the ideas of
h is co-rel igionists rega rd ing the na ture of Chri st .
( 3 ) Contemporary with Hormi sda s ( 5 79( 1 ) Contemporary with Chosroes II ( 5 91( 2 ) K. ASLAN, Etude s h istorique s sur le Peup le armenien, 1909, p . 230 .
- 130
ceeded to ravage C i l icia,Syria, and Cappadocia, and to seize Antioch and
Caesarea,but he deemed i t wise to spare the Armenians
ARTAVAZD and therefore did nor d eprive them of their liberties.
V I ( 25 2 Artavazd VI (252 of the Armenian roya l house was-261 ) put on the throne by the Pers ian army
,whi le Sapor in
person marched aga inst Syria . The k ing of Pers ia wasdefeated at the s iege of Edessa
,and Ode
na th, king of Pa lmyra, compe lled him to
re turn to his dominions . Odenath had rema ined fa i thfu l to the Emperor G‘
a l l ienusand been appointed king of Pa lmyra bythe Romans. The Emperor granted himthe title of Augustus, and made him his
COIN OF VABALATH, SON OFl i eutenant in the Ea st. Wi th the help of
QUEEN ZENOBIA, KING OF the legions placed under him,this ru ler
PALMYRA restored Syria to the Romans, ra ised theEMPEROR siege of Edessa
,and having conquered a
part of Armenia, drove out the Pers ians a long with the ir puppet-king
Artavazd VI.
Odenath was assa ssinated, however, at Emesa (226-267) and QueenZenobia , less prudent than her husband, cla imed in beha lf of her son
Vaba lath the provinces he had conquered, includ ing Syria, Arabia , Ci l ic ia ,Cappadocia , and al so Armenia wh ich rema ined under the rule of Pa lmyra
for eleven yea rs (261
Zenobia’s ambitions aroused Rome’s wrath, and
Aurel ian destroyed her capita l ci ty in the yea r 273 ,whereupon Armenia came aga in unde r Roman rule.
Probus and Carus then restored the kingdom and in
3 3 1-3 39 Chosroes I I the Younger occupied the throne.
He wa s succeeded by Tiran (340 Archak II (3 5 1
COIN OF Pap ( 369 V arazdat (374 Archak I I IZENOBIA (3 78 Vlagharchak (3 78-3 86) the riva l of Archak
ggg‘
fihof 111
,and then Chosroes 111 (3 86-392 and 414 In
th is period Armenia,wh i le keeping her kings
,wa s di
vided (3 87) between the Pers ians and Romans.
Vramchapouh (Va rahran-Sapor) wa s on the
ST SAHAK I throne ( 392-414) when a highly important eventAND ST MESROP took place
,the invention of the Armenian a lpha
bet,wh ich gave a great impetus to the nation
,
increa s ing its se lf-consciousness and
giving it a l itera ture . Sahak I,ca l led
the Great, (3 87-428 and 432—439)
who wa s then Ca thol i cos of Ar
menia , had ca lled to a ss ist him a s
Co-adj utor,
Vartabed (Doctor)Mesrop, an apostle
, scholar,and
man of letters who knew Greek,
Per3 1an, and Syir1ac
,bes ides the GOLDEN COIN OF THE SASSINID
speech of his fel low-countrymen. KING OF PERSIA CHOSROES 11
Sahak entrusted him wi th the taskof compos ing a specia l a lphabet for the Armenian language
,so tha t the
Scriptures might be transla ted therein. Hitherto only the Gre ek and Syria cvers ions had been used
,and the necess ity for the priests to know those two
languages and trans la te them Verba l ly h indered considerably their workof preach ing and expla ining Holy Wri t.
Mee p uti l izing a table of twenty-two
INVENTION OF letters suggested to him by a priest named Daniel,ARMENIAN composed a th irty-six letter a lphabet in wh ich each
WRITING sound of the Armenian language wa s repre sented .
Later on,at the end of the 12th century
,the gram
marians added two more cha racters, so that today there are thirty-e ight
letters . As is the ca se w i th Zend wri ting, no letter is accented, the d iffer
ent tone-va lues of the vowels being shown by d ifferent characters . Mes
rop had the La tin, Greek, Zend, and Ind ian a lphabets to choose from,
and did so but added specia l s igns of his own composition wh i le a lsochanging somewha t those be borrowed . He thus crea ted an a lphabet
adapted to Armenian p ronunciation, and th is step not only hindered the
spread of the language but further sepa ra ted the Armenian people fromthe i r ne ighbors both on the ea st and west
,and strengthened the ir na tiona l
ind ividua l ity. Georgia a lso had its own a lphabet wh ich though i t hassome genera l resemblance to the Armenian is nevertheless a ltogetherd ifferent. Moreover the two writings deve loped in oppos ite ways
,the
Georgian characters soon becoming less angula r and more flowing,wh i le
13 3
the Armenian rema ined square unti l the modern curs ive wa s adopted .
The inventor of the a lphabet h imself translated the book of Proverb sand the New Testament
,and under his guidance the rest of the Scriptures
ARMENIAN INSCRIPTION AT ANI (A.D. 622)
( from a photograph by K. J. Ba smadjian)
were wri tten in Armenian, young men having been previously sent forth to
Edessa , Caesarea, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople, to seek out
copies of the sacred wri tings and especia l ly of the Septuagint vers ion of the
Bible,a ll of wh ich the Pe rs ians had systematica lly destroyed throughout
their empire .
Though Armenian l iterary endeavors were first confined to rel i giou s
wri tings,a sta rt had nevertheless been made
,and soon there a rose a
secular l iterature.
This was a new d awn for Armenia . At the time tha t her rel igious
freedom wa s violently threatened by Pers ian Mazde ism,king Vram
chapouh and the patriarch Sahak, both of them foresighted patriots,rea l ized tha t unless Armenia segrega ted herse lf through inte l lectua l de
velopment from her powerful neighbors,both her Chri stiani ty and her
nationa l ity would peri sh . The king and the patria rch in prompting thed iscovery of a nationa l a lphabet did more than any Maecena s
,they saved
the ir whole nation,and the beneficent results of their influence have been
mani fest down through the centuries to our day. These two men
rank among the greatest figures of the Armenian people when one con
siders the consequences of the ir work.
134
ful ofmen he had the courage to face the Pers ian cohorts. His death wa s
a severe loss for Armenia, but the battle of Aravair saved the nation, for
the Iranians never expecting such stout res istance had to stop to make good
thei r losses. Meanwhi le grave danger for Pers ia arose on her eastern
borders, and her armies had to ru sh to the Oxus pla ins to stop the Huns.
Armenia wa s de l ivered from the Magi for a wh i le. The memory of
Vardan’s supreme sacrifice and tha t of his fellow-sold iers has been so
a rdently cherished th a t to the present time the Armenian Church celebra tes the anniversary of the battle of Aravair and pays tribute to the
heroes who fe ll there .
Under king Peroses (458-488 ) the persecutionsVAHAN were resumed . Vahan Mamikonian
,Vardan
’s neph
MAMIKONIAN ew,took command of the Armenian troops, ca lled
on the Iberians to help the Christian cause, and ca r
ried on the fight.He met wi th fluctua ting success,unti l Vologeses (488
succeed ing Peroses who was ki l led fighting the Hephta lites, deemed i twi ser to tolerate Christianity in his dominions and especia l ly in Armeniawhere the Magi for nearly ha l f a century had kept up a war tha t hadcost the Pers ian k ingdom dear. Thus aga in the bravery of the Mamikonians had del ivered the nation. From then on
,ti ll the Arabian in
vasion,Armenia had se lf-government under the supreme supervision of the
Pers ian governor,and enjoyed a period of prosperi ty.
CHAPTER V
THE ARAB CONQUEST. ARMEN IA A PROVINCE or THEEMP IRE or THE CAL IPH S .
Ever s ince the Armenians conquered the Arara t country,l i fe had
been very ha rd and uncerta in for them the greater pa rt of the time.
Nevertheless, a lthough constantly obliged to struggle to ma inta in thei rindependence, they had been for only brief periods in a sta te of complete
EMPIRE OF THE ARABS
subjugation, for both Pers ians and Romans had deemed it wi ser to leavethem pra ctica l ly free under governors who very often were chosen fromamong the ir own princes. Consequently the Armenians were able to look
on themselves a s a l l ies in turn of the Emperor or of the King of Kingsra ther than the subj ects of e ither. But with the entry of the Arabs intothe pol itica l scene , Armenia
’s lot takes on a da rker hue . The Mos lems
henceforwa rd cons idered the Chri stians of the countries wh ich they con
quered a s the ir s laves, and for over a thousand yea rs therea fter used
every means and stopped a t no manne r of persecution to win them overto I slam, whi le the Armenians clung a ll the more stead fa stly to the ir re
ligion a s the la st bulwa rk of their nationa l ity .
Enslaved by the Arabs, they neverthe less had one splend id burst
of freedom towa rd s the end of the 9th century,wh ich la sted nea rly two
hund red years . F rom 885 to 1064,they took advantage of the confus ion
caused by the a rriva l of the Turks and became the ir own ma sters in at
lea st a part of the ir ancestra l doma in. The very events,however
,wh ich
ensured the ir tempora ryfreedom proved the ir even
tua l ruin, for having thrown
off the Arab yoke,they
we re to succumb to that of
the Turks and suffe r there
under down to modern
times . Armenia ’s martyr
dom began actua lly in A.D .
645,when the standa rd of
the Prophet appe a red in COIN OF YEZDEDJERD IVLAST SASSANID KING OF PERSIA
the region of Van.
Mahomet’s fana tica l Arabian tribes spread l ike a flood over western
As ia . They vanquished Yezdedjerd IV on the pla ins of Ke rba lah,and at
Nehavend consumma ted the ruin of the Sa ssanid monarchy exhausted
both by the a tta cks of Emperor Heraclius and the d isorder tha t re igned
at the Pers ian court. The Emirs continued the ir conquests towards Ind ia ,and the whole E a st wa s subdued . On the north and west
,however, they
found serious obstacles in the ir way. The E astern Roman Empire with its
tremendous influence and grea t cultura l advantages,a lthough much a bsorb
ed on the Danube and in Thrace by the invad ing ba rba rians from the
north,neve rthe le ss offe red the Mahometan invaders res istance tha t wa s
destined to hold out for centuries . Though in possess ion of Syria, the Mos
lem ch iefta ins d id no t yet da re to a ttack As ia M inor and ma rch on Con
stantinOple . The ea stern provinces of the Empire being more vulnerable,
they overran Armenia .
cau se and submi tted and pa id tribute to the Ca l iph Oma r. The la tterwas shortly therea fter succeeded by Othman I (Nov. 9,
The (Arab ) d ivi s ion in the Arara t region invaded the
A.D. 644 territory of the Taians, the Georgians
,and the Aluans
,
plundering and taking prisoners. They then proceeded to
Nakhtchawan but fa i led to capture the city. They took, however,
the city of Khram, killed the defenders and ca rried away captive the
women and chi ldren.
Nevertheless, the Byzantine court saw the grea t danger to the Em
pire i f the Arabs were a l lowed to plant themse lves on the Erzerum pla
teau and threa ten the Pontine provinces. Incensed aga inst the Armenians,Constans I I determined to rega in tha t province by force of a rms
,and to
compel its inhabitants to embrace the Orthodox re ligion,hoping thus to
have them more closely on his s ide . He met wi th no success a s regardsthe ir re l igion
,but the new prefect Hamaza sp who was find ing the tribute
demanded by the Mos lems too heavy, came over to the Emperor. In
repri sa l the Ca l iph Othman had Armenian hostages s laughtered and
wa s about to take the fie ld aga inst the rebelswhen he wa s murdered by his sold iers. His
second successor, Mohawiah,the first of
the Bagdad Ca l iphs, fol lowed up his in
tentions and deva stated Armenia, d ispos
sess ing Justin I I . The la tter from his pa l
ace summoned the unhappy inhabi tants to
come back to the ir a llegiance to him. The COIN OF EMPEROR
Armenians replied ( I) :“How often
,under
JUSTIN H
“the government of the Greeks we have had in our worst ca lami ties onlythe barest a ss istance ! Frequently, on the contra ry, our obed ience
ha s been requited only wi th insults . To swear fea lty to you is but to
court ruin and dea th. Leave us therefore under our present ma sters and
under the ir protection.
Thi s prudent reply from a people oppressed in turn by both Byzan
tines and Arab s only exa spera ted the B as i leus. He sent a Greek army
( 1 ) JOHN VI, Cathol icos , chap . XIII.
140
into Armenia , ravaged the country,car
ried off what little wea lth the Moslemshad overlooked
,and capturing e ight thou
sand fami l ies sent them to d istant landsto be sold into s lavery.
Meanwhi le the Arabs thinking the
Armenians were seeking to evade their
COIN OF EMPEROR authority, aga in overran the Ararat te
JUSTINIAN II gion spread ing death and desolation inthe ir wake . They razed a number of
cities,destroyed the fortress of Sevan, ens laving its defenders . At the
same time the new emperor, Ju stinian I I,stubbornly ma inta ining the
Greek grievance of the Armenians’ reje ction of the Orthodox cree d,caused
the Pa trician Leontius to devasta te Upper Armenia , Iberia, and Albania,countries that had a lso been obliged to submi t to the power of the Ca l iphs .
Thus the Armenians not only had to suffer persecution from the Moslemsbecause they were Chri stians
,but a lso from the Greeks because of the i r
unpardonable adherence to their nationa l mode of worship .
The Byzantine court at this period d i splayed the most savage te
ligious intolerance ; fierce ha tred inflamed the Greeks aga inst those peopleswhose creed s d id not co incide with the i rs
,and a lso spread a rmed strife
among themse lves . These pa ss ions and the re sul ting futi le wranglings
were weakening the Empire,but the Emperors and the people a l ike were
infa tuated with the subtleties of ca sui stry,even wh i le dangerous enemies
were bea ring down on every frontier.
Greek domination in Armenia,more
over,d id not la st long. The Bas i leus a fter
five yea rs of hateful oppress ion wi thdrewhis legions
,and the Ommiad Ca l iph Abd
el-Melek once more invaded the country.
He occupied Tovin and drove out the R0
man prefect, appointing as provincia l govCOIN OF THE OMMIAD ernor Abd-Al lah, a crue l ruler who sent theCALIPH ABD-EL-MELEK
Armeni an notables as pri soners to Damascus . The Cathol i cos I saa c and Prince Sembat were among the captives,but the latter succeeded in making his escape
,and wa s in A.D. 695 aga in
pla ced over Armenia by the Emperor Leontius who had usurped the Im
peria l throne.
In 702,the Emir Mohammed-ben-Okba who
MOHAMMED had been named governor of Mesopotamia by Abd
BEN-AKBA, 702 el wa s d riven out by the legions . Taking ad
vantage,however
,of the depa rture of the Greek
a rmy,he rega ined power and proceeded to establish i t further by a re ign
of terror and name less cruelties . At Nakhitchevan he shut up the principa lArmenians in the church and set fire to the bui ld ing, burning them a l ive .
And a ll the wh i le Byzantium wa s arguing over questions of dogma with
the Armenian clergy ! Church synod s were be ing convened to d iscusswhether or not wa ter should be added to the wine in the celebration of
the Mass,and whether there should be added to the Sanctus the word s
qui crucifixur er.
Ne i ther wa s re l igion the sole concern of the Ca thol icos. The h igh
clergy went in for pol i tics, and he, just a s much ca rried away a s his Byzan
tine opponents,intruded the spiri tua l into tempora l matters . W e see
la ter on Cathol icos John VII ( 1 ) p ra i s ing the Pa tria rch E l ia s for having
denounced to Ca l iph Abd-el-Melek the queen of the Aghouans and the irpa tria rch Nerses Bakour
,a s be ing friends of the Greek emperors and
enemies of the Ca l iphs . He congra tulates E l ia s in having them put in
cha ins on the ground s of the ir a ttachment to the Council of Cha lcedon :
It is true tha t the Armenian people clung to their rel igious be l iefs and
could not see beyond them,but the ir bishop s se ized every opportuni ty to
fight their Opponents and improve the ir own posi tion with the Mos lemru lers .
The struggle between the Greeks and the Arab s had from the verybeginning a ssumed the rel igious character wh i ch has ever been the ma instrength of the Mahometans . For centuries and centuries Ca l iphs and
Sultans derived their power therefrom. The fanati ci sm of thes e unciv
ilized men of the desert wa s accompanied by bound less prid e and pro
found contempt for a ll who did not sha re the ir bel iefs . Bi shop Sebeosin his h i story of Heraclius ha s given us the Armenian transla tion of a
letter wh ich the“King of the I shmae l ites” had the monstrous audacity
to write to the “Emperor of the Greeks .
”
( 1 ) Transl . SAINT-MARTIN, chap . XIII, p . 88 .
RUINS OF THE CASTLE OF ANI(Taken from inside the town )
Ca l iph appointed the Bagratid Ashot a s governor of the country. His
successors did not,however
,follow his example ; they loaded the Chris
tians of the ir Empire with crush ing taxes, wh ich led to a revolt of the
Armenians . Ashot,a lthough one of themselves, wa s thrown into prison
by his fel low-Armenians,and there blinded . This revolt wa s que l led in
blood .
The Arab governors Sole iman B ekir and Ha ssan
(778 ) treated the Armenians wi th incred ible ha rshness and gave the
inhabitants over to the cruelties of the sold iery. A fresh revolt a rose
from these oppress ions . Mouschegh the Mamikonian ga thered the in
surgents a round him,and with five thou sand men attacked Hassan
’s
tr00 ps tha t were then ravaging the Taron d i strict, and s laughtered them.
Under the we ight of numbers, however, he fel l in comba t,and his son
Ashot ca rrying on his fa ther’s work drove the Arabs from severa l province s,
and,on the banks of the Arpa-tchai in the d i strict of Schirak
,fortified
the city of Ani that was soon to become the capita l of Armenia and the
residence of the patriarchs .
The s i te of Ani,a ccord ing to Armenian chroni cles,
ANI, had been inhabited from very ancient times,and its
CAPITAL OF pos i tion and rema rkable na tura l defenses made i tARMENIA conspicuou sly advantageous.
The Ani plateau surrounded by h igh cliffs isbounded on the south and ea st by the river Arpa-tchai
, a swi ft streamcoming down from the lake region of the Lesser Cauca sus
,from the
144
mounta ins whose northern flanks overlook the city of Alexandropol .
On the west another deep va l ley, tha t of the Aladja-tchai bounded
the capita l city whi ch on the southern s ide came to an abrupt end by a
sha rp mounta in buttress between the Arpa-tchai and its tributa ry; the
Aladj a-tchai . Two gorges, whose wa ters flowed down into each of these
two streams, separa ted the promontory from the ne ighboring ma ssi f, but
these two na tura l d itches were sepa ra ted at the head of thei r respective
waters by a strip of land about 600 ya rd s wide . There the Armenians
concentrated every means of defense,bui ld ing a double wa l l with towers
commanded by a huge keep overlooking the chief gate of the city. A
sma l ler enclosure wa s bui l t skirting the edge of the cliffs,whi le upon a
h i ll at the southern end of th i s great spur stood the citadel.
The city wa s about 185 acres in extent.
W e do not know of wha t ancient Ani consi sted, how big it wa s, orwhether the city covered the whole plateau. Possibly it comprised onlythe southern point commanded by the h i l l of the citadel, and traces of wa l lsand ga tes sti l l to be seen in the promontory’s narrowest part strengthenth i s suppos i tion. But i t is quite certa in that the northern ramparts proteeting the town were commenced under king Ashot as soon as he had
chosen the Ani s i te a s a refuge for his court,because th is portion of the
enclosure was the most vulnerable, in fact the only one whereby the
enemy could a ttempt an entrance . Semba t I I (977-990) fini shed bui ld ingthese wa l ls .
W e have in Europe a good number of towns sti l l surrounded by the irmed ieva l fortifications
,e .g. Avignon
,Aiguesmortes, Ca rcassonne, in south
e rn France a lone, wh i le ruins of thi s kind a re a lso numerous in the Ea st.
Trebizond sti l l has its rampa rts bui lt by the Comneni. M i l ita ry rema insa re a ll that is left of Antioch
,and on the mounta in overlooking Tifl is are
to be seen the ruins of the Acropol i s of the Georgians . No s i te,however,
is compa rable to that of Ani in the deep impress ion th is dead c ity makeson the traveler. Lost in the middle of a vast sol itude
,it bea rs yet the
d eep wound s i t received at its hour of destruction.
( 1 ) Dzaghkotza-Tsor, the vall ey of the gardens .
F : F a in is e
E n ee in l e m oons l i luée
E CHELLE
SKETCH-MAP OF THE SITE OF THE CITY OF ANI
An i,
under the Bagratids, wa s a large,fine city
,with many
churches , pa la ces , and splend id wa l ls bui lt of multi colored volcanic stone
often a s l ight a s pumi ce-stone . The ca thedra l,and the shrines of the
— 146
Fortuna tely a ll the Arab governors were not ba rba rians and the
Armenians in the ir chronicles pra i se the kindness of some of them,
notably that of Haul ( 8 18-83 5 ) who wa s sent to Armenia by Ca liph
Al-Mamoun. But there existed terrible riva lries among the Arabs them
se lves , and a Mos lem named Sevada having ha tched a plot aga inst Haul,the Armenians made the mistake of e spous ing the cause of the riva l.
They were punished , for Sevada’s sma ll a rmy wa s wi ped out by the gov
ernor of Armenia . La ter on,during the revolt of a Pers ian named
Baban or B abek, Baga rat, an Armenian whom Ca l iph Mota ssem had
placed ,over the Ara ra t region
,a ss isted the Arab s in putting down the
d isorders .
Despite this act of loya lty, Ca l iph Motawakkel appointed a Moslem,
Abou-Seth, in Baga rat’
s stead , fol lowed by the former’s son Youssouf,whose oppress ions caused the Armenians aga in to rebe l . This wa s a
fresh excuse for putting Armenia to fire and sword . The nobi l ity werewiped out
,the people ens laved
,towns
,villages
,churches a ll d isappeared
in flames, whi le any Armenians refus ing to embrace Is lam were pitilesslys laughte red .
F ina lly,a fter a series of Arab governors a ll more fana tica l, greedy,
and crue l the one than the other,Ca l iph Motawakkel-Billah rea l izing
tha t his empire would never have Armenia'
s obe
ASHOT, PRINCE d ience unless a fa ir amount of se lf-government
OF PRINCES were restored to her, appointed the Bagratid
85 9 prince Ashot a s governor of his own country and
gave him the title of“Prince of princes .
”
The new viceroy d id not d i sappoint e i ther h is subj ects or the
Ca l iphs . He proved loya l to his overlord s,restored the country
,and
organized the a rmy of wh ich he made his brother Aba s commander-inchief
Armenia wa s beginning to prosper under Ashot’s rule,when Iahab.
the son of Sevada,an Arab re la ted to the Bagratids, tried, a s did his
fa ther before him, to supplant the governor. But the Commander-inchief Aba s with a sma l ler number of troops crushed the rebe l forces on
the banks of the Araxes . The battle-field wa s named the F ie ld of the
Forty, because a ccord ing to Armenian h istorians,forty thou sand men
overcame e ighty thousand who fought for Iahab.
“De l ivered from his riva l, Ashot devoted his whole energy to the
ma teria l and mora l we lfa re of his people . He had new townsh i ps built,
to which be a ttra cted many fore igners. Agriculture wa s encouraged , and
trade a ssisted by new road s.
Tired of fighting an energetic people for the possess ion of a province
cla imed by the Greek emperors, and a lready concerned about movements
of tribes taking place on the e a stern and northern borders of the ir empire ,the Ca l iphs gradua l ly came round to the plan of crea ting south of the Cau
ca sus a state they could use a s a shie ld aga inst a ttacks from the Russ ian
pla ins, and of thus putting an end to the ir quarrels with the Byzantine
court. In Constantinople, too, Armenia wa s looked on a s lost to the
Empire, and i t was thought better to keep the legions for the defense of
As ia Minor aga inst the ambitious Sa ra cens . Possess ion of Armenia now
tha t Syria and Mesopotamia were gone had no longer the importance i t
had when the enemies ofRome were ch iefly in Pers ia . The Emperors and
Ca l iphs undoubted ly came to an agreement, for both courts at the same
time granted the title of king to Ashot the Bagratid . Mohammed-Bil lahsent from Bagdad
,Ostican (Governor) Emir Ysa who, in the name of the
Ca l i ph his ma ster,came to Ani and solemnly recognized Ashot, de l ivering
to him the crown and roya l vestments, wh i lst the Greek emperor Ba si l,
who wa s himsel f an Armenian, a lso sent the new king the ins ignia of
sovere ignty.
After untold misfortunes Armenia , owing to wha t wa s happening in the Ea stern pol itica l world ,rega ined her freedom at la st. Th i sreviva l, due outwa rd ly to the
mutua l antagonism of the two grea tempires of the time
,wa s a lso a
result of the Armenian people ’s ownenergy, the ir sold ierly virtues
, and
the ir unconquerable fidel i ty to COIN OF EMPEROR BASIL IChristianity, for a lthough so oftenoverwhelmed by sheer force and numbers
, the na tion never once capitu
lated .
After having conquered and ravaged Armenia, the Arabs had entered
the va lley of the river Kura and occupied Tifl is,but thei r forward ma rch
wa s stopped on the north by the Grea t Cauca sus and on the west by the
( 1 ) Fr. TOURNEBISE, op . cit., p. 105 .
149
Suram he ights . Ta iq , Gouga rq , and the Pha s is river ba s in rema ined inByzantine hand s . It wa s the same with the north of Lesser Armeniaand with Lazica where lofty mounta in cha ins protected Trebizond and
the Greek pos se ss ions a long the Black Sea coa st. The capita l of Georgiabecame consequently the sea t of the Ca l i ph’s gove rnment in the Armenianprovince . The ha rsh trea tment of the conquerors caused ma ss convers ions to I s lam, the Armenian and Georgian princes setting the exampleso a s to reta in the ir land s . Except in the mounta ins and inaccess ibleva l leys Christianity d isappea red a lmost everywhere throughout Transcauca s ia ; churche s and convents were in ruins and forsaken
,whi le the
minare ts of mosques were soon seen in a ll cities and towns .
Neverthe less those Armenians and Cauca s ians who had fl ed beforethe Invaders had withd rawn into the na tura l stronghold s and the mount
a ins ad j acent to the riverRion. The re they rema inedin uninterrupted connec
tion with Constantinople,
and prepa red to countera tta ck aga inst the ir country’s oppressors
,wh i le at
the same time keeping
the ir re l igious freedom.
The ir a ttacks aga inst the
Arab s were uncea s ing and
they sometimes ca rried the
day, but the power of the
Ca l iphs wa s such tha t des
pite a ll the ir efforts the Chri stians had to awa it the weakening of the great
Mos lem empi re be fore they could recover the ir southern and ea stern
p rovinces
CASTLE OF KHOCHAB IN KURDISTAN
Go ing through the mounta in regions extend ing north of the upperAraxes towa rds Ispir, Ka rs or Artvin
,the traveler every now and then
comes a cross the ca stles of the Armenian nobles perched l ike eagle ’s nestson inaccess ible he ights, genera l ly fortified on one s ide only
,with sheer
cliff s below a ll the other wa l ls. Th ither at the first wa rning the pea santso f the neighboring va l leys fl ed for refuge, taking with them their foodsupplies and weapons
,a lso the ir flocks ; none but goa t-paths led to these
retre a ts,which were capable of months
, even yea rs, of res istance aga inst
— 150
to sca tter the ir strength. They had invaded a ll the African coast of theMed i terranean
,and a lso Spa in
,and had carried the i r arms to the borders
of Ind ia . They were about to conquer Europe , when they were stopped
in the year 73 2 at Poi tiers. The weakening of the Armenian ga-rrisons
due to these d istant campa igns gave an opportunity for the nat ive princes
of that country, from the midd le of the 9th century onwa rd,to try to
bring about a change,and the ir efforts succeeded in 885 . Moreover,
the fear engendered by the Moslem invas ion of southern France wa s toresult two centuries la ter in the great undertaking of the Cru sa des .
The wi thdrawa l of the Arab army from the Caucasu s and Armeniawa s the s igna l for the mounta in-dwe llers to come down from the i r retrea ts
and recover the land s of their fa thers. The Cauca sians and Armenianscrossed the frontiers of the Ca l iph’s empire, drove out his rema ining troops,and with the whole land in revolt founded a number of sma ll kingdoms.Byzantium encouraged these upri s ings
,and even helped wi th sold iers
and money, th inking that i t would be easy to rega in the a l legiance of the
principa l i ties, the rulers of which would not agree toge ther and wouldeach in turn yie ld obe i sance to the Imperia l City. At Constant inople therewa s no thought that the Mos lem power would last ; it wa s not rea lizedhow va stly the pol i tica l and mi l i tary organization of the Arabs d ifferedfrom tha t of the va rious uncivi l ized races tha t the Roman world hadfought for centuries
,the hordes even then press ing a long Danube
va lley.
CHAPTER VI
DYNASTY or THE BAGRATIDS ( 1 )
Whi le dea ling wi th Armenia ’s beginnings,we saw how the h istorians
of the country, who mostly belonged to the clergy, endeavored to link
the origin of their na tion with Bibl ica l trad ition, and how they twisted the
old legends to connect the Hebrews with the descendants of Haik. Th ispropens i ty re lated not only to matters of h i storica l fact
,but to the gene
a logies of their rul ing fami l ies.
Accord ing to the na tive chroniclers, the fami ly
ORIGIN OF THE of the Bagra tids wa s of Jewish extraction. TheyBAGRATIDS cla im tha t the founder of the ir house
,Semba t
,wa s
brought captive by King Nebuchadnezzar fromJudaea to Armenia and tha t five centurie s later
,Vagharchak, the first
of the Arsacid kings of Armenia , gave to Baga rat (Pakarat) , a descendantof Semba t, the title of
“Asped or Cava lry Commander. V agharchak
supplemented thi s d ignity wi th tha t of “Thagatir” wh ich gave the fami ly
the honor of crowning the king upon his accession.
This promotion of the Bagratids to the hi ghest State functions hard lyta l l ies with sta tements by the h i storians rega rd ing the ir extraction. Bag
a ra t would seem rather to have been a high nobleman of Armeni an stock,perhap s d escended from one of Haik’s capta ins who with him led the
nation to the land ofAra ra t. Vagharchak would certa inly not have chosen
a fore ign prince for the honor of crowning the kings of Armenia, and
the ir own nobles,moreover
,so sens i tive on th is subj ect, would have
cla imed this s igna l d i stinction for the oldest and noblest of the fami l ies
descended from Haik and his companions. In Armenia, a s in Georgia
and throughout the Ea st, the nobil ity were too much incl ined to give first
cons ideration to the ir fami ly p ride to a llow any such sl ight.
( 1 ) Ea stern Armeni an pronunciation : Bagratid ; western : Pagratid.
Bes ides,even before the Chri stian era
,the Bagratids were lord s of
Sber in the d istri ct of Ispir on the upper Jorokh, and we can presume tha tthey he ld this doma in from the ir ancestors . In time the ir possess ions grewboth by ma rriage with ne ighboring p rince ly fami l ies and by force of a rms .
The hi gh Jorokh va lley,she ltered by mounta ins ha rd to reach
,had re
ma ined untouched by reverses of fortune,and its rulers had been able
to expand their power without a rous ing cupid ity . By degrees the B agratid s had acquired va st land s in the mounta in ma ss i f of the Lesser Cauca sus towa rds the Araxes and had even pushed into the Ara ra t country .
They owned very la rge doma ins in Gouga rq and Turuberan. Da riums
(Bayazid ) , B aga ran, Sch irakavan, Ani Ka rs,and Artvin be longed to
them,and further south they a lso possessed Mouch . One of themma rried
the he iress of the kingdom of Georgia,over wh ich h is posterity continued
to re ign. During a ll the M idd le Ages unti l the end of the 18th century,Ka rthl i wa s ruled by princes of th is fami ly. Some of them
,moreover,
left h ighly re spected names in th is pa rt of As ia . W e sha ll la ter haveocca s ion to speak of the Bagratid dyna sty in connection with the Armen
ians outs ide of Armenia . They were consequently very h igh noblemen,
and undoubted ly the ir fortune and fami ly p restige were the rea sons for
the pa tria rch G eorge (870-888 ) and the other noble s a sking both Byzantium and Bagdad tha t the crown of Armenia should be given to Ashot
the Bagratid .
ASHOT I The se lection of th i s prince a s the new sovere ign wa s
8 8 5 -890 certa inly a happy one,for Ashot wa s a wi se and just man
a lso the courts of Constantinople and Bagdad undoubted lyinfluenced the decis ions of the Armenians . Eve r s ince the Arabs se ized
the country, i t wa s the obj ect of constant stri fe between the Greeks and
the Arabs . Both s ides were weary of th is sta te of th ings, and i t wa s
probably by mutua l agreement tha t the two powers decided in favor of
Armenia ’s pol itica l rehabi l itation. Unfortunate ly the new king’s power
wa s very limited . Notwithstand ing the la rge extent of his fami ly hold ings,Ashot had sovereign rule only over the province of Ara ra t
,and , bes ide s ,
wa s still under tribute to the Ca l iphs and sadd led with some obligations
to the Emperor. However,Armenia rega ined se lf-government in the
( 1 ) There wa s anothe r town bea ring the name o f Ani or Gamakh , situated
on the west bank of the Euphra te s, in the canton of Darana gh i, Upper Armenia .
Constantine Porphyrogene tos ca l l s it Kamakha . Th is stronghol d wa s once celebratedfor its templ e of Ormuzd , and its buria l places of Armenian kings, a l so on account
of the crown trea sure s be ing kept the re .
— 154
king a t Ani,ra sh ly a ttacked a lso the Mos lem chiefs of Khoi and Sa lma s
and wa s defea ted and killed by the Kurd s.With danger averted in that d irection
,Ashot had to turn aga inst
the prince of Kars who wa s cla iming the Armenian crown,and then
towa rds the d istrict of Turuberan. Whi le he wa s enforcing peace in
the interior of the kingdom,his brother Aba s scoured the mounta ins at
the source of the Kura river,and then proceeded to punish the rebels at
Erzerum. Securi ty reappea red in Armenia a s the king’s authority wa sestablished . But Ashot
,constantly threatened by the Moslems of Kurd i
stan,fel t that i t would be d iffi cult for him to ma inta in his rea lm without
effective help from the Greeks ; consequently he went to Constantinoplewhere Leo the Phi losopher
,an Armenian
,wa s then re igning ( 886
Thi s journey shows tha t even though Armenia was tributary to the
Ca l iphs, she none the less had ties wi th the Empire, and that the new kingre l ied on Byzantium to free h imself from the Moslems. That, no doubt,
wa s what Ashot intended. The Armenianhi storians re late tha t he wa s magnifi centlyrece ived by the Ba s i leus
,and tha t the sov
ereigns s igned two treaties,one pol itica l and
the other a trade agreement. W e have notthe text of the se contracts
,but i f they were
s igned,i t shows that the authori ty of the
ERCa l iphs wa s rema rkably weak in the north
LEO T( 886-912 )
of the Moslem empire,and that i t cons isted
only of the annua l tribute pa id by Armenia .
The Emirs of Aze rba idjan and Kurd i stan,however, who were under Bag
dad’
s orders,kept uncea s ing watch on the Christian kingdom and threat
ened i t at every turn. and Ashot sought means of coping wi th th is danger.
During h is stay a t the Byzantine court, the king of Armenia appa r
ently sent home for troops, and despatched them under the command of
Prince Meghrik to he lp the Greek a rmy then wa rring wi th the Bulgarians .
From th is we may conclude tha t Emperor Leo undertook to supply Ar
menia with some legions aga inst the Moslems . Unfortuna tely Ashot d ied
at Trebizond on his way ba ck. His rema ins were transferred to the town
of B agaran,the ancient ci ty of idols
,on the Arpa-tchai
,not far from Ani.
Although Ashot had been unable to ca rry out his wise schemes,he
had at lea st had time to pacify the country and compe l the obed ience
of the nobles . He wa s unable, however, to restore his kingdom from the
ruins caused by the Arab conquest. He needed above all pos itive pro
— 156
rection by the Byzantines, and the end of his reignwa s devoted to bringing
about agreements tha t would a ssure sa fety to his throne.
Ashot left a son, named Semba t, and this heir was
SEMBAT I procla imed king by the patriarch George I I and the
890-914 nobles . But even wh i le the young prince wa s rece iving
his crown, a most dangerous riva l rose aga inst him, his
own uncle Aba s . This commander of the a rmy, the victor of Kars and
Erzerum,ra l l ied some of the nobles of Gougarq and marched on Ani to
depose his nephew. He l istened,howeve r
,to the plea of the pa triarch,
and wi thdrew to his city of Ka rs, but kept a s prisone r the Bagratid Adernerseh, the Armenian governor of the Georgian territories who had placed
the crown on the young king’ s head .
Without a moment’s hes itation, Semba t ma rched on Ka rs,and com
pelled his uncle to del iver up the Bagratid prince and to submi t to hisauthority.
Ca l iph Mothaded-Billah (892-902) and Emperor Leo repeated the
procedure previously adopted for Ashot, and sent Semba t the insi gniaof kingsh ip . The la tter, now a ssured of pea ce in his kingdom,
pushedback his frontiers a s far north a s Colch is and the Daria l gorges, and to
the south-west a s fa r a s the ci ty of Karin (Erzerum) .
Van and a ll the southern pa rt of the Armenian terri tory wa s thenunder the d irect government of the Arabs, and Afschin
, the emir of
Azerbaidjan, who had recognized Semba t in the Ca l iph’s name, was
suspicious when he saw the young king extend ing his frontiers southward .
The a ll iance of Ashot and the Emperor,renewed by Sembat
,arou sed
his wra th, and he conce ived the plan of bringing Armenia aga in unde r theMoslem yoke and having h imse l f p la ced on the throne at Ani. But Bagdad refused to enter aga in into stri fe with the Empire concerning Armenia .
No oppos i tion would be offered by the Ca l iph to the Emir’s conqueringthe country, but there would not be any officia l encouragement in the
way of subs id ies or troop s .
Moslem forces moving towa rds Nakhitchevan on the Araxes gave
the a lert to the Armenian king who made his prepara tions, but, th inking
he might avert wa r by negotia ting,sent the Ca thol icos George to the
Emir with peaceful messages. Afschin expressed his des ire for an agree
ment,but a sked tha t the king should come and ta lk th ings over persona l ly
wi th him. Th i s clumsy ruse not succeed ing, the d isappointed Moslem
made the Cathol icos his prisoner and hosti l ities began. The Azerbaidjan
troop s advanced to the midd le of Armenia , and a battle took place nea r
- 157
the vi llage of Dols a t the foot of the Alagheuz. The Emir wa s defeatedand fled to his own land with the remnant of his a rmy .
Afschin wa s humi l iated but not d ishea rtened . Lea rning tha t thegovernor ofMesopotamia
,Ahma t
,had just invaded the District of Taron,
and that Semba t had been defea ted in the lake Van region,he te-entered
Armenia and bes ieged the city of Ka rs wh ich had to capitulate . He wa s
thus able to ca rry away to Dovin a s hostages the Queen,the wife of the
crown prince Mouschegh, and other Armenian princes ses , wh ich obligedthe king to consent not only to de l iver up his nephew Semba t and his son
Ashot,but to give Afschin the daughter of his brother Schapouh in ma r
riage . Although of oppos ite rel igion,the Chri st ian rulers often found
themse lves in those days obliged to send their daughters into the infidels’
ha rems,a humi l ia tion on the ir pa rt wh ich greatly flattered the Mos lems
,
plea s ing the i r vanity more than anyth ing e lse . Some centuries la ter a
Comnenus,Emperor of Trebizond
,gave his daughter to the Khan of
Ta rta ry in the hope of obta ining the la tter’s a ss istance aga inst MahometI I
, the conqueror of Constantinople .
Despite the above sacrifices,Semba t could not secure peace for his
country. For pol i tica l rea sons he had crowned Prince Adernerseh a s
king of Georgia, and this appointment to the northe rn kingdom a rousedthe j ea lousy of the Armenian princes
,who ca lled on Afschin The
emir wa s getting ready to invade Armenia once more when dea th overtook him. He wa s exa spera ted because his ch ief eunuch
,bribed by Sem
bat,had restored to him the captive princesses
,and he would have taken
his revenge by ravaging the kingdom had not fate arrested his ire. His
brother and successor,Youssouf
,sha red his resentment and harbored the
same des igns,a s he took over the rule of Azerba idjan.
The king of Armenia wa s a ccustomed to send the Ca l iph his yearlytribute through the med ium of the Emir of Azerbaidjan. Deeming it improper
,however
, to continue in th is humi l ia ting pos i tion towa rds hissworn enemy and rightly considering that the tribute would be l ighteri f i t were pa id d irect to Bagdad
,Semba t made th is offer to the Ca l iph in
writing. The new Ca l iph Moktafi-Billah (902-908) a ccepted i t,and sent
him a gold crown a s a token of goodwill .
Th is change of p rocedure deprived Youssouf of a la rge revenue,for
his offi ce a s midd leman wa s h ighly remunera tive . He wa s incensed aga inst
the king of Armenia , and by gifts and cra fty word s,he ga ined the ear
of the Ca l iph who doubled the Armenian annua l tribute . Sembat wa sobliged to increa se his levy of taxes on the princes
,with the consequence
158
The treache ry of Gaghik was the ch ief cau se of Armenia ’s downfal l ;at Youssouf
’s instigation he went headlong into a wicked wa r. The Emi r’s
only a im in sowing d issens ion among the Armenians was to get them
to destroy one another so tha t he might extend his own dominion over a ll
of Sembat’s provinces. The king of Va spurakan fina lly rea l ized the fu ll
horror of his conduct and the re sults of his rebe l l ion. He begged Sembatto pardon him and offered him his friendsh ip . It wa s a las ! too late, for the kingfee l ing himself unable to continue the
struggle,shut h imse lf up in the fortress
of Kapouyt (the Blue Castle ) located in
the rocky mounta ins ea st of the Mas is.There the Emir bes ieged him. After a
long s iege,Sembat obta ined his promise
to a l low him to leave the fortress with histr0 0 p s and withdraw to the province of
PLAN OF THE FORMERSchirak. Youssouf, howeve r, wa s
.
afraid
CITY OF MELAZKERT tha t the new a l li ance between Gaghik and
Sembat would result in d ifficult ies forhim
,and he treacherously se ized the king of Ani
,and threw him into a
dungeon at Dovin, where the unfortunate monarch was subjected to the
most degrad ing trea tment.
The king’s mi sfortunes had only begun, however, for his mental
suffering wa s to be followed by martyrdom. Youssouf bes ieged the fortress of E rend schak, not far from Nakhitchevan in Siuniq , and in order to
get the defende rs to surrender he had the unhappy king taken in cha insbefore the wa l ls and orde red him to be tortured before thei r eyes. Sembat,even under torture
,procla imed his Christian fa i th wh ich the Moslems
sought to make him forswear,and faced wi th his stubbornness
,the Emi r
ordered him put to de a th. The executioner beheaded him,and his body
wa s taken to Dovin and crucified in the public square.
So peri shed th is unfortunate ruler,the second of the Bagratid dynasty,
a fter a rei gn of twenty-four years (890-914) during wh ich Armenia wa sdrenched with blood not only from Moslem attacks but a lso from the
internecine wa rfare of the Armenian princes . The nobles in the ir prideconsidered themse lves each one a king in his own terri tory and chafedunder the authority of their overlord . Thi s wa s the grea t defect of thefeuda l organization of Armenia
,a s i t wa s of the same re
'
gime in Europe.
Interna l d issension played the game of the ir country’s enemies ; the latter
160
on the contrary we re united by the ir rel igion and d i splayed a cohesion
that wa s the ir strength. You ssouf had some Arab s under him,but the
bulk of his a rmy wa s composed of Kurd s,Pers ians
,and Armenians con
verted to I s lam. They a ll,i rre spective of the ir na tiona l extraction or
language,ma rched aga inst the Chri stians under the Prophet’s standard ,
and any d issens ions among the Moslems were never anyth ing more than
the resul ts of pa lace intrigues that had very little repercussion among thema sses. The Ca l iph’s authori ty
,a lthough i t had grea tly d iminished, wa s
nevertheless respected genera l ly,and orders from Bagdad were l istened
to as coming from the head of the ir re l igion re cognized by a ll the fa i thful .
Ashot I I (914 Sembat’
s son,a scended the throne
ASHOT II on his fa ther’s dea th,but i t wa s a very tottering throne
914-929 for,on the one hand
,Youssouf had left garri sons in a ll
the ch ief pos i tions in Armenia , and on the other,many
Armenian ch iefs refused to submi t to the new king of Ani. A part of
the people,fol lowing the example of the ir nobles, were engaged in looting.
Ana rchy re igned in the provinces tha t Ashot wa s to re ign over.
Notwithstand ing these countless difficulties, th is new king whom
the Armenians surnamed Yergath , ( i.e .
“of succeeded in driving the
Moslems from a ll the fortresses they had he ld throughout his dominions.Youssouf
,however
,a ided by the p reva i l ing lawles snes s and the d i ssens ions
among the nobles,aga in invaded those provinces which the king could
not defend , and sowed desola tion in the wake of his army. Encouragedby the ir ma ster
, the sold iers of I slam commi tted nameless a trocities. Thetowns and vi llages tha t fe l l into their hands were reduced to ashes ; men
and women were tied together and cut in pieces ; pregnant women wereripped up
,and ch i ldren at the b reast cru shed
,or else thrown from the
house-tops, or from clifl s,with other band its wa iting to rece ive them on
the ir spea rs be low. Thousands of women and ma idens were d istributedamong the sold iers or taken off to be sold as slaves . You ssouf
,spurred
by ambition a s much a s by ha tred of Chri stiani ty,gave the Armenians
the choice only of aposta sy or dea th under the most cruel torture. Thed i saster wa s tremendous. The pea sants fled into the mounta ins
,hid in
inaccess ible he ights or in caverns,abandoning thei r vi l lages and farms
,
wi th the consequence tha t ere long famine added its ills to those of war.
Armenia would have peri shed entire ly had not Emperor ConstantinePorphyrogenetus acceded to the plea of the king and the patriarch JohnVI
,
and sent Ashot some mi l i tary assistance. The latter with this help suc
ceeded in taking a few rebe l cities and in driving the Moslems from the
pla in of Erivan. Among the rebe l ci ties he overcame wa s the town of
Koghp a t the junction of the Arpa-tchai and the Araxes ; its inhabitantswere severe ly puni shed . Thi s town
,however
,appa rently be longed to
the commander-in—chie f Ashot,son of the uncle of king Schapouh, for th is
prince looked upon its capture a s a persona l affront a s a lso the punishmentof the inhabitants
,and he a ccord ingly took up a rms aga inst his suzera in
(92 1 Yous souf encouraged him in th is re
volt and procla imed him king of Armenia a t Dovin.
After no less than three reconci lia tions with his
suzera in,due to the ofli ces of the Ca thol icos John
,
followed by fresh rebel l ion,Ashot neverthe less kept
his title of king unti l h is dea th , wh ich occurredtwelve yea rs a fter his fina l submi ss ion
Dovin,not more than a day ’s ma rch away from
COIN OF EMPEROR E rivan,commanded the Ara ra t pla in and its out
CONSTANTINE XI lets in the d irection of V a spurakan. By entrusting
nnllsiETUSO'
the rebel prince with th is sta tion, Youssouf providedfor h imse lf access to the capita l of the kingdom of
Ani. Moreover the example of rebel l ion given by a member of the roya l
fami ly induced a number of other nobles to decla re the ir independence .
They were a lso in hopes of making sma l l kingdoms for themse lves , but
Ashot II compel led them each in turn to return to their a l legiance . Some
of these obta ined pa rdon, but others we re blinded , by the king’
s orders .
During th i s troub led period, not only wa s Armenia ravaged each
yea r by the Mos lems and by the band s of Armenian pea sants that infested
the country, but the nobles a lso
of Gouga rq , Uti, and Artsakh ,
who had rebelled aga inst the
king,ca lled on the Cauca s ians ,
the Abkha s ians , the Aghouans ,
large bod ies of whom under the ir
respective ch iefs overran the
country, looting and ca rrying
away the women. Everywhere
frightful desola tion re igned and
in the roya l fami ly i tsel f the MINIATURE FROM AN ARMENIANGOSPEL-BOOK, DATED AD. 966
fia tkeSt PIOtS were hand l ed : ( from a ph oto graph sent by F. Macler.)
Aba s, the king’
s brother, sought
162
TOMB OF KING ASHOT III THE CHARITABLE,
AT HORMOS MONASTERY NEAR ANI
( from a photograph by K. J. Ba smadj i an)
The change of ruler wa s a fresh s igna l for troub le in Armenia . Band s
of robbers overran the country and the outlying d istricts were infested
wi th highwaymen. Nevertheless the new king managed in a few months
to enforce peace wi th the help of a few fa ithful nobles,and when order
wa s e stablished,he had h imself crowned in the cathedra l of his capita l
city of Ani in the presence of the patriarch Anania s, the Ca thol i cos of theAghouans, and forty bi shops. He a l lowed his brother Mouschegh to a s
sume the roya l crown in Kars (962 Thus began the splitting-up of
Armenia , acquiesced in by the monarch in the bel ie f tha t the forma tion
of sma l l kingdoms was the only way to keep the a l legiance of the tu r
bulent nobles.
THE ARMENIAN KINGDOMS OF TENTH
Aboussahl Hamazasp (958-968 )
ARMENIA DIVIDED wa s then reigning over Vaspurakan, but
INTO SEVEN KINGDOMS on his dea th his territory wa s d ivided
among his three sons,and three king
doms were thus formed . Ashot-Sahak ruled over most of the country,
wh i le his brothers,Gourgen
-Khatchik and John Senacherim were kings of
Antzeva tsik and Rechtunik. As for Siuniq , wh ich compri sed the land be
tween the Araxes and the Lake Sevan region,i t became independent in
970. Lori , in 982, se ceded a lso from the k ing of Armenia,and from that
165
time to the midd le of the 13 th century tha t city wa s the roya l res idence
of the th ird branch of the Bagratids, namely, the Korikians .
In Taiq a new dynasty wa s founded ,but here i t wa s not an Armenian p rince
who procla imed his independence,but a
Georgian,David Curopa lates (983
who,countenanced by the Byzantine Em
peror, emerged from Mingre lia wherehis fami ly had taken refuge at the time
of the Arab conquest,and a ssumed the COIN OF DAVID
crown.CUROPALATES,
KING OF GEORGIAIn th i s manner
,Wi thout reckoning (9853-1001 )
the loca l nobles who had each decla redthe independence of his d istrict, Armenia wa s split Up among seven kings
,
a lmost a ll at wa r with one another or with the ir va ssa ls . The north of the
VIEW OF THE RAMPARTS AND CHIEF GATE OF THE CITY OF ANI( from a photograph by K. J . Ba smadjian )
country wa s unde r the influence and nomina l authori ty of Constantinople,
wh ile the southern kingdoms pa id tribute to the Moslems .
In any ca se , the more unruly of the ambitious princes having ach ievedthe sati sfaction they had longed for
,the re ign ofAshot I I I “the Charitable
was fa irly peaceful and prosperous . He defea ted and slew the Sara cenHamdoun who had revolted aga inst the Ca l iph and invaded Armenia .
Thi s service ingratiated him wi th Mokti-Billah (945 Othe rwi se,he
- 166
The defense and embe ll i shment of Ani were the king’s chief concern.
He bui lt the double wa ll flanked by round towers protecting the city on
the north, a work tha t took e ight yea rs . Semba t d ied just a fter he had
la id the foundations of the magnificent Ani ca thedra l Th is superb
structure, though partly in ruins today, is sti l l majestic in the purity of
its l ines and the chasteness of its ca rvings . He did not long survive his
niece whom he had da red to ma rry contra ry to the cu stoms and laws of
the Church . As we know, Gregorian Christianity forbade the marriage
of nea r re lat ives . He was born at a time when the customs of the Maz
deans sti l l left many vestiges,and usage had authorized incestuous mar
riages among the Pers ians . The king transgressed the precepts of his
re l igion,and his h istorians blame him severely
,but we may remember
that the Ca thol ic church la ter tolerated such marriages,and the act does
not wa rrant ca sting a sta in on his memory.
In the kingdom of Kars,Mouschegh d ied (984) leaving the crown to
his son Aba s (984 Though lazy and frivolous h ithe rto, he showedhimse lf qui te d iffe rent once on the throne. He wa s a patron of l i terature
and a rt,and drew to his capita l the most eminent schola rs, making a sma ll
Athens of his capita l .
The kingdom of Va spurakan, under Ashot-Saha k (968 had had
a less peaceful time . Abouthelb,ch ief of Goghten, a land on the right
bank of the Araxe s,north of Lake Urumiah , had treacherous ly mas
sacred some of th is Armenian ruler’s troops and war had ensued . The
brother of the king,Gourgen
-Ka tchik (990 brought about the
downfa l l of th i s Sta te .
At Semba t II’s dea th,his brother Gaghik I (989
GAGHIK I 1020) rece ived the crown. During his re ign the dynasty989-1 020 of the Bagra tid s of Ani reached its zeni th of power. The
cathed ra l wa s fini shed,and the l i ttle kingdom was covered
with churches,chapels, monasteries, and schools. Commerce made strides
h i therto unknown. Nakhitchevan,Ani
,Ardzen
,Bitlis (Baguech ) , and
many other cities became important ma rts where the products of Pers ia,
Arabia , Ind ia , and even Ch ina,were exchanged for those of the West.
Despite his lack of pol i tica l power due to the sma l l s ize of his kingdom
,Gaghik ava i led himself of th is era of peace to turn h is subjects
active ly in the d irection of trade,and Armenia became the intermed ia ry
between the Orient and the Med ite rranean countries . His endeavors wereri chly rewarded
,for the traffic between the provinces of the Empire and
168
the Arab possessions meant huge commi ssions for the Armenianmidd leman.
Between the Moslem Ea st and the Christian West ever at wa r,
d irect business dea l ings were imposs ible ; midd lemen were necessa ry, and
by rea son of the ir geographica l posi tion two nations only could assume
th is role,namely
, the Georgians command ing the route from the Ca spianto the Black Sea , and the Armenians
,l iving on the plateau above I ran
and Mesopotamia . The Ka rtvelians,however
,were ind ifferent and heed
le ss, unconcerned for the morrow,and wa sting the ir energies on the ir
princes ’ qua rre ls or in fighting the ir mounta in ne ighbors . They had nonewha tever of the qua l i ties needed to fit them for a cting in any economiccapa ci ty between the two grea t centers of world production. The Ar
menians a lone had the capacity to fulfi l l th i s miss ion. They thus broughtwea lth and p rosperi ty to their country.
VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ANI
( from a photograph by K. J. Ba smadjian)
The chronicler, Aristaces of La stivert, who l ived at the time of the
splendor and the downfa l l of the Bagratid capita l, ha s left us a word
picture of the sma l l kingdom of Ani before the a rriva l of the Sel juks.
These pages a re charmingly poetica l and naive, with their truly oriental
flavor
Th i s country offered the trave ler the picture of a rad iant and happy
ga rden,ferti le and verdant, wi th abound ing foliage
,and laden with fruit.
‘
In the ir se igniora l ha lls with joyful mien sa t the princes ; clad in
bright colors,they pa rtook of the sp ringtime flora l pa ttern a round them.
Cheerful word s and glad songs a lone were to be hea rd,wh i le the sound
of flutes,cymba ls
,and other instruments ca ressed the soul a s with happy
tid ings ; the e lde rs sa t in the public squa res , the ir hoa ry heads the ir crown
of honor, wh i le the mothers tenderly held the ir ch i ld ren in the ir a rms
a s doves sheltering the ir l ittle ones . And how can one depict the lovinglooks and tender pa ss ion of the newly wed absorbed in blissful contentment ! But let us ra ise our subj ect of d i scourse
,and speak of the patria r
cha l throne and the splendor of the roya l presence . L ike unto a cloudladen wi th the grace s of the Spiri t
,the Pontiff caused the dew of l i fe to
fa l l in showers and wa ter the ga rden of the Church,whose wa l ls were
wa tchful ly gua rded by those his ministers consecrated by himself. As
for the King, when he proceeded in the morning from the City,he was a s
the b ridegroom i ssuing from the nuptia l chamber,and a s the orb of day
"in its a scent d raws the eye of every crea ture be low
,so he
,rad iant
in his sh ining vestments and pea rl-laden crown,constra ined all to be
ho ld him and ma rve l ; his wh i te steed in golden ha rness resplendent in the“sunshine dazzled a ll eyes , wh i le the mul titude of sold iers ma rching beforeh im in compact a rray we re l ike waves of the sea following one anotherin success ion.
”( 1 )
In spite of the wea lth of the Ara ra t country a t tha t time, the B agra
tid rulers do not seem to have ever coined any money, for no na tive coin
ha s yet been found. Having to paytribute to the Cal iphs, the Armenian
kings were certa inly cons idered a s
subject to the Arabs and therefore
not entitled to issue the ir own spe
: ie . Further north,in the terri
tories wh ich the Greeks looked uponas belonging to the Empire
,there
wa s grea ter tolerance,and so we
have specimens of co ins struck by COIN OF BAGRAT IVKING OF GEORGIA
the Georgi ans . David Curopa lates ( 1026-1072 )
(983-1001 ) in the Taik terri tory,
( 1 ) Transl . A. TCHOBANIAN.
Gaghik deemed i t wise not to
medd le with the stri fe going on in
Europe,and bes ides i t would have
been d ifli cult to send tr0 0ps into the
West,when the kingdoms adj acent to
Armenia were tea ring one anothera sunder.
COIN OF KING GORIGEDavid whom the Emperor had
OF ALBANIA pla ced over the land of Ta l k took ad
( 1046-1082) vantage of the death of Pad,emi r of
the Abahunians, to drive out the Mos
lems from tha t territory,and had se ized Manazkert. The vanquished enemy
ca l led on Mamloun, the emir of Azerbaidjan, for help , and he wi th auxi
liaries he summoned from Persia won back the d istricts taken from the
Mos lems. Whereupon David obta ined the a ss i stance of Gorigé I, kingof Georgia , and Gaghik, king of Kars
,and thus recovered the d istricts
north-east of Lake V an.
Despite his advanced yea rs, David wa s prevented from enjoying hisrenown by rea son of surround ing j ea lousy . At the instiga tion of th
nobles of the land of Ta lk,the Georgian a rchbishop Hi larion smothered
him,a fter trying
,i t is sa id
,to kill him by putting poi son in the holy
elements rese rved for the Eucha rist
About the yea r 1003 , the king of Va spurakan, Gourgen-Khatchik,d ied and his brother John-Senacherim (990-1006) seized the throne overthe heads of the decea sed king’s chi ldren. Gaghik I, his suzera in
,who
did not dare to Oppose th i s injustice,d ied nea rly twenty years later.
Johannes-Sembat,or Semba t I I I ( 1020 the
SEMBAT III eldest son of Gaghik, a scended the throne of Ani,but
1 020-1042 his corpulency unfitted him for fighting and he had noneof the qua l ities a king needed in Armenia ’s sorry cir
cumstances. Temperamenta lly heed less and indolent, he fa i led to cla im
the title of Shananshah (or King of kings ) borne by his fa ther, with the
consequence that the va rious rulers of Armenia freed themse lves fromthe ir feuda l ties with the overlordsh ip of Ani. His younger brother, Ashot,was enterpri sing and warl ike
,and in view of the ind ifference shown by the
new king just crowned by Gorigé, king of Georgia , he cla imed the thronefor h imself and took to a rms . Senacherim,
king of Va spurakan, gave him
( 1 ) Fr. TOURNEBISE, 0p . cit. according to Matthew of Edessa , I, 22 24The words on th is prince
’s coins are written in Georgian and not in Armeni an
172
a rmed a ss istance and the two a ll ies came to the wa l ls of Ani to give ba ttle .
Johannes negotiated through the Ca thol icos Peter, and Ashot appea red togive way and be sa tisfied with the title of viceroy for the whole kingdom,
on cond i tion he wa s a ssured of a scend ing the throne at Sembat III’s death.
Th i s agreement wa s on the surface only,for Ashot sti l l sought to
re ign. Taking advantage of his brother’s weak chara cter, and be ing now
at the roya l court,he formed a powerful pa rty by means of violence and
treachery. In the meantime, Gorigé, the king of Georgia captured the
king and held him pri soner,and Ashot wa s on the point of ava i l ing him
se lf of the opportunity to usurp the crown. Semba t I I I ransomed him
sel f,however
,by giving up three fortresses to the Georgians, and Ashot,
seeing his plan fo i led,tried to lure the king into his hand s by a ruse
,in
order th a t the conspira tors might s lay him. Prince Apira t, one of the
la tter,a cting from his own motives ra ther than out of repugnance for the
crime, revea led the plot to the king. Ashot in fea r of his l i fe fled to the
Emperor Ba s i l I I,from whom
,on the strength of promises we do not know,
he obta ined help . He went back to Armenia in command of Greek troop sand compel led his brother to surrender to him the territories borderingon Georgia and Pers ia . Of these he made his new kingdom
,but i t meant
a fresh pa rce l ing out of Armenia and a cons iderable reduction in the s izeof the king of Ani ’s rea lm wh ich now cons isted only of the terri tories of
E rivan and Ara ra t.
During th is internecine wa rfa reARRIVAL OF THE TURKS among the Armenians, a terrible storm
IN ARMENIA wa s da rkening the ea stern horizon.
B a rba rous tribes of crue l and fea rlesscha racter had emerged from the Oxus pla ins and invaded Khora san and
the north of the Iranian tableland,driving before them the Pers ians and
Kurd s and the Arab emirs . None could stand before these swift horsemen and unequa l led bowmen
,who attacked and retreated with l ike ra
pidity. The Se ljuk Turks were invad ing Western As ia and spread inglike some overflowing torrent. The Armenian h i storians ca l led thesenomad s Scyth ians or Scythian Ta rta rs
,remembering the hordes that
fifteen centuries before had l ikewi se overrun Asia from those end less pla insbeyond the Cauca sus and the Ca spian and the B actrian mounta ins .
The Turks had developed into a nation at the foot of the Altai moun
173
ta ins,on the steppes sti l l inhabited by the Turcomans, where Jaga tai , the
early Ta rta r language, was spoken. Though s ince converted to Is lam,
at that time the Turks were ne ither cc—re l igionists nor a l l ies of the Arabs .
On the contra ry, they ca st greedy eye s both on the rich provinces of the
Ca l iph and those of the Emperor. They were insatiable robbers and un
brid led in the ir th irst for blood . Arab cruelties were noth ing compa red to
those the Turks were to commit.
Even more than Johanne s ’ kingdom,V a spurakan wa s then in need of
a brave and ski lful ch ief to repe l the a ttacks of the robber hordes issuing
from the ea stern pla ins . The Turks had a lready appeared on the Ar
menian borders,a fter making themse lves ma sters of an empire able to
mea sure itse lf aga inst the power of the Ca l iphs,but the se men of the
north were not a ttracted by the countries of the south . They went for-P
wa rd from ea st to west a long the mounta in regions where they foundrich pa sturage for the ir herd s. It wa s more than a war
,i t wa s tota l in
va sion,for the entire tribes fol lowed in the wake of their horsemen
,car
rying with them a ll the ir possess ions,their wives and ch i ldren and old
people, a long wi th the ir booty from the lands they had sacked, ever seek
ing a new settl ing ground but unable to reach a new homeland becaused rawn ever forwa rd by the d es ire to possess wha t others owned . The on
wa rd wave stopped only in front of Constantinople,stemmed for a time
by the might of the Empire .
The first encounters of the newcomers and the Armenians we re sev
ere and took pla ce on the borders of V a spurakan. Shapuh, Senacherim’
s
genera l,at first put the invaders to fl ight. Thi s wa s
,however
,only a
brush with the advance—gua rd of the Ta rta r tribes . The bulk of the ir
army wa s s lowly approach ing and the king,fea rful of having to mee t
such enemies and awa re of his he lp lessness,gave up his kingdom to Em
peror Ba s i l I I , keeping only the mona sterie s with the ir d ependent vi llages.
In exchange,the Ba si leus gave him the city of Seba ste ( Sivas ) in Cappa
docia with its terri tory a s far a s the Euphrates . SenaARMENIAN cherim abandoned to the Greeks a principa l i ty conta inPRINCIPAL ing ten cities, twenty-two ca stles, and four thousand vilITY OF lages
,and in 1021 depa rted to take pos se ss ion of his new
S IVAS doma in taking with him his fami ly and four hundredthousand of his subj ects
,about a th ird of the population
of his former rea lm. The rema inder of his people,a fter a short interva l
— 174
Senacherim had let into the hea rt of the country,lost no opportunity to
compe l the obed ience of the unfortuna te inhabitants. Disembarking at
Trebizond, Ba si l I I subdued Abkha sia which hadrebe lled aga inst him
,and secured the province of
Ta iq wh ich David Curopa lates had promi sed him.
Then pretend ing to be lieve tha t Johannes had takenpa rt in the revolt of the king of Abkha sia
,he threat
ened the tiny kingdom of Ani. Caught betweenTogruhl bey, the terrible Seljuk chief, and the Ba s ileus
,Johannes sent the Pa triarch Peter ( 1023 ) to
COIN OF EMPEROR Ba s i l I I to beg for his p rotection. Feel ing lost,he
preferred to surrender to the Chri stians ra ther thansubmi t to the ha teful yoke of the Turks
,and he
offered to give up to the Greeks a fter his death the province of Schirak wi th
his capita l, Ani i tself. Th i s promise, a lthough in wri ting, rema ined a dead
letter so long a s Constantine XI ( 1025 B a s i l II’ s brother,and Mi
chae l IV the Paph lagonian ( 1034—1041 ) reigned a t Constantinople . Itwa s kept, however, in the arch ives of the Holy Pa lace giving the Greeks
an opportuni ty of wh ich they ava i led themse lves when the time came , to
extend their rule over a ll the regions a s fa r a s the Araxes and beyond .
Moreover the l i ttle kingdom of Ka rs,where Gaghik ( 1029 the son
of Aba s, then re igned,wa s l i kewi se coveted by the Byzantines .
Johannes-Sembat I I I and his brother Ashot d ied al
GAGHIK II most a t the same time,and Ashot
’
s son,Gaghik I I, thus
1 042-1 045 inherited both crowns . Emperor M ichae l Ca laphates
thereupon cla imed the rights confe rred on him by Johannes
’ letter to Ba s i l II , and demanded Schirak and the city of Ani.
The Regency counci l refused to admi t a surrender that had been obta inedonly through fea r
,and the Emperor sent into Schirak an army supported
by Vest-Sarkis,the ch ief of the Siunians, who hoped to obta in from the
Greeks the city of Ani for himself in the place of Gaghik .
The a l l ies were laying s iege to the capita l when the aged VahramBahlavuni defea ted and s laughtered them. Then
,ma ster of the s i tuation.
V ahram took advantage of the d issensions reigning at Constantinople, to
have Gaghik I I crowned in Ani by the pa triarch Peter. Th is prince wa sthen in his s ixteenth year
,but in va lor he wa s a worthy king and would
undoubted ly have prolonged Armenia ’s independence had he not beenthwa rted by treachery .
176
The“
d anger which seemed averted on the Greek s ide loomed ever
g reater on that of the Seljuks . The Turanians were camped on the
north of the Araxes on the river Hra stan,the Zenghi
-tchai of the Turks,which flows from the Gheuk-tchai into the Araxes.
G aghik came out of Ani at the head of his a rmy and
lured the enemy into a trap where he defeated them.
The Mos lems cross ing over the Araxes fled to the
south-west of Lake Urumiah,towa rd s the Kurd istan
o f Moukri ; then a fter resting they aga in took the of
fens ive and invaded V a spurakan, pa ss ing through the COIN OFmounta ins of the Kurd s who certa inly made common C
211}
cause with them aga inst the Chri stians . There a leader MONOMACHUS
named Khatchik the L ion with only a handful of men held the enemy in
check. The brave sold ier fe ll in the struggle,but his sons a rrived w ith a
few thousand men and put the Turks to fl ight in the d i stricts of Khoi andS a lma s .
Ha rd ly had Gaghik I I repelled the Mos lems than the Greeks aga inthreatened him. Constantine Monomachus ( 1042-105 5 ) who had justa scended the throne through his ma rriage with 2 0 6
,cla imed Schirak and
Ani on the grounds of Johannes ’ promi se . The king refused to l isten to
the Greek cla ims,and when they invaded Schirak
,they were defeated
under the very wa lls of the capi ta l .Unable to conquer the kingdom of Ani by a rms
,the B a s i leus had
recourse to trea chery . Byzantine gold subverted a good number of Armenian nobles who gradua lly got the king to be l ieve tha t it wa s to hisadvantage to a ccept the Emperor’s offers and to go and confer with him at
Constantinople about terms of peace .
Splend id ly rece ived at first a t the Imperia l court,EXILE OF Gaghik soon found h imself summoned by the EmperorGAGHIK I I to re l inquish the throne and surrender to the Greeks
Schirak and Ani. He refused,and wa s then threatened
with captivity and exi le, but to no ava i l . Then Constantine showed him
a letter in wh ich the Armenian nobles affirmed their a llegiance to the
Empire and offered to del iver to the Emperor the keys of Ani. Betrayedby his own nobles
,forsaken by a ll
,and a lone in a fore ign city
,Gaghik
gave up his kingdom ( 104-5 ) and rece ived in exchange the theme of Lycandus, with the towns of Bizou and Golombeghad , nea r Ca esa rea , on
the border of Cappadocia . He wa s a lso given a pa lace on the Bosphorusand a pens ion from the Imperia l trea sury.
177
The hatred of the Orthodox Greeks for the Gregorians wa s not
a ssuaged by the annexation of Armenia to the Empire , and the Greeks,to convert the Armenians to the ir creed
,used the same severi ty a s the
Arabs and Turks . As a Roman province, Armenia wa s actua lly en
slaved by the ofli cia ls sent from the Imperia l capita l . Heavy taxes loaded
down the people, and the extorted gold wa s used e ither to pay off the
Ba rba rians or to bui ld churches on the Bosphorus . Byzantium made i t
its business to get rid by stee l or poison of the Armenian nobles who had
so much influence wi th the people , and no noble wa s sure of l iving ti l l the
morrow .
An inscri ption carved at Ani a few yea rs a fter the Byzantines se ized
the city, the text of wh ich wa s taken down by B rosset, shows its neglectedcond ition a t tha t time. It read s : “
In the name of Almighty God and by“the mercy of the holy Emperor
,our Autocra t Constantine Duca s : I ,
Bagra t Magistros, Katapan [governor genera l ] of the East,Vkatzi,
decided to confe r benefits on th is metropo l is of Ani. The re were ap
pointed : a s Tanouter [Admini stra tor] Mekhita r Hypa tos, son of Court ;a s Spathara-cand idate [Equerry ] Grigor
,son of Lapatac ; a lso a s Spa
tha ra-cand idate,Sarki s
,son of Artabazus . They canceled the taxe s
ca l led vetscevor,sai l l i
,camen
,and angarion. ( 1 ) The Katapan, who
ever he may be, sha l l give six hundred bushels of seed,and the Tanouters
sha l l defray from the ir officia l purse the cost of the other gifts . As a ll
supplie s have much d ifliculty in reach ing Ani,the wine-merchants of the
city sha l l be exempted from paying tol l,whether they use ca r-ts or
beasts of burden. Every inhabitant buying an anima l for s laughter isexempted from paying tol l . Every porter of the city is exempt for one
“ha lf of the cotton Wherea s the Q apoudji [overseer of the city ga tes ]received six gold tahegans and three tram
,th is is to be reduced by two
etc.
”
His fel low-countrymen’s groans reached Gaghik even in ex i le
, and
the scornful treatment meted by the Greeks to his former subj ects causedhim d i stress . He h imself had often to bear the insolence of his presentma sters, and incensed a t so much misfortune
,the prince vowed to avenge
his nation’
s honor. Even in Cappadocia the Greeks lost no opportuni tyto expre ss their contempt for those Ea stern Chri stians who did not believe in God a ccord ing to the ir own ri tua l . The Metropol itan of Caesa rea ,
( l ) V e tscevor : one s ixth tax. Safl l i : mach ine for treading th e corn ( tribulumin La tin) ; Camen : tax on wa gons . Angariou wa s the tribute of enforced la bor, or
corvée .
178
The Greeks ruled in western Armenia and shared northern Armeniawi th the Georgians, whi lst the Seljuks held the ea stern pa rt .of Transcaucas ia
,and Arab princes occupied the southern provinces. Th is sta te
COIN OF THE ORTOKID SULTANS OF MARDIN in genere
(Nedjm-cd Din Blpi. 1 152-1 176)
of things d id not la st long, however, for the Greeks,blind to the mi l itary
he lp they might have had from the Armenians,were unable to ma inta in
in the Ara ra t region any a rmy tha t could stand up aga inst the new in
vaders. Both Byzantines and Cauca s ians were eventua l ly driven out by
Alp-Ars lan and his son Me l i k—Shah ( 1072 whose dominions soon
extended from the Indus to the Ca spian Sea and the Bosphorus . From
atop the Byzantine towers could then be spied the terrib le horsemen of
the steppes rid ing on the Bithynian shore . Emir Sokman,son of Ortok
,
and his brother Il-Ghazi (the Victorious ) founded each an Ortokid dy
na sty,one at Amidus and the other a t Ma rd in, and Sokman took the title
of Shah-Armen,
“king of Armenia .
”( 1 )
Nevertheless the Turki sh conquest of Armenia met with some re
s istance on the pa rt of the inhabitants, and the Greeks a lso had sti l l afew legions on the Araxes and on the p lateau of Erzerum. From 1048
to 1054 Togruhl bey severa l times sent out his hordes over the easternprovinces of the Empire . His cous in Kutulmisch and his nephew Hassanwere defeated
,but his brother Ibrah im la id wa ste the terri tory of V a spura
kan,and then proceed ing north captured Ardzen
,near E rzerum
,a ci ty
wh ich then had e ight hundred churches and enormous wea lth. The Turks
( 1 ) Accord ing to Mira at-eI-ibe r, Emir Ortok hen Eq suq wa s a a coman fromthe city of Schehriman in Transoxiana , and came from there in the year 455 of theHegira to enter the army of the Se ljuk rul er Alp-Asl an. His sons founded the dyna stie s call ed the Ortokids.
180
burned the city a fter sacking it, and took off of the inhabitants of
the d istrict into s lavery.
Continuing northward,Ibrah im a ttacked near Ardzen the Greek
a rmy of s ixty thousand men, who had just seen centra l Armenia pillaged .
The Bulga rian commander of V a spurakan named Aa ron, Prince Liba rid
of Georgia,and Cramen, the Greek governor of Ani
, were in command
of th is force, and they fought the enemy and made him withdraw. Liba rid ,
however,fell into the hands of the Mos lems . The Turks were stopped
but not defea ted , for on withdrawing from the Imperia l a rmy, they seized,sacked
,and destroyed Ka rs . Th e ruler of tha t city
,Gaghik
-Aba s
or Koriké ( 1046 avoided capture only by taking refuge in the
famous citadel of Kars,bui lt on an inaccess ible rock.
The inroad s of the Turks were uncea s ing. In 1054,Togruhl h imsel f
entered the d istricts of V an and la id them wa ste . Gaghik-Aba s who went
out aga inst him was defeated and obliged to fl ee ins ide V an, and the Turki sh ch ief then proceeded to bes iege Manazkert, a city near the junctionof the Tuzlu-tchai and the Araxes . The town wa s defended by Ba si l,the son of the Armenian Aboukhab
,who wa s governing it for the Empire.
Togruhl fa i led owing to the ga rri son’s heroic res istance . To avenge hisset-back, he plundered the town of Ardzke on the north of Lake V an.
Circumstances,moreover
,favored the Seljuks. The death of Con
stantine Monomachus,and the struggle between Emperor M ichael VI
and his riva l I sa ac Comnenus,were then d istracting the Byzantine court,
and Armenia in fragments,defea ted and rulerless
,could offer the Turks
but s l ight res i stance . Togruhl accord ingly deva stated we ste rn Armeniaand Me l i tene . La ck of supplies for his a rmy compelled him
,however
,to
withdraw,and the Armenians a ttacked him in the mounta in gorges and
caused him serious losses . Neverthe less the fol lowing summer the Turki shch ief took the city of S iva s ( Seba ste ) . (July, The la tter citywa s sacked , its churches left in ruins
,and the ma jori ty of the citizens put
to the sword . The survivors were ca rried off into s lavery,and the Moslem
army left the banks of the river Ha lys (Kizil-Irmak) with an enormous
tra in of spoi l, of ca rts laden wi th gold and s i lver and rich fabrics,for
Siva s wa s then a ve ry important trad ing center. Every yea r these insa tiable robbers repea ted the ir inva s ions of Armenia
,slaughtering mer
cilessly the inhabitants and sowing d esolation in these formerly richva l leys .
Togruhl bey d ied in 1063,and his nephew Alp-Ars lan (the b rave
L ion) , who wa s even more fierce and bloody than his uncle succeeded to
- 18 1
the command of the Turki sh tribes . He had no sooner taken over than
he swooped down on Armenia,subdued the Aghouans and ca rried deso
lation throughout the land s of the Lesser Cauca su s, laying their towns
in ruins . Ani a lone shut i tse lf with in its gates and resi sted with the cour
age of despa ir. Baga rat the Armenian,who bore the title of Duke
,held
the city for the Byzantines, and just when Alp-Ars lan had become wea ry of
frui tle ss attempts to storm i t and wa s about to withdraw, thi s governor,a fra id lest he should have sti l l b igger a tta cks to meet,
CAPTURE OF took she lter in the citade l s ituated a s we have seen
ANI BY THE south of the town. Forsaken by the Greek troops ,SELJ UK the inhabitants were a lready flee ing a long the va l ley
1 064 of the Arpa -tcha i when the Turks sca led the now de
fenseless rampa rts and ga ined an entry (6 June,Nameless ma ssacres and deva station ensued
,and blood flowed l ike a river
in the streets and squa re s . Thousand s and thousand s of people were
put to the sword and those who took refuge ins ide the churches perishedin the burning ed ifices . Any Armenians who appea red to be wea lthywe re tortured and forced to d i sclose the ir trea sures .
The Armenian chronicler of the 1 1th century,Aristace s of Lastivert,
wrote : “Our cities were deva sta ted
,our house s and p a lace s burned
,our
“roya l ha lls reduced to a shes . Men were cut to pieces in the streets and
women snatched from the homes. Infants were crushed on the pavements and the face s of the young d isfigured ; ma idens we re ravishedin the squares and youths killed in the presence of the aged ; the hoa ryhead s of the old men we re steeped in blood and their bod ies rol led inthe dust
The looting and ki lling of the ci tizens continued for severa l days,unti l Alp-Ars lan withdrew leaving noth ing but ru ins . Duke Baga ra t andthe Greek sold iers had fled under cover of a storm and the Se ljuk leaderreplaced them ins ide the citade l by a Moslem governor and garri son.
Blood-sta ined and glutted with trea sures,Alp
-Ars lan proceeded from the
ravaged city to Nakhitchevan,taking with him an enormous quanti ty of
booty and a multi tude of s laves . Among the riches stolen from the Bagra tid capita l wa s the grea t s i lver cross tha t had crowned the Ca thedra ldome ; th i s the Turk purposed to lay on the threshold of his mosque inNakhitchevan so tha t the true bel ievers should have the sa tisfaction of
trampling on the Christian emblem every time they entered their holypla ce to pra i se the glory and might of Allah . Ani never a rose from its
ruins . Occupied in turn by the Se ljuks ( 1064 the Kurd ish emirs
182
tchai cliffs a mosque, the ruins of whi ch a re sti l l to be seen. It was a
bui ld ing showing strong Byzantine influence upheld by low squat columnsand with semi-circula r arches ; the ed ifice wa s undoubted ly copied partlv
from the Chri stian bui ld ings at Ani,pa rticularly the Khoscha-Vank. At
the top of the polygona l minaret can be clearly seen,bui lt of bricks in the
stone,a Kufic inscription invoking Al lah .
Freedom for Grea ter Armenia wa s at an end ; some of her noblesturned to the Greeks despite the ir repugnance for the tyranny and treachery of the Byzantine court
,others accepted the Se ljuk some
embra ced Is lam, but the majori ty of the people did not abandon the landof the ir forefa thers and preserved its trad itions and fa ith
,preferring
s lavery to shame. In the we st, a new Armenia wa s about to rise,and a ll
hope wa s not lost for the Haikian na tion.
Grea ter Armenia wa s over fifteen hundred
ROLE OF yea rs old when she sank into pol itica l oblivion.
THE ARMENIAN As we have seen,she never once cea sed her
NOBLES struggle for independence,but her very geographi
ca l pos ition between two great empires destinedher to fa ll . From the time of Alexander’s conquests and Rome
’
s appea rance in Asia
,wi th the constant threats of the Pa rth ians, the Sassanid s,
and the Arab s on the one s ide and the legions of Ita ly and Byzantium on
the other,she had no chance aga inst formidable enemies.
Her people, neverthe less
,were endowed with energy and warlike
qua l ities ; her nobles and kings a lso showed exemplary bravery,but by
the very fact of the ir origin and of the influence of ne ighboring States,th is
a ri stocracy lacked the necessa ry communi ty of though to cope with suchdangers .
When the ch i ld ren of Ha l k conquered the land of Ara ra t,they were
a ll primitive peoples led by their triba l ch iefta ins or heads of clans, bythe ir-Armeno-Phrygian or Brigian nobi lity . In the process of a ss imi la ting
the inhabitants of Nai ri and Urartu whom they conquered , however,they had to respect the trad i tions of these latter, whose leaders, havingformerly fought the Assyrians, were ma inta ined a s nobles in the new
community . A compa rison of Armenian fami ly names wi th those of the
Ura rtaean language shows the origin of many of the rul ing houses of
Armenia . W e can be sure tha t the two ari stocra cies were not one in sentiment
,and that the Armenian stock cons idered themselves superior, whi le
the Nai ri element regretted the time when they were independent.
— 1s4
These ba s ic d ivergencies were supplemented by add i tiona l e lements
that settled in Armenia during the success ive ru les of the Achaemenians,the Greeks, the Pa rth ians, the Sa ssanid s, the Romans, the Byzantines,the Arabs, and the Turks . Consequently the nobi l ity of the country be
came extremely mixed,the ir interests and trends were varied and often
opposed,from a ll of which causes there a rose riva lries
,hatreds, and much
chafing under the king’s authori ty,wi th resulting extreme weakness for
whole na tion.
Even in the days of Darius we see an Armenian betraying his coun
try, and pla ced by the Pers ian king in command of an a rmy ordered to
subdue Armenia . Throughout subsequent h istory the nobles continued
to put forwa rd selfish cla ims,the ir confl icting racia l origin showing itself
in warring tendencies and interests .
No doubt they were va l iant,brave even to excess, l ike the ir neighbors,
the Georgian nobles,but most often they subord inated the interests of
the State to their persona l ambitions and grudges. The existence of
s even sma l l Armenian kingdoms at the time of the Turkish inva s ion isthe best proof of this. Covered wi th mounta ins d ifficu lt of access and di
vided by na ture into very many regions,Armenia in i tself was ill-suited
for pol i tica l uni ty.
The very same causes have Opera ted to preserve to our own day the
numerous peoples of the Grea ter Cauca sus and their mutua l independence,l ikewi se the sepa rate tribes of the Kurd s who sti ll have each the ir chief
ta in and a re genera l ly hosti le to one another despite their common language and origin. W e need not therefore be surpri sed a t the immemoria lstri fe in the land of Ararat
,wh ich continued a fter the convers ion to
Christiani ty, a lthough their re ligion wa s indeed one uni fying link amongthe d ifferent sections of the Armenian people .
Armenia needed a Louis XI or a Riche lieu to quel l the stri fe among
the nobles and endow roya l authori ty wi th the power the nation needed
in its grave d ifliculties throughout the centuries ; but such great men i td id not have. Some of the rulers were able
,i t is true
,to tame their feuda
tories ’ tempers,but the ir authority wa s only fleeting and persona l ; these
provincia l ch iefta ins were not subdued , and,a s we have seen
,Pers ians,
Greeks,and Moslems, a ll took ad roi t advantage of the ir quarre ls . By
zantium made a grave mi stake in ma inta ining enmi ty to the Armenians,and her secta rian pol icy resulted both in Armenia ’s downfa l l and in the
Greeks’ own fina l defea t in the Ea st. Rome never sought to humi l ia teArmenia ; on the contra ry . Instead of a subject people on the southern
S IOpes of the Cauca sus, Byzantium needed an a ll ied kingdom extend ingfrom the Tigris to the Black Sea and from the Euphra tes to the Ca spian
Sea,able wi th its ten mi ll ion inhabitants to put many legions of fighting
men into battle,sold iers sworn to drive back the enemies of Christiani ty.
Armenia had such resources a t Byzantium’s d isposa l .
An Armenian Sta te so conce ived would have meant sa lva tion for
the Empire,but a t Constantinople, wa sted with wranglings over dogma
and riven with constant pa lace revolutions,Roman sta te smansh ip wa s
entirely lost s ight of,and instead of strengthening the kings of Ani
,the
Byzantines d id noth ing but sow d issens ion in order to get pos sess ion of
territories they were never able to hold .
Be ing more sheltered from the Mos lem incurs ions than the ir kinsmen on the Araxes , the Bagratid s of Georgia kept the ir throne for six
centuries a fter the fa l l of Ani. These more fortuna te p rinces had the
great Cauca s ian mounta in stronghold to repa ir to a s a la st resort whenever they were too hard pressed .
TOMBSTONE OF HAIRAPET,
BISHOP OF SIUNIQ
over, were more or less re lated to the Bagratid fami ly. One of them was
named Rupen, and be longed , some sa id,to the ancient princely house
of the Artzrunis who from time immemorial h ad figu red largely in the
court of Grea ter Armenia . Others cla imed that he wa s a scion of the
roya l Bagratid l ine i tself.
Wri ters are not agreed a s to Rupen’
s a ctua l connection wi th the royalfami ly
,but in any case, whether or not his sovere ign
’
s kinsman,th is noble
man exercised considerable authority over his fe l low-countrymen exi ledin the country of Zamantia
,for immed iately upon the murder of the la st
of the Bagratid kings, he ra l l ied tha t monarch ’s former subj ects and
ra i sed the standa rd of revolt aga inst the Byzantines.
For centuries the double-dea l ing,despoti sm
,and Oppress ion of the
Greeks had a roused profound hatred for them among the Armenians.Their mutua l avers ion wa s increa sed by the d ifferences between them of
language,customs
,trad ition
,and e specia l ly rel igious bel ief. Neverthe
less,s ince the Ani kingdom’
s downfa ll,there were two parties in the Ar
meulan na tion : one wh ich out of sheer d i scouragement decided to yieldto the Greeks
,and the other wh ich ma inta ined the spiri t of the nation
and,unable to forget the treachery wh ich led to the Bagratid kingdom
becoming an Imperia l province,cheri shed the hope of avenging the in
famous murder of their la st king. Th is latter pa rty resolved to wi thstandthe incl ina tion to accept s lavery
,and to ach ieve the ir nationa l indepen
d ence by force of a rms. B es ides wh ich, the Byzantine Empire wa s decrepit and engrossed with rel igious quarrels and with a number of fac
tions . It wa s beset on every frontier with imminent danger,and could
offer only s l i ght oppos ition to any provinces in revol t aga inst the tyrannyof the dukes
,counts
, and crowd of ofli cia ls who had gone out from Byzantium to fa tten themselves on the d istricts for the privi lege of governingwh ich they had pa id the Imperia l trea sury . There wa s no longer any
s ecurity in the Empire’s Asia tic provinces and Rupen’s revol t rema ined
unnoticed in its ea rly stages.
Under cover of th is breakdown of Imperia l
RUFEN’S power
,the Armenian prince wa s able to organize his
REVOLT, 1080 rebel l ion,ga ther a round him the sturd iest men of the
nation,and ra l ly the ma lcontents to open war on the
G reek government under his standard . Restoring the kingdom of Ani,
recently fa llen into the hand s Of the Seljuk Turks, wa s out of the question,
188
so Rupen looked in the d irection of Cilicia where a good many Armeniannobles had a lready settled under the protection of the Empire .
After having been conquered by the Arabs,Cilicia wa s aga in with in
the Emperor’s dominions. Nicephorus Phocas in 964, with a la rge army,
had recaptured from the Moslems the ci ties of Anazarbus,Rhossus
,and
Adana,and in a succeed ing campa ign Ta rsus and Mopsuestia . In 966
the Emperor had even extended his conquests a s fa r a s Tripol i,Dama s
cus,and Aleppo. These exped itions
,l ike tha t Of John Zimisces in 973 ,
were veri table crusades . Thei r p retextof seizing the holy places from the in
fidels d id not exclude,on the Emper
ors’ pa rt, a d es ire to get ba ck the rich
Syrian provinces,the loss of wh ich had
been severe ly fe lt by thei r Trea sury .
Southern As ia Minor, however,had suffered grievous ly from Arab oc
cupa tion, and wa s ruined and depopu
la ted . It wa s essentia l to rehabi l i ta tethose d i stricts and organize them so tha t they might offer to any new
attacks by the Ca l iphs a strong ba stion capable of protecting Constant i
nople . Many Armenian nobles,fleeing before the
Turks,left the ir land s on the Araxes and Greater Ar
menian plateau,and took refuge in Greek territory.
Byzantium took advantage of th is volunta ry emigra
tion,and se ized the Opportunity to bui ld up a fter a
fa sh ion her Syrian ma rches by peopling the Euphra tes
banks and the Taurus with these Chri stians whosemi l i ta ry va lue they had often had occa sion to appre
cia te . One of these Armenian nobles, Nakha ra rOsch in,had formerly owned the fortress of Ma riats-Dchourk
( river of the Pines ) , near Gandzak (Elizabethpol ) in
Albania . Leaving his country in 1075 he had cometo Cilicia where his kinsman Abulkha rib A-rtzuni wa s
COIN OF JOHNZIMISCES a lready governing Tarsus and MOpsuestia for Em
perot Alexis Comnenus. The latter nobleman gave
him,a s a hered ita ry fief, the d istrict and town of Lampron (N imrud
Qa l’a ) on the Tarsus-tchai , at the opening of the Cilician Gates of the
Taurus, an exceed ingly important post for protecting Cappadocia . The
COIN OF NICEPHORUS PHOCAS
— 189
Arabs subsequently recaptured Antioch, and Cilicia a ccord ingly aga inbecame an Empire outpost.
The bounda ries of this p rovince of Cilicia a re so wellCILICIA set by na tura l fea tures
,and so d i stinct from the ad jacent
land s,tha t one can ha rd ly imagine any other pol itica l de
ma rcation than tha t shown by a re l ief map of its surfa ce . On th? west
stand li ke an immense wa ll Of circumva l la tion the h igh cha ins of I sauriaand Cilicia-Trachea , a mas si f of mounta ins shaped l ike a va st triangle,the northern foot of which opens on the pla ins of Lycaonia . The ea sternshore of the Gulf of Sa ta l ia forms another s ide
,wh i le the th ird is the
weste rn shore of the Gu lf of Pompeiopolis . At the apex of th is triangle
CASTLE OF LAMPRON (CILICIA)
Cape Anamur, Anemurium promontorium,the southernmost point of
As ia M inor Cilicia’s na tura l si tuation made i t not only of grea t
strategic importance , but a lso extremely va luable on account of the trade
routes lead ing to i t.
( 1 ) Ed.DULAURIER,
Recue i l de s Histor iens de s Croisade s. Documents ar
meniens , vol . I, 1869, p . XVIII
190
tinned to be during the M idd le Ages a
very busy port. It wa s the head of two
very important trade routes, one feed ingCappadocia by way of Lampron and the
Cilician G ates, and the other extend ing
via Gamban and Seba ste in Cappadocia
to the upper Euphrates and Greate r Armenia . Moreover th is coa st abounded
in ports and anchorages . Megarsus, Al a
ya , Side, etc.,were sa fe havens for sh ips,
and these land ing pla ces, l ike Aia s, addedgreatly to Cilicia
’s trad ing faci l ities wi th PLAN OF MEGARSUS
the Syrian coast and the western countries of the Med i terranean.
It wa s therefore the Byzantine pol icy to man a ll the pa ssages lead
ing into Cilicia , and to thi s end the emperors encouraged the formationof sma l l principa l ities in these regions . The newly a rrived noble s receivedthe modest title of Ishkhans, correspond ing to that of baron wh ich wa slater adopted by the Crusaders . In the Taurus and Amanus mounta insa s a lso in the pla ins separa ting those ramparts
, the Ishkhans were a lreadyfa irly numerous when Rupen sta rted his revolt.
W e a re unaware of the exact loca tionin Cappadocia of the country of Zamantia
,
the doma in of Gaghik I I, but there is everyrea son to be l ieve tha t it wa s north-ea st ofIconium,
for Cyzistra where th is last of theBagratid kings wa s murdered
,wa s near
Caesa rea . Rupen therefore set out from the
ne ighborhood of that city. He proceededfirst westwa rd to the mounta in massi f of
northern Cilicia,a region that wa s very d if
ficult to reach but from wh ich he could defythe Greek troops. He se ized the fortress ofPartzerpert on a tributary of the upperPyramus (Jahan-tchai ) , about a day’smarch upstream from Sis Thi s last
PLAN OF ALAYA named stronghold was the crad le of the
kingdom of New Armenia .
( 1 )“Th e Ca stl e above”, i .a . on a mounta in summit.
( 2 ) Matthew of EDESSA, chap . CLI . Transl . DULAURIER, Paris, 1858, p. 217.
192
Consequently Rupen did
not imi ta te his fellow-noblesand request the Empire’s protection. He decla red h imsel findependent
,and by so doing
obta ined at once precedenceover the Armenian ba rons of
these mounta ins, despite the
fact that he h imself had not
a cquired right to any title .The
h istorian Hetum wri tes : “Fi
na l ly he d ied in the peace of
the Lord,a fter l iving a pious
l i fe, and wa s buried in the
mona stery of Ca sta lon,leav
ing his son Constantine
( 1095-1099) to succeed him.
”
PLANThe la tter was the first of theRupenian rulers to bea r the title of baron.
I t is easy to imagine the utterly forsaken cond i tion at tha t time of
the love ly province of Cilicia,once so ri ch on account of its ferti le land
and its commercia l a ctivity. La id waste by the
horrors of war,plundered by the Arab s, wi th
most of its people carried into slavery, and aga in
put to fire and sword at the depa rture of its Mos
lem ma sters, the region had become noth ing more
than a wilderness when the Armenian settlers a rrived . The scattered rema ining Greeks
,Syrians, COIN ASCRIBED TO
or Jews were hudd led in the ru ins of the ci ties gnfiglggNjgfiand towns . Only the immed iate outskirts of MINOR
(Nati onal FrenchCi ti es and ca stles were ti lled ; the rest of the coun Col l ection)try wa s abandoned . At the time of the Arab
conquest, a few Greek nobles had taken
refuge in the ina ccess ible he ights of the
Taurus and Amanns cha ins and he ld out
there , wh i lst the pa sturages and forests ha r
bored refugees with their flocks . Rupen’
s
successors met, consequently, wi th but s l ightk f
COIN OF AN UNNAMEDre s i stance from the C ree s
,and the i r e
BARON OF NEW ARMENIA low-Armeni ans,who had not yet been many
yea rs in the country, appea red on the whole
in favor of the forma tion of the sma l l new Sta te .
Constantine I,Rupen
’s son
, ( 1095
CONSTANTINE I and his successor Thoros I ( 1099 ca rry
THOROS I, ing on their predecessor’s plan, were conce rned
BARONS only with extend ing the ir doma in a t the expense
1 095 -1 1 29 of the Byzantines . Men of violent cha ra cter,with few scruple s a s to the ir means for achieving
the ir ends,these nobles managed by degrees to ra l ly under them a ll the
ch iefs of the mounta ins a round Pa rtzerpa rt. E a rly in his re ign, Constan
tine obta ined pos sess ion by stra tagem of
the fortress of V ahka (Féké ) on the up
per Sa rus , and th is pla ced him a pos ition
command ing one of the most frequented
road s between Ta rsus and Upper Cappa
docia .
John Da rde l, consigning these na r
ra tive s to posterity, ha s the fol lowing ac COIN OF BARON THOROS
count of the above fea t of a rms,or ra
ther of cunning,by wh ich the lord s of the mounta in secured for them
s elves the col lection of tolls on a ll me rchand i se a scend ing from Aia s to
the inte rior of As ia M inor. The powe r of the Rupenian rule rs had itsbeginnings
,in fa ct
,in th i s supp ly of fund s .
On one of his usua l exped itions,Constantine who had undoubted ly
been informed by the Armenian agents whom he ma inta ined among his
ne ighbors ,“a rrived in front of a town [V ahka ] where the good folk of
“the country who were ‘Armens ’
,were ca rrying brambles to close up and
repa ir any holes in the wa lls of the town wh ich had fa l len in. Thereupon
B a ron Constant and his companions with h im took off the ir a rmor and
hid i t between the b rambles, whereof ea ch then made his bund le,wh ich
they ca rried onto the wa lls just l ike the other poor people . And i t hap
194
“to the he lp of the Crusaders than did the Armenians, who supplied them
with men, horses, a rms, and food . ( 1 )
The leader of the Crus aders had not fa i led to acqua int the ruler of
the Cilician mounta ins with the va st plans cheri shed in Europe concerningPa lestine
,Syria
,and As ia M inor, and wi th the purpose of the Cathol ic
world to set up in those countries principa l ities able to withstand a ll Mos
lem encroachments on the land s of the Med iterranean. Constantine con
sidered th i s movement afl orded him a unique Opportunity to throw off
once for a ll the overlordsh ip Of the ha ted Byzantines and to increa se hisown power. He supported , therefore, the Crusaders with a ll his might
,
and the latter would have fa red i l l during the s iege of Antioch had not
the Armenians given them a rmed a ss istance and a lso food supplies .
Ma tthew of Edessa (2) wrote of the Franki sh hosts before Antioch,that “the ir numbers were so grea t that famine set in. The Armenian“chiefs in the Taurus, Constantine, son of Rupen, and Pazuni and Osch in,the second and th ird of those princes
,sent the Frank commanders a ll
the provi s ions they needed . The monks of the Black Mounta in [Amanus ] a lso supplied them wi th food ; a ll the fa ithful vied with one anotherin devotion to them in th i s juncture .
”
Understand ing the important pa rt which New Armenia might takein furthering the ir a ims
,the F ranks a ss iduously favored these va luable
a ll ies . Constantine rece ived the ti tle
of Comer,but he is more commonly
referred to under that of Baron wh ichhis dyna sty reta ined . Joscel in
,Count
of Edessa,ma rried Constantine’s
daughter,
and Ba ldwin, Godfrey’sbrother
,espoused his niece
,the daugh
ter of his brother Thoros In th is COIN OF TANCRED OF ANTIOCHmanner the ir mutua l interests werestrengthened by ties of blood
,and these Ea stern Christians came ins ide
the great feuda l organization of the Crusades.
( l ) Papa l Bul l of 15 84 in the Bull . Rom.—Cf. Ma tthew of Ede ssa , part II, chap.
CLI sq .—SEMPAD, Chron. cd .. ann. 549.
( 2 ) 0 p . cit., p 3 3 sq .
( 3 ) VAHRAM, Chron. r im., V. 197-198 .
— 196
The Armenians themselves were not long in reaping the benefits of
this a l l iance, for with the help of Tancred , prince of Antioch, Thoros
(Theodore, Constantine’
s son and successor) added cons iderably to his
rea lm.
In these propitious circumstances, the Armenian ba ron de scended
a long the Pyramus river into the pla in sti ll he ld at a number of points
by th e Greeks who had withdrawn before the invad ing Crusaders into
the ir chief fa stnesses. He took from them the famou s fortress of Ana
za rbus,the wa l ls of whi ch ori gina l ly bui l t by Emperor Justin I had been
cons iderably strengthened by Ca l iph Ha run-a l-Ra sch id,and were thought
impregnable. Sis a lso fel l into his hand s, and everywhere the king p ious lyfounded churches and monasteries and brought in Armenian settlers .
With the help of the Franks of Antioch, Thoros had a lready se izedmost of Cilicia and driven out the sma l l Greek garri sons
,when the Turki sh
hordes from centra l As ia M inor crossed through the Taurus ravines,reached the hea rt Of Ci l icia
,and expel led the Armenians from Anaza rbus.
The whole Latin a rmy had gone down into Syria,and the Byzantines had
been ousted a lmost everywhere from the lowland strongholds ; couse
quently the Turks expected to make short work of Armenian res istance.
The ir a im wh ich they never cea sed to cherish unti l the fa l l of the Sultansof Iconium,
wa s to ga in a footing on the southern shore of Asia Minor.Thoros succeeded with difli culty in hurl ing back these bands onto the
land s of B azi l Kogh,another Armenian noble who re igned at Ma rasch.
There the invaders were defea ted and obliged to flee abandoning the bootyseized in Cilicia . Two yea rs later a fter ravaging the south of Me l itenethey besieged the fortress of Harthan
,where they were annihi la ted . The ir
chief wa s captured and taken to Kescoun,his Victor’s res idence
,nea r
Mara sch in the Araban pla in,on a tributa ry of the Euphra tes right bank.
The Turkish hordes, however, could not be he ld forever in check bythe Greeks, nor by the Crusader and Armenian leaders . All la cked suf
ficient troop s to keep the fie ld and sa fegua rd the ir terri tory. Each countryside wa s the scene of cea se le ss ra ids . Genera l ly the towns were ableto res ist and only the villages suffered the hateful treatment Of the Mos
lem bands . In 1 110, Cilicia was nevertheless aga in overrun by the no
mad s. The Se ljuk Sultan of Iconium,Ma lek Shah ( 1 107-1 1 16) headed
197
the exped i tion h imse l f and ca rried the day in a fi rst encounter,but Thoros
wa s victorious in the ensuing ba ttle . His losse s were,however
,cons ider
able and a number of the ch ief nobles fe ll in the fight. The Sultan withdrew to Kha rput, laying everyth ing wa ste a s he went. He la id s iegewithout succes s to the fortre s s of Dzowk and then d epa rted ca rryingwith him an immense amount of booty.
At Thoros l’
s dea th,his brother Leo I ( 1 129- 1 13 7 ) suc
LEO I ceed ed him a s the nea rest he ir to the p rincipa l ity, his nephew
BARON Constantine having been poisoned . Upon his access ion, Leofollowed up his predece s sors
’
a ims and de scend ing into the
pla in took from the Greeks the cities of Mame stia (M iss is ) , Ad ana , and
Ta rsus,and pushed on to the Med ite rranean sea coa st. He needed to
pos sess the coa st i f he wa s to e stabli sh
his power, for through its ports he could
ma inta in profitable connection with Eu~
rope,instead of be ing compel led to re
sort to the intermed ia ry of the Crusaders,his south-ea ste rn ne ighbors . The rela
tions of the F ranks and the Armenianshad become less courteous than formerly . COIN OF BALDWIN OFThoros had to be a sked severa l times EDESSAbefore he sent Ba ldwin his d aughter’ s
dowry of gold bezants . On one s ide theArmenians compla ined of the demand s and
exa ctions of the Crusaders,whi le on the other
the Franks a ccused the ir a ll ies of be ing a lwaysrea dy to ca ll on the infid els for he lp wheneve rthey we re in any way d i s sa ti sfied .
COMNENUSOne of the ch ief causes Of d i spute between
the Armenians and the La tins of Antioch wa sthe la tte r’s posses s ion of the stronghold s of the southern Amanns moun
ta ins and the coa st ad j acent to the Gulf of Alexand retta . The ba rons
cla imed these fortresses,but the princes of Antioch a sserted that they
( 1 ) The“Cybi stra” of Strabo (XII, I ) ; not to be confuse d with th e city in
Cappadocia of th e same name , situa ted a t th e opening of the C il ician Gate s.
198
wrote : In the yea r 584 [ 1 13 5-1 13 6] Baron Stephen, Ba ron Thoros’
“brother,a rrived under the wa l ls of Ma ra sch
,and his troops effecting an
entrance during the night were rece ived in the homes of those of the in
habitants who were Chri stian. Th is surprise a ttack wa s arranged bya prie st of the city with whom B aron Stephen was in col lus ion. At
dawn his so ld iers seized the place and ma ssacred the Turks ins ide the
wa lls . F lushed wi th the ir victory,they proceeded to insult those who
were ins ide the citade l and openly d ishonored the ir wives . God in His
wrath therefore did not give the citadel into their hands . They thenset fire to the town and taking away with them the Christians of the
place advanced into the interior.
”
Also Abulfa radj, rela ting the same events,add s : The Turks on
coming back showed some humanity and not only trea ted peacefully
the Chri stians that rema ined but a lso restored to the Armenian fugitivesthat returned the ir houses, vineyard s and fields . But a priest of that
“na tion whom they suspected of having been in collus ion wi th his com
patriots was flayed a l ive . After three days they cut ofl his tongue, hand s,and feet
,and threw him into the flames . The Armenians incensed at
th i s crue lty put some Turks to dea th in the
same manner.”
Turkish hosti l ity towards the Armenians wa s
moreover pa id for in gold by the Byzantine cou rt
wh ich,accord ing to Cinnamus ma inta ined
a s ever its des igns on Cilicia and Antioch . John
I I Comnenus had purposed leaving the throne
of Constantinople to his e lder son,and wished
to give the younger an appanage consisting of
Cil icia , Antioch, Atta l ia , and Cyprus. But Alexis COIN OF MANUEL Iand his younger brother, Androni cus Seba sto COMNENUScra tor
,both d ied and the crown fel l toManuel . (2)
De spite the Armenian a rmy’s a ll iance wi th the
CAPTIVITY OF princes of Antioch, the Greeks invaded Cilicia , de
LEO I fea ted the Crusaders and Leo Whose va ssa ls gavehim l ittle support
,and occupied the whole pla in ad
j acent to Adana and the Gul f of Issus. The baron and his fami ly and
( 1 ) I. x.
( 2 ) Ed . DELAURIER, Histo ire d es cro isade s , Documents armeniens, vol .'
I, p .
1 56 note 1 .
companions fl ed into the Taurus mounta ins . All the Armenians’
. newly
conquered ci ties and the i r home centers,Anaza rbus and even Vahka , fell
to the Emperor. Leo,reduced to the la st extremi ty, had to surrender to
the victor wi th his fami ly,and he wa s hauled to Constantinople, where he
d ied The Greeks killed his e ldest son,Rupen, a fter having first
blinded him.
From 1 13 7 to 1 145 the Byzantines ruled a ll Cilicia ,THOROS II and the p rinces of Antioch and counts of Edessa had their
1 145 -1 1 69 hand s too full meeting the attacks of the infide ls to th ink
about restoring the kingdom of the ir former a l l ies . One
of Leo’s sons,Thoros
,who wa s a prisoner in Constantinople, wa s sti l l
quite young at the time of his fami ly ’s d i sa ster,and gave the Byzantine
court no app rehens ion. His gracious manners had even won him favorthere. When Manue l I Comnenus ( 1 143 ) succeeded his father a s em
petor,the young ba ron fe lt the time wa s ripe to throw Off the yoke. He
fled,d isguised a s a merchant on a Genoese or Venetian sh ip
,and rea ched
Cyprus,from where he sa i led on to Antioch . There Prince Raymond and
the monophys ite Patriarch Athana s ius VI I I provided him with the wherewitha l to make the a ttempt he had long contempla ted . Setting out fromAntioch with a sma l l escort he reached the Amanns mounta ins and soon
ra ll ied to his standa rd the ma lcontents and outlaws l ike h imself,to the
number of severa l thousand,sufficient to ca rry off a few initia l successes ,
wh ich brought to his standard a ll the Armenians in his fa ther’s formerdominion.
V ah ram of Edessa,in his rhymed chroni cle ha s left us quite
a romantic picture of the young ba ron and his a rriva l in the land of his
fathers
The household of the Imperia l pa lace cla im tha t Thoros stayedunti l a Greek princess fell in love with him and gave him trea sures wh ichhe took away . On rea ching the mounta ins of Cilicia
,he met a priest
to whom he confided the secret tha t he wa s Leo’s son. The p riest wel
( l ) verse s 417-43 6.
comed him with joy, and sent him out a s a herd sman. The Armenians
rema ining in the country dwe lt in the mounta ins , and suffering a s they
were from Greek oppress ion they ea rnestly longed for the return of the ir
former rule rs . Lea rning from the priest tha t the ir beloved prince had
come back, they at once ga thered together and ha i led Thoros a s the ir
ba ron.
Wh i lst Emperor John Comnenus wa s subduing Cil icia and approach
ing Antioch, the Mos lems were deva sta ting the d istricts adj acent to the
Crusaders and threatening the La tins. The Byzantines had joined up
with the Turks to overthrow the power of the Westerners, destroy the
Armenian ba ronies,and drive the non-Orthodox Christians out of As ia ,
s o fi e rce wa s religious hatred in Constantinople . When the Turks, how
ever,entered the te rri tory of Kescoun with in the Empi re, the Bas ileu s
could not stomach the affront and the Byzantine a l l iance w ith the nomad s
came to an end .
Ma tthew of Edessa , in his chronicle (2) relates the events lead ing
up to the despatch of a Greek a rmy to the province ofMara sch :
In the yea r 5 85 [ 1 13 5 Sultan Mohammed,the son of Amir
Ga zi,the son of Danischmend
,a rrived w i th a la rge army in the region
of Ma ra sch nea r Kescoun and there set fire to the vi llages and mona s
teries He kept quiet,refra ined from a ttacking the city
,and contented
h imself with cutting off the wa ters of the river,pi llaging gardens
,making
desultory ra id s and ga thering and sa fely storing the booty he took. The
city ’s inhabitants,however
,who were da i ly expecting to be attacked ,
became so grievous ly d iscouraged tha t one night they abandoned the
outer rampa rt. The ir leaders and priests succeeded in reviving the i rcourage The infidels rece ived no (d ivine ) command to invest anda ttack the city
,and on the Friday, the d ay of our Lord ’s pass ion
,Kescoun
wa s del ivered . The enemy burned Garmirvank ( the Red Mona stery ) ,““the chape l and the monks’ cel ls
,broke the wooden and stone crosses,
and took the iron and b ra ss crosses . He demol ished the a lta rs and
sca ttered the rema ins . He ca rried Off the door wi th its wonderful spira lca rvings, a long with other obj ects
,and ca rted them away to his own
country to show them to his concubines and the populace Mohammed
( 2 ) Op . cit. vol . 1 , p . 1 50.
VIEW OF THE CASTLE OF ANAZARBUS
Greeks,and were planted in the very center of the Empire ; they were
a threa t to the capita l itse lf ; they were Moslem and consequently sworn
enemies of a ll Christians, and there wa s no doubt tha t the -Turks wouldkeep Cilicia i f they succeeded in conquering it. Yet none of these con
s iderations,wh ich we today would cons ider paramount, had any influ
ence with the Greeks . Manuel ’s only desire wa s to avenge the d isgracejust infl icted on him
,and the Mos lem Sultan who could but rejoice over
the d i ssensions between the va rious Christians, invaded Cilicia . Thoros
wa s forced to recognize his suzera inty.
In 1 156,however
,on some fl imsy pretext
,Masaoud aga in sent an
army aga inst the Armenians under the command of one of his ch iefsnamed Iakhoub . Th i s genera l was defea ted by the Cru saders and byThoros ’ own a rmy. Taken by surprise in the gorges between the Amanns
cha in and the sea, the Mos lems suffe red a bloody reverse . The remnants
of th is exped ition wi thdrew,but proceeded to ravage the d istricts of
Kharput and Mara sch . Then resuming the offens ive,they la id siege to
the ca stle of Till of Hamdoun,near Sis
,at wh ich point the plague broke
COIN OF BIMAD-ED-DIN ZANGUI COIN OF ROKN-ED-DIN MASAOUDSULTAN OF ICONIUM
out in the Turkish ranks and the Armenians were ea si ly victorious over
them. In the meantime, Masaoud d ied,and his son Aseddin Kilidj
Ars lan I I ( 1 156-1 193 ) made peace with Thoros, who rema ined in pos
sess ion of Cilicia and Isauria .
But a new storm wa s yet about to break over this
wa r-ravaged country . Rayna ld of Cha ti llon,who had
become the gua rd ian of the young prince Bohemond
I I I,by rea son of his marriage with Constance, the wi
dow of Raymond of Poi tiers,—accord ing to M icha el
the Syrian—a ttacked Thoros on the ground tha t the
Armenian ba ron had refused to restore to the Templa r"
the ca stle of G a stim,formerly taken from the knights
by the Greeks and recently captured by Thoros . Th isca stle wh ich commanded the gorges of the Portella .
between the Amanns ch a in and the sea,wa s of the
grea test stra tegic va lue both for the Armenians and theprinces of Antioch. The Byzantines, moreover, frus
tra ted in the ir a ttempts to have New Armenia crushedby the Se ljuks
,were secretly inciting the Crusaders
aga inst Thoros .
Ma tthew’s chronicle continues : Rayna ld [of Chati l lon] had a d ispute
with B aron Thoros concerning a fortress [Ga stim] wh ich the Greekshad taken from the b rethren [the Templars ] and had been seized in turnby Thoros from the Greeks . Rayna ld contended : ‘The brethren a re
fighting for our common Chri stian cause ; restore unto them that wh ichis the irs.
’A ba ttle took place near Isenderun [Alexandretta ] , and many
pe ri shed on both sides . Rayna ld had to retu rn home feel ing d isgraced .
Later on Thoros h imse lf gave up to the brethren the fortresses on the
borders Of Antioch, and they promised under oath tha t they would
help the Armenians whenever they needed succor.” ( 1 )
Rayna ld of Antioch, who had only attacked the Armenians at Byzan
tium’
s instiga tion, felt warranted in a sking Emperor Manuel to reim
burse him for the expenses Of th i s confl ict, but, without repud iating the
debt,the B a si leus answered the Prince in d i latory language tha t exa s
pera ted him. He therefore determined to take payment h imse lf by some
means,and he bethought h imself of
the i s land of Cyprus .
The ha rbors of Cyprus com
manded the coa sts of Syria and southern As ia M inor
,and the is land wa s
consequently a most vita l pos ition for
the Crusaders . Though conqueredA.D . 649 by the Arab s
,i t had s ince
COIN OF RICHARD OF MARASCH been rega ined by the Byzantines . Ousting the Greeks from there would se
cure both the princes of Antioch and the barons of Cilicia aga inst anyfurther Byzantine offensive on Latin shores
,and would give them bes ides
a first-cla ss nava l ba se out of reach of the infidels . The Cyprus exped ition should not, therefore, be a scribed to mere bad temper on Prince Rayma ld ’s pa rt, a s most chroniclers of the time picture i t
,but to a decis ion tha t
had been long contemplated by the Franks,who were only awa i ting a
favorable Opportuni ty to undertake the enterprise . On the ir part theArmenians would not have been a t a ll d i splea sed to be rid of a Greek
stronghold facing the shore they so much coveted,and wh ich they had
severa l times a lready conquered,lost
,and reconquered . Circumstance s
did not a l low,however, of the conquest of the i s land just then, and i t wa s
poss ible only to ca rry out a qui ck ra id on i t,lay i t wa ste, and loot its
trea sures .
In 1 15 5-1 156 the Crusaders’ fleet landed on the Cyprus coast a veritable a rmy of Latins and Armenians, and the Greeks who ma inta inedonly sma l l numbers Of troop s on the i s land were immed ia tely hustled out
of the ir pos itions . The entire i sland wa s overrun by the invaders whobehaved with the most frightful cruelty . All possess ions were se ized by
( 1 ) MICHAEL THE SYRIAN. His toire des Croisades , Documents armén., vol .
I, p. 340.
— 206
tricts of Ma rasch and Cocuse . Th is prince succumbed to stratagem,for
he was invited to a banquet by And ronicus, the governor of Ta rsus,and
there sla in. Thereupon Thoros to avenge his brother ordered the ma s
sa cre of a ll Greeks with in his borders . W a r would have broken out
a fresh between the Armenians and the Byzantines had not Amaury 1 ,king of Jerusa lem,
intervened . Di sheartened by the country’s misfortunes, the Armenian ba ron abd ica ted .
In 1 169 Thoros,prince of Cilicia
,d ied, shortly a fter becoming a
monk. He left an infant son whom he named his successor and whosegua rd ianship he had entrusted to Thoma s, the son of his ma terna l aunt.Mleh
,wroth at being passed over from his brother’s success ion
,repa ired
to Nur-cd-Din, and with a body of Turks the latter gave him he invad edCilicia . He ca rried away people
,boys and girls
,men and women,
priests,monks
,and bishops
,a ll taken to Aleppo
,where he sold them to
the s lave-merchants and d i stributed the money to the Turki sh so ld iersHe put out the eyes
,and cut off hand s and feet
,of bishops and
“many notables,bes ides flaying them
,and
the i r bod ies were left a prey for wildbea sts.
”( 1)
Mleh had a lready entered the Order of
the Knights Templa rs,but la ter
,a fter at
tempting the l i fe of his brother Thoros,he
COIN OF NUR-ED-DIN had to flee . He took refuge at the
MAHMUD court of the Atabeg of Aleppo, having forsworn his fa i th . As a Mos lem he Ob
ta ined Nur-cd-D in’
s a ss i stance and overran the grea ter part of Cilicia . Faced witlsuch d isa ster, Rupen
’s guard ian Offered the
usurper a sha re of his nephew’s barony.
Mleh a ccepted thi s offe r under oa th, and
then proceeded to gra sp the whole power.
Thoma s the Regent fled to Antioch and
placed Rupen in the care of the Pa tria rchNerses at Roncla
, but soon a fterwards the COIN OF EL SALIH-ISMAIL,ZENGUID, ATABEG OFyoung prince wa s murdered .
ALEPPO ( 11734 13 1 )
( 1 ) ABULFARADJ , p. 365 and 3 70.
208
The re ign of Mleh ( 1 170 the renegade
MLEH, BARON and a ssa s s in,wa s but one series of horrors and
1 1 70-1 1 75 crimes . B acked by the Atabeg of Aleppo, E l Sa l ihI sma i l
,he wa s more than a ma tch not only for the
Crusaders, Amaury of Jerusa lem and Bohemond I I I of Antioch, but a lsofor the Byzantines, so much so tha t Emperor Manue l made a treaty of
pea ce with the usurper, yie ld ing to him New Armenia Uni
versa lly hated , the tyrant wa s at la st s la in by his own sold iers in the ci ty
of Sis
There is noth ing so tangled or involved a s the h i story of the Ea st
a t this period when there were so many riva l and confl icting interests .
The Greeks a lternately incited the Crusader rulers aga inst one another,and the Moslems aga inst the Chri stians
,only to make tempora ry a ll iances
with the ir most formidable enemies,and then
,changing the ir tactics, to
negotia te with the ir foes and take up a rms aga inst the ir a l l ies of the d ay
before . Not only a t Byzantium were treachery and perjury rampant anda ll pervad ing
,but throughout the Ea stern world
,and contact with the
Levantines had dulled the sense of honor of even the L a tins . The Moslemshad no pity whatever for the Chri stians whom they
lumped together in the ir contempt. About th is time thefamous Sa la d in i ssued a decree in Egypt forbidd ing any
Infid els to ride,whether on horseback or on mules
,and
commanded Christians to wear continua l ly a bel t so thatMos lems could at once d i stinguish them from the truebel ievers
Notwithstand ing the constant humi l iations the Mos
lems put upon them,the Byzantines at times treated their
rulers wi th great marks of consideration,showing a pu s i l
COIN OFlanimity that only increa sed the latter’s contempt for MICHAEL VIIthem.
DUCAS
The Sultan of Iconium Kilijd-Arslan having learned( 10714 078 )
that Yakoub-Arslan and the other Emirs were planning to overthrow himand put his brother in h is stead
,vi s i ted Constantinople where he was re
“ceived sumptuously. He stayed there nearly three months. Twice a
“day viands were served him on gold and s i lver d i shes wh ich were left
(2 ) CINNAMUS, V I. 1 1 12 —MICHAEL THE SYRIAN transl . LANGLOIS,
25p .
2
3
8
25 3 26 —ABULFARADJ , Chron. Syr., p . 3 65—GUILLAUME OF TYRE” XX .
( 1 ) MICHAEL THE SYRIAN, op. cit. I, p . 3 65 .
—209
him a s gifts . On one occas ion, wh i le d ining wi th the Emperor, the la tterOffered him a ll the table service and decora tions
,not counting other gifts
at the same time, both to him and the thousand or so Turks of his escor
The Greeks accord ing to the Arab and Byzantine chroniclers gave
magnificent fetes in the Sultan’s honor. “Above a splend id ly decorated
“pla tform stood a sol id go ld throne enhanced wi th d iamonds and j a cinths
and other precious stones surrounded by dazzlingly wh ite pearls . An
abundance of l ights caused a ll these jewels to blaze with brightness .
On the throne sat in a ll his majesty the Emperor clothed wi th a purple
mantle on wh ich were exqui s ite a rtistic des igns made of pearls and dia
mond s . On his chest, suspended to a gold cha in, hung a pink stone a s
la rge a s an apple . On e i ther s ide stood the members of the Sena te in
the order of the ir respective State functions. Kilidj-Ars lan on entering“wa s overwhe lmed wi th so much splendor
and refused a t first to be seated despite
the Emperor’s insi stence ; fina l ly he took“a modest seat. During his stay at Manuel
’
s
court he was housed in one of the pa lacesin the southern part of Constantinople. All
the plea sures of the Imperia l City were of
COIN OF KILIDJ-ARSIAN fered him,tournaments
,amph i thea tre
II, SULTAN OF ICONIUM games and contests,and Greek-fire d is
plays . ( 1 )Such wa s the deference pa id by the Imperia l Court to the barbarian
who from Iconium wa s threa tening a ll ea stern Chri stendom,who had
never cea sed hara ss ing the Greek empire as wel l a s Cilicia and the Cru
saders,and who in 1 148-1 149 had taken Ma ra sch
,sacked the city and
its churches, and in defiance of his plighted word had massacred the
Frankish knights,bi shops
,and priests
, and most of the inhabitants,
whom he had solemnly sworn to protect Wha t were the Turks toth ink of these
‘
Byzantine s who d isplayed merely their wea lth,instead o
f
armies that might hold them in respect ? Far from frightening them byhis prestige, Manuel only excited the ir greed . He gave them encouragement not only to fight Ci l icia and the Cru saders, but to a ttack the Greeks
(2 ) ABULFARADJ .
CVII(I
I ) Cf. CINNAMUS, V. vi . —NICETAS CHONIATES, Manuel Comnenus, chap .
( 2 ) cf. ABULFARADJ , Chron. Syn, p . 343 .
2 10
Ve ry grave events were then transpiring in the Ea st.On the 2nd of October
, 1 187, Sa lah-cd-Din (Sa lad in) tookJerusa lem. Edessa and Acre had been in infidel handsfor some time
,and Tripol i and Ant ioch were about to fa ll .
Unless Europe could come to the ir help, the Crusaders andthe Cilicia ba rony would inevi tably d isappear in the tem
pe st. The La tin Ea st wa s doomed unless the westernprinces ra ised a new Crusade to meet the storm,
retake the
Holy Places and set up on the Syrian coa st sol id Sta testha t could hold the ir own aga inst the Moslem powerof Egypt.
The vita l necess i ty of fa cingARRIVAL OF this new s i tua tion wa s the prime
THE THIRD CRU concern of the European courtsSADE and the Pope expended every
energy in bringing about a new
exped i tion. The Emperor of Germany,the King of
France,and the King of England responded to his ca l l,
and Frederick I B a rba rossa , took the leadership of the Cru sade. On
his a rriva l in As ia,by way of Macedonia
, the Emperor crossed the territory of the B a ron of Armenia in order to reach Antioch and thence Pa lestine. Cilicia and the principa l ity on the Orontes had to be his mi l itaryba se
,constituting a s they d id a long with Tripol i the sole remnants of the
conquests of the first and second Cru sades and of the Armenians .
Leo saw in th i s tremeu
dous exped ition aga inst the
Mos lems an excel lent chance
to expand his power, add to
his prestige,and Obta in at the
hands of the Western rulers a
roya l crown in exchange for
his ba ronia l coronet. Neverdreaming tha t such a grea t
COIN OF SALADIN ( SALAH-EU-DIN ) enterprise could poss ibly be
short-l ived, he glimpsed the
vis ion of a Western As ia ca rved up into Christian States, and i t wa s nothis intention to be the va ssa l Of any La tin prince. The future king of New
Armenia looked forwa rd to being an intermed iary between the ByzantineEmpire and the Syrian principa l i ties. He accord ingly lost no timesupplying the Crusaders with p rovi
s ions, transporta tion, and guides, and
lavi shed a ll he could on the F ranki sh
nobles,supplying them with mi l itary
a ss i stance . Th i s a l l iance,moreover
,
strengthened h is baronia l pos i tion in
rega rd to the Greek Emperor. Itwould enable him,
he hoped,to dea l
one day on equa l terms wi th the
Byzantine Court.
By a ctions a s we l l a s p romises
Leo had won Frederick over to his
s ide,and a lso ga ined the good graces
COINS OF JOHN OFof the Pope. The Emperor of Ger
BRIENNE AND THEmany had promi sed 11 1111 the des l red HOLY SEPULCHREcrown.
“
Th i s mona rch,however
,met
his dea th in the icy waters of the
Ca lycadmus (Ghenk-sou ) . Thereupon the baron of Armenia looked to~
wards his son Henry VI . However,Leo could not feel sa tisfied with a
grant of kingship from the leader of the Crusade,even though a mighty
Emperor. He fe lt tha t anyth ing given him by the Franki sh rulers might
be wi thdrawn from him one day ; therefore he sought to hold his crown
from the Pope whose voice had much more weight with Christendomthan that of any tempora l sovere ign, and whose authori ty would pla cehim and his successors beyond any poss ibi l ity of d ethronement. He
a ccord ingly sent an embassy to Celestine I I I in 1 195 to a sk the Sovere ign
Pontiff to give him his bless ing and the rega l sovere ignty of Armenia .
The arriva l of the Th ird Crusade inside Cilicia and the terri tory of
Antioch marked the beginning of a new era for the Armenians,and the
2 13
LATIN PRINCIPALITIES OF THE EAST
Mos lem band s and the Imperia l troop s both cea sed for a time from ra iding Leo
’
s dominion. Both the infidels and Constantinople were watchingevents
,and the Mos lems
,l ike the
Greeks,were preparing to meet the
new exigencies of a s ituation theycould not yet clea rly outline butknew to be a coming severe test.
A new La tin kingdom wa s
about to emerge, not at the expense
of the infidels,but by stripping the
Empire of one of its provinces . In COIN OF BARON LEO 11
the spring of 1 19 1,King Richard
of England who had sa i led from S ici ly with his fleet wa s compel led bybad weather to put into Cyp rus where a prince of the Comneni, named
I saac,had set h imse lf up a s independent. Th is Greek wa s a tyrant to
his subj ects and a ba rba rian towa rd s a ll strangers . Learning of the shipwreck Oi an English sh ip
,he rushed to L ima ssol in the hope of se izing
— 214
dyna stic and re ligious ha tred,a ll blinded the Byzantine court and by
the ir intrigues the Greeks not only were head ing for ru in but were seriously endangering the civi l ized world .
Leo had rea l ized tha t he could no longer pursue the free-lance pol icy
of his predecessors and hold the ba lance between the Greeks and the Cru
saders . His des ire for roya l rank compe lled him to take s ides, but his
ma in d iffi culty lay in the re l igious be l iefs of his people whose ri tua l
sepa ra ted them both from the Byzantine cult and tha t of Rome . He
must therefore efl ect a rapprochement with one or the other of these two
Churches,i f he wa s to secure a crown and thus establi sh his na tion’s
independence .
He sta rted s imultaneous negotia tions with the Papacy and Byzan
tium. In the latter city, however, the Orthodox clergy showed themselves
unyie ld ing. The re l igious quarrel between the Armenians
and the Greeks da ted from the early centuries of Christianity.
In Grea ter Armenia they had frequently been very bitter,and both a t Constantinople and Sis they rema ined pa inful
memories . The Armenian people hated the Greeks for the ir
oppress ion and crue lty, and for the ir treachery and the in
tolerance with wh ich they had a lways met any overtures on
the part of the Bagra tid rulers . The conversations wh ich
were commenced at Leo’s bidd ing had , consequently, but
very little chance of success .
The Ba ron reflected,however, tha t his interests lay
rather in the d irection of Byzantium than in tha t Of theWestern powers
,who a fter a ll were at a grea t d istance and
whose efforts had just susta ined a setback by the entry of SAINTNERSES
Sultan Sa lad in into the a rena . The Greek Emp i re sti l l en ( from thee Armenianjoyed cons ide rable p restige d esp i te i ts present d i lap ida ted
l oom s“ .
cond i tion. If he rece ived his crown from the B a s i leus,he phy of 1 5 11 )
would be l inking Armenia ’s destiny with that of Constantinople, and forging an a ll iance with wha t he sti l l looked on a s a greatpower, enabling him perhap s one day to rega in Greater Armenia and
form a Sta te extend ing from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Ca spian Sea,
capable of blocking any Mos lem inva s ion of Byzantium. There wa s theSultana te of Iconium in the centre of As ia M inor, i t wa s true, but theSeljuks once caught between the Greeks and the Armenians mu st sure lyfa ll, and the kingdom of New Armenia would become the bastion of the
Orthodox world . This dream wa s shattered by the fa i lure,easy to fore
see,of the negotiations of the bi shops sent to Constantinople.
— 2 16
I am a sked,’ wrote the Cathol icos Nerses to Michael the Syrian ( l )
to recognize two na tures in Jesus Christ and to honor the fourth Counci l,to celebra te the birth of Chri st on the 25th of December, and the Ma ss
with leavened bread and water, and not to use the words : God, Holy,Who wa st crucified . On these cond i tions we are promi sed [by Emperor
Manue l ] great benefactions .
’
Fa ced with the exactingness Of the Byzantine clergy, Leo turned to
the West,but in so doing he wa s fol lowing a tota lly oppos i te pol i tica l
l ine for New Armenia ’s future , one a ltogether counter to that of a Greek
a l l iance . The Greek emperors in the ir hosti li ty to the Crusaders behaved
so dece itful ly to the Westerners tha t soon the Latins would have to oc
cupy Constantinople i tse lf i f they wanted to stop Greek intrigue . By
app lying to Rome,Leo wa s espous ing the cause of the European rulers ,
identi fying himse l f with the ir acts,and ca sting his lot in with the irs in
the Ea st. It was a serious decis ion,but the baron wa s ambitious of be
coming king,and the La tins fla ttered his hopes, consequently he pushed
on his negotia tions with the Pope and the roya l Crusaders .
Rome,on the other hand
,could hard ly fa i l to derive the greatest
sa tisfaction from s ee ing a na tive kingdom formed in the Ea st b a sed on
La tin culture and the Latin worsh ip . The new Sta te would give the
Crusaders a strong bridgehead and faci l itate the growth of the princi
pa lities of Syria and Pa lestine . The latter were envisaged a s destined to
la st forever and to extend by degrees the ir dominion over a ll Western
Asia,thus protecting Europe from Mos lem inva s ion. Papa l sagac ity wa s
not d ece ived,and the western mona rchs l ikewi se had no i llus ions
,con
cerning the fa te of the Byzan-tine Empire . They knew it wa s irretriev
ably lost,and expected i t to be replaced by a Latin State able to sa fe
gua rd the Bosphorus,keep watch over it, and prevent the Mos lems en
tering Europe from that d irection. The conquest of Spa in and Si ci lyby the Sa racens
,the ir thrust to the very heart of France
,had ca rried
a serious warning to the Ca thol ic Chri stians,and any support for the i r
a rms in the E a st wa s we lcome . So Leo ’
s ambitions found a favorable
response not only from the throne of St. Peter but in every European
court. It wa s essentia l,nevertheless
,that Rome should not demand too
much in the way of reforming the Armenian ri tua l,for the people were
very a ttached to their ancient worsh ip and customs and would have greatd ifli culty in giving up their ancestra l ways . The clergy clung to its pre
( 1 ) 0 p . cit. 1 , p. 367.
217
roga tives and some of the nobles looked a skance not only at any relin
quishment of a re l igious segrega tion tha t had a cqui red for them nationa l
s ignificance,but a lso on the crea tion of roya l authori ty to take the place
of the former se ignioria l tenure wh ich they were sometimes so apt to set
a t naught.
Leo had rece ived from his ma terna l uncle Paguran an educa tion
tha t wa s d ecided ly more Greek than Armenian,for the nobles of Baberon
and Lampron had rema ined loya l to the Byzantine empe rors . Thi s is
proved by the fa ct tha t Leo, s igned his name in Greek followed by his
roya l title in Armenian. His
conta ct with the Byzantinesis a lso undoubted ly respon
s ible for his being receptive to wide pol itica l con
ceptions and for his ambition of one day wea ring thecrown. The ba rons who
preceded him,secluded in
the ir mounta ins and with few contacts except with F ranki sh nobles and
-Mos lem emirs had h itherto had no a ims beyond extend ing the ir power
and the i r territory,ga the ring trea sure
,and withs tand ing the encroach
ments of the i r dangerous ne ighbors . Leo saw much furthe r ; his d es ire
wa s for a king’ s crown so tha t he might trea t on a footing of equa l itywith Byzantine Emperors
,Sultans
,Ca l iphs
,and European sove re igns .
J ’ “
SIGNATURE OF LEO IFIRST KING OF NEW ARMENIA
Negotiations dragged on slowly . In 1 196 Leo wrote once more to
Henry VI,Empe ror of Ge rmany . When Livons [Leo ] saw tha t he
“
[Henry ] wa s the supreme leader,and tha t he he ld no tenure from him
,
he sent his envoy to the Emperor Henry in Apu l ia whe re he wa s , witha message
,offering him homage and saying tha t he wi shed to hold from
“him his land of Armenia ; and begged him tha t he send him the crownand a cknowledge h im a s a king . The Empe ror rece ived the messagewith grea t plea sure
,and a ccepted the homage
,promi s ing him tha t he
would crown h im when he crossed the sea .
”
( 1 )In add ition th is a spirant to roya l rank communicated his des ire to
a ll the nobles of the Crusad e,and contrived to get support in a ll d irec
tions .
“The Lord of Armenia sa id to Count Henry [Duke of Champagne
( 1 ) GUILLAUME OF TYRE, cont’d . XXVI. 27.
on tha t occa sion to his prince as fol lows : After d i scuss ing th ings with“them [the Greeks ] , we found them ignorant, rude, and materia l istic,a s stubborn a s Jews unwilling to serve God by the renewa l of the HolyGhost, only in the Oldness of the letter. Our spiri tua l goodwi ll was‘grievous ly d isheartened and we came away troubled and d isappointed“in our pious hope.
”Leo was motivated, therefore, by pol i ti ca l interest
and not by any rel igious convictions . Had he met wi th more tolerationa t Byzantium,
in a ll l ikel ihood the Armenians would have adhered to
the Greek ri tua l and the kingdom of New Armenia would have upheldthe cause of the Emperors instead of that of the Crusaders.
As early a s 1 196,some say, wh i le the conversa tions at Constantinople
were sti l l on,Leo rece ived from the Pope, whom he had a sked both for a
crown and for his people’s adoption by the Roman Church, the gift of a
gold crown in token tha t his prayer wa s granted . The
Pope’s stipula tions for the Armenian Church cons istedonly of qui te acceptable provisos regard ing ri tua l p lusthe requirement that the Cathol icos send an envoy at
regula r stated interva ls to Rome to pay him homage.
In thi s manner New Armenia d rew closer to the Cathol ic Church and widened sti l l further the gu lf betweenitself and the Byzantine Empire.
Moreover Leo, in sp ite of the need he had for the
C rusaders prior to his corona tion,did not a lways te
ma in ou good terms with the Latins. Th is wa s particul a rly the ca se with the neighboring principa l i ty of An
tioch, the undetermined bounda ries of wh ich were a l
ways causing stri fe . In 1 194 he foresta l led a plan OfBohemond I I I seeking to trap and capture him,
by h imself treacherou sly seizing that prince
and the ch ief nobles of the court of Antioch,and locking them up in the Castle of Sis .
Count Henry of Champagne,the Regent of
the kingdom of Jerusa lem,intervened and ob
COIN OF HENRY OF ta ined Bohemond’
s freedom,but the Prince of
CHAMPAGNE Antioch had to agree to give back‘
the territory he had formerly taken from Rupen, and a
220
new a ll iance wa s sea led by the mar
riage of Al ice,one of Rupen
’s daugh
ters,wi th Raymond I II
, the e ldest son
of Bohemond . It was set forth in the
agreement tha t should Al ice,Rupen
II’s daughter, bear a
'
son,he should in
heri t the throne of Antioch. A ma lech i ld wa s born
,and Raymond at his
death in 1 198 made his fa ther swear to SEAL OF RAYMOND-RUPENkeep th is promi se. Raymond-Rupen,the son of Raymond and Al ice
,wa s then an infant
,and Bohemond III’s
younger son,the Count Of Tripol i
,took advantage of his nephew’
s minority and his fa ther’s yea rs, to drive the old prince out of Antioch and seizepower. Th is usurpa tion to the prejud ice Of a ch i ld under Leo’s protectioncaused the Armenians to rise aga inst the principa l ity of Antioch
,so that
when Leo rece ived the roya l crown, he wa s openly at war with the usurper.
Fcud s of th i s kind,moreover
,were not confined to the Ea st. In
France and England,and in a ll the feuda l kingdoms of the West
,there
wa s constant stri fe among the nobi l ity ; European pol i tica l manners werejust as bruta l as those of Asia .
COIN OF TRIPOLIWITHOUT RULER’S NAME
CHAPTER VIII
THE K INGDOM OF NEW ARM E N IA ( 1 199- 13 75 )
On Janua ry 6th,1 199 ( i ) Ca rd ina l Conrad of
LEO 1, KING W i tte lsba ch,Archbi shop of Mayence
,the de lega te
OF ARMENIA of Pope Ce le stine I I I , presented to Ba ron Leo II,
( 1 1 96 or 1 1 99 in the Church of the Holy Wisdom of Chri st a t
to 1 2 1 9) Ta rsus,the roya l crown
,and the Ca thol icos Abirad
( 1 195- 1203 ) crowned and anointed the new mon
a rch who took the name and title of“Leo I
,by the gra ce of the Roman
Emperor [Henry VI ] , King of Armenia .
” He thus procla imed h imse lf
a feuda tory of Weste rn Europe rep re sented by its leader,the Emperor of
Ge rmany . A few yea rs a fter his a cces s ion,
however,he fe lt irked by th i s va s sa lage
,
and took the title of“King by the grace of
God .
”
When send ing him the crown,the Pope
a sked the new king to consent to three con
d itions,a ll re la ting to the ri tua l d ivergencie s
between the Armenians and the Latins :
F i rst,he wa s to ce lebra te Chri stma s and
Sa ints ’ d ays on the same d ate s a s in the
La tin Church ; second ly,tha t ma tins and
ve spe rs be sa id in church , a custom the Ar
menians had long d i scontinued,in fa ct ever
s ince the I shma e l ite (Arab ) inva s ion— these 110ml ?se rvice s being obse rved only when ma ss wa s
ce leb ra ted ; and th i rd ly,the Chri stma s Eve EFFIGY 0 p LEO I
and E a ster fa sts we re to be broken only withfish and oil .
‘When you have adopted the se ri tes,
’added the Ca rd ina l
‘
you need no longer worry about the gifts and dues you have to offer‘
th e Emperor and the Pope in homage for your crown. If you refuse‘I am command ed to requ ire from you very la rge sums in gold
,si lver
,
‘
and
menian, there wa s unyield ing intolerance in these matters
,and shameful
hagglings entered into the d i scuss ion of rel igious convictions. W es-ternfana tici sm,
aggrava ted by the Crusades,on the one hand
,and Armenian
trad i tions nationa lly enshrined, on the other, preclud ed any genuine comingtogether.
GOLDEN BULLA OF LEO I
Leo’s coronation had cons iderable importance for the Byzan-tine court,for i t meant New Armenia ’s definite exclus ion from the vassa lage of the
Ba si leu s, and any refusa l to acknowledge the new king would have enta iledOpen wa rfa re w ith the Crusaders and consequently a ll Western Europe.
As usua l the Greeks p referred stra tagem to force.
Alexi s I I I Angelus ( 1 195-1203 ) copied the Latinsby send ing him gifts together with a crown
,but his
presents were a ccompanied with the fol lowing ominous counse l : “
Put not upon thy head the crown“the Romans have sent thee
,for thou art much
“nearer to us than thou art to Rome .
” Byzantium’s
entire ensuing pol icy toward s the Armenians is conta ined in those word s . COIN OF HUGH I
Leo’s fondest wishes were rea l ized,and all the
(
3255 551
38
rulers of Europe,bes ides the Ba si leus and even the
Ca l iph of B agdad, sent gi fts and amba ssadors to the new monarch.
The chroniclers a re not agreed a s to the date of Leo’s coronation.
224
Hetum places the ceremony between July 1 197 and Janua ry 1 198,but ac
cord ing to La tin h istorians the a rriva l of the Archbi shop of Mayence, the
lega te of the Holy Se e, could only have taken place in 1 199. F i fteenbi shops and thirty-nine Armenian feuda tory nobles were present at the i rsovere ign’s crowning
,a s we l l a s a goodly number Of knights of the
Crusade .
The Frankish crown that he had justplaced on his brow made no change in Leo’ sa ttitude towa rds the Latin principa l ity . In
1203 the new king of Armenia aga in took up
a rms for the throne of Antioch. Bohemond had
d ied in 1201,and Leo la id cla im to i t for
Rupen-Raymond
,the son of Raymond I I I and COIN OF BOHEMOND IV
Al ice . The knights and principa l citizens of PRINCE OF ANTIOCHAntioch had recognized Bohemond IV
,Count
of Tripol i
,the younger son of Bohemond 111, a s the ir prince . Repel led
by the Templa rs nea r Antioch, the king of Armenia had to content him
se lf for the time being with laying s iege to their ca stle.
The wa r between the Armenians and the above Order wa s wagedfor severa l yea rs north of the cape which is ca l led today by the Arabs
Ra s-el-Khanzir,or The Boar’s Promontory.
Bohemond IV had entrusted the KnightsTempla rs with the defense of the princi
pa lity of Antioch, wh i le he h imself endeavored to put down two va ssa ls of his own
in the ea rldom of Tripol i,one of whom he
COIN OF RAYMOND-RUPEN wa s bes ieging at the ca stle ofNephin. After
PRINCE OF ANTIOCH many unsuccessful a ttempts Leo fina l ly captured Antioch through compl icity on the
pa rt of the Senescha l, Acharie, wi th the result that in 1216 Peter 11 of
Locedia crowned Raymond -Rupen a s Prince of Antioch in the churchof St. Peter of tha t city.
Both enemy and a lly, in turn, of the Templars and excommunicated
by the Pope for refus ing to restore to the Knights thei r cities wh ich hehad se ized , Leo succeeded in having the pontifica l sentence l i fted and fin
a l ly, ou August 5th, 12 17, in inducing Pope Honorius I I I to pla ce RupenRaymond ’s fami ly and the principa l ity Of Antioch under the protectionof the Holy See .
225
During his wa rfare with the Count of Tripol i, Leo contrived to a l ly
h imse l f with Theodore Lasca ris , the Emperor of N icaea , by giving him in
ma rriage Ph i l ippine, the younger daughter of his brother Rupen. He took
steps a lso to protect himse lf aga inst the Mos lems on his western border,for, beyond the Taurus mounta ins , the Seljuks who had ca rved out a
kingdom for themse lves in the fa ir
provinces of centra l As ia M inor, sti l l
consti tuted a threat and hoped to
reap advantage from Sa lad in’s vic
tories over the Crusaders and from
the current d i ssens ions between the
Armenians and the Latins . The rob
ber bands of their ch ief Rustem had
even advanced to the wa lls of SIS, COIN OF THEODORE LASCARIS
from where Leo drove them away EMPEROR OF NICAEAby a bold surprise attack .
Armenian anna ls a re not at a ll clea r concerning Leo ’s pa rt in th e
events that took pla ce a t the beginning of the th ird Crusade . Some ac
counts picture him in Cyprus attend ing Guy Of Lusignan’
s ma rriage withPrincess Berenga ria of Nava rre
,othe rs represent him a s joining in the
s iege of Ptolema is (Acre ) , a long with Ph i l ippe-Auguste and RichardCoeur-de-L ion
,the French and Engli sh kings . Latin authori ties
,how
ever, do not concur wi th Armenian h istorians in the statement tha t Leowa s present a t the latter memorable s iege wh ich la sted two years, al
though it is certa in tha t some troop s from Armenia gave ass istance to
the Crusaders during tha t Operation.
IMITATIONS BY THE CRUSADERS OF MOSLEM COINS
— 226
hemond VII, the last of the Antioch princes, was knighted by his uncle,King Leo I I I of Armenia .
Thus the Armenian State, whi le reta ining many of its Eastern characteristics, fol lowed the pa ttern of the Western courts . Leo’s increa sedroya l authori ty brought him good results
,for he wa s able to bring under
his rule the numerous and h itherto unruly Armenian nobles, and to createa stable rea lm stretch ing the ful l extent of ancient Ci licia and protected by
the h igh mounta ins of the Taurus and Amanus cha ins where a ll the passeswere in his hand s . His dominion comprised
,accord ing to the chronicles
,
s ixty-two fortresses ( l ) the custody of wh ich he wa s shrewd enough to
entrust mostly to European knightsinclud ing the Templa rs. He adoptedth is means of foresta l l ing any incli
nation to revolt on the part of the native ba rons, many of whom ra therlonged for the days when they had en
tire freedom. He was a lso in th is manner able to frustra te any intriguing by COIN OF KAIKHOSRU Ithe Byzant
ines
,a lways so ready to SULTAN OF ICONIUM
sow drssensron among the hated Ar ( 1204 4210)menians .
Whi le organizing his kingdom and expand ing his
ARMENIAN terri tory,Leo d id not forget to foster his country’s de
TRADE velopment in the economic field . S ituated between the
kingdoms of the Crusaders, the Mos lem dominions, and
the Greek Empire, Cilicia wa s admirably located to serve a s a midd le
ground for trade between the Ea st and the W est .The Cilic ian coa sts though
possessed of no first-cla ss ports had a cer
ta in number of ha rbors offering quite suf
ficient she lter for trad ing vessels to anch
or,even if not for ga l leys of wa r.
The Armenians were very conver
sant with As ia and fami l ia r wi th a ll the
trade routes converging from the Eu
COIN OF SULEIMAN-SHAH phrates and the Tigri s, Pers ia and Ind ia,towa rd s the ir count ry, and knew the
grea t va lue set by the West on merchan
( 1 ) MICHAEL THE SYRIAN, op. cit., I. p. 405 .
d isc from the East. They therefore a rranged wi th the Sultans of Iconiumand the Emirs of Al eppo
,a lso the Ca l iphs of Bagdad
,for the traffic to
pa ss through the ir ports. Ever s ince the Moslems had ga ined possess ionof nearly a ll Western As ia
,caravans proceeded unmolested, from the
banks of the Indus to those of the Euphra tes . Trade had formerly takenthe d irection of the Greek provinces of Asia
,but the Armenians succeeded
in d iverting it,owing to the ir cleverness in negotiating wi th the W estern
ship-capta ins. Under Leo I I traders from the West began to flock to Ta rsus and Adana
,and the sma l l port ofAias ( 1 ) wa s crowded wi th European
vessels .
Venice and Genoa,the two grea t trad ing Republics of the Med iter
ranean, were the most eager to do bus iness with New Armenia . They
had extens ive dea ling with Byzantium and the Franki sh coa sts of Syria,but the settl ing of the Turcomans in centra l As ia M inor on the one hand
and the governments set up by the Crusaders in Pa lestine and Lebanon,on the other, had caused an a ltera tion in the caravan routes
,and the
Genoese and Venetian oflices on the Bosphorus and in Syria were not
doing such excellent bus iness as formerly. The Crusaders were unfitted
for trad ing and the Greeks no longer had the monopoly of the Ea sternca ravans .
Neverthe less,even in Cilicia Weste rn traders met with d ifficulties be
cause of certa in u sages preva lent throughout the Ea st. The State ma in
ta ined its right of preemption on wreckage, a lso tha t of escheat,or te
vers ion to the Crown treasury of the esta tes of fore igners dying wi thin
the country . Armenian jurisd iction only wa s recognized in d i sputes be
tween Europeans . Bus iness wa s further comp lica ted by a lot of custom
house vexa tions . The Genoese and Venetians found all these practices
great h indrances in the ir affa irs, but they gradua lly succeeded in ob
ta ining advantages from wh ich the other traders from Ca ta lonia, Mont
pe llier, Provence, Pi sa , S ici ly, etc. were excluded .
Merchand ise wa s taxed accord ing to the specia l agreements made
between the country of origin and the kingdom of Armenia . The Genoese
and Venet ians were able to bring in most of the ir good s duty-free,others
pa id an ad va lorem tax of two to four per cent. The caravans a rrivingfrom the interior were a lso subj ect to customs duty.
In exchange for the ir products or the ir sequins the Europeans ob
ta ined from the marts of Aia s,Tarsus, or Adana , Easte rn wares such as
pepper,spices
,aroma tics, incense, soap, j ewels, raw s i lk
,fine Ind ian and
( 1 ) Today : Yumurta l ik.
Pers ian textiles, gold fabrics, and Pers ian carpets, on a ll of which prec iousmerchand i se the Armenians rea l ized enormous profits whi le the roya lTreasury reaped bounti ful customs revenues . Cilicia became a scene of
interna tiona l trans i t trade compa rable to tha t which twelve centuries before had made Syba ris so Opulent.
The Armenians ca lled the ir king Leo the Great or The Magnifi
cent”. Neverthe less, without detracting from this ruler’s fine qua l ities
or deprecia ting the work he accomplished, the h istorian must refra in from
sharing a ltogether the admira tion he wa s held in by those whom he en
riched and whose encomiums rega rd ing him a re recorded in the Armenianchronicles . L ike most of his contempora ries
,he wa s unscrupulous a s to
his means for a tta ining his end s, enla rging his dominions, or making hisrea lm prosperous . He blazed up aga inst any obsta cle he found in hispath
,even aga inst the Church on whom he had ca lled for a ss istance for
so long a time . For no va l id rea son he
repud iated his first wife Isabe l, and he putout the eyes of his cous in George
,Mleh’s
i l legitima te son. By trickery he got possess ion of the fortress of Lamp ron and
made Hetum his pri soner at Ta rsus on the
pretext ofma rrying Rupen’
s daughter Ph i l
ippa to Ochin, Hetum’
s e ldest son. Never
theles s he made some very definite im
provements in his rea lm. He endowed Cilicia with a number of re l igious and cha rit
able institutions,brought under regula tion
the s lave trade throughout his terri tory,for EFFIGY OF HETUM I
bidd ing the sa le of Chritian s laves to ih KING OF ARMENIAfi d e l s
,a n d crea ted hospita ls for
lepe rs who were then very nu
merous in the Ea st. He ac
compl ished much,for he
sought every means of makinghis people prosperous
,but un
l ike Loui s XI of France hewa s unable to ma ster the
shortcomings Of his day or to
COIN HETUM 1 , KING ARMENIA bring into final submiss ion theunruly nobles .
230
Prince Ph i l ip appea rs somewhat unscrupulous when i t is cons idered thathe had views Of his own with regard to his wa rd whom he wished to marryto his own sonHetum.
Isabel was then in her
twe lfth yea r only,and some of
the Armenian ba rons d i s l iked ”V I/7
w).Constantine ’s plans and were
I”? ”I,
j ea lous of a Lampron noble,one
of themse lves,poss ibly becoming HANDWRITING OF HETUM I
the ir ruler. They probably con
demmed,too
,the murder of Ph i l ip . These nobles a rranged for the young
queen to flee for refuge to Se leucia Trachea to the home of some
Latin kinsfolk who themse lves,perhaps
,were not averse to so fla ttering
a connection.
Constantine took a rms and la id s iege to the fortress which wa s he ldby the Knights Hospita lers . The ir Grand Ma ster, Bertrand, however,wa s then at wa r with the Sultan of Iconium
,Ala-cd-Din Ka ikobad
,and
had no des ire to take on a fresh qua rre l ; consequently he surrendered i t
to the Armenians. The young queen wa s taken to Ta rsus where she had
to consent to marrying Prince Hetum,who thus became King of Armenia .
On his coins,wh ich a re quite numerous
,both his cfligy and tha t of Isabe l
a re shown.
The re ign of Hetum ( 1226-1270) wa s the longest ofa ll the sovere igns of New Armenia . .It began
,however,
under very unfavorable auspices . The Seljuks of Iconiuminvaded Cilicia
,and the ir Sultan Kaikobad ( 1220-123 7)
compe lled the kingdom to do him homage . Hetum wa s
obliged to coin bil ingua l money with the name of the Mos
lem overlord and himse lf.
( 1 ) Sel e fk eh .
At th i s time, Gengh is Khan wa s
proceed ing westwa rd from the Ganges
and Indus laying everyth ing wa ste a s
he advanced . Northern Pers ia, Grea ter
Armenia , and Georgia (where Rousou
dan, a queen notorious for her evi l ways,wa s reigning ) , had fa llen to the might of
the terrible conqueror. Hetum and a ll HETUM I AND ISABEL
the Chri stian and Mos lem rulers of Asia
Minor joined together and wa rded off inva s ion.
Gengh i s Khan withdrew to Kurd i stan where he wa s
a s sa ss ina ted in 123 1 .
Th is victory stemmed only for a wh i le the Mon
gol ian wave . Oktai-Khan ( 1227 Gengh is’
son and succes sor,caused his hord es to overrun the
countries we st of the Ca spian Sea,where they spread
desolation everywhere,leaving in the ir wake noth ing
but a shes,ruins
,and heaps of corpses. The sud
denness and crue lty of the d isa ster were unprece
dented . In 123 5 the Mongols exterminated nearlyeve ry inhabitant of Gandzak ( Ielisavetpol ) , and
PgffingflnNthe two following yea rs saw the sacking
.
of Lori,STANTINE I OF Kayan, Am,
and Ka rs . About 1242 Ka rin (ErzePARTZERPERT
rum) sha red the same fa te . This city was then un
der the Sultan of Iconium,Gaia th-ed-Din Kaikhosru
I I , who had Obta ined possession of the throne by themurder of his fa ther Kaikobad . Th i ssultan wa s completely defeated by the
invaders between Erzerum and E rzind
jan, and both Cae sa rea and Seba ste,l ike
wi se belonging to the Seljuks, were a lsola id in ruins .
Hetum was appa l led by the danger,
COIN OF ROUSOUDAN,
for the inva sion wa s nea ring his borders ,QUEEN OF GEORGIA
and he ha stened to surrender to the Mon
gols . Their Khan, Batchu, demanded
23 3
tha t he del iver up to him the mothe r,wife
,and
daughter of the Sultan of Iconium who had takenrefuge at the court of Sis. Hetum was weak enoughto yie ld to the will of the barba rian, and Kaikhosruto avenge such an infra ction of the laws of hospit
a l ity,gave his support to the revolt of the Ba ron
of Lampron,the brother-in-law of the Regent Con
stantine, and they together invaded Ci licia . Hetum
shut himself up in Adana, Constantine and theirconstable Sempad in Ta rsus ; but with the help of
the Mongols who came to his s ide the king d roveout the Moslems from his rea lm.
His a l l iance with the Khans seemed so va lu
able and necessary to the king of Armenia tha t he
d id not hes i tate to go persona l ly to vis i t Mango,the
Mongol ian ruler,who dwel t at Ka rakorum beyond
the Ga tes of Derbend,on the shore Of the Ca spian
Sea,nea r the mouth of the Volga . There he was te
ceived with grea t honors by the barba rian Chiefta in,
and a treaty of a l l iance was s igned between them,wh ich
he put to profit on his return,taking back from the
Sultan of Iconium certa in d i stricts the latter had captured in his absence.
A strange proceed ing,indeed
,for th is king to
leave his Chri stian court and,crossing the width of
Mos lem As ia,to act a s his own amba ssador to a bar
ba rian from the Siberian steppes,a dwel ler in the
heart of ha rd ly known Scyth ia ! Nevertheless,by way
of Grea ter Armenia the Armenians and the B a rba rianshad l inked up, and the heathen horde a fter layingwa ste the Ara ra t region had turned aga inst the Mos
lems, thereby serving the Chri stian cause . Hetum
looked on them a s his natura l a l l ies .
As one h i storian wri tes : When Mango Can [Khan] had“heard the King of Armenia ’ s petition,
he ca l led together his court,
— 234
overthrew the power of the Sultans of Iconium, and
then capturing Bagdad on Februa ry 4th, 1258, s lewthe Ca l iph Mota ssem and his two sons . For forty
days the s laughter went on in the Arab capita l .Everywhere he pa ssed , Houlago had left noth ing
but ruins : E rzerum,E rzindj an, Seba ste, Caesa rea ,
Iconium,Ma rtyropolis, Aleppo, Damascus
, Edessa ,
Kha ran,Amidus
,a ll were la id wa ste and the in
habitants wiped out. The Christians,however
,d id
not suffer a s much a s did the Mos lems in th is ap
pall ing work of extermination, due to the interces
sion on the ir beha l f of Princes s Dokouz-Khatoun,and a lso because Hetum,
a s an a l ly of the Mongols,
wa s fighting a longs ide of them.COIN OF EMPERORMICHAEL VIIIPALAEOLOGUS( 1261-1288 )
Houlago was ca lled away by his brother Man
go’
s dea th,and did not return to As ia M inor. He
left innumerable hordes to continue the dead ly workOf the ir terrible ch iefta in
,ma sses of men who were only less dangerous
in that they lacked the cohes ive purpose of a leader.
COINS OF LEO II
At thi s juncture Bibars, the Sultanof Egypt
,Of the Baha rit Mamaluke dy
na sty ( 1260 entered the scene to
take advantage of the upheava l causedby the Mongol inva s ion, a lso of the
ba rba rian ch ief’ s departure, and de ter
mined to destroy the Latin principa l i ties.Favored by the momentary ab sence of
the Ta rta rs,he invaded Cilicia and over
whelmed the a rmy ha sti ly ra ised to meethim under Hetum’
s two sons,Leo and
Theodore . The la tter prince wa s ki lledin the fight
,and the other carried away
p ri soner (August 24th, Adoua,
the city of the Templars, Sis, M is is, Adana , Aia s, and Ta rsu s fe l l to the
Mameluke ruler,who destroyed them and slaughtered every s ingle in
habitant. Fina lly,on May 19th, 1268, Antioch itse l f was lost to the Cru
saders . After massacring the ma le popula tion,the conqueror d istributed
the women among his sold i ers ; the sacking of th is city wa s on an a lmostunprecedented sca le.
Hetum fina l ly obta ined terms of peace from the victor but they werevery heavy . His son Leo wa s restored to him in exchange for Schems-cdDin Sonkor a l-a schka r (Red Fa lcon) , Biba rs
’ favori te who had fa l leninto Houlago
’
s hand s at the s iege of Aleppo. His eyes opened at la stto the vanity of world ly greatness
, the king rel inqui shed his crown a s soon
a s his son came back. He abd icated to make way for Leo and wi thdrew to
a mona stery where he d ied October 28th,1270.
The new sovere ign,sometimes ca lled Leo
LEO II III by the Armenians,wa s rea l ly only the
KING OF ARMENIA second king of tha t name,the first Leo ( 1 129
1 270—1 289 1 13 7 ) having been s imply a ba ron,just a s
Leo I I wa s between 1 187 and 1 196 (or
Only in the latter reign at the end of the 12th century did Armenia be
come a kingdom under Leo I,properly speaking. The son of Hetum I
wa s therefore the second crowned Leo.
Thi s ruler’s re ign ( 1270- 1289) wa s only another series of misfor
tunes . The king’s authori ty had been much undermined by the d i sa sters
under Hetum I,and a number of Armenian nobles preferred to submi t
to the Egyptian Sultan ra ther than keep up an unequa l struggle aga inst
the latter’s hosts . Out of sheer fright of the Mos lems,these d iscouraged
ind ividua ls went so fa r a s to urge the Mamelukes to conquer Cilicia out
right. Leo wa s weak in repress ing his tra itorous l iegemen,and did not
go beyond se izing the ir ca stles . His clemency only resulted in fanningthe ir spite aga inst the throne .
Wh i le the king was doing his best
to ra i se the spiri ts of his d ishea rtened
subj ects, suddenly ( 1273 wi thout
the lea st excuse , E iba rs’
emirs aga in in
vaded the kingdom with a very big a rmy .
M is is was captured in a surprise attack,and its people put to the sword . Sis
,ac
cord ing to Armenian h istorians, stood
out ; accord ing to Makri s i i t wa s sa cked .
Ta rsus fell, the roya l pa lace and Church
were burned to the ground, and the State
Trea sury se ized by the Egyptians . Fff
teen thousand inhabitants were s la in by
the ya taghan, and ten thousand more
ca rried off into captivity in the land of
the Pharaohs . Aia s met with the same
fa te a s the other cities ; the whole popula tion, both Frank and Armenian
, per
ished . The d isa ster wa s so appa ll ing thati t rema ined a byword both among the
horrified Armenians and among the Mos
lems who wi thdrew from Cilicia satiatedwith plunder and gloating over the shed
d ing of so much Christian blood .
Makris i ( 1 ) ha s left us a terri fying
COINS OF THE GREEKEMPEROR ANDRONICUS II
( 1282-1 328 )THE VIRGIN MARY WITHIN
THE WALLS OFCONSTANTINOPLE
a ccount of the Egyptian invas ion of Cilicia . On the th ird day of the
month Schabau 673 [Februa ry 1st, 1275 ] the Sultan [E ibars ] set out
“from the Mounta in Ca stle for Syria and entered Dama scus,whence he
came out aga in lead ing his a rmy and Arab auxil iaries The Khazindar
[Trea surer] and the Emirs in an overland ra id took the city of Macica
by surprise and slaughtered a ll its people. They had brought with themon mules a quantity of boats taken apa rt
,for the purpose of crossing the
Djeyhan river and the Nahr-Aswab [the Black River] , but these werenot needed . The Sultan at the head of his army jo ined the two Emirsa fter cross ing the Nahr-Aswab . The army overcame the numerous d iffi eulties encountered on the way and obta ined possess ion of the mounta ins ,where they ga thered an enormous amount of booty in the way of oxen
,
( 1 ) Histo ire de s Sultha ns Mamlouks , op . cit vol . 1, part 2, p . 123 .
238
Through the intervention of the Commander of the Templa rs of
New Armenia,Leo I I a t la st obta ined peace with Egypt. A treaty was
SIGNATURE OF LEO II
signed to la st ten yea rs, ten months, and ten days ; but the terms of the
Sultan in Ca iro were extreme ly ha rsh . Leo wa s obliged to pay an annua ltribute amounting to one mi ll ion d irhems to re lea se a ll Mos lem
merchants who had been taken pri soners and indemni fy them for the
losses they had susta ined,surrender fugitives
,and grant the Moslems ful l
freedom to trade, even in s laves wha tever the ir nationa l ity or re l igion.
On his pa rt the Sultan agreed to s imi lar terms,but Moslem prisoners or
fugitives were not to be included in the foregoing stipua tion.
The remnants of the Latin principa l ities were l ikewi se in a sorry
sta te a t th i s period,and ea ch of the princes wa s concerned only with his
home protection,Whether by arms or
,a s wa s more often the case, by
compos i tion with the enemy . Ever s ince Antioch fe l l to the Mos lems,
Cilicia had been completely i sola ted . The above peace, however, a lthough
humi l ia ting and grievous for Leo,had its bright s ide in tha t it promised
e leven yea rs of respite . Famine and plague came on top of Armenia ’s
deva station by wa r,and yet by wi se and prudent government the king
succeeded in ra i s ing his country once more from ruin. Fore ign vesselswere aga in to be seen vis iting the port of Aia s
,and commerce revived .
Numerous writings da ting from thi s reign show how sol ic itous he wa sfor the educa tion of his people
,especia lly the ir re l igious educa tion.
By his Wi fe,Queen Anna
,Leo I I had eleven ch i ldren
,nine of Whom
were living at the time‘
of his death .
Hetum I I ( 1289-1297) a scended the throne at a
HETUM II cri tica l time for Ea stern Christendom. The EgyptianKING OF Mamelukes who were a lready in possess ion of the formerARMENIA La tin p rincipa l ities of Edessa
,Jerusa lem
,and Antioch
,
1 289-1 297 behaved with a rrogance towa rds the la st few Frankishdoma ins
,a s a lso towa rds Armenia . Kelaun demanded
from Leo the surrender of the strongholds of Mara sch and Behesni, in
defiance of the treaty made in 1 185 with Leo I I . Hetum appea led inva in to Pope N icola s IV and King Ph i l ip IV of France ; the spirit of the
( l ) Arab silver coin.
240
cl-AI:rmvruw I'M RIBIIBi t ?"I:uu awuuvww
COINS OF HETUM II
Crusades wa s dead, so much so thatAlfonso I I I
,king of Aragon
,Don
Jayme,king of Naples
,and the Re
public of Genoa were a ll s igning com
mercia l trea ties with the Sultan, whichmeant that a portion of Europe ac
cepted the accompli shed fact and,in
short,d i sowned the Crusaders. Kelaun
continued to conquer, to ma ssacre
Chri stians,and to make s laves of the ir
women and chi ld ren. Tri pol i fe l l in1 189
,fol lowed by Acre (May 15 th ,
Tyre,S idon
,and Beyrouth
sha red the same fa te . In 1292,Mel ik
Aschraf—Kha l i l,Kelaun
’
s son,
ad
vanced a s fa r a s the Euphra tes and
la id s iege to Romcla,the residence
‘
of
the Armenian Ca thol icos and a mostimportant stronghold defended by
Raymond,Hetum
’s materna l uncle .
The city wa s taken by storm a fter th irty-three days’ s iege , and a ll the
men were put to the sword wh i le the women and chi ldren and the
Pa tria rch Stephen went off into captivity. Threat
ened right in the hea rt of his rea lm,Hetum aban
domed Behesni, Ma ra sch,and Till of Hamdoun, in
order to save his country from utter destruction.
With pa la ce revolutions occurring in Ca iro and
the plague ravaging Egypt,cond i tions might have
imp roved for the La tin principa l i ties, had they not
become so weak tha t they were incapable of further
effort. Awa re that he could expect no help from
the La tins,Hetum negotia ted with Me l ik-Adelzein
ed-Dinket bogha who had se ized the Mameluke
throne,ousting Na scer—Mohammed
,and the Mos lem
ruler gave him back pa rt of the p ri soners taken at
Romcla together with the holy vesse ls and rel icstha t had been taken with the booty .
SEAL OF BROTHERIAN
(HETUM II )
Di scouraged by the countless d ifficulties besetting him at every step,
Hetum abd ica ted in favor of his brother Thoros and withdrew to a
241
mona stery, but urged by the Armenian nobles and by Thoros h imself
to resume the re ins of state , he emerged from his retreat. D isputes h ad
ari sen among the kinsmen of Gengh is-Khan, and the court of Sis followed
with anxiety the events transpir
ing in the re igning fami ly of the
Mongols,the only a ll ies to whom
the Armenians could look. The
new Khan qui te wi llingly te
newed the former trea ty of a lliance with the king of Armenia .
On his return to Sis,Hetum wa s
LEADEN BULLA OF THOROS overjoyed to find awa iting himthere a Byzantine embassy sent to a sk him for the hand of his
s iste r Ritha (Ma rga ret) in ma rriage to M icha el, recently ra ised to sha re
the Imperia l throne . The princess took the name of Kene (Mary ) .
These a l l iances wi th the Mongols and the GreeksTHOROS and the trad i tiona l friendsh ip of the Armenians and the
KING OF Latins offered Hetum a hope of his country escaping forARMENIA, a wh i le the Egyptian menace . Being anxious to strength1 293 -1 295 en his ties wi th the Byzantine court, he proceeded to
Constantinople,but his second brother Sempad took ad
vantage of his absence to se ize the crown ( 1296
SEMPAD The usurper captured his two e lder brothers
CONSTANTINE at Caesa rea and caused Thoros to be strangled, and
USURPERS , Hetum to be blinded . Constantine,the prince roya l
,
( 1 2964 298 ) who had helped his brother Sempad in his se izure
of the throne wa s shocked by these wicked deed s
and therefore captured him in turn
and held him prisoner, setting Hetum
free, and procla iming h imself king
( 1298With in a few months Hetum re
covered his s ight, and the nobles re
stored to him his crown, in spite of
oppos i tion on the part of Constantine
and Sempad . The la tter were both
taken and exi led to Constantinople ,where they d ied .
During Constantine’s short rei gn, COINS OF SEMPADArmeni a suffered mvasron and devas KING OF ARMENIA
242
ofAleppo, captured the city ofMa ra sch . The fortress of Nedpmah, con
ta ining a la rge Armenian population of laborers,countrywomen
, and
the ir chi ldren, surrendered a fter forty-one days of stubborn res istanceto the attacks of Emir Bekta sch and the Prince of Hama . The Egyptians captured i t in the month Dsulkada [August-September] . The lnhabitants who had capitula ted on terms were a llowed to go where theywi shed . E leven fortified places in Armenian terri tory likewise fel l tothe conquerors who rema ined in possess ion of them unti l the arriva l of
DE N ICE E
EMPIRE OF NICAEA(V : Venetian posse s sions—L : Crusaders ’ posse ssions )
the Ta rtars . Then the Emir sold a ll there wa s of va lue in them, and
evacuated the fortresses which were reoccupied by the Armenians
Hetum having rega ined his power, the Mongols
HETUM’
S now emerged into Syria and supported by the ArRETURN TO menians ga ined a grea t victory over the Mame lukesPOWER nea r Horns (22-23 December The Egyptians
were driven from the va lley of the Orontes,and Dama s
cus itse lf fe l l into the vi ctors ’ hand s . The Armenians restored their formerstatus by the recovery of the terri tory tha t had been taken from them.
Four yea rs later, however, Egypt’
s Sultan avenged himse lf by a crush ingdefeat of the All ied Mongol and Armenian a rmies nea r Dama scus (Apri l20th
, The latter were annihi lated,and King Hetum fled for te
fuge to Khazan at Mossul .
( 1 ) MAKRISI, Hi stoire d es Sulthans Mamlouks. transl . Et. QUATREMEREvol . II, part 2, p 60-65 .
244
For a number of yea rs the Mongols had been wavering a s to the
d irection in which they should turn pol itica l ly. They were sti l l heathen at
this time,and with the i r eye on world events wondered whether to lean
toward the Moslems and adopt the ir re l igion or towa rd the Latins and
become Christians. The very preca rious pos i tion into wh ich the F ranki shprincipa l i ties had fa llen and Europe’s vi rtua l abandonment of them
when cons idered a longs ide the great mi l itary strength of the Mamelukes—tipped the sca les in favor of the Prophet. Had Europe sent a freshCrusade to the Ea st, the greater pa rt of As ia would have become Chri stianand the Latins with the a id of the Mongols would have d riven Islam backinto the Arabian desert. Civi liza tion lost a unique Opportunity to crush itshyd ra-headed foe .
Hetum and Leo,however, continued to be treated a s a l l ies by the
Khans , and a s such to be ha ra ssed by the Egyptians whose inva s ionswere becoming ever more frequent and d isa strous for Cilicia .
At th i s date ( 1305 ) Hetum fina l ly gave up
LEO III his crown a fter first seating on the throneKING OF ARMENIA his nephew Leo
, the son of Thoros I I I and
1 3 03 -1 3 07 Ma rga ret of Lus ignan,then only 16 yea rs old .
He reta ined for h imse lf the ti tle of Grand
B aron. But the young prince had ha rd ly been crowned when Bilarghuand his Mongols came to the wa l ls of Anazarbus . They were a sked inside
the city to d iscuss ma tters, and once in
s ide they set Upon Hetum,Leo I II
,and
a score of Armenian nobles and mas
sa cred them. Th i s treacherous crime
wa s reported ly committed at the insti
gation of other members of the nobi l ity
who resented wha t they considered too
close a rapprochement between the cl
derly king and his young nephew and
he i r on the one hand , and the Pope and
the Ca thol ic ri tua l on the other. The
h istorian Samue l of Ani ( 1 ) voices the
COINS OF LEO 111 OF ARMENIA d i scontent among Armenian nationa l ists
caused by the d eci s ions reached at the
( 1 ) Histo ire des Croisades, Documents armeniens, I, p . 456.
Counci l of Sis ( 1307 wh ich seem to show the rea sons for the murder
of the k ing and his nobles . He wri tes : “During the re ign of Pope Con
“stantine of Caesa rea [ 1307-13 22 ] the grand Ba ron Hetum held a Counci l [at Sis ] where in union wi th the Church of Rome wa s effected and
the teachings of our I llumina tor [St. Gregory ] set at nought. It wa sagreed tha t Chri stma s be ce lebrated on December 25th
,and the sa ints’
days on the ir respective d ates,a lso tha t water should be used in the
cha l ice in the ce lebration of Ma ss .
”
Hetum’
s fourth brother, Och in, wa s informed of
OCHIN, KING the he inous a ssa ss ination by a messenge r from the
OF ARMENIA governor Of Anazarbus,and rush ing to the spot he
1 3 08 -1 3 20 drove the Mongols out of Cilicia,pursuing them to
the frontier. On his return he had h imse lf crownedin the Cathed ra l of Tarsus . His rel igious Opinions were not d iffe rentfrom those of Hetum
,consequently he too met with violent Oppos ition
from some of the nobles and the early pa rt of his reign was taken up insubduing the ir revolts .
COINS OF OCHIN, KING OF ARMENIA
Samue l of Ani writes further This yea r 1309-13 10 there a s
sembled a t Sis, the capita l of the kingdom,a la rge number of monks
and clergy,priests and deacons
,doctors and bishops
,together with many
of the people,both men and women
,a ll Opposed to the use of water in
the cha l i ce at Mass and other changes . King Och in wi th the consentof the Pa tria rch and the chief nobles seized a ll these people
,imprisoned
“the doctors in the fortress and put to death very many men and womentogether with some of the clergy and dea cons . He then pa cked the monksonto a vessel
,and exi led them to Cyprus , where most of them d ied .
”
( 1 ) Op . cit” p . 466.
( 1) from Pope John XXII to permi t the marriage of the youthful sovereign to his cous in Al ice, the daughter of the Count. The latter ma rried
about the same time Queen Joan, the
“widowof the Count of Tyre .
COINS OF LEO IVKING OF ARMENIA
Once more the Pope interceded and
pleaded for Armenia to king Ph i lip V of
France (June 22, l ikewi se to the Mogul Khan of Persia (July 4,The la tter sent twenty thousand Ta rta rs to Leo’s a ssistance .
Sultan Ma lek-eu-N‘
a scer thus threa tened consented to a peace trea ty to
la st fifteen yea rs in considera tion of an annua l tribute of fifty thousandgold florins
,plus one ha lf of the customs revenues of the port of Aias and
one ha lf of the proceed s of the sa le of sa lt to foreigners. On these termshe withdrew his troop s from Armenia .
The western world ’s concern for Armenia waned, however, more and
more . All the Pope ’s end eavors to sta rt a new Crusad e were fruitless.
Phi l ip VI of Va lois sent ten thousand gold bezants and la ter on one
thousand florins, but the only monarch to make an a l l iance wi th Leo I I Iwa s Hugh IV
,king Of Cyprus. Leo’s terri tory sti l l suffered from ou
slaughts by the Mos lems notwithstand ing the treaty signed by the Sultan.
( 1 ) Vatican arch ives. Reg . Epist. commun. an V. part II . fol . 205 . 1326.
The Mos lem deva stations went on un
cea singly ; i f the Tartars from Iconium werenot ra id ing the country, the Mamelukes inthe ir turn were sowing dea th and destruc
tion in Cilicia . The Armenian nobles shutthemse lves up in the ir ca st les, and a s soon
a s the storm wa s over,they resumed thei r
feud s wi th their neighbors and with the irking.
Furthermore, the young Armen
ian king deserved l ittle cons iderationpersona lly
,for he wa s gui lty Of crimes
of a ll sorts . On January 26th,1329,
be caused the a rrest and death of the
Regent Och in and his brother the Constable Constantine and to curry favorwith his most formidable enemies
,he
sent the head of the former to Ma leken-Na scer and of the la tter to the Mo
gul Khan Abou-Said . Th is doublemurder wa s shortly a fterwa rds fol
lowed by tha t of his own wife whomhe killed in a fit of anger on the
grounds tha t she had been unfa ithfulto him. The nineteen year old selfmade widower married in 13 3 3 the
daughter of Frederi ck II of S ici ly,
Constance E leonora, the widow of
LEO IV ADMINISTERING JUSTICE
Henry I I of Cyprus. F ina l ly on August 28th,1341
,Leo h imself suc
cumbed to the a ssa ss ins’ daggers,a fter experiencing fresh defeats by the
Mamelukes and swea ring on the sacred gospels “tha t he would have no
further re la tions wi th the Latins .
”
Leo’
s l ife undoubted ly covers him with Obloquy,but h i story should not
pa ss so severe a condemna tion on th is ruler a s i t would on a king l iving ina d ifferent environment and under the ca re of a upright regent. His
guard ian,Och in
,took over a ll the roya l a ttributes
a s soon a s the former king d ied,and proceeded
to make h imse lf ha ted for his inord ina te pride
and insa tiable lust for power. One and a ll had
to cringe to his fancy . He put to dea th or exi led
any who did not bow to his will, and I sabe l, kingOchin
’s s ister and the widow of Amaury of Ln
ESCUTCHEONS OF s ignan,wa s strangled a t his orders . Four of
TARSUS Isabel’ s five chi ldren who l ived in Armenia were
a rrested at the same time a s their mother ; the
two e ldest,Hugh and Henry
,were poi soned
,and the two others driven
out of Armenia . The cruelties of the Count of Gorigos made him hated
by most of the nobles and especia l ly by the king whom as his ward he
treated most harshly. Leo incensed at his uncle ’ s behavior to him took
vengeance,and rid h imself of a mentor whose yoke became so intolerable.
Th is first crime dul led his conscience and was the forerunner of further
misdeed s .
Jean Dardel wri tes : ( 1 ) When the a foresa id B a ron Ossin had ma r
ried the Lady Joan of Naples he wa s so cruel tha t a ll who had been
hosti le to him he caused to be sla in or driven from the c ountry. AmongOthers he caused to be murdered by strangling the a foresa id LadyI sabel
,the s i ster of the late King Och in. Her four ch i ldren were im
prisoned,and two of them put to death, name ly Sir Hugh, whom he
caused to be poi soned, and Sir Henry. The la tter a sked for the love Of
God a l ittle water, whereupon he had him given urine to d rink . And
the other two,namely
,Sir John and Sir E smon at the prayer of some
of the nobles he took out of pri son and had them put out to sea on a
boa t so tha t they should d ri ft wherever they might. These two reached
the i s land of Rhodes and the Knights Hospita lers rece ived them kind lyand they rema ined there three years . Fol lowing a ll of wh ich, the a fore
sa id Ba ron Ossin gave his own daughter Aa lips [Al ix ] in marriage to
the aforesa id King Leo the Fourth,who wa s a minor and under his
guard ianship .
It must be remembered tha t in a ll the La tin courts of the East,and
unfortunate ly a lso in European courts,there reigned at the time consider
able lawles sness . Assass ination wa s a usua l politica l weapon; at Byzantium
,Ca iro
,and a ll the As ia tic cities intrigue
,murder
,poi soning
,were
the order of the day. Vengeance wa s a ssuaged by horrible massacres,
human l ife counted for naught e ither with the Chri stians or the Mos lems .
No one wa s sure of his l i fe for the morrow,and those who held the i r own
l ives so cheap were a ll the more ind ifferent to the fate of others .
KING OF ARMENIA, An important event took pla ce at the
GUY OF LUS IGNAN dea th of Leo IV As th is king had no
( CONSTANTINE 11 ) ma le he ir he named a s his successor the th i rd
1 3 42-1 3 44 son of his s i ster Isabel,Guy of Lus ignan
,his
nea rest kinsman,who at the time of the mur
d er of his mother and brothers had been in sa fety wi th the Greeks. Con
sequently the crown of Cilicia pa ssed from the Armenian princes to a
French fami ly Of nobles, and the kingdom of Armenia thus became a coun
( l ) Chap. XXIII .
about to exist between Armenia and the
kings of Cyprus and the western powers,
the Mos lems ca l led for payment of the an
nua l dues pa id them by Leo. Guy haughti ly re fused , whereupon wa r fla red up aga in.
The new king who re igned a s Constantine I Iuphe ld his reputation for va lor
,and during
COIN OF GUY OF LUSIGNAN the two years of his reign ( 1342 he
(CONSTANTINE II ) prevented any Moslem encroachment on hisfrontiers .
Guy wa s of the Opinion, however, l ike Hetum and most of his predecessors
, tha t the best po l icy for the Armenians, i f they were to rece ivefrom the western world the a ss istance they so absolutely needed
,was to
adopt the Roman way of worsh ip . Two amba ssadors were sent to Avigncn
,and the king ca lled together a ll the ch ief d igni taries of the Armenian
Church to d iscuss the manner in wh ich the union might be brought about.These negotiations a roused the ire of some of the nobles who were a lreadyvery vexed by the king’s determina tion not to purcha se peace from the
Mos lems by abandoning terri tory. The ma lcontents stirred up a riot inwhich the king was s la in together wi th three hundred Franki sh guard smen whom G’uy had brought with him to Armenia . Great pity it wa s“for Christendom, the dea th of so good a prince
,for he was brave and
va lorous and very enterpri sing.
”
When the good king Guy d e Lissignan re igned in Armenia,he
governed the country with pui ssance, va l iancy, and sovere i gnty. He
loved and served God with a ll his hea rt, and upheld and defend ed the
common cause wi th a ll his power,and the country ’s freedom d id he
most d i l igently protect, without paying any truce-money whatever to
the infidels . Without respite he wi thstood his foes and took the fieldaga inst them very frequently. And because some Armenians were of
the Opinion that he overworked them and too often took them into ba ttle,a great number of them gathered together and arming themse lves proceeded to the place where the ir natura l l iege, Guy, wa s wi th his brotherSir Bemon de Lisegnan, Count of Courch . And without giving themany wa rning, they ki l led them,
putting them to death feloniou sly and“t reacherously
,fa lse ly. and without cause, and wi th them a very
,large
number ofmen-at-a rms whom he had brought with his company from the
Western Country to protect the land of Armenia . And those Armeniansa lso ki lled a priest belonging to the king’s hou sehold, whi le he was
chanting the Mass. All this they did in one day in the city of Adenez
[Adana ] . ( 1 )The nobles elected Constantine ( 1344
CONSTANTINE III the eldest son of Ba ldwin of Neghir,KING OF ARMENIA who had d ied in 13 3 6 in the pri son-house of
1 3 44 1 3 63 the Emir of Aleppo. For the first time the
kingdom of New Armenia chose a ruler outs ide of the baronia l house of Hetum. The new monarch wa s, however,rela ted to the roya l dyna sty by his marriage with Mary
, the daughter of
the Regent Ochin and Joan of Anjou .
The first act of thi s sovereign wa s infamous . He confiscated the
property of Soldane, the wi fe of John of Lu s ignan,and her chi ld ren Bo
hemon and Leo,aged five and two years respectively
, and shut up the
princess and the two l ittle boys on the i sland of Gorigos where he attemptedto ki l l them by send ing them poisoned honey. Fa i l ing in thi s
,he ordered
the three captives to be d rowned . Soldane wa s warned fortunately and
escaped with her two ch i ldren to Cyprus, where she placed herse lf underthe protection of Hugh IV Of Lus ignan.
COINS OF CONSTANTINE III OF ARMENIA
Meanwhi le negotiations with the Pope continued, and Guy’s delegates were sti l l at Avignon when tha t king wa s a ssa ssina ted . Constantine had hard ly ascended the throne when at the request of Pope Clement
V I’
s legate, he summoned a new
Counci l a t Sis wh ich a s
sembly d iscussed the one hun
dred and seventeen errors im
puted to the Armenians and set
forth in a Memorandum pre
sented to Bened ict XII . Oncemore
,the Armenians agreed to
accept all the stipulations Of theHoly See . COIN OF DIEUDONNE OF GOZON
During thi s time,Armenia
( 1 ) Jean DARDEL, chap . XXXIX.
had sti l l to fight aga inst its age-long enemies and once more lost the port ofAia s . Things were becoming more cri tica l every day, but no power inEurope intervened in beha lf of the Armenians notwi thstand ing the te
peated entreaties of Pope ClementVI . Through the support of the
G rand Ma ster of Rhod es,Dieu
donné of Gozon,Aia s was restored
to Constantine,but towards the end
of the s ame yea r, the port wa s
blockaded and captured by the
Egyptian fleet,and the Turcomans
PETER I, KING OF CYPRUS of Iconium,who were a lready in
possess ion of Phrygia,ma rched on
Ta rsus . At this time the kings of France and England had j ust s igned a
two—yea rs ’ truce, and Phi l ip VI d ied the same yea r Edwa rd I I Iturned a dea f ea r to the appea ls of the Holy See wh ich
,a lthough sti l l
involved in the re l igious problems with the Armenians,continued to a ss i st
Constantine wi th frequent subs id ies. Whi le the church d iscuss ions draggedon
, the d istance between Sis and Avignon making them extremely lengthy,
Mos lem attacks on Armenia went on re lentlessly. In 13 59 Sultan A1Me lek—en-Na scer Ha ssan’s army invaded Cilicia
,took Sis
,Adana
,Tarsus
,
and a ll the lowlands, sta tioned ga rrisons there and carried off an enormous quantity of booty to Aleppo. On top of thi s the Moslems Of Karaman came and bes ieged Go rigos (Curco) , whi ch wa s del ivered by Peter Iof Cyprus .
The Cypriots thereupon a rmed a fleet of one hundred and forty-sixga l leys which was joined by the nava l forces of the Knights of Rhodes
and those Of the Pope . In command of th is impos ing navy,Pete r I of
Lusignan captured Sa ta l ia and achieved a few other succe sses,but con
sidering that the Ea stern La tins were not numerous enough to be a ma tchfor the ir enemies
,he decided to go to Western Europe and a sk for re
inforcements, and accord ingly set sa i l for Venice. He took with him Bo
hemon Of Lus i gnan,the son of John and nephew of the la te king Guy
whom one Armenian party wanted for the ir king. It wa s Peter’s intention to have Bohemon crowned by the Pope, but th is prince d ied at Veniceat the age of twenty-four. By reason of th is death, Peter might havela id cla ims to the crown of Sis
,but the king of Cyprus wa s concerned with
more far-rea ch ing ma tters ; his endeavor was to bring about a new Cru
sade. John the Good , at the urgent prayer of Urban V took the cross
Et que convenant li tenist,Et venist a tout son effortPour l i fa ire a ide et confort,Car il est venus comme amisEinsi comme il l i a promis .Quand ce vint au ch ief des VI I IAu roy ennuia l i séjours,Pour cc que le roy d
’Ermenie
Par devers lui ne venoit mie,
Et pour l’iver qui aprochoit
(Translation
There the good King,whom God help,
Awa ited the King of ArmeniaAnd sent to him his messengersAnd commanded them on leavingTha t they tel l him tha t he come
,
And that he keep his agreement,And come with a ll his mightTo give him a id and comfort
,
For he wa s come a s his friendAs indeed he had promi sed him.
When i t came to the end of 8 days,
The King wea ried of his wa i tingB ecause the King Of ArmeniaDid not come to help him,
And be cause of the approaching winter
The king of Cyprus thereupon returned to th e West in search of
fresh subs id ies and troops,and wh i le he wa s at Venice an Armenian de
putation a rrived to offer him the crown. Setting sa i l for Cypru s on September 28th
,1368
,he wa s intend ing to cross over into Cilicia and be
crowned when he wa s assass inated on January 16th,1369
,at Nicos ia,
by some nobles whom,i t wa s sa id
,he had offended by treating them d is
da infully. Armenia meanwhi le wa s aga in the prey of Moslem bands
from Egypt,Syria
,and As ia Minor.
( 1 ) Guil laume de MACHAUT. La Prise d ’Alexaudrie.
The chronicler wri tes
After the dea th of the king,Constant [Constantine I I I ] the tyrant,
the Armenians chose another king,son of Ba ron Heyton who wa s named
Constant [Cons tantine IV] . They d id not e lect him king on a ccountof noble birth but because Of wea lth, for he wa s of ba se-born Cypriotextra ction ; and because the kingdom Of Armenia wa s Oppressed by the
Infidels,he sent word to the king of Cyp rus of whose house he wa s tha t
i t should plea se him to rece ive him in his kingdom free ly,him and a ll
h is estate, and tha t he should do with the kingdom of Armenia entirelyaccord ing to his good plea sure . When King Peter hea rd the peti tion
of King Constant of Armenia , he coveted the Se igneury the reof forhimself ; he kept the a foresa id letters from the Ho ly Fa ther [giving thecrown to Prince Leo of Lus ignan] and d id not show or hand them to
the sa id Sir Leo. But God willed tha t he be frustra ted in his intentand d id not a l low him to transfer to Cyprus a ll the roya l wea lth Of wh ichhe had stri pped the kingdom and robbed from the people ’s possessions ,for th e Infidels then occupied the ports [excepting Gorighos ] . And a lsoin the meantime King Peter of Cyprus wa s s la in by his barons and
va ssals. Thus i t behooved King Constantine to rema in in Armeniaaga inst his wi ll .”
COINS OF CONSTANTINEOF ARMENIA
257
Constantine IV seemed,moreover
,to
have taken l i ttle interest in his kingdom’
s
we lfare and to have made no effort to
d e l ive r his country from Moslem depreda
tion. The chronic lers figure him a s a ty
rant,a kind of interloper who abandoned
the government to Queen Ma ry (M iriam) ,the wife of the late king Constantine I I I .
Th i s princess sent emba ss ies to her uncle
Ph i l ip of Ta ranto, the Emperor of Con
stantinople, and to Pope G regory XI . Th ela tter stirred up a ll Europe in his des ire to
he lp the Armenians .
Unfortunately the Latin cause in the
Ea st wa s irretrievably ruined by a d i spute
wh ich broke out among the Chri stians. The
upset occurred on the is land of Cyprus be
tween Venetians and Genoe se over a ques
tion of precedence . The is land wa s la id wa ste and condemned to paysequins to the Genoese . F ina lly
,on January 12th
,1372
,Peter I I
wa s crowned King of Cyprus a t N icos ia and on the following October12th
,King of Jerusa lem at Famagusta .
Leo,I sabe l of Armenia ’s only surviving g rand
LEO V son,had been brought up in Cyprus . Pope Urban
OF LUS IGNAN V had suggested as early a s 13 65 tha t he should have
KING OF the Armenian crown,but various schemings had kept
ARMENIA him from leaving the Cyprus court. On severa loccas ions a fter Peter I’s death
,he refused the throne
when Offered to him. At la st,however
,upon the
a ssa ss ination of Constantine IV by his subjects (Apri l Prince Leoyielded to the entrea ties of the ba rons, the clergy, Queen Mary
,and
Queen Joan,and a ccepted the crown. The s ituation wa s desperate
,and
the be l ls tha t rang for the new sovere ign’
s corona tion sounded in factthe knel l of the la st Armenian kingdom.
Even before Constantine IV ’
s a ssa ss ination,the insurgent ba rons had
g iven the regency to QueenMa ry. A letter from Pope Gregory XI (da tedFebrua ry l st
,13 72 ) to Ph i lip I I I of Ta ranto
,the titula r emperor of
Constantinople,bea rs th is out. I t reads :
“Ma ry,Queen of Armenia
,
“niece of Ph i l ip of Ta ranto
,a sks the Pope to come to her a ss istance aga inst
the Mos lems who a re greatly endangering her country ; she ha s sentJohn
,the B ishop of Sis
,a s her amba ssador to the Holy See
,and the
la tter exp resses the desire tha t the Queen should find a husband among
the La tin nobles able to defend and govern Armenia . The Pope urgesJohn
,Prince of Antioch and Regent Of Cyprus
,a lso the Venetians
,the
Genoese and the Knights of Rhod es to he lp the Armenians . He de signates Otto of B runswick a s having a ll the qua l ities tha t would fit him
to become Ma ry ’s husband in the present circumstances .
The Pope’s letter wa s not a cted upon. Thereupon Queen Mary
de spa tched to Pe te r 11 of Cyprus a knight. Lyon Hamoncy, and two
citizens of Sis bearing a letter of wh ich the sub stance ha s been preservedfor us by Jean Da rdel : (2)
( I ) RAYNALDI, ann. 1 3 72, part XXX.
(2 ) ch ap . LIII .
258
the campa ign aga inst the Ita l ians and to
a rrange for a provi siona l government inArmenia cons isting of Queen Ma ry
, Phemya , Constantine
’s s ister
,Bohemond
,Count
of Gorigos, and Baron Ba s i l, the son of
B a ron Thoros . The future king’s ma in eu
xiety wa s how to increa se the financia l te
COIN OF PETER II sources of the kingdom. Th is concern is
OF CYPRUS ea sy to understand in view of the need of
ra i s ing an army to meet the Mos lems,but
even Jean Da rdel’s memoirs wh ich were mostly wri tten at roya l d icta tionra ther show tha t Leo looked to the ma in chance in his persona l affa irs .
The de legate s returned to Armenia by the port of
LEO V Gorigos, the only one that had not fa l len to the Infide ls.AT CYPRUS They were accompanied by the knight Constant
,Leo
’
s
equerry,a lso by Manue l the interpreter
,who were both
entru sted wi th the duty of a ttend ing to the need s of the roya l Treasury .
When they arrived outside Sis, they had to cross the l ines of Beydemur,governor of Damascus
,who wa s bes ieging the capita l but who wi thdrew
soon a fter,
find ing h imse l f unable to take it.
VIEW OF THE CITY AND CASTLE OF GORIGOS
Ma tters were meanwh i le becoming worse for Peter 11 and Leo in
Cyprus. The Genoese succeeded by stratagem in se izing the ci ty OfFamagusta
,and having got possess ion of the rest of the i s land they de
manded from the inhabitants the huge sum of ducats as wa r
indemnity,plus interest at the fantastic ra te of 60 per cent, bes ides the
persona l levies exacted for the ir own account by the Ita l ian commanders.Leo was ca l led on to pay the conquerors s i lver bezants, equa l to280 pound s of gold . His s i lverware
,crown
,and wardrobe were taken
and only restored h im on payment of three hundred ducats. In add ition,
the Genoese admira l,Pietro de Campo Fregoso, the brother of Domenico,
the Doge, kept'
for h imse lf the fine st jewel in the roya l crown, a ruby, and
extra cted a promise of gold florins to be pa id him la ter. So much
for Genoa’
s obed ience to the Pope l Throughout the wa rs of the Cru
saders whether aga inst the
Mos lems or the G reeks, the
Genoe se and Venetians had
the i r eye only on profit. Sometimes they gave a l ittle ass istance to the ir Latin brethren,but only a s a bus iness pol icy .
Now tha t the Christian causewa s i rretrievably lost in the
Ea st,they had no further rea
son to reta in the ma sk.
The Cypriots,ground
down by the extortions of the
Genoese and of the ir rule rPeter 11 together with Peter’ s mothe r Ca therine of Aragon, managed to
mee t the grievous demands on them,but Leo a fter surrendering a ll he had ,
wa s obliged to appea l to the Armenian trea sury at Sis to help him out
of the plight he wa s in through none of his own seeking. B efore leaving, hehad yet to give up to Ca therine of Aragon his wife’ s fief with its yearlyrevenue of gold bezants
,and a lso to undertake not to set foot
ins ide the Ca stle of Gorigos, on the coast of As ia , a lthough i t had been
ceded to the Armenians by the king of Cyprus . He wa s to occupy only
the ca stle out at sea on an is landsome d istance from the port. In
this preca rious s i tuation, strippedby the Genoese and his own Lusig
nan fami ly of the funds tha t hemos t urgently need ed
,the new king
of Armenia landed on the shores of
his kingdom on Ea ster Sunday,Apri l 2ud, 1374 . Leo wa s forcedto concea l his resentment both fromCyp rus and the Genoese
,for they
THE PORT OF GORIGOS a lone could furnish him the means
to take the field and seize Ta rsus,
TOMBSTONE AT NICOSIA
which fortress wa s ga rrisoned by no more than three hund red Mame lukes .
He sold his s i lverwa re and his wi fe ’s crown to money-lenders, and on te
ceipt of the proceed s the King of Cyprus sent him one hundred sold iers,men-a t-arms or cross-bowmen
,under the French equerry Soh ier Doul
ca rt,a Genoese mercena ry . These and a few cross-bowmen and archers
whom he recruited at Gorigos made up the sma l l army with wh ich Leohoped to be a ma tch for the Infid
'
els . The Genoese admira l,even though
he had accepted the sums of money sent him,refused to supply the king
VIEW OF THE CASTLE OF GORIGOS
wi th sh ip s to a ttack Ta rsus by way of the river,because of the bus iness
a ll iance wh ich the G enoese have with the Sa racens .
”(“pour cause de
l’a liance que les Jennevois ont avecque s les S arra s ins pour le fa i t de leurs
The poor young king’s d ifli culties had only just begun. Thinkinghe could confide his plans to the Commandant at Gorigos who wa s an
Armenian,Leo wa s treacherously betrayed
,for the former notified the
Moslem g overnor of Tarsus and made Peter I I and the Genoese’ bel ieve
that Leo was gathering an a rmy in order to cross over tO'
Cyprus and
fight for John of Lus ignan,Prince Of Antioch, aga inst his nephew
,the
King of Cyprus. Leo had not a moment to lose, for the Genoe se ga l leyswould certa inly soon a rrive to take him prisoner. He sent his motherand wife to the ci ty Of Gorigos and he h imse lf left the i s land where hehad rema ined a s he had promi sed
,se tting out at midnight with a few
men. He landed over seventy-five mi les from Gorigos, nea r the mouthof the Adana river. His knight Doulcart joined him on the followingday with twenty-five horsemen and an equal number of cross-bowmen.
262
two messengers on horseback to the city Of Sis, to the Queen and citizens,to acqua int them with his a rriva l . ( 1 )
Preceded by the Cathol icos, pre la tes, and nobles,a crowd of citizens
came out with mus ic and dancing to we lcome the ir king. They weretransported wi th joy, for they had become so utterly d iscouraged that a
number of people were thinking of revolting and ki lling the members of
the Regency, and then surrendering the city to the Infid els .
One hundred and fifty a rmed men,sent out four days la ter by the
king’s orders to the mouth of the river Se ihan,brought ba ck his mother
and the Queen as fa r a s Anazarbus without encountering the enemy. Un
fortunately because oi the unwillingness of the people of Go rigos to
supply means of transport for the Latins who had accompanied the two
princesses to tha t city, many of them could not leave . The princesses withthe ir sui te left Anaza rbus about noon and a rrived about a league fromSis a l i ttle before nightfa ll.
“When the a foresa id Lad ies and the ir company were one lea gu eaway from Sis
,they sent word to my Lord Leo who immed ia tely had
the trumpets sound a ca l l to a rms,and he a rmed h imsel f and ordered
his F rench and Armenian men-a t-a rms tha t had rema ined with him,so
to do. Then went out my Lord Leo and h is company to meet the Lad ies,and there fol lowed him a ll the people in a grea t process ion
,each wi th
a torch in his hand . And when they had met the Lad ies, they we lcomedthem with grea t joy and grea t festivi ty. And when night fe ll
,they lit
the ir torches of wh ich there were so many tha t they extended from one
end of the city to the other,a lmost one league in length .
After enjoying for a few days his happy a rriva l, _Leo
,who wa s wor
ried over the low esta te his unfortuna te kingdom had fa llen into, and who
had long been cheri sh ing thought-out plans for reorganizing it,enqu ired
concerning the sta te of the Trea sury. B es id es the roya l a ssets,i t wa s
supposed to conta in ducats which had been p revious ly offered
him. Grea t wa s his d i sappointment when he found tha t the Treasurywa s empty and tha t a ll tha t wa s left in it
,accord ing to Da rdel, wa s a
crown. In va in d id they t ry to expla in to him tha t the Regency had beencompe lled not only to buy Off the Moslems with money but to appea se
l ikewise the leaders of factions with in the city of Sis itself. The king wa snot satisfied with these excuse s
,and on looking over the a ccounts show
( 1 ) Jean DARDEL, ch ap . LXXII.( 1 ) Jean DARDEL, ch ap . LXXV.
ing the d isbursements he cons idered them excess ive . Thereupon, a cting
on the denuncia tion of the pre la tes, the ba rons, and the people, he threwinto pri son Ma riam
,the widow of Constantine I I I and Baron Bas i l, a s
responsible for the Regency ’s extravagances . It wa s his intention, how
ever,to pardon them gene rously on the day of his coronat ion.
Leo wanted to be crowned by a Roman bishop ,CORONATION but th i s decis ion caused so much d iscontent that i tOF LEO V wa s agreed to have a double ceremony
,the Latin
ritua l to be followed by the Armenian. The coro
na tion took place in the church of St . Sophia at Sis on September 14th,13 74. Queen Marguerite of So i ssons wa s crowned with the same
ceremonia l .
Thi s double corona tion wa s a very serious mistake pol i tica lly, for
the Armenians who were a s exclus ive a s the Byzantines in the ir rel i gious
bel iefs,looked on the Ca thol ic ceremony a s an insult to the Gregorian
ri tual,and the ir d iscontent took form later in betraya l .
The trea sury wa s empty,the country ruined, the enemy held every
province and every city,except Anaza rbus and Sis and a few ca stles
a round those two places . The army of the young Egyptian Sultan,Mel ik
cl-Ashra f Cha aban,ruled uncha llenged in the grea ter pa rt of Cilicia , and
two Turcoman ch iefs,Daoudba sh and Bukabir (Abu-B ekr) occupied the
suburbs of Sis with e leven thousand men under each of them. These
barba rians,however
,d id not show hosti li ty to the Armenians ; their
clemency went even so fa r a s to supply the capita l and the ne ighboringca stles with the food they required . Daoudba sh sent presents to Leoon the day he wa s crowned , and the king of Armenia th inking it wouldbe ea sy to dea l wi th th i s intruder
,sent him gifts in return a ccompanied by
prel iminary steps towa rds renewing the truce on the old terms. The
king wa s reckoning,however
,wi thout his own subj ects .
Not only d id these tragic days not prevent the ma lcontents amongthe Armenians from ra is ing the questions of ritua l on the coronation day,but these same people del iberate ly brought on war by making fa lse te
ports to Daoudba sh . For three months Sis wa s bes ieged . The Latincross-bowmen caused
,however
,so many losses to the Turcomans who
fought wi thout body-a rmor,tha t Daoudba sh renewed the old agreement
by wh ich he undertook to supply Sis with its food requirements in returnfor tribute payment.
There wa s l iving in Ca iro at this t ime an Armenian renegade named
265
Ashot. Th is man wa s a son of Ba ron Och in and brother of Constantine
III’s widow. The Armenian pa rty Opposed to the Lusignans, cla iming
that Ashot had a right to the crown, urged him to come with an Egyptian
a rmy and take possess ion of his dominion.
The Turcoman ch ief Bukabir,who wa s more or les s
S IEG’
E OF under Ca iro’
s ord ers,wa s a t Ashot
’
s request given in
S IS structions to reduce Sis by hunger,and on the pretence
tha t he had not rece ived the tribute to wh ich he wa sentitled
,he stopped send ing in food suppl ies . At the same time
,Leo’ s
enemies were secretly Ofl ering to de l iver the city to the Infidels . Wa rned
by his spies tha t the pla ce wa s about to be a ttacked the king gatheredthe popula tion into the fortified upper pa rt of the city
,and a lso into the
Ca stle .
The lower city surrounded by a wa l l tha t had not been long erectedd id not seem l ike ly to Offer adequa te res istance
,wherea s the roya l pa lace
wa s protected by a fortified ence inte,proof aga inst any surprise atta ck
and spacious enough to shelter a pa rt of the population. This ence intetook in
,bes ides the pa lace
,va rious other ed ifices includ ing the Cathed ra l
Church of St . Soph ia . Jean Da rdel ca lls this portion of the city “the bourg”.
Strong fortificat ions stood quite h igh up on the rock overlooking the city ;these constituted the “cha ste l” of which V. Langloi s ( 1 ) gives the following brief description :
“The Sis-Ka less i is ova l-shaped ; i t has three gates,“three enceintes
,and encloses various bui ld ings . On account of the shape
of the rock i t is bui lt upon,the ca stle wa lls a re irregu lar and unequa l in
he ight. The fortress is flanked by towers and ba stions . Owing to the
i rregular shape of its structures,the ca stle is d ivided into three pa rts
ba sed on each of the three ch ief summi ts of the rock. Empty spacessepa rate these d ifferent constructions
,which a re nevertheless intercon
nected by paths hewn in the rock and skirting the cliffs. The southern“s ide where stood the keep wa s more ca reful ly fortified than any other
point of the fortress .
”
On Janua ry 15th,13 75
,Bubakir with fi fteen thousand men captured
the lower pa rt of Sis , wh ich wa s sacked,but the upper city and the ca stle
rema ined imp regnable .
Accord ing to Jean Da rdel (2 ) whose testimony cannot be cons ideredimpa rtia l
,the re then ensued a most abominable piece of treachery.
’
Those
( 1 ) Voyage en Cil ic ie , p . 3 84 .
they could reach on the steep rocky cliffs was the leve l space in front Ofthe fortress ga te . The bes ieged put up a vigorous res i stance ; the king himself wa s shooting with his cross-bow when he wa s struck by an iron miss i le wh i ch broke his jaw and tore away three of his teeth . Leo withd rewins ide the ca stle to have his injury d ressed
,wh i le the Sa racens who had
suffered much loss a lso returned to the ir tents . (2 )That same evening Se i f-ed-Din sent the Chri stian mona rch a letter
informing him :“Tha t the Sultan his Lord had sent him word to let him
“
[Leo ] know tha t i f he consented to surrender the ca stle and become a
Saracen,he
, the Sultan would make him his Grand Admira l and restorehim his whole country . Leo repl ied in a worthy manner
,tha t he wa s
determined to d ie rather than deny his God,and he offered to pay tribute
to the Sultan a s in the pa st i f the siege were ra i sed and his posses sions re
stored to him
Th is reply angered the Moslems,and they made severa l further at
tempts to take the ca stle by storm,but without success . (2 ) Meanwh i le
,
however,the tra itors were busy communica ting with Sei f-ed-Din, tel l ing
him of the king’s injury and serious cond it ion and informing him thathunger would soon compe l the opening of the gates. (3 )
Not content with scheming with the enemy,the leaders Of the sed ition,
find ing the king adamant to the ir trea cherous counsels, decided to do awaywi th him. The Ca thol icos
,B a ron B a si l
,and King Constantine’s widow
(who had ma rried the Cyprus knight Ma tthew Cappe and wa s herselfthe s ister of the renegade Ashot) incited Cappe, by a lluring promises
,to
commi t th i s deed . Th is tra i tor turned aga inst the king some of the sol
d iers who were from Cyp rus,and with them during the night broke into
the castle-keep where Leo dwelt. The Armenian guards were ma ssacredto a man.
“When the king, who lay so i ll on his bed tha t he wa s he lples s“by rea son of the wound from the proj ecti le
,hea rd the a ssault
,he made
an effort and took his coa t of ma i l and armed h imself a s best he could .
With him in h is bed-chamber were two Armenian knights and one Greekcross-bowman who wa s the chief engineer and wa s named Costa de Les
mirre. When these three hea rd the attackers breaking down the door of
the king’s room wi th ha tchets to get inside and ki l l the king and th em
selves, the Greek took the king and t ied him to a strong rope and let him
( 2 ) Jean DARDEL, chap. XCIII.( 1 ) Jean DARDEL, chap . XCIV.
( 2 ) Id ., chap. XCV.
( 3 ) Id ., chap. XCVI .
‘
down by a privy to the second ca stle, they a ll three following a fterhim. (4)The king took refuge with Queen Mary and found his knight Doul
ca rt,who knew nothing Of the plot of the La tin mercena ries . He informed
those in the ca stle of the a ttempt on his l ife wh ich he had just escaped ,and fea ring for the queen and her ch i ld ren imprisoned in the keep
,he
Offered to pa rdon the insurgents . The la tter would not listen,and a fight
consequently ensued . Four times the loya l Armenians tried to take the
keep and ea ch time they were repe lled
Meanwhi le the rebe ls were letting the enemy in
S IS by means of ropes,and a few Mos lems had a lready
TAKEN BY joined them when a Jacobite fria r who had accom
THE MOSLEMS panied the bishop Of Heb ron to Sis and was then in
the keep,fea rful of having to emb ra ce I s lam,
se
cretly let in a number of Armenians who got possess ion of the fort.Thereupon the Ca thol icos and the other conspira tors sti rred up the
people aga inst the king,and persuaded the Armenians to surrend er the
ca stle to the Mos lems . They a ll forsook the ir sovere ign and,breaking
down the ga tes,let the enemy in. Leo
,suffering from his injury and
stretched on his bed,had with him only his wife and ch i ld ren and the
fa i thful knight Soh ier Doulca rt. A hand ful of sold iers a lone d efendedthe keep wh ich he sti l l he ld . But the ir food wa s
S IS CASTLE exhausted,and in th is terrib le pos ition Leo could
CAPITULATES Offer no further res i stance . He a ccepted the decree
1 3 5 7 of Fa te,and sent a message to the Mos lem lead er.
Fol lowing a ve ry courteous exchange of letters,
Ishki-Timur sent the king a sa fe—conduct. He wrote : “W e do grant him“th i s letter
,tha t he may come down from the Keep and surrender i t to
‘
the mighty Sultan,and then p roceed whereve r he plea se . The safe
‘ conduct is for him,his queen
,the ir ch i ld ren and a lso for his persona l
belongings and sui te,so tha t he may be respected and honored by a ll.
”
But the poor king had sl ight trust in the Victor’s word . He made his
confess ion, hea rd ma ss,and took communion ; then ha rd ly able to wa lk,
with his head completely bandaged,he came down from the keep fol
lowed by his fami ly . Th i s wa s Ap ri l 13 th,13 75
,less than ten months
(4) Jean DARDEL, chap. XCV II.( 5 ) Je an DARDEL, ch ap . XCIX.
after King Leo V of Lusignan had left the is land of Cyprus and set foot
on Armenian so i l .The Sultan offered to restore him his kingdom provided he embra ced
I slam. Leo refused with d ignity. He wa s offered one of the
ca stles in Ci licia to l ive in, but he d eclined , rea l izing tha t with in a few
years the Moslems would get rid of him. He thought of going to Cypru s,but learning tha t he would be a ssa ss inated on the way, he abandoned the
plan,and threw h imse lf on the mercy of Sultan Ashra f of Egypt.
After his victory over the Chri stians, Ishki-Timur
LEO V’S entered with pomp into Aleppo
,the city en féte, w ith
CAPTIVITY the king and queen of Armenia,their ch i ld ren
,Queen
Ma riam,Soh ier Doulca rt and his wife, the Countess of
Gorigos, the Cathol icos Paul I, the Armenian ba rons and the ch ief citizens of Sis fol lowing behind him. Ins ide the city the prisoners had to
prostra te themselves severa l times before the ir conqueror in the presenceof the inhabitants . F ina l ly
,on May 1st, Leo left Aleppo for Ca iro where
he a rrived on July 9th .
Notwi thstand ing the promise conta ined in the sa fe-conduct deliveredin his name
, the Sul tan refused to a llow Leo to go to Europe . He wa s
a fra id lest he should start a new Crusade,and he therefore kept him at
Ca iro,d ecently trea ted but close ly wa tched .
The king of Cyprus interceded with the Egyptian ruler for Leo’sre lease, but no consent could be obta ined from the counci llors of the new
young Sultan Mel ik-Mansur Ali who had a scended the throne a fter hisfa ther Ashra f Chabaan’s a ssa ss ination (Ma rch l 6th
,Leo wrote
to the Pope , to the Emperor of Constantinople,to the king of France
,
and to other European mona rchs ; some of them a lso interced ed on his
beha lf, but none met with any success .
That same yea r, in July, there a rrived at Ca iro a number of westernpi lgrims
,nobles , knights, equerries, and others bound for S ina i and Jeru
sa lem. Among them wa s a F ranciscan monk named Jean Dardel,a
native of Etampes, and a Grey F ria r of the Province of France .
’
He wa sa sked to say ma ss for King Leo and had a long ta lk with him. Leo nar
ra ted to him a ll his woes and confided to him hopes he sti l l cheri shed,
with the result tha t he induced the fria r to rema in with him. Da rdel
thus became not only the king’ s chapla in but his counci llor and ambassador.
Jean Da rdel d ied before his ma ster,on December 6th
,13 84. The
Bi shop ofTortiboli wa s buried in his fami ly buria l-ground, the chu rchyard
of St. Ba s i l a t E tampes .It is only through Dardel
’
s chronicle that weknow the events of Leo’s brief and drama tic re i gn
,
and the Etampes monk who wrote a s suggested,
even a s d icta ted,by the king
,judges the Armenians
qui te severe ly . If we think,however
, of the fatewi th which the Mame lukes were threatening the
last defende rs of the Chri stian kingdom,or the
hunger they were enduring inside the Ca stle of
Sis,we can ha rdly blame the
“Armins” so harshlya s Da rdel . They certa inly cannot be exonerated ESCUTCHEON ON
Va ltogether, but cons1der1ng the desperat1on theywere in they should be remembered cha ri tably.
Had there been a chronicler among the defenders of Sis,we should prob
ably have had the events re lated to us in quite a d ifferent manner fromtha t of Dardel’s writings
,but unfortuna te ly we have no means of judging
a ccura te ly.
TOMB OF LEO V AT ST. DENIS( from a drawing given by K. J . Ba smadj i an
From the day tha t Rupen ra i sed his standa rd Of revolt unti l that
of the fa l l of the Ca stle of Sis,i .e . during the whole of the three centuries
tha t it lasted,New Armenia had been one perpetua l battle-field . Its cities
and countrys ide were la id wa ste one hundred times by the invad ing Mos
lems . The inhabitants were ma ssa cred and carried away into s lavery,
and the Armenians who had seen a ll the Latin Sta tes in the East fa ll one
a fter the other could only trust in the help of the Almighty. But cou rage
fa i led them.
Apa rt from th is dej ection due to the ir misfortunes,however, there
a re some charges tha t the Armenians cannot be a cqui tted of. Thei r pol i
tica l and religious d issens ions and the ambitions of the barons contributed
272
to th e kingdom’
s downfa ll. In the la tter part of the 14th century the
cla imants to the throne were very numerous,and the rel igious factions
ma inta ined a ll the ir intolerance of old . Leo V a s a La tin Ca thol ic wouldsubscribe to no concession
,and the Ca thol icos, Paul I (Boghos ) , a fra id
lest his church should submit completely and irretrievably to the Pope’srequirements wa s on princip le hosti le to the Lusignan fami ly. All the
clergy and a part of the popula tion,a lso a ma jori ty of the noble s
,sha red
the apprehens ions and resentment of the Ca thol icos . Uni ty in the fa ce of
the Mos lem enemy wa s ab sent among the Armenians,and such wa s un
fortuna tely the ca se throughout the Christian world in the Ea st. At
Byzantium,hatred for the La tins wa s even more intense
,and only in its
dying hours d id the Empire look towa rd s western Europe,when i t wa s
too late.
Neverthe less, th i s sma ll kingdom founded by men from far off in
the Ea st and Europeanized by contact with the Crusaders wrote a hand
some page in the grea t ep ic Of the M idd le Ages . Despite d istu rbancesand wa rs
,amid the grea test peri ls
,the Armenians Of Ci licia devoted
themse lves to l i terature and a rt,bui lt churches
,mona steries
,ca stles and
fortresses,and engaged in commerce . In short
,even throughout the hor
rors of wa r,th is principa li ty showed surpris ing vita l ity. Its downfa l l
wa s caused by the d isa ster tha t befell the Crusaders, but wherea s the
La tins withdrew to the ir western land s the Armenians had to endure for
centu ries the yoke of the ir conquerors . From the time tha t the Westerners
’doma ins were reduced to the is land of Cyprus
,d iscouragement se ized
the Christians of As ia,and the d rama tha t ended the death-throes of the
city of Sis,now that we can view it at a d is tance of five centuries
,deserves
censure less severe than tha t pa ssed by its contempora ry,Da rdel . Mis
takes were made,but i f we compa re the heroi c res istance of the Armenians
for two centuries with the supineness with wh ich most Ea stern Christiansbowed to Is lam’
s yataghan,we cannot but admire this sma ll number of
b rave people,and find the ir faults effaced by the courage they mani fested
up to the la st hour,unti l every hope had faded .
In 13 84 Pope Gregory XIII,in his Bull Eccles ia Romana doe s
signa l justice to the Armenians, and th is homage of the sovere ign Pontiff
should not be forgotten. He wrote : “Among the other meri ts of the
“Armenian na tion a s regards the Church and Christendom
,there is
one that is outstand ing and deserves pa rticularly to be remembered ,name ly
,that when in times past the Christian princes and a rmies went
forth to recover the Holy Land , no nation,no people came to the ir a id
273
‘more speed i ly and with more enthus ia sm than the Armenians, giving
them a ssistance in men, horses, food supplies,and counse l ; with a ll the ir
“might and wi th the greatest bravery and fidel ity,they he lped the Ch ris
tians in those holy wars .
”
SEAL AND SIGNATURE OF KING LEO V OF ARMENIA
The Arab conquest, a lthough it marched under the particula rly ha te
ful banner of rel igion and wa s a ccompanied with unbe l ievable violenceand cruelty
,wa s mi tigated nevertheless by the fa ct that in the ea rly days
of Islam the Mahometans were confronted with the Byzantine Empire,and d ea l ing a s they were wi th Christian inhabitants only
,they were
obliged to Spa re the unbe l ievers to some extent. The speedy triumphsof the followers of the Prophet might a fter a ll be only tempora ry
,for
the empire of Byzantium had not been overthrown l ike tha t of the Pers ian“King of Kings .
” The Ca l iphs behaved , therefore , less ha rshly to the
Chri stians than to the Mazdeans,for the la tter once conquered and sub
dued had no ne ighboring Sta te to wh ich they could look for support.
In any ca se, however, a s rega rds the Chri stians,a ll Mohammedans
,
whether Arab,Turki sh
,or Pers ian
,fol lowed the l ines Of pol icy prescribed
for them in the Koran,wh ich they applied with va rying degrees Of sev
erity, a ccord ing to circumstances and the ir own d iffe ring cha ra cte rs . Theya ll
, throughout the centuries, looked on unbe l ievers a s inferior be ings, andthe ir rea son for not wiping them out to the las t one wa s tha t they neededthe ir labor to cu ltivate the soi l and ca rry out the thousand and one job sthey themselve s were too lazy or too proud to undertake .
Within the Byzantine Empire,Chri stianity had cons iderably softened
the institution of s lavery,wh ich in the western world had taken the form
of serfdom. Among Ea stern peoples,however
,ba rba ri c trad ition rema ined
in a ll its rigor,and the conquered fe l low-be ing became his ma ster’s absol
ute property, might making right .
From the very outset Of Islam,therefore
,the Christian wa s the
Moslem’s s lave ; he wa s the myah or herd
,and even i f not a lways applied
absolutely, th i s p rimord ia l law with the Mohammedans rema ined the
ba s is of the trea tment they infl icted for centuries on those unbe l ievers
unfortuna te enough to fa l l into the ir hands and courageous enough not
to deny the ir fa ith . If the Ch ristian owned land or property,i t wa s only
by tolerance,and his ma sters could a lways take his pos sess ions from him,
even his ch i ld ren,for the ir own good plea sure . The ir wa rrant for such
crue lty they found in the book of the Prophet, the Koran,“a strange
medley of dua l ism and double-dea l ing” wherein the two chapters “Th e
Sword” and“W a r
”give fierce orders to slay with the sword or ens lave
a ll unbel ievers fa l l ing into the hands Of the Fa ithful . These two la stchapters
,d icta ted by Mahomet when his power wa s a ssured
,do not ta l ly
with the instructions he gave at the beginning of his conquests . Then hewrote : “
0 unbe l ievers, i f you do not worsh ip what I worship, keep for
276
yourse lves your re l igion,and I will keep mine for myse lf. These con
tradictions permi t Mos lems to swing a s the ir interest d ictates, from toler
ance to intolerance,,
and whatever the ir treatment of Christians , to be
a lways obed ient to the ir Ma ster’s law.
The Mos lems a l lowed quantities of Greeks,Cha ldeans
,Armenians
,
and Copts to keep their re ligion and language,the ir re l igion because
of the imposs ib i lity of making a posta tes of them a ll,and the i r language
in order tha t the Chri stian should not mingle with the gove rning cla ss,and
that by his na tive tongue and customs he should a lways be conspicuousand despised of the true bel iever, whom he must work for and serve . Thi sgoverning cla ss
,thus re l ieved of having to ea rn the ir da i ly bread
,cou ld
consequently live a pa ra s i tica l l i fe of ea se . This is wha t occurred in
Armenia,Syria
,Greece
,Egypt
,and North
Afri ca as fa r a s Morocco and Spa in,through
out the va st Arab empire . It is sti ll the ca sein Turkish countries
,and would be so today in
Pers ia were i t not tha t th i s country so long
decadent ha s had to bow to the European Pow
ers and not i l l-treat the unbe l ievers dwe llingthere .
Wha t sufferings and humi l ia tion fe l l on
those unfortunates whom crue l fa te threw intothe power of such infamous ma sters ! Ca rrying weapons wa s forbidden to the
“rayahs”,
whethe r Chri stian,Jewish
,Mazdean
,or Man
daean, to a ll who d id not worsh ip Al lah . These
people a ll had to wear specia l c lothing so thatthey might be recognized on s ight
,and ordered
about or i l l-trea ted . The churches of the wor
COIN OF GIORGI III OFshipers of the
.
prophet Issa (Jesus ) with the ir
GEORGIA WITH ALmod est exter1ors, Without steeples or bel ls
,
MOKTAFY were constantly the scene of wicked atta cks,te
( 1254-1284) volting orgies,and frightful crimes, and the
Chri stian had to rema in mute and helple ssin presence of the most infamous sa cri lege and ind ignity.
Not sa tisfied with the ir own crue lties,the Arabs
,Turks
,and Pers ians
gave over Chri stian villages to the most barba ri c of a ll Ea stern peoples,the Kurds. W e have seen in the preced ing pages the behavior of the
Emi rs of Aze rba idjan to the Armenians,and i f now and then the rulers
checked the fury of the Ku rd i stan band its, i t wa s only le st they should be
unable to levy from a deva sta ted Armenia the enormous taxa tion theylived on.
Never did the Mos lem show pity out of kindness or respect
for humanity ; he wa s ever motiva ted by intere st a lone.
Ha tred and contempt for the Chri stian were so anchored 111 the
Mos lem hea rt tha t an unbel iever wa s be l ieved incapable of a good'
deed ,
and his dupl icity caused him to a ttribute to Allah any generous act coin
mitted by a Christian, who mere ly wa s a d ivine ly provided instrument
and not entitled to the Mohammedan’s gra titude , wh ich must go to the
d eity of whom he h imself was the servant.
After the d ownfa ll of the Bagra tid kingdom
TURKISH and the capture of Ani by the Se ljuks,Turki sh rule
RULE extended a s far a s the foot of the grea t Cauca s ian
OF ARMENIA cha in,to the countries wa tered by the Kura and
the Araxes . ( 1) The Armenians,Georgians
,Im
eritians,and Mingrelians fought unceas ingly aga inst the invaders, who
be ing nomads occupied a ll the pasturages of the lowland s, and whosebeys ma inta ined absolute rule in the cities of any s ize . Sometimes the
Ba s i leus of Constantinople sent a few troops,but genera l ly these irregula r
and insufficient a rriva ls only resulted in a trocious rep risa ls a s soon a s
such a ss i stance from the Emperor wa s out of the way aga in. Then
later came the Mogul inva s ion which spread terror anew in Transcau
casia and the Ara ra t country.
The Mongols started from Centra l As ia in the
THE MONGOLS midd le of the 1 1th century and crossed the S iberianIN ARMENIA steppes and the Pers ian tableland
,subduing every
tribe they encountered in the ir onrushing advance .
These conquered peoples were mostly themse lves of Turkish ra ce,and
spoke-Jaga tai . The ir sold iers were constantly added to the Mongol a rmy,
with the result tha t the origina l element wa s gradua l ly lost and when th e
Mongols a rrived in Transcauca s ia there we re ha rd ly any Of the origina lstock left except the ch iefta ins .
In'
1206 Gengh is-Khan began his conquest of As ia . After vanquishing the tribes of the Turcoman steppe
,he destroyed the Mos lem dominion
of Kharesm on the lower Oxus (about He then subdued Khorasan, Pe rs ia , I ra k-Arabi , and northern Ind ia
,bringing to naught in a few
( 1 ) In 1071 the Se ljuks advanced a s far a s the interior o f Cappadocia ; in 1082
the'
Ortok id s took Jerusa lem. and in 1092 the Sel juk empire wa s d ismembe te d l'
— 278
chiefs re igned over the whole country unti l in 13 87 Timur the Lame
(Leng ) captured Grea ter Armenia and founded the second Ta rta r empire .
The name of Tamerlane rema ined a frightful one in the memory of
the Armenians . Th is chief overran the land spread ing death and destruc
tion everywhere . In Siuniq , Ai ra rat, V a spurakan, and Turuberan, bloodflowed in rivers. At V an a ll the inhabitants were thrown from the cliffs
,
and a t Siva s the whole population wa s slaughtered and four thous andsold iers buried a l ive
,wh i le the victors ’ horsemen trampled the child ren
to death . These horrors went on unti l Tamerlane d ied, when Armeniafe l l a prey first to the Turcoman tribes of the Black Sheep , and then to
those of the Wh ite Sheep whose ch ief, Ouzoun-Ha ssan, p rocla imed himse lf Sultan of Pers ia in 1468.
The ambition of these ba rba ri an princes wa s unbrid led . Not satisfied with re igning over the whole Iranian tableland and over Transcauca s ia and Armenia
,Ouzoun-Ha ssan sought to expand his possess ions
sti l l further at the expense of Mahomet I I ( 1440 the conqueror
COIN OF BAGRAT V, COIN OF GIORGI VIIIKING OF GEORGIA KING OF GEORGIA
( 13 60-1395 ) ( 1452-1469)
of Constantinople and Trebizond . It wa s to his cost,for he wa s defea ted
,
and had to give up Armenia ( 1473 ) which thus fe l l for the first time intoOttoman hands .
Just a s in ancient times,thi s unhappy
country aga in became the ba ttlefield of riva lempire s . Forty-one years later
, in 15 14,the
founder and fi rst king Of the Sefevis dynastyin Pers ia
,Shah Ismai l I ( 1501-1523 ) marched
aga inst the Turks,but he was defea ted on the
pla in of Cha ld iran by Sultan Sel im I ( 15 12 GEORGIAN COIN
the la tter seizing all western and southern Armenia a s far a s Lake Urumiah . Suleiman I ( 1520-1566) l ikewi se took ea stern Armenia from the Pers ians , and
280
Murad 111 ( 1573 -1595 ) obliged Abba s I ( 1585- 1628 ) to surrender to
him by trea ty not only the whole of Armenia,but a lso Georgia and a
pa rt of Azerbaidjan includ ing its capita l, Tabriz. ( 1585 ) ( 1 )
Turkish government inaugura ted for Armenia a re
PERSIAN gime of unbea rable oppress ion and extortion for the ia
RULE habitants,the leaders of whom,
preferring Pers ian. rule totha t of the Osmanl is
,sent a deputa tion to Shah Abbas I
begging him to intervene and resume possess ion of the Ara ra t regions.
Although they had become Mohammedans, the Pers ians neverth e
less belonged to an ancient race wh ich for centuries had headed Ea sterncivi l ization. The precepts of Zoroaster had softened the ir manners and
given them idea s of justice tha t we re unknown to Mongol,Turcoman
, or
Turk . They were therefore more tolerant to the Christians than the
Ottomans .
Shah Abba s se ized the opportunity offered him to avenge h imselfof the de fea ts infl icted on Pers ia by the Turks s ince the d ays of MahometII . He invaded Azerbaidjan with a la rge a rmy
,se ized the province of
Ara rat, and wa s push ing on his conquests when Sultan Ahmed I ( 160316 17 ) who had just a scended the throne sent aga inst him Gene ra l S inan
Pasha Djigha lé-Zade. Abba s d id not fee l he wa s a ma tch for his op
ponent,and had to abandon Armenia
,but in his retrea t he left a wilder
ne ss beh ind him,so a s to abandon to the Turks only a worthless country
and took away colonies of industrious people to settle with in h is own
dominions . Towns,vi llages
,churches
,mona ste ries
,a ll were burned and
reduced to ruins,and the whole popula tion deported to Pers ia . These
orders were ca rried out with inconce ivable cruelty. Those inhabi tantswho refused to leave the ir ancestra l homes were bea ten and often killed .
F ina lly end le s s ca ravans left for the d i rection of the Araxes, where the
gua rd s forced the exi les to swim across the river. Many of the unfor
tunates we re d rowned in the rapid stream.
The deportees then proceeded across Azerbaidjan and Kurd istanto I sfahan
,where the king founded under the name Of New ] ul/a ,
a suburb of his capita l wh ich is sti l l inhabited solely by Christian Armenians . Shah Abba s showed himse lf we l l d isposed towa rd s the exi le s.and anv i l l-trea tment the poor people suffe red during the ir migration was
( 1 ) Cf. KEVORK ASLAN, L’
Arménie et les Arméniens , 1914, chap . VI VIIK J . BASMIDJ IAN, His to ire mod erne de s Arméniens , p . 18 sq .
- 28 1
certa inly not authorized by him,for a s soon a s Jul fa-I sfahan~ -wa s
founded,he procla imed freedom of rel igion throughout his dominions .
He often attended re l i gious ceremonies on Chri stian holidays,and a lways
punished severe ly any of his subj ects who insulted or molestd the Christians . Unfortuna tely the successors of th is generou s ru ler did not ma inta in his pol icy of tolerance
,and under the influence of the Moslem
'
cl'
ergy
who were a lmost a ll Arabs, they emula ted the Turks in their crue lty to
the Armenians .
During th is time wa r continued between the Pers ians and the 'Ottomans for the possession of the northern provinces
,wi th varying results .
F ina l ly ( 1620) the Turks had to re l inqui sh a ll eastern Armenia includ ingEtchmiadzin to the Shah . The S ultan had his hands too fu ll wi th the.Wa rs
in Europe to be able to ma inta in his cla ims to eastern regions where i twa s so d iffi cult to col lect the taxes.
Shah Abba s adopted a wi se and fa r-s ighted pol icy in his new provinces
,the government of which he entrusted to Armenian nobles who
under the title of Mel iks enjoyed cons iderable independence and as his
administrators served him fa i thful ly . Under Abba s’ successors,however
,
oppress ion and vio lence began aga in,and the Armenians cons ide red the
possibi lity of throwing Off the Moslem tyranny.
In 1678 the Ca thol icos Hakob IV secretlyTHE ARMENIANS ca lled together at Etchmiadzin the chief ArmenianAPPEAL TO nobles
,a dozen at most
,and proposed to them
EUROPE . that they accept the suprema cy of the Pope and
ORI appea l to the western Powers to Obta in autonomyfor Armenia . They would in fact revert to the
negotia tions undertaken of old by the kings of New Armenia .
Fol lowing thi s secret meeting, a delega tion set out. The Ca thol icos
wa s'
to go first to Rome,but he d ied on the way at Constantinople, and
the d iscouraged de legates made a ha lt. One young man a lone, aged 19,
named Ori, depa rted hoping to succeed by h imse lf in the d ifficult mis
s ion. He rea ched France by way of Venice,enrol led in the a rmy of
Loui s XIV,and wa s captured by the English . On his l ibera tion he went
to Germany where he obta ined a ss istance from Prince Johann-Wilhe lm
of the Pa latinate to whom he promised the Armenian crown.
Or i returned to his country ( 1699 ) to prepa re the revolution tha t wa s
to win independence. The new Ca thol icos Nahapet I ( 1696 how
ever, was Opposed to the union of the Armenian church w ith that ofRome,
- 282
ises, a ll remind us of the va in hopes of Grea ter Armenia in the M idd leAges, and of the New Armenia of the Rupen and Lusignan dynasties .
The names a re no longer those of the 13 th century,but the steps taken
and the resultant events are no d ifferent.
Russ ia took no further interest for the time in the mounta ins of the
Lesser Cauca sus, and the Turks therefore se ized the Opportunity to decla rewar on the Shah of Pers ia for the ir pos sess ion. Erivan and Nak
hitchevan were taken by the Ottomans, whose a rmy marched on to Ta
briz. The riva lry going on between Prince Ashra f and Thamaz I I wa she lpful to the enemy
,and Ashra f ra tified the Sultan’
s occupation of his
newly se ized terri tory . The prince wa s,however
,defeated by his riva l
,
and captured and beheaded . Thereupon the war started a fresh,but the
Shah lost the ba ttle to the Turks near Hamadan and wa s obliged to s igna pea ce trea ty giving up the provinces of Tifl is
,E rivan
,and Chemakh i
,
and accepting the Araxes river a s his boundry .
This grievous trea ty resulted in the overthrow of Th amaz who wa s
d ethroned by his genera l,Nad ir, ( 1732) to make way for one of his
chi ldren,Abba s I I I . Nad ir wa s thus able to take over the government,
and resume the fight with Turkey . A grea t ba ttle took place on the
banks of the Arpa-tchai,and the victorious genera l recovered the Trans
cauca sian p rovinces surrendered by Thamaz.
The Tu rcomanNad ir then usurped the throne outright and procla imed
h imself Shah of Pers ia ( 1736 He made i t his first bus iness to
grant the Armenians, who had helped him into power, the freedom they
had formerly enjoyed under Abba s I . W a r with the Ottomans still wenton in Armenia
,however, and in 1743 Nad ir Shah invaded Turkish ter
ritory a s far a s Kars . There he had to retreat,and a battle with the
Sultan’s army ensued be low Erivan. He won the day, but it was Armenia
aga in that wa s the unhappy ba ttlefield . Ruins were heaped on ruins,the countrys ide became a wi lderness
,and the people weary of so much
COINS OF EREKLE II, KING OF GEORGIA
- zs4
suffering and cea se less dange r gradua l ly left the ir home land to seek inother countries the l iberty denied them on the ir ancestra l soi l .
Notwi thstand ing the ir misfortunes,the yea rning for freedom wa s
not stamped out among them; demand s for independence went up fromthe Armenian colonies abroad
,and advances were made to Ereklé 11,
King of Georgia ( 173 7-1797) with a view to forming an a ll-inclus iveState of Transcauca s ia . To further this end
,however the Mel iks needed
the support of Russ ia,then ruled by Ca therine the Grea t.
W ar broke out between Ru ss ia and Pers ia in 1768,and i t sui ted the
pol icy of the Empress to stir up a revolt of the Ch ri stians in the Shah’snorthern provinces . Catherine encouraged the idea of Armenian inde
pendence, and Grigoriy Alexandrovitch Potemkine,an a rdent friend of
tha t country,had even agreed to a ccept the crown of the new kingdom to
be. Hea rtened by these favorable beginnings, the Armenians under theleadership of a few of the ir nobles and of the Ca thol ic i of Etchmiadzinand the Aghouans, were prepa ring for a genera l up ris ing when Ibrah imKhan
,the Pers ian governor of the Transcaucas ian regions
,had the con
spirators arrested . The Catho l icos of Gandzassa r, Hovhanne s X,d ied of
poi son in p rison ( 1786 ) wh i le the other Armenian ch iefs were kept incha ins.
A d i spute wh ich broke out between the two Pers ian governors Ibra
him and Djavad-Khan, concerning the Armenians unde r the latter’
s pro
tection, brought about a war between these Ta rta r ch iefs, caus ing further
bloodshed in E as tern Armenia . Ever s ince the se izure of the Pers ian
crown by the Turcoman Khadja rs, unhappy Iran had been torn by riva lry
and anarchy, and wa s rapid ly verging on ruin. Throughout the province si t wa s one series of revolts
,and the eunuch
CONQUEST Agha Mohammed-Khan ava i led himsel f of
OF UPPER ARMENIA the upheava l to se ize the throne for h imse lf
BY RUSSIA ( 1794 Upon Ibrahim-Khan’
s refusa l
to a cknowledge him a s Shah, the new mon
a rch invaded the Qa ra-bagh captured Choucha where he put the
inhabitants to the sword,and puni shed with terrible severity the Ar
menians who had a ctive ly taken the s ide of the Ta rta rs aga inst him. The
Russians intervened , however, and wi th in a few weeks drove the Pers iansbeyond the Araxes . Derbend
,B aku
,Couba
,Gandzak, Chemakh i, and
Choucha rema ined in the ir hands and have be longed to the Cza r’s em
RUSSIA’
S ADVANCES INTO ARMENIA ( 1 797-1916 )
pi re eve r s ince . The Qa ra—bagh d i strict d id not ga in independence,i t IS true
,but it wa s therea fter administered by Chri stian governors and
foreve r rescued fromMoslem persecution.
By the trea ty of Ghulistan, s igned in 18 13 between Pers ia and.
Russ ia ,the Cza r was given a ll Transcauca s ia
,and the Shah re l inquished a ll cla im
to the Khana tes of Qara-bagh, Gandzak, Shaki , Shirvan, Derbend
,and
B aku,l ikewise to Daghestan
,Ta lysh
,Georgia
,Imeritia
,Guria
,Mingrelia ,
and Abkha s ia to most of wh ich regions Pers ia had no right anyhow,
King E reklé of Georgia having bestowed on the Cza r his sove re ignrights .
Neverthe less Abbas-M irza,
the
elde st son of Shah Fath-Ali,secretly
a rranged for an upris ing of all the
Mos lems of Transcauca s ia,
and in
1826, when he thought the time wa sripe , he invaded with a large a rmy theprovinces tha t had been surrendered
by the treaty of Ghulistan. The Rus
sians thereupon despatched a numberof armed forces to Cauca s ia
,and ca l
286
RUSSIAN COIN OF GEORGIA
The Armenians were cruelly d isappointed . They had generous lycompromi sed themselves on Russia ’s beha lf
,and now were thrown back
aga in into the ir former servi tude to ma sters who would certa inly not
forgive their devotion to the Russians . They emigra ted in a body to
Alexandropol, Akha lka laki, and Akha ltsikhe. Ninety thousand peopleforsook the vi l lages restored to the Turks ; forty thousand had left thePers ian provinces a few years before. Pitiful indeed wa s the lamentab leexodus of destitute fami lies, more than one ha lf of whom d ied on the
way of fatigue, exhau stion, and hunger. The Russ ian government, moreover
,did not mani fest much charity for these poor people . With the
civi lization they inherited from the Byzantines,the Russ ians ab sorbed the
rel igiou s avers ions of their teachers,and as Orthodox Christians they
despised very much the Gregorian Armenians. The Greeks ’ d is like fora ll who d id not bel ieve a s they d id wa s pa ssed on wi th its violent fanaticism to the ea stern Slavs.
'
war did not start aga in with Turkey in Armenia unti l 1877, for
at the time of the Crimean struggle a ll the fighting took pla ce in Europe ,and Transcauca s ia rema ined entire ly outs ide of tha t confl ict. The treaty
of San Stefano s igned in 1878 at the gates of Constantinople gave to
Russia Batum,Adj a ra
,Artvin
,Olti
,Ardahan
,Kars
,Ani
,and Kaghzian,
but the Cza r’s troops once aga in handed back to the Sultan the citie s of
Erzerum and Bayazid to the despa ir of the Armenian genera ls, Prince
Madatoff, Ter—Ghouka ssoff, and H. Alkhazoff,who had been hOping to
save the ir fel low-countrymen at la st from the Turkish yoke .
Rea l izing tha t they were condemned to rema in Ottoman subj ects ,the Armenians of Turkey had for yea rs pe titioned the Sublime Po rte
for reforms in the ir beha lf. The Sultan d id not refuse point
blank,but he neverthe less saw to i t tha t there should be no improvement
in the lot of the Chri stians with in his dominions . In 1841 a Counci l
had been cre ated,composed of twenty-seven members chosen from mod est
Armenian midd le classes . Th i s Counci l had to function outs ide of the
Pa triarch ’s juri sd iction,wh ich had been over the affa irs of the commu
nity ever s ince the nation lost its independence . Such a step only re
sulted in confus ion for the Armenians . In 1875 they sought to inducethe Sultan to give his approva l to a nationa l Armenian Constitution “
in
contrad iction of the very principles Of the Turki sh Government,” but
“a
State cannot exi st with in another State, especia l ly in Turkey. In 1860
a new a ttempt was made,but d i sagreement occurred among the Armen
ians involved , and the Ottoman Government took advantage of the
288
d issens ions to intervene and d issolve the commissions . Th i s resulted in
1862 in d isturbances, and fina l ly in 1863 to sati sfy the Armenian people
the Sultan ra tified a constitution wh ich to the present time ha s vested the
management of a ffa irs w ith the Patria rchate, and the sta tutes of whi ch
a re incorpora ted in the Compend ium of Laws (Destour) of the Otto
man Empire . It wa s a first step in the right d irection,but the Porte
continued none the less to treat the Armenians a s slaves ; to have granted
them bond fidé freedom would have incited a ll the other Chri stians to
set forth the ir cla ims, and would have deprived the Moslems of thei r
supremacy, the very ba si s of the Sultan’s Empire .
“Mahometan rulers from the very beginning have a lways avoided
any footing of equa l ity with Chri stianity. The ir appea l is to the sword,not to reason. Fea rful of equa l ity
,they have a lways d isarmed the
“Chri stians,and d enied them equa l rights
,any right whatever, one might
say, before the law. Every time tha t the Christians, even help less a s
they were,showed any disprOportionate excess of population above
that of the Moslems,or any undue superiori ty in education or wel l-being,
“the Mos lem rule rs repea ted the pol icy of the Pharaohs with the enslaved
“I srael ites and cut down the ir numbers by the methods they employed
in Bulga ria in 1876 and at Sa ssoun in Armenia in 1894, fol lowed bycrush ing and crippl ing taxa tion levied on the survivors .
“After the ma ssacres of the Greeks in Constantinople in 1821 and
on the i sland of Ch ios in 1822, Europe demanded from Mahmoud I I
[ 1808-1839] a forma l promise of reforms in Turkey . TO avoid European
intervention, Abdul-Medj id [ 1839 Mahmoud’s son
,procla imed
on his access ion, by a decree known in h i story a s Hatti-Sheri f of Gul-hané,the required reformatory mea sures (Tanzimat) . But their 1solemn
proclamat ion rema ined a dead letter ! In 1843 a Chri stian of Constan
tinOple, named Hovakim,who had four yea rs previously become a Mos
lem,sought to return to the rel igion of his birth . The unfortunate man
wa s hanged notwithstand ing the intervention and protests of Lord Can
ning,the Bri tish Amba ssador.
“In 1845 the first ma ssacres began in Lebanon. Europe managed
to extra ct from the Sultan a fresh promise of reforms, and the Hatti
Humayoun wa s promulgated in 1856 confirming the previous ones of
1839. Events only showed the Porte ’s insincerity about applying any
reforms,for in 1858 there were new ma ssacres at Jeddah and a lso in
( I ) COLL. MALCOLM, L’Arménie devout l
’Europe, p . 44, Paris 1 897.
Syria and the Lebanon. In 1860 during the re ign of Abdul-Aziz ( 18611876) there occurred the events of Ze itoun.
The Armenians of Ze i toun (3 ) form a confederationZE ITOUN very much in the same pos ition to the Turks a s the Mon
‘
tenegrins . Sheltered among inaccess ible mounta ins,they
have a lways l ived beyond the Sultan’
s authority. They have never beenconquered and ask only tha t the Ottoman Government respect theirindependence, even i f only on the grounds of the ir pol itica l ownersh ip of
the ir lands .
At tha t time the Turks had sti l l utter contempt for the ir Armenianrayahs
,and had no notion tha t one day the nation might become a
nuisance to the Government. They cons idered moreover tha t a con
stitution without any teeth to i t would never be anyth ing more than a
ha rmless toy,“a square wheel” a s one of the Porte ’s statesmen ca lled i t
a t the time . But to the Armenian people,clinging to th is figment of l iberty
it wa s a means of advancement, a ba s is for nationa l recovery. One of
the most active p romoters of th i s movement wa s Kricor Od ian, a coun
sellor of Midhat Pa sha , who tried to induce his ch ief to give constitu
tiona l government to the whole Ottoman Empire . It wa s a va in d ream
on Odian’s pa rt to bel ieve Turkey capable of any s incere movement for
reform. M idha t fol lowed his counse l lor’s advice,however
,at lea st on
paper, so a s to prevent European intervention in the cris is of 1877 . Mean
wh i le the Armenian colonies throughout Turkey spread rapid ly ; schools
were Opened in every city,and the F rench and Americans were he lping
them forwa rd in the va rious la rge cente rs of the empire, so that the Ar
menian question wa s a ssuming more importance every day.
“In some mounta in regions forming natura l strongholds
,such a s
Eastern Armenia,Qara-bagh
,or Sunik
,and in western Armenia , the
Sa ssoun,Hadjin, and especia l ly the Ze i toun d istri cts, the Armenians had
continued to ca rry a rms and constituted semi-autonomous clusters of
population. The long and glorious epic of Ze itoun is we l l known. Thi s“l i ttle Armenian Montenegro
,perched on the heights of the Cilician Tau
rus,rose up in a rms under its four ba rons more than th irty times in
its h i story,and a lways successful ly resi sted the Turki sh troops sent to
( 2 ) K. J BASMADJIAN. op . la ud .. p 93 sq .
( 3 ) Cf. ANATOLIO LATINO, Gl i Armeni e Ze itun (2 vol .) AGASSI, ZEITOUNTransl . TCHOBANIAN.
(4 ) Victor LANGLOIS, Les Arméniens de la Turquie et les ma ssa cres da Taurus ,p. 4, Paris, 1863 .
_ 290 _
representa tives rej ected th is request and in the fina l dra ft Of Art. 16 ( 1) of
the Treaty, the formula“administrative autonomy wa s replaced by the
words “reforms and improvements”. Armenia wa s to be occupied by
Ru ss ian troops to guarantee the la tter, but at the B erl in Congress the
Sultan succeeded in having th is guarantee clause omi tted . (2) The Ar
menians then, at the Ottoman Government’s instiga tion, a sked the Con
gress for Administrative Autonomy, whereupon the German d ip lomatsin connivance wi th the Sultan arranged for the non-consideration of the
request. Not only wa s a ll hope lost for the Armenians, but the ir des i resthey had expressed so frankly and openly
,at the suggestion of the Porte
i tself,created deep resentment among the Turks .
In the treaty of San Stefano,Russ ia wa s of course
CONGRESS serving her own interests,but those interests did conform
OF BERLIN to justice and humanity and to the a spira tions of the
Chri stian peoples under Turkish rule . The Czar’s delegates signed a notably fine h istorica l document, a step towards the dismemberment of the Moslem empire wh ich had shamed the face of Europefor so many hundred years . It settled the Ea stern question to the Czar’sadvantage. But Grea t B rita in
,fol lowing a Turcophi le pol icy
,and the
Dua l Monarchy (Austria-Hungary ) wh ich s ince its defeat at Sadowahad adopted a new Ea stern pol icy
,were both d ispleased at the idea of
the Czar’s supremacy in the Ba lkans, and imposed on Russia the Congress
of B erl in, where Prince B ismarck, the dominant figu re, who had l i ttleuse for the Ea stern question, made his own genera l pol itica l views pa ramount. As a consequence of the Trea ty of B erl in
,Ru ssia lost the fru its
of her victory,and paved the way for the Franco-Ru ssian a l l iance
,wh i le
throwing Austria into the arms of Germany and removing the ba rrierjust put up by the Czar in the B a lkans .
( 1 ) Art. 16 of the Treaty of San Stefano proposed by RussiaIna smuch a s th e eva cuation by th e Russian troops of th e territorie s th ey occupy
in Armenia tha t are to b e re stored to Turkey migh t give ri se to confl icts and com
pl ications harmful to th e good rel ations of the two countries, th e Subl ime Porteundertake s to carry out with furth er del ay, th e administrative autonomy requiredby l ocal needs in th e provinces inh ab ited by Armenians and to guarantee theirsafety from th e Kurd s and C irca ssians .
( 2 ) Pa ssa ge from th e decis ions of the Berl in Congre ss sub stituted for th e text
proposed by Russia :Th e Subl ime Porte undertakes to carry out wi thout further del ay the improve
ments and re forms required by l ocal need s in the province s inhabited by th eArmenians, and to gua rantee their sa fety from the Kurds and Circa ssians. TheSubl ime Porte will periodicall y acqua int th e supervi sing Powers with the steps
taken to th is end .
— 292
All the powers undertook to control the reforms tha t were to be
made in the Turkish Empire in connection wi th the Christian inhabitants,and in thi s manner the Armenian question ceased to be an internal matter,and became internationa l. Th is interna tiona l ism could only make the
control i l lus ive,and that is just wha t happened .
On June 4th, 1878, a secret pact,ca l led the Cypru s
CYPRUS Agreement ( 1) because thereby Great B rita in was
AGREEMENT given thi s i s land by the Sultan,enabled England to
make use of her right of supervi sing the reforms tocheck Russian influence in Western As ia . At that time the two powers,the L ion and the Two-headed Eagle, were watch ing each other j ea louslyon a ll the frontiers of Turkey
,Pers ia
,and Afghanistan
,from the Black
Sea shores to the Pamir Mounta ins .
This plan included not only the Armenians but a lso all other Christians in the Empire . Germany and Austria
,concea l ing their fa lse play
beneath a ma sk of generosity,brought about its fa i lure by propos ing in
its stead to d ivide the six Armenian vi laye ts and tha t of Trebizond intotwo sectors each headed by a European inspector appointed by the Ottoman government from a l i st of five cand idates submi tted by the Powers.S ix months before the beginning of the Grea t W ar
,on Februa ry 8th
,1914
,
the Sublime Porte fina lly s igned an undertaking a long these l ines, at thevery same time that Germany
,Au stria
,Bulgaria
,and the Turks were
prepa ring to mobi lize, and that Ka iser Wilhelm urgently needed Turkey’s
help . A d ip loma tic fa rce indeed,unfortunate ly one to be followed by
drama s sti ll more frightful than those preced ing it.
( I ) The s ingl e a rticl e of th i s a greement i s a s fol lows
In the event of Batum, Ardahan, and Kars, or any one of those place s be ingreta ined by Russia and if any attempt shoul d be made at any time by Russia to
s e ize any oth er portion of th e territories of H.IM . th e Sul tan in Asia a s determinedby the final peace treaty, Gt. Brita in undertakes to join Hi s Imperial Majesty indefend ing such territories by force of arms ;
In consideration of wh ich , H.I.M. the Sul tan promises Great Brita in to intro
duce the necessary re forms ( to be determined l ater by the two powers ) rel atingto th e proper a dministration and th e protection of the Chri stian and other subjectsof th e Subl ime Porte inhab iting th e territories in que stion ; and in order to enableBrita in to fulfill th is undertaking H.I.M. the Sul tan furth er consents to the occupation
and a dministration of the isl and of Cyprus by Great Brita in.
— 293
M . Emi le Doumergue,in F oi et Vie gives a very clea r idea of
wha t Turkey’s notions of reform were a t the beginning of the 19th century .
He wri tes : “Under Sultan Mahmoud II ( 1809-1839) Turkey seemed
“about to enter on an e ra of reform. Abdul-Hamid I ( 1774—1789) not
to be confused with Abdul-Hamid I I,The Grea t Assa ssin had re
ceived from Algiers a very beautiful and intell igent s lave whom he
ra i sed to the rank of favor1te . She wa s reported to be a F renchwoman,
Aimée Dubac de Rivery, who had been captured by the pirates . Her
son,Mahmoud I I
,wa s the first reformer. On June 17th
,1826
,he de
“stroyed the Janiza ries
,and on November 3 rd
,183 9
,his son Abdul-Med
jid ( 1839- 1861 ) promulgated the Scheriff-Ha ti of Gulhané,promising
a ll his subjects,of wha tever rel igion
,the ir l ives and honor
,securi ty of
property,just taxes
,and re formatory laws . But the French blood in
the ir ve ins wa s not sufficient to carry these Sultans beyond mere promi ses .
” The ir undertakings rema ined a dead letter,and equa l ly so
,later
,
wa s the Ha tti-Medj id Humayoun of Februa ry 18th,1856
,in wh ich Sultan
Medj id aga in promi sed his subj ect peoples every blessing. W e mere lyquote for the record these sa l l ies of benevolent hypocrisy .
The stipulations of the Cyprus Agreement and the Trea ty of Berl in
itsel f regard ing the p rotection of Chri stians in Turkey were not fulfil ledin the lea st, and the pos i tion of the rayah s
,the Armenians e specia l ly
,de
teriorated further to such an extent that the s i tuation in the Armenianprovinces became most a larming. In 1880 the six Powers del ivered a
collective Note to the Sublime Porte demand ing the fulfi l lment of the
promi sed reforms . The Note recapitulated the latter, but the Porte didnot even answer i t
,and owing to European ind ifference the persecution
of the Armenians continued . Everywhere in Armenia they were deprivedof their land and in the ir despa ir they a ttempted severa l upri sings . Then
there occurred the events a t Sa ssoun ( 1894) which the Sublime Porterepressed by ma ssacres . These a trocities arou sed ind ignation in Europe,and Great B rita in
,France
,and Russ ia ca l led on Turkey to ca rry out the
reforms in the Armenian provinces wh ich she had undertaken under Art.
6 1 of the Treaty of B erl in. The three Powers even drew up in 1895
a Memorandum and Dra ft of these reforms . The Porte a ccepted the
la tter with a few a lterations,but instead of ca rrying them out ordered
( 1 ) Issue of April 1-16, 1916.
a ll tha t wa s necessary, and one had only to say the word, a s every goodTurkish Moslem wa s a lways ready to exterminate the unbel ievers.
Such were Sutan Abdul-Hamid Il’s conclus ions when he saw the
Armenians and the Syrians a sking for reforms and the ambassadors of
the Grea t Powers auda cious ly medd l ing with the lot of h is slaves. Had
be hand led the Chri stian problem in cava l ier fash ion, however, Abdul
Hamid might have provoked England, France, Ita ly, and Russ ia beyond
mere d ip lomatic protests ; he needed effective support and he found i t
in the German Emperor,his self-seeking friend who for the la st few years
wa s turning Turkey into a German colony. A European wa r might te
sult,but wha t of that ! The mi l i tary strength of the Trip le Al l iance wa s
surely invincib le ! B es ides,the treaty of San Stefano clearly set forth
Russ ia ’s idea s, and i f Turkey did not act with energy, i t would see the
six vilayets of Armenians procla iming the ir independence and Lebanonfol lowing suit
,wi th the Arab s perhaps refusing to pay taxes any longer.
Greece,Serbia
,and Bulgaria had a lready escaped
,and their example wa s
pernicious,for freedom of one people encourages i t in the ne ighbor, and
the Empire ofMahomet I I wa s in danger of d ismemberment.
It could never occur to the Turk that theTHE CAUSES Empire of true bel ievers might be transformed
OF THE MASSACRES into a Federa l S tate . The suggestion of anysuch pol i tica l organization would be humiliat
ing and aga inst the commandments of the Prophet,unworthy indeed of
servants of Al lah, wherea s extermina tion wa s recommended by the chapters Sword and War in the Koran
,and took on the a spect of a holy task.
Encouraged by W i lhe lm II’s a ttitude and by the great Ka iser’s official
express ions of goodwi l l towa rds a ll Mohammedans,Abdul-Hamid decided
on ma ssacres.
Accord ing to a h igh Turkish officia l,
the Government’s premed it
a ted plan wa s to puni sh the Armenians . The Sultan wa s infuria tedbecause of having been forced to grant them better treatment
, and so,
a fter s igning the reform plan,he gave orders to destroy the Armenians
in order to show his power.
” At the very same time Abdul-Hamid wrote
( September 3oth, 1895 ) to Lord Sa l i sbury : “When I enforce thesereforms
,I wi l l take the document conta ining them and see to i t per
sonally that ea ch article is carried out. This is my firm deci s ion, towhich I pledge my word of honor. This future tense in its vagueness
296
epitomizes the whole Turkish d ip lomacy , wh ich M . Rolin-Jacquemynes ,
the eminent Belgian juri st, definies a s fol lows : “The fine art of hid ing“the actua l ba rba ri ty of the facts and of the intended crime by specious
externa ls ; a bland audacity in making promi ses tha t the promi ser ha s
no wish wha tever or even the abi l ity to keep ; in short a p seudo—fa therlyand unctuous tone of voice ca lculated to create the bel ief tha t unjustprejud ice or wicked s lander a re beh ind the a ccusations.
” What could
Chri stians poss ibly expect from such ma sters ? What could they hope
for from a d ivided Europe, a Europe para lyzed by the tremendous a rma
ments of the Centra l Powers and under the constant threa t of a war tha t
would set the whole ea stern hemisphere ablaze ?
In 1914 the ma jority of the Armenian na tion were under the hee l
of the Turks and had to endure the extortions of the officia ls from Con
stantinOple . Those were not the only dangers,however
,tha t the Chris
tians were exposed to. Their ne ighbors were the Kurds and the Lazis,
crue l and greedy robber tribes who constantly threatened to ra id them.
Deprived of a ll a rms,they could offer no rea l res istance
,but they
managed to come to terms with the Kurds and pa id the most unrulytribes regula r sums . Unti l the Sublime Porte gave the s igna l for ma s
sacres, the Kurds were sa ti sfied to rece ive the money and the Armenians
to save the ir l ives in th i s manner. Of la te,moreover
,the Christians had
rece ived a rms secretly from the Cauca s ian revolutiona ries who urged
them to res i st,and the Kurd s did not a lways return from their ra id s with
out sometimes heavy losses .
Wha t wa s the a ttitude of the Armenians during a ll the ir centuriesof suffering ? I t was one of d ignity and heroi sm. Of d ignity
,because
the people in spite of the i r overwhelming misfortunes,clung steadfa stly
to their fa i th,the ir language
,the ir customs
,and the ir nationa l trad i tions ;
of heroism,because Armenia did not stop a t just shedd ing tears, but on
many occa s ions, when the ir deepest fee l ings were hurt, he r people took to
a rms and poured out the ir blood,in the revolt of their very spirit .
During the centuries tha t fol lowed Armenia ’s loss of independence,her sons and daughters
,though stripped of a ll pol iti ca l entity, preserved
their patriotism,their trad itions
,and their na tiona l l i fe under the guidance
of outstand ing fe llow-countrymen and of the ir rel igious leaders,
who managed the ir public affa irs and ma inta ined and deve loped their
institutions.
Most of the nobil ity emigrated to the westernARMENIAN world a fter the fa ll of Ani
,and th i s emigra tion wa s
NOBILITY repea ted following the destruction of the kingdom of
IN THE 20TH Cilicia,but there sti l l rema ined in the country some
CENTURY fami lies d escended from roya l and p rince ly houses .
l‘
be re a re even to the p resent day s ome with the name sof Artzruni
,Mamikonian
,Servantzd iantz
,Camsa racan
, etc. The heads
of these fami lies were conspicuous for the ir sol icitude in sa fegua rd ing
the people,helping them in the i r endeavors to rise both inte l lectua lly
and economica lly,and in keeping a live both the ir pa trioti sm and the ir
fi de lity to re l igious and nationa l trad ition. There were a lso lead ingfamilies of more recent origin
,who have honorably played the same
pa rt in modern times,fami l ies found ed by brave men who in the 17th and
18th centurie s took up aga in the struggle aga inst the Mos lem oppressorsand formed the honor rol l of va l iant leaders in the Qa ra-bagh region
,
men who bequea thed to the i r d e scendants , a long with the i r title of 771 6 1272
still used by these fami l ie s,trad it ions of pa triotism and d evotion to the ir
people’
s we lfa re . Some of these mel iks,moreover
,we re descended them
selves from prince ly fami l ies of renown. The re were a lso fami l ies of
note,da ting ba ck to the centuries of servi tude
,founded by men of initia
tive and ta lent,includ ing d iploma ts
,a rchi tects
,merchants
,and sold iers
,
who acqui red pos itions of authority in Turkey,Pers ia
,or in Russ ia by
the i r own meri ts and industry,and who used the ir influence and wea lth
in the ir country ’s beha lf. The ir poste ri ty have inherited names to be
proud of,and the i r present repre sentatives glory in ma inta ining the
luster of such names by works of beneficence and gene rous pa triotism.
These ch iefs , or notables , ca l led me l iks in Cauca sia , and amira s
or tchelebis”in Turkey— even though ga ining h igh and me ri ted recog
nition in service ab road,whethe r Mogul
,Pers ian, Turkish , or Russian,
and no ma tter wha t the ir fore ign sta tus—never forgot the ir duty to the ir
people, and devoted the ir pos i tion and fortune to a llevia ting the wretched
ne ss of the Armenians,and mi tiga ting the ir threatened pe rsecutions ,
be s ides estab lishing for them va rious re l igious, educa tiona l , and chari
table institutions .
Among the ancient a ri s tocra tic fami l ies sti l l existing may be men
tioned that of the Arghoutian-Erkainabazouks (Argoutinsky-Dolgoroukoff )who a re descended from the
“braves” of the time of the Armeno—Georgianrulers of Ani, unde r QueenTama ra ; thi s fami ly ha s had numerous eminent
men,such a s Bi shop Arghoutian of the 18th century , one of the nobles t
298
18th century,a number of translations and ed i ted works of ancient authors,
bes ides compos ing “The Romance of the Rose and the N ightinga le ;”and
Yakoub Pa sha Artin, Egyptian M inister and Member of the Institute of
France .
All these d istingui shed Armenians in short,ca rried on the task of
the former“Nakha ra rs
”or Ichkhans they protected and guided the
people during the centuries of servitude . Ichkhans” moreover wa s
the name the peop le a ctua lly gave to them,meaning “prince” or
“d irector”.
Since the adoption of a constitutiona l regime by the Armenians in 1860,
the title of“ichkhan
”wa s d ropped
,however
,because the chiefs or leaders
of the people a re no longer from any ca ste of rich or influentia l men nor
persons of noble descent,but ind ividua ls of persona l meri t chosen by
the people .
The clergy ha s stood in the same pos ition to the people a s have thesemen of d i stinction
,and even more so. The Ca thol ic i of Etchmiad
zin,the Pa tria rchs of Constantinople
,Akhtama r
,Sis, and Jerusa lem,
the“a ra tchnort
”or Metropol i tans
,have been the rea l leaders of the Ar
menians . The Ca thol icos of E tchmiadzin who by the will of the peopleoccupie s the throne founded by St. Gregory the I l luminator, and who
embod ies not only the ir re l igious feel ings but a lso the ir sentiment of
pa trioti sm,had precedence over the Pa tria rchs with the ir sees in Cilicia ,
Akhtamar, the land of the Aghouans, Jerusa lem,
and Constantinople .
These six prela tes, a ll of them d i stinguished men,have been at the head
of Armenian affa irs ever since the na tion lost its independence .
The rol l of Cathol ici of Etchmiadzin,
THE PATRIARCHS inaugura ted in A.D . 3 02 by G rigor I the
I l lumina tor ha s beenma inta ined without a break
to the present d ay. Geuvorg V, the present Patriarch, wa s elected in 1912,the one hundred and fifty
-ninth in success ion. The Pa tria rchate of the
Aghouans began in the same year A.D. 302 with a patria rch whose name
is not known but who wa s consecrated by Grigor I, and tha t rol l terminated
with Sa rki s I I ( 1794- 18 15 ) a fter a series, with a few interruptions,of
ninety-five a rchbishop s .
The patria rcha te of Akhtamar,founded in 1 1 13 by David I, ha s
only 48 names and h a s been va cant s ince 1895 ; wh i lst tha t of Jerusa lem
commencing in 63 7 with Abraham I went on unti l Ha routhioun Vehapetian
( 1885
Although the Armenians were very numerous in Constantinople in
Byzantine times,they had no patria rchate in tha t city, nor anywhere
_ 3oo_
else in the Greek provinces ; the Orthodox G reeks would not have tolera ted
i t. Th i s accounts for the fact tha t the Pa triarchate of Jerusa lem dates
from the time of the Arab conquest of Syria , and tha t of Constantinop le
only from 1461. In tha t year Hovakim of B rusa ( 146 1-1478 ) became the
first pa tria rch,e ight yea rs a fter the fa ll of Byzantium to Mahomet I I .
The roll of his successors ha s been ma inta ined unti l the present day, and
the seventy-e ighth p re late to occupy th is important See is the present
Zavene Eghiaian, elected in 1913 .
Cilicia’s pa tria rchs a lso sta rted quite late . Ka rapet I ( 1446
-1477 )wa s the first Ci lician Ca thol icos
,and today his forty-th ird Successor,
Sahak I I hold s the office . Consequently there should be at
present five Armenian p a tria rchates instead of six,tha t of the Aghouans
having become extinct. But recent events have upset the organization of
the Church . Sahak who became Ca thol ico s of Jerusa lem in 1916 res ides
at Dama scus,and the patria rch
-
ate of Constantinople ha s been abol i shed
by the Ottoman government.Although the Ca thol icos of Etchmiadzin ha s the trad i tiona l pre
eminence a s the successor of Gregory the I l luminator,the most important
of the above pre lates h a s been ind isputably the Patriarch of Constan
tinOple, representing a s he ha s done the interests of the la rgest number
of Armenians and be ing able,from his contacts with the Turki sh gov
ernment and the ambassadors of the Powers, to uphold more energetica l lythan any of the others the cause of h is fe l low-countrymen. The pa rt
‘
played pol itica lly by Hovakim and his successors ha s weighed much in thefortunes of the Armenian people, wherea s tha t of the Ca thol icos of E tchmiadzin
,a will ing exi le in the Armenian mounta ins where he is i sola ted
from a ll centers of important d iplomatic del ibera tions, ha s been, ever
s ince the fa l l of Ani,rel igious ra ther than pol i tica l . Neverthele ss
,at the
end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, some of the pa tria rchs there
,among them Nerses of Aschha rac
,rendered grea t services
to their people by the help they gave to Russ ia then at wa r with the
Mos lems . S ince the Ba lkan wa r the pa tria rch of Etchmiadzin ha s takenover the interests of Armenia
,and i t is he who appointed the Armenian
na tiona l de legation representing him today in Europe .
Furthermore,the Armenian people have not rema ined entirely homo
geneous in the ir rel igious be l iefs,and a l though the grea t ma jority a re
Gregorians there a re among them a number of Ca thol ic communi ties,
( I ) The Armenians say : Armenian rite”, the term Gre gorian” be ing used
only by Europeans.
301
and a lso Protestant,due to American mi s s iona ry work . Moreove r
,unde r
the pressure ofMohammedan ma ste rs and unspeakable persecution, many
Armenians have been converted to Is lam,thereby forfe iting both their fa ith
and the ir na tiona l ity . Some of the se newly-made Mo s lems or the irch i ld ren have sometime s played an important pa rt in Mohammed an
countries . W e need only mention the Grand Vizier of Shah Na s s r-ed—lD in,
Emin-es—Sultan
,la ter Sad r-Azam
,who wa s the most noted sta tesman -of
mode rn Pers ia .
In any ca se , apart from the Armenian Mos lems who no longe r
be long to the na tion,those of Armenian speech who have been fa ithful
to the ir respective creed s have ma inta ined unadultera ted the i r na tion
a l ity and trad itions . They a ll recognize the Ca thol icos a s the shepherd
of the ir flock,a s the standa rd-bea re r of the entire na tion. The Patria rch ’ s
authori ty,however
,and his influence abroad
,were inad equa te to rega in
for the Armenians the ir lost motherland ; the most they could do wa s
to obta in from time to time a few improvements in the lot of the unhappyinhabitants .
As a ma tter of fact,the Armenians d id not ba se any expectation of
d e l iverance so le ly on d ivine intervention or on tha t coming from abroad ;they knew tha t to obta in the ir freedom they must merit i t by strivingfor i t ; hence the ir cea se less upri s ings both in G rea ter Armenia and in
Ci licia . The se were unfortunately only loca l movements,
and ended
a lways in the crushing of the insurgents and the laying wa ste of the i r
country .
After the Crimean W a r,Turkey owed so much to the All ies tha t
she wa s unable to refuse to accede to the ir wi shes ; acco rd ingly,on the
representa tions of B rita in and France,the pos ition of the Christians wa s
improved , especia lly in the cities wh ere the Consuls could see wha t wenton. Di stant p rovinces
,howeve r
,were ha rd ly rea ched a t a ll by the se
momenta ry benefits .
At Constantinop le and Smyrna,both of wh ich we re wa tched by
Europe , there deve loped from then on,und er the ind ifferent eyes of
the Turks, a grea t Armenian inte l lectua l movement . Springing up unde r
the influence of Ita l ian,Engl ish
,and espec i a l ly F rench write rs, Armenian
l iterature p roduced some rema rkable works . Its pages were,howeve r,
vibrant with the most pa ss iona te love of freedom and exa lted pa trioti sm,
and ca lled on the Armenian people to remember the ir pa st and prepa refor the struggle to free the ir home land from the ba rba rian yoke .
302
trad itions of the ir race and make them drop the l ibera l notions tha t theYoung Turk pa rty wa s spread ing a round to h ide its rea l purposes . Th isthroned a ssa s s in wa s an a stute pol itician
,a grea t Sta tesman accord ing
to Orienta l fa shions, and having mad e his decis ion, he had the orders givenout for the ma ssacres .
Th is wa s the end of the yea r 1895 . Offi cers wereTHE sent out from Yi ld iz-Kiosk
,and executions in the prov
MASSACRES inces ma rked the pa ssage of the Imperia l messengers .
To describe the atrocities then commi tted would
require the publica tion of a la rge volume . A pa ssage from the work of
Pa stor Lep s ius ( 1 ) is sufli cient to give an idea of the unexpe cted woes that
suddenly fel l on the Armenians“In the vi llage of Hoh
,in the Kha rput d i strict, the Chri stians were
gathered together ins ide a mosque . E ighty young men were chosenfrom among them and led outs ide the village to be s laughtered . Hundreds
“of Armenians were tortured because they refused to s ign addresses to
the Sultan accus ing their relatives and neighbors of h igh trea son. One
of them refus ing to swea r to a sta tement wh ich would have de l iveredthe honest people of his vi llage to the execut ioner
,wa s ordered by the
judges to be tortured . All night long th is la sted ; first he wa s ba stinadoed‘
on the soles of his feet in a room adjoining wh ich were the womenfolkof his fami ly . They tied him up, flogged lh im
,tore out his beard ha ir
by ha ir,burned his flesh with red-hot i ron
,and sti ll he refused to swear
a s wa s demanded of him.
“I am a Chri stian,he sa id
,I cannot sta in my soul wi th innocent
blood In the name of d ivine mercy,
finish me .
”
It wa s important for Abdul-Hamid to have documents in hand to
show that the Armenians were revolutionaries,so as to just i fy his acts
to the representatives of France,B ri ta in
,and the United Sta tes, and to
legitimize these he inous crimes by pass ing them off a s acts of justiced icta ted by rea sons of Sta te .
In 1890 the Sultan,
a lready prepa ring to exterminate the
Armenians , had the genia l idea to a rm the Kurds on the borders of Ar
menia and give them the name of Hamid ian Cava lry . He let loose, a s
can be we l l imagined,these band i ts aga inst the Chri stians
,and then en
couraged by the hesi tant a ttitude of the amba ssadors,in 1894 he ordered
( I ) L’Arménie et I
’
Europe , (French transl . ) p . 5 8, Lausanne , 1896.
a tria l ma ssacre at Sassoun, an experiment which la sted three weeks .
The regula r a rmy itse lf wa s ordered to do the killing.
In one place, three to four hundred women, and in another two
hundred,a fter be ing de l ivered up to the sold iers
,were despatched by
the sword or the bayonet.
In another place,about s ixty women and girls were shut up for
severa l days in a sma l l church,de l ivered to the sold iers
,and then fina l ly
slaughtered ; a river of blood flowed from the church door. E lsewhere,
on a mounta in,some thousand s of fugitives he ld out for ten days or so
,
but in va in. A woman ran out on a high rock and cried : “S isters, youmust choose : e i ther fa l l into the hands of these Turks or else followme”
,and hold ing in her a rms her one-year old ch i ld
,she ca st herself
down. Her companions fol lowed her,and the Sultan decora ted the offi
cer in command of the murderers,and sent a s i lver banner to the Kurd ish
chiefta ins . ( 1 )
From 1894 to 1896 more than Armenians were put to death,were made Mos lems by force
,and more than women
and girls were ravished and sent into ha rems . Armenia be ing deva stated,there wa s no ha rvest
, and the rema inder of the inhabitants suffered a
terrible famine. F leeing to the mounta ins and h iding in ina ccess ible spots,
the pea sants wa tched the ir homes sacked and burned,thousands of the ir
villages be ing reduced to a shes .
From Europe there went up a tremendous cry of ind ignation a s
the groanings of the victims reached the ears of the western world,but
no power da red to intervene with the energy tha t wa s ca l led for; to havedespatched an exped itiona ry force to the Turki sh coasts would haveb rought about a European wa r
,and s o they a ll held off.
There wa s a pa roxysm of ind igna tion among Armenians abroad,who sent up the ir protests in Pa ri s, London, Rome, Geneva , and Wa sh ing
ton. Some Armenians ins ide Turkey joined up with some young men from
the United States , and in the ir desperation decided to give vent to theiranger and he lp the ir fe l low—countrymen by a fea t of a rms l ike ly to en
ta i l Europe ’s intervention. In the summer of 1896 they se ized the Ottoman Bank at Ga la ta and held out aga inst the Turkish pol ice and sold iers .
Ala s ! th is attempt to reach Europe ’s ea rs by overt act fa i led,and in
his anger the Sultan ordered the ma ssacres to go on wi th even greater
( l ) Fo i et V ie , April 1-16, 1916, p . 1 11 , accord ing to Pa stor Lepsius.
crue lty. In the very city of Constantinople under the eyes of the am
ba s sadors, ten thousand Armenians were vi le ly s laughtered .
In 1909,however
,the horizon seemed to b righten for the unhappy
people . The Ottoman a rmy wa s won over to the cause of the Young
Turks and bes ieged the Sultan in h is pa la ce , a lthough nine months previously he ha d a ccepted the Constitution. Abdul-Hamid wa s forciblyremoved from Yi ld iz-Kiosk and impri soned a t S a lonica . All Europe re
joiced , even though the punishment wa s fa r too mi ld for the murderousSultan
,and the Armenians looked forwa rd to an end to a ll the ir woes
,
for had they not collaborated with the Young Turks and given ample
proof of the i r loya lty to the Turki sh l ibera l pa rty ? The Armenian section
of the popula tion,tha t had so la rge ly contributed to the success of thi s
revolut ion,had every right to reap the rewa rd of its sa crifices .
Wha t wa s thought to be the dawn of l iberty caused a frenzy of joy
throughout Turkey ; Moslems,Chri stians
,and Jews gave way to the mo st
s incere express ions of mutua l friend ship . Priests and Ulema s embra ced
one another in the streets to the enthus ia stic cries of the crowd . Eu rope
gave its support to the l ibera l movement,and sent able men to guide the
step s o f the newly formed Committee of“Union and Progres s” tha t wa s
now in the sadd le . Fund s from Europe a lso poured in to help the Com
mittee ca rry out its p lans for a modernized Turkey .
Ala s, once more ! The Young Turks answered the loya l decla rationsof the Armenians, even before Abdul-Hamid wa s off his throne
,by the
Adana ma ssacres which opened a series of the most frightful crimes ever
recorded by h i story .
The Armenians had been only too ls in the hand s of power-seekingband i ts
,who a s soon a s they had se ized th e re ins and fe lt themse lve s
strong,had no further rea son to concea l the ir hatred of a l iens
,and thei r
Pan-Islami sm. Posse ss ing none of the s lyness and d iplomacy of the
Sultan they had just overthrown,these imperious revo lutiona ries were
d etermined to continue the bloody work of Abdul-Hamid and extermina tea ll the non-Mos lems of th e Empire
,and i f they had any reform in mind
,
i t wa s that of aboli sh ing a ll European interference in the i r affa irs and
ca l l ing an end to the Capitula tions .
“W e a re Mos lems
”
,sa id one h igh
Young Turk ofl‘
i cia l,
“and we can have noth ing in common with unbe
lievers . The Empire of I s lam is our heritage,i t wi l l be va st enough to
enable us to break off a ll contact with Chri stians .
” And he added :“W e
sha l l l ive in pea ce with every one on our s ide .
”
3 06
On a ccount of the wa r tha t had just been decla red on the EntentePowers
,a ll the young Chri stians of the Empire were ca l led to the colors,
but they were not sent to the front. They were d ivided into sectionsof severa l hundreds each
,and used for the bui ld ing and upkeep of roads ;
then, when they had finished th i s work,a la rge number were executed .
The towns and vil lages with only old people,women
,and chi ldren
left in them,and incapable of any defense, were occupied by the troop s .
Most of the men and ma le ch i ld ren were s la in, and the rema inder were
ordered to ga ther into columns of to each,to go off into exile .
Th ese forma l ities were a ccompanied by summons es to adopt the Moslemre ligion
,a lso by every kind of violence on the part of the sold iers. The
property of the evicted inhabitants wa s d istributed or sold to Moslemsfor next to noth ing.
The columns started out, accompanied by sold iers and by Kurd ishhorsemen who
,on the way, indulged in every conce ivable bruta l i ty,
killing a s fancy took them,and sell ing the women a s slaves in the sma l l
towns and villages they pa s sed through .
Even these sa les were conducted method ica l ly . In each town the
women and young girls were l ined up in front of the Konak (governmentbui ld ing ) and offered to purcha sers ; on the fol lowing d ay the rema inder
of the column resumed the ma rch. Many of the unfortunates exhaustedby fatigue and hunger fe ll by the ways ide ; most of the se rose no more
,
a spea r or bayonet-thrust put an end to the ir sufferings .
Many of these columns were entirely ma ssacred,especia l ly at a
place ca l led Kemagh-Boghaz on the Euphrates below Erzindj an. Others ,their ranks grea tly th inned, reached Mesopotamia
,where most of them
gradua l ly d ied off in the bleak desert cl ima te,homeless and starving. ( 1 )
A German woman-trave ler rela tes that in one of these camp s of
suffering,composed of people from Zei toun
,one woman sa id to her
“Why don’t they kill us outright ? In the daytime we have no water,
our ch i ldren a re howling from th irst ; in the night there come the Arabs,stea l ing our bedd ing and clothes ; they have ca rried off our young girls
,
and raped our women. I f we a re unable to wa lk, the gendarmes bea t
us. A number of women have drowned themselves in the river to
escape be ing outraged,some of them even with the i r infants .
”
Ta laa t bey reckoned on these sufferings to finish off the remnants of
the columns of deportees .To give a better rea l ization
,however, of a ll the horror of these ma ss
( 1 ) Foi et V ie, op . cit p . 150.
executions and pi llaging, a llow me to add to the above report a few
authentic documents covering ea ch pha se of these fright ful d rama s.They may a ll be summed up in four a cts
,viz : the execution of the young
men, the ma ssacres
, the ca ravan, the desert.A witness stated : “
One d ay we met a number of workmen.
‘Theya re going to kill them a ll off
’
our trave l ing companion ( a genda rme )sa id to me . From the top of a h i l l our driver po inted out to me wi thhis whi p about four hundred workmen whom they had l ined up on the
edge of a s loping piece of ground . W e know wha t happened . In anotherplace, wh i le the genda rmes shot
,Turki sh workmen finished off the
victims with knives and stones .
These were the Armenian conscripts wh ich Ta la a t wa s having ex
termina ted,wh i le the towns and vi l lages were being sacked .
“The thousand or so Armenian houses in a populous town a re
emptied of the ir furniture and a ll they conta ined,one a fter another,
by the pol ice who are fol lowed by a crowd of Turki sh women and ch i ldrenli ke a flock of vultures . Th i s mob sna tch everyth ing they can lay the irhands on and take away
,and when the pol ice bring anyth ing va luable
out of a house there is a terrific struggle for it. Tha t sort of thing Isee every day with my own eyes . It wi l l surely take severa l weeksto empty a ll the houses and stores of the Armenians .
But the Turks were not sa tisfied with taking property . Revertingto the ir old ancestra l customs
,they trea ted the unhappy Chri stians a s
s laves .
“The chi ldren and young girls were ca rried away and sold ; two“young girls at four francs apiece . At Constantinople
, the market isglutted , young girls a re going at a few francs apiece .
”
“One Turk with his friends sets up a s a brothel-owner. The offi cers
took the women and then pa ssed them on to their s old iers . In the
places where the ca ravan camped overnight,the sold iers and inhabitants
of the ne ighboring vi llages were let loose on them in the evening ; womenwere rented out to them for the night.In one town in Armenia , a Dani sh hospita l-nurse wa s one night
awakened by shooting,and rea l izing tha t numbers were be ing shot down
before the depa rture of the caravan,she wrote : “ I fe lt rea l ly re l ieved
to think tha t those victims were at la st beyond human cruelty. Fortunatea re those who a re killed !
( 2 ) Que lques Documents (Geneva ) . narra tive of the Danish nurse s.
( 1 ) A. J. TOYNBEE, The Murder of a Nation, London, 1915 , p . 34.
( 2 ) Foi et V ie , op . cit, p. 1 16.
( 3 ) Ibid .
Fortuna te victims,indeed ! for the lot of the survivors
,those whom
d ea th d id not take, wa s frigh tful . The ca ravan decima ted by hunger,
exhaustion,and the crue lty of the ir gua rd s , had to go on and on. Some
times the cries of women and ch i ld ren fi l l the a ir. Strength fa i ls,h ideous
hunger add s its scourge . The unfortuna tes devour straw,gra ss
,when
ever they can.
“ I looked a t them,
”sa id one witnes s
,
“and wild anima ls
“could not h ave been worse ; they rushed on the gua rd s ca rrying food,
and the gua rd s struck them with club s, ha rd enough sometimes to killthem. It wa s d iffi cult to rea l ize tha t these were human be ings .
”
Wh i le the ca ravan plod s a long a road strewn with the corpses from
the preced ing convoy,sometimes through reeking a ir
,the loca l mob
,con
scious tha t here they can p rey a t will,follow a long like a pack of wolve s
,
biting and tea ring. The mob kill and stea l .
When they pa s s nea r the river,mothers throw the ir chi ld ren in
the wa ter and themse lves a fter them. Or else the genda rme s throw in
a ll the ch i ld ren unde r twe lve or fifteen,and any who can swim
,they shoot
in the water.
Even a t the end of the seemingly interminable ma rch,the ir martyr
dom is not over for the unhappy survivors,for the desert clima te is ter
rible for these people a ccustomed to mounta in a ir. Among them are to
be seen some who from wha t rema ins of the ir cloth ing appear to haveb een men of pos i tion
,educa ted women speaking European languages ,
ch iefly English and F rench,people who have known the intel lectua l and
ma teria l we l l-be ing of civi l ization !“Most of the time , the ca ravans do not go fa r ; shooting
,bayonet
thrusts,hunger
,and fa tigue th in out the ranks a s they proceed . All
the most h ideous pa ss ions of the human bea st a re vented on the wretchedherd
,wh ich me lts and d i sappea rs . If a few débri s do reach Mesopotamia
,
they a re left the re without she lter or food,in d esert or ma rshy land s ;
the heat and d ampness make short work of the poor crea tures accustomedto keen and who lesome mounta in a ir. Any a ttempt at forming a colonyis out of the question without supplies, resources
,tools
,a ss istance
,or
able men. The remnants of the Armenian ca ravans d ie away fromfever and misery .
“Of the between and peasants of Upper Armenia brought
to Aleppo,
”sa id a German professor in the school of tha t city
,
“thererema in forty or fifty ske letons . With d istorted fea tures
,they succumb to
( l ) René PINON. La Suppress ion de s Arméniens, p . 29-3 0, Pa ris , 1916.
A few more minutes,and s ini ster s i lence replaced the cries and
moans and dying groans . Only a hea p of ripped-up corpses, of shapeless and bleed ing human débris
,rema ined .
On severa l s ides cloud s of smoke a re whirl ing skywa rd from burning houses crowded with Armenians perishing in the flames . From one
house some one escapes and rushes towa rd s the river, but he is caughtby the sold iers
,who d rench him with petroleum and wa tch him burn
with fiend ish glee . Further on are bursts of laughter at the sight of
a six-yea r old chi ld convulsed wi th agony from a bayonet-thrust,a lso
hapless women with bowels ripped open by the Kurds who have tornout the ir unborn ch i ldren. There aga in
,sold iers fight for the possess ion
of a young girl,the burly winner ca rrying her off to rape and s laughter.
”
At nightfa l l the survivors flee in a body to the river with the hope
of getting a cross into open country,but they are caught between two fires
from the Turks, and those who rush into the wa ter a re mostly drowned .
The town is on fire,and the guns sti l l roar a s they drop the ir shells on
the Armenian qua rter.
No human language is strong or colorful enough to d epict such
horrors, or to express the mora l and phys ica l sufferings of these innocent
martyred people up to the moment of the ir re leas e in dea th . Any sur
vivors,hope less wrecks from the frightful ma ssa cres where in they have
seen a ll the ir loved ones peri sh, a re sent into concentra tion camps where
torture and degradation worse than dea th awa i t them.
When Mahomet I I took Constantinople by storm, fifty thousand
Greeks were put to the sword by the barbarians before the i r Sultan
ordered the s laughter to cea se . Europe wa s then se ized with horror,
but wha t must be our feel ings today a s we look back on the agony of
the Armenian na tion, an agony tha t la sted so many yea rs , twenty-two long
yea rs in fact ( 1894 and its tol l of over a mi l l ion victims !
Nevertheless the Armenian nation is ne i ther extingui shed nor re
duced to a role of supplicant. Its nationfa l spiri t burns more fie rcelythan ever
,for the crime tha t ha s been committed , fa r from extirpa ting
the ir courage,ha s a rmed i t with wrath. They a re sti ll quite numerous
,
moreover,and include la rge settlements outs ide of Ottoman terri tory,
whi le the ir people inside Turkey a re far from having been entirely wipedout.
No Turkish statistics have ever been seriously or conscientious lydrawn up. W hy indeed -should there be any census of the rayah popu
lation? Such figures would have been rather unprofitable to the Moslems
3 12
for they would have shown wha t a great proportion of Christians thereare in the territory ruled by the Sultan. At any rate we can a rrive at
an approxima te estimate with in a few hundred thousand, and draw our
conclus ions therefrom.
The Ottoman Empire,wi th an a rea of
POPULATION OF square mi les,ha s a population of
THE OTTOMAN 26 mi l l ions, of whom 9 mi l l ions speak Turkish,EMPIRE 10 mi ll ion Arabic, and 2 mi ll ion the va riou s Kur
d ish d ia lects . The tota l number of Moslems is
therefore 21 mi l l ions . The other five mi l l ions a re Christians (Armenians,Greeks
,Syrians
,and Cha ldeans ) , Jews , Mand eans
,and a few other non
Mohammedans adhering to numerica lly sma l l re ligions.
The Turks inhabit a ll the north of the Empire, chiefly Asia M inor,wh i lst the regions to the ea st of the upper and midd le Euphrates a re
peopled by Armenians and Kurds . Intermixture of the d iffe rent elementsof popula tion is unknown in Turkey
,and ea ch people is isolated te rri
toria lly, the Turks having only troops and oflicia ls outs ide of the i r owngeograph ica l sphere .
In some pa rts of Arabia and Mesopotamia the density of popula tion
even includ ing the towns,is less than three inhabitants per sq . mi le,
wherea s in the north of western As ia (Armenia,Lazistan
,Ana tol ia
, and
centra l As ia M inor) , in Coelesyria , the Arabian Red Sea coast and shores
of the Gulf of Oman,the d ensi ty is one to ten inhabitants. Syria
, the
southern coa st of As ia M inor,and Lower Cha ldea
,on the other hand
,a re
more th ickly populated,conta ining an average of twenty-five to one
hund red persons per squa re mi le .
In the Turki sh regions of the empire the population is thereforea s dense a s in those occupied by the Armenians, but to th is Christianpopula tion wh ich is compara tive ly compact in Armenia mu st be added
a ll the large detached group s of Armenians,both on Ottoman territory
and abroad,l ikewi se th e cons iderable numbers l iving in Russia and Pers ia .
I f we take in a lso the more d i stant colonies,we sha l l a rrive at the tota l
figure of the Armenian people .
Accord ing to the sta tistics of the Pa triarchateTHE ARMENIAN the number of Turkish Armenians in 1882 was
POPULATION o f whom occupied the six
so—ca l led Armenian vi layets,and dwelt in
— 3 13
Ci licia and the va rious cities of Turkey. Th i s wa s the figure submitted to
the Congress of Berl in. But new statistics compiled in 1912,i.e. a fter
the ma ssacres and the emigrations of 1894-1896, l ikewi se suppl ied by the
Pa tria rchate, give only for the six vi layets . They show a lso
in the same specific region Turks and Kurd s, both no
mads and non-nomads,the whole population be ing The Ar
menians constituted therefore of the population, the Turks
and the KurdsJudging from the above two estimates of the Pa tria rcha te, we must
conclude that the Armenian popula tion in the period 1882-1912,by
ma ssa cre,emigra tion
,or convers ion to Islam
,decrea sed by about
It is imposs ible to know,even rough ly
,wha t losses the nation sus
ta ined during the ma ssacres ordered a fter 1912 by the Young Turks,for no figures were ever kept . Accord ing to documents we have seen,
however,the number of victims were cons iderably over ha lf a mi ll ion. Be
s id es wh ich,we know tha t about a qua rter of a mi l l ion went into Russ ia ,
and many became Mos lems,with the rema inder in the concentration camp s
of M esopotamia .
Of the Armenians who in 1882 l ived in pa rts of the Sultan’
s
dominions other than Armenia p roper,many certa inly lost the ir l ives
,but
many a lso emigra ted .
W e may reckon at one mi l l ion the number of Turki sh Armenianswho for va rious rea sons managed to e scape and who will return to the i rown na tion the day i t is de l ivered . Over and above these numbers
,we
must add the Armenian subj ects of the Czar and the Shah,a lso the
la rge and numerous colonies abroad . All in a ll,we reach a tota l of a t
least three mi l l ions of people speaking the Armenian tongue .
The élite of the Armenian community unfortunate ly were unab leto e scape . Those surviving live today in Pa ri s
,London
,Petrograd
,Odessa
,
Tifl is, or Venice
,working with unfl agging energy for the ir fina l goa l .
They constitute a grea t a sset for the cause of th is persecuted people,for
such an inte l l igentsia have means to make themselves heard and to vind ica te the rights of the ir brethren to freedom. Four or five hundred thou
sand Greeks obta ined from Europe their independence in 1829 and threemi ll ions of Armenians
,by the i r energy
,the ir sufferings
,and the respect
we owe their glorious pa st,deserve that Europe should give them honorable
status in the world .
a l and the common interests l inking the Greeks and the peoples of the
Ea stern provinces drew numbers of Armenians to the shores of the Bos
phorus, and by degrees the latter a tta ined to such importance in the
State tha t fina lly the Imperia l purple fe ll on thei r shoulders.
The part played by Armenian princes in the Byzantine empi re isso great that we need to record their names
,thei r sequence
,and thei r
kinsh ip wi th one another,without going too deeply, however, into the
deta i ls of the ir re igns wh ich belong rather to Byzantine h istory than to
that of As ia proper.
Grea t numbers of foreigners were included in the population of
Constantinople ; there were whole legions of them in the army, and some
of them fi l led the h ighest posts in the Empire. Many of these foreignersa scended the throne
,but no nation gave more emperors to Byzantium
than did the Armenian people,and i t would be overlooking one of the
most glorious pages of the h i story of the descendants of Haik i f we didnot mention the names of these rulers who for more than three centuriesoccupied the Imperia l throne of the Eastern Empire
,i.e. during one
th ird of its existence (395
The Armenian period of Byzantium cer
ta inly added some luster to the Empire of the
Caesars,for i t includes famous names and deed s
of renown connected with the portentous col
lision that then took place between civi liza tionand the ba rbari sm of the Pers ians and Arabs.Coming from countries tha t were more exposedthan any to ons laughts of the foes of Christianity,the roya l Armenian fami l ies once on the Im
peria l throne used the i r power for centuries to
carry on the fight aga inst the invaders,a fight
wh ich unfortunately in the ir old homeland was
so often hand icapped both by insuffi cient re
sources and geograph ica l exposure.
These emperors were unable, i t is true, to
escape the quarrels tha t d isturbed the ir capita l,and na tura lly they had to make a l lowances for
the cha ra cter of their Greek subj ects and take
C INthe l ine of prudence in dea l ing wi th domestic
O Sq E
l
gfismCIU-S
matters,but they never forgot the role destiny
had a l lotted them a s the champions of civi l ization.
3 16
The first Armenian ( 1) to bea r the title of“Basi l
MAURICIUS eus was Mauricius. He wa s born in 5 39 at Arabissa
TIBERIUS in Cappadocia , of a noble Armenian fami ly. Flavius
5 82-602 Tiberius Mauricius first became a genera l and ga ined
grea t renown in his wa rs aga inst the Pers ians. He was
received in triumph at Constantinople in 5 82, and on August 13 th of that
year he married Constantine, the daughter of Tiberius Constantine
(578 He was crownedemperor tha t same year, butcontrary to what might havebeen expected from the con
queror of the Sassanid a rmies,he wa s lacking a s a ruler bothin energy and authority. Afterre igning twenty years
,he wa s
dethroned by Focas who wa sprocla imed emperor by the
army in revolt. Mauricius fled,
and his sh ip being compel ledby a storm to put in to land
MAURICIUS TIBERIUSCONSTANTINE and THEODOSIUS(with countermark of Heracl ius I )
( 1 ) For proofs of th e Armenian origin of emperors and empre sse s, and of
prince s and prince sse s of Constantinopl e who were of that national ity, consul t
GARABED-DER-SARAKIAN. The Armenian Emperors of Byzantium, 2 vol ., Sa intLa zare (Venice ) 1905 , ( in Armenian) . (The author of th i s work of considerabl erepute lost h is l ife in the Trebizond ma ssacre s of the spring of LEBEAU,
Historic d a Bus-Emp ire ; F. W. BUSSELL, The Roman Emp ire . 1910 G.
SCHLUMBERGER, L’
Epope’
e byzantine g—K,J. BASMADJIAN, Histoire modem s
da p eup le arménien ; Corpus Historia e Byzantinae , vol . IX, p. 136 (Venice ,for Emperor Mauricius ; Th eoph ilactus S imoca tta Historia e . for Heracl ius l
Nicephorus Constantinopo l itanus, De rebus post Mauricium Cestis, p . 50 ( ed. Bon) ;—for F i lep icus Ba rdanes ; Cedrenus, I, p . 43 , for Leo V ; Niebuhr, Constantine
Porphyrogenetus , TheOph . Continua t., p . 212 ; Luitprand . I, 3 for Romanus ; G.
SCHLUMBERGER, Un Empereur Byzantin, for John Zimisces ; Cedrenus , vol .
II, p . 23 and 26, for Mar ina . wife of Constantine VI. To th is l ist shoul d be added
Artavazd (Cf. SABATIER, Monna ies byzantines, vol . II, p . 40) whose Armenian
origin seems, however, doubtful . Al l the princes and princesses for whom I give nore ference s are ch ildren of th e emperors whose names are on the fol lowing pa ges.
— 3 17
twenty mi les from Constantinople, he wa s ca ptured and beheaded (Novem
ber 27,
a fter first seeing four of his sons,Peter, Paul, Justin, and
Justinian executed in the same manner. A fifth son,Theodosius
,who
escaped the ma ssacre was a rrested in his fl ight to Pers ia and taken to
HERACLIUS I CONSUL HERACLIUS I EMPEROR
Foca s who ordered him to be strangled . Constantine,Mauricius
’ wife,
wa s shut up in a mona stery with her daughter Ana sta s ia,Theoctisté
,
Cleopatra,Sopatra , and Ma ria . Three yea rs later Foca s had them taken
out and put to dea th . Arab and Pers ian wri ters state that Princess Maria
escaped being sla in and became the wi fe of the Persian king Chosroes I I .
At the instigation of Priscus,Foca s’ son-in-law,
FLAVIUS who stood in fear of his father-in-law’
s fits of anger,
HERACLIUS I Hera clius patric ian and prefect of Africa, and for
merly governor of Armenia in 594,
probably a - rela
tive of Mauricius, sent his son Flavius Heraclius
in command of a fleet to Constantinople to avenge
the Emperor’s murder. On October 6th, 610, Focaswas overthrown and F laviu s Heracl ius I mounted
the throne, a fter having offered i t first to Priscus
who declined i t.HERACLIUS .
HERACLIUS CONSTéggg
’
giind The new emperor ma rried his betrothed F lavia
or Fabia , whom he crowned under the name of
Eudoxia . Th is empress d ied on August 13 , 612,leaving a daughter named Epiphania
,born July 7,
3 18
Constantine (610 of Heraclius,Heraclius Con
stantine, and Martina (614 ofHe raclius and Mar
tina (614 of the Emperor wi th his two sons Heraclius Constantine and Heracleonas (63 8 all of
them va luable documentary records of th is rule r’sfami ly.
Accord ing to N icetas, the Emperor dying at the
age of s ixty-six d ecided tha t his two sons, Hera cliusCONSTANS II and Constantine and Heracleonas, should re ign togetherCONSTANTINEPOGONATUS
under Ma rtina ’s regency. Thus 111 641 we have cornsof the two princes . But, on June 23 rd of that Yea r,
Martina poi soned He raclius Constantine, and her son Heracleonas therea fter reigned a lone. He appointed as Caesars to
CONSTANS II a s s i st him his brothe r David Tiberius and Constans,( 641 -668 ) the son of Hera clius Constantine.
The reign of
Heracleonas was a
short one. In Sep
tember 641 he wa sdeprived of the
crown by the Sen
ate. Martina hadher tongue a “ on
.
“ CONSTANS n, HERACLIUSHeracleona s lost 1118 and TIBERIUSnose
,and Flavius
Heraclius, better
known a s ConstansCONSTANTINE
CONSTANS II , I I,
a scended the IV POGONATUSCONSTANTINE Imperia l throne.
POGONATUS,TIBERIUS After a reign of no
note, he was a ssa s
sinated (111137 15th, 668 ) in Sici ly, leaving three sons, Constantine Pogona
tus, Heraclius, and Tiberius .
Constantine IV Pogonatus (the Bearded ) ru ledCONSTANTINE wi t-h the a ss i stance of his two brothers and in
IV POGON the first yea r of his reign put down a revol t by an
ATUS Armenian named Mazizius who had procla imed him
( 668-678 ) sel f emperor at Syracu se. This Emperor d ied on
September 14th,685 a fter seeing his capita l bes ieged
— 320
seven times by the Arab s,between 669 and 678.
JUSTINIAN II Justinian I I Rhinotmetos (685-695 and 705
( 68 5 -695 , the son of Constantine Pogonatus and Anastas ia, as
and 705 -71 1 ) cended the throne . He wa s driven from Constantinopleand exi led to Kherson, but he rega ined his throne wi th the help of the
Khazars and the Bulga rs, and caused both Leontius (695-698 ) and Ti
berius V Absimarus (698-705 ) who had usurped the power, to be beheaded.
Tiberius IV (705 the son of Justinian I I,
TIBERIUS IV wa s four years old when his father made him Joint
( 705 -71 1 ) Emperor. But in 71 1 the people revolted and pro
cla imed Filepicus Ba rdanes, who had Justinian I I andhis son put to death. Thu s the dynasty of Heracl ius became extinct,a fter occupying the Imperia l throne for one hundred years.
Filepicus was of Armenian extraction, a general of
FILEPICUS Justinian II’s a rmy and the son of the Pa trician N ice
BARDANES phorus. His reign wa s brief ; on June 3 , 713 , as the
( 71 1-71 3 ) result of a conspiracy and the victory of a faction called
the“Greens
”,the plotters s eized him during a repast,
FILEPICUS BARDANES ARTAVAZDUS andCONSTANTINE V
deposed him,and put out his eyes. In his stead
,Artemius Anastasius
wa s procla imed Emperor.
Artavazdus was Commander-in-ch ief of the armyARTAVAZDUS in Armenia and had married Anna
,the daughter
( 724) of Emperor Leo I I I . He procla imed h imse lf em
peror early in 742,but in November of that yea r
he wa s defea ted by his brother-in-law Constantine V. He was deposed
321
and had his eyes put out, a fa te sha red by his twosons, Nicephorus who had ruled with him a s Asso
ciate,and N iceta s.
On July 19th,8 13
,Leo V
THE ARMENIAN surnamed The Armenian, wa sLEO V ra ised to the throne by the
( 8 1 3 -820) army which had just defea tedthe Bulgarians. Th is prince had
ma rried Theodos ia , the daughter of the Pa tri cian Arsavir ; they had four sons : Sabatius or Sembates (Sem
pad ) who under the name of Constantine VII wa sappointed Associate ruler of the Empire, B a si l, Gre
LEO V CON gory,and Theodos ius. On December 25th, 820, Leo
STANTINE VII wa s a ssa ss inated,
and M ichae l I I the Stammererseized the power.
ARTAVAZDUSLEO V, THE ARMENIAN NICEPHORUS
Associa ted wi th the Imperia l throne by M ichae l
MICHAEL III I I I surnamed The Drunkard (842 Ba sil (867
BASIL I 886) murdered his colleague and benefactor, and
reigned a lone . By his second wi fe Eudoxia he had
BASIL I and
BASIL I al oneCONSTANTINE IX
severa l ch i ldren, among them Leo the Wi se and Alexander. By Maria,
fore his dea th,ruled therefore with him
, and his
first act was to ca l l ba ck from exi le his mother ZoeCa rbonopsiné , wi th whom he reigned from 913 to
919. In 919 he married Helena the daughter of
Romanu s Lacapenus, the Commander-in-chief of
the Navy . The latter had h imself crowned in 920,giving his three s ons
,Christophoru s Stephen
and Constantine (928 ) each the ti tle of Augustu s.But in 944, Constantine X cons igned Romanus to
CONSTANTINE the i sland of Prote (where he d ied in and
and ROMANUS therea fter ru led alone until the day of his death
(Nov. 9th, 959)
Constantine X left a son named Constantine,who accord ing to some h istorians shortened his
fa ther’s days by poison also four daughters,Zoe
,Theodora, Agatha, and Anna .
R o m a n u s I Lacapenus
ROMANUS I, ROMANUS I (920-944) was the son of Theo
phylactus Abastactus, and wa s
born inArmenia about the end of the 9th century .
Romanus I I was the son of Constantine X
COIIVSTANTI
S IXNE
ROMANUS II CHRISTOPHORUS
( l ) CEDRENUS, 3 3 7, 20 ; ZONARAS. XVI, 22.
— 324 _
ROMANUS IIand BASIL II
and Helena,and was twenty years old when he ascended
the throne on Nov. 10th,959. He ma rried Theophanon
and had three ch i ldren by her, Basi l whom he made
Associa te of the Empire Apri l 22nd, 960, Constantinewhom he a lso made assoc iate on Apri l 8th, and a daugh
ter named Anna . Poisoned by his wi fe, this ru ler d iedMarch 15th
,963
,TheOphanon becoming Regent for her
sons Ba s i l I I and Constantine XI. TheJ OHN Empress married Nicephorus Focas who
ZIMISCES thus became Emperor (963 but she
had him a ssa ssinated on Dec. l0th, 969,in connivance wi th John Zimisces,who took advantage of the youthof the two emperors and u surpedthe crown (969 Theophanon
wa s exi led,but
Zimisces on Jan.
the death of John11th, 976, restored
the throne to the two sons of R0
manus I I . Basi l I I d ied Dec. 15th,BASIL II and
1025 at the age of seventy Years, THEOPHANON and CONSTANleaving his brother to rei gn a lone.
TINE XI
COIN OF JOHNZIMISCES
Constantine XI PorCONSTANTINE XI phyrogenetus l 0 2 5
PORPHYROGENETUS 1028) had three daughters : Eudoxia
,who took
the ve i l, Zoe, and Theodora .
B efore his death he named
a s his successor the Pa trician
Romanus Argyrus, and or
dered him to repud iate h is
wi fe Helena and marry his
daughter Theodora . The lat
ter refu sed him,however, so
he married Theodora ’s s ister,Zoe . The Byzantine th rone COIN OFd eparted consequently from CONSTANTINE XI
the descendants of Leo V.
The fol lowing a re the names of ArmenianTHE ARMENIAN princesses who wore the Imperial crow-n
EMPRESSESMa ria or Marina (788 the wi fe of Fla
vius Constantine VI ; Theodosia (8 13 wi feof Leo V ; Euphrosiné (823 daughter of Constantine VI and Maria
,wi fe of M ichael 11 the Stammerer ;
Theodora (830 wi fe of Theoph i lus ; Helena (919wi fe of Constantine X Porphyrogenetus ; Theo
dora (971-976 ) daughter of Constantine X and s isterof Romanu s I I
,wi fe of John I Zimisces ; Zoé, d aughter
THEODORAof Constantine IX,
who was the wi fe of Romanus I II
( 1041-1056) Argyrus ( 1028 Theodora daughter
of Constantine XI and He lena, wi fe of Constantine XIIwho reigned a lone in 1055 and 1056 ; and Rhita, Xéné orMaria
,the s ister
ofHetum I I and d aughter of Leo I I,the king of New Armenia, who mar
ried M ichael IX
Among the grea t number of Armenians who
THE ARMENIAN played important pa rts a s officia ls of the Empi re,
OFFICIALS OFwe must give first mention to the eunuch Narses,
THE GREEKa genera l of genius who by crushing the forcesof the Goths and Franks restored Rome to Em
EMPIREperor Justinian I . From 542 to 568 he governedthe reconquered western portion of the latter’s
dominions. Also Isaac the Armenian, Exarchof Ravenna
,who governed Ita ly from 625
to 643 .
Armenian names were innumerable in the
a rmy, and the influence of such men of anotherland was fe lt not only from the mi l i tary point
THEODORA andMICHAEL III of V iew but a lso in the va rious branches of the
Government,l ikewise in science
,a rt, and com
merce. It extended even beyond the Empi re,
( 1 ) Mentioned by PACHYMEROS, vol . II, p. 205 , and Niceph . GREG” Hist.Byz. VIII, 1 1 .
Tifl is or Mtzkhet. In the ir viciss i tudes, they had
help e ither from the Byzantines of Constantinople
or from those of Trebizond , and la stly from the
Russ ians,a ccord ing to the ebb and flow of h i story.
The kingdom of Georgia has some fine pages
in its chronicles showing forth the struggles of
the Ka rtvelians to ma inta in their nationa l inde
pend ence . They lacked,however
,the h igh level
of intellectua l culture found in Armenia . The
Georgians l ike a ll other Cauca s ians were Asiatic
in the ir mode of warfare . The ir art wa s taken
from the Byzantines and Armenians, and an
Tifl is, Mtzkhet, Gori, and the sma ll towns of the
Grea ter Caucasus are to be seen fine examples of
Chri stian Greek a rch itecture, mod ified of course
by loca l preferences . The ir l i tera ture,however
,with the exception of
a few poems and an epic entitled “The Leopa rd ’s Skin”, is a lmost wholly
of a re l igious cha racter and of secondary interest only. W e must in
justice add tha t among a ll the Ka rtvel ian peoples, the Georgians a lone
showed any refinement,
the other Cauca sians rema ining up to modern
times entire ly uncivi l ized . The Georgians undoubted ly owe the ir cul
tura l superiority a s compa red to the ir neighboring kinsmen to the in
fluence of the Byzantines and a lso of the Armenian dyna sty that ruled
over them for so many centuries .
SARCOPHAGUS OFISSAC THE ARMENIAN
(Ravenna )
Though the Bagratids were ca lled to reign overTHE these Chri stian people
,no such opportunity wa s of
ARMENIANS fered them in the other countries bordering on Ar
IN PERS IA menia . At the Pers ian court, a s a lso at tha t of
AND CONSTAN the Arab s and la ter the Turks, d ifferences of te
TINOPLE ligion natura lly stood between the Armenians and
the throne ; they fi lled nevertheless very importantgovernmenta l pos i tions . Th is d i ssemina tion of those who went out fromArmenia into d iverse groups was undoubted ly very prejud icia l to the irown na tion’
s interests,for ea ch group had its partisans in the home land,
and opposing factions stopped at noth ing to safegu ard their private interests and obta in the adoption of the ir particular views. They may, itis true
,have secured helpful a l l iances for the Armenians, but such a l
liances most frequently were burdensome for the people.
—328
One could ea s i ly mention a number of Armenians who forswore the ir
re l igion and achieved eminence in the Mos lem States . Sa lad in, we are
told by Al i shan, wa s an Armenian Kurd , i f not a ctua lly an Armenian.
Azam Atabeg, prime mini ster of Shah Na sr-ed-Din, belonged to an Ar
menian fami ly,a s I have a lready sa id . But we need not reca l l these ren
egades’names ; in renouncing the ir fa ith, they joined the enemies of
their own na tion.
Just a s the Byzantines drew Armenians into their service,the Mos
lem rulers a lso rea l ized the a ss i stance to be had from these a ctive,intel
ligent, and industrious people . Shah Abba s I founded New Julfa at the
gates of his capita l . Mahomet I I a fter the taking of Constantinople,d es irous of offsetting Greek influence, invited the Armenians of As ia M inor
to come and settle by the Golden Horn where there dwelt a lready a
la rge colony of them. In 1461 Mahomet appointed,a s Pa triarch over
a ll Armenians in Turkey,Hovakim
,the bishop of B rusa
,granting him the
same privi leges a s Se l im I, the Greek patriarch . After his victory at
Cha ldiran over the Pers ians in 15 14,the Sultan brought many Armenian
cra ftsmen from Tabriz in ord er to deve lop and improve industry withinhis dominions . In the early days of Ottoman rule there were at Smyrnaand a ll coa sta l c ities of the Black Sea numbers of Armenian a rti sans whoenjoyed the goodwi l l of the authori ties . Not only did the Turks ap
preciate the services rendered to the ir government by such good workers,
but they were a lso glad to counterba lance in a degree the Greek Christianswho were a lways a very numerous and turbulent element in the ir empire.
Pol i tica l causes for Armenian emigra tion were by no means the ch iefrea son for the wide d ispers ion of th is na tion. They were certa inly a
la rge factor in strengthening Armenian bus ines s establi shments in the
grea t States adjoining the i r ancestra l homeland,and such causes resulted
in even more d istant migrations ; neverthe less only at Constantinopleand at Isfahan did Armenian settlements rea l ly spring from any pol itica lbackground . The rea son for the exodus of so many inhabitants to morebenign lands is first and foremost the end less woes of the ir unhappycountry, ever the cause and the scene of bloody wa rfare .
Attracted by the Opportuni ties for trade offered them wi th in the
Roman empire, many Armenians had settled from ancient times in the
southern Black Sea ports . Armenian colonies had a s ea rly a s the reignof Mithidrates the Great taken up their abode in Trebizond, Cera sus,Ami su s, Sinope, Pontine Heracleum
,and many other cities on the Ana
tolian coa st,a s a lso a t Pha s is in Iberia
,and probably on the shores of
3 29
the Caspian Sea, in Atropatenes, at Rhagae, and a long a ll the great trade
routes of the E a st. Persepol is, Ecba tana, B abylon, and Susa had for
merly been the grea t Orienta l commercia l centers , but a t the beginning
of our era their pla ces were taken by Pa sagardae, Ctes iphon, Shuster,and Ahwaz, a ll of them ma rts for the good s landed in Cha lda ea at the
ports ofAlexand ria (of the Shatt-al-Arab ) and ancient Teredon (Kowe i t) .These cities traded with the north and natura l ly had their Armenian
a gents . L ikewise, escaping from the persecution of the ir bloodth irsty
oppressors, many others from the Ara rat country fled to northern lands,to the Russ ian steppes and the Crimea where they rema ined in business
relations with the ir homeland .
The la rgest emi gration tha t took place, however, wa s tha t fol lowing
the fa l l of the Bagratid dynasty. As we have seen,Armenian colonies
a rrived in Cilicia and Cappadocia when Gaghik I I wa s deported . Sti llla rger numbers went out from the city of Ani and especia lly from the
d i strict of Sh irak,and trekked to the Crimea . From that peninsula which
wa s peopled wi th Tartars, they went westwa rd in two ma in branches, one
of wh ich reached Ga l icia,Podol ia
,and Volhynia, and the other Moldavia ,
whi lst sti l l another section of the Ani exi les settled in the city of Astrakhana fter cross ing the Qara-bagh and the Derbend pass.
Just recently, a Pol ish writer, Adolf
THE ARMENIANS Novatchinsky ( 1 ) ha s given us an a ccount of
IN POLAND the re la tions formerly existing between the , Ar
menians and the Poles,and the a rriva l of the
emigrants from the E a st in the Vi stula and Dniester regions . He wri tes“Long before the downfa l l of the Armenian kingdom
,wh ich occurred
in 1375, the Armenians made the ir appearance among us
,having been
invited to come by David,the ruler of Ga l icia .
“The first d ismemberment of their country resulted in a heavy emi
gration ; the Armenian exi les,carrying with them a handful of the ir
native soi l wrapped in cloth,sca ttered into southern Russ ia
,into the
Cauca sus, and the land of the Cossacks,and forty thou sand of them
reached Poland . From then on,fresh waves of Armenian emigrants at
regular interva ls left the Pontine shores for our hospitable Sarmatianland, and i t must be confessed that these guests from such a d istancewere found to be the
‘
sa lt of the earth’, so u seful and desirable werethey in the ir new surround ings. They settled chiefly in the cities
,and
in many places became the nucleu s of Pol ish midd le-cla ss l i fe. The city
( 1 ) In the Ka ryer-Poranny of Warsaw.
3 30
cos, Moves I I I ( 1629 who sent a specia l lega te to investigate the
matter,at the same time wri ting both to the King of Poland and the
Pope a sking that a id and protection be given his envoy in the d ifficultta sk he had to accomplish . N icol managed by his scheming to frustrate
the intervention of the Cathol icos, for this bishop actua lly procla imed
himself an adherent of the Roman Ca thol i c and Apostol ic Church, and
with the help of the Jesui ts succeeded in confiscating the property and
church bui ld ings of the Armenian community. Thereupon, outraged byN icol’s a ctions
,the Armenian inhabitants who numbered over fifty thou
sand departed from Lwow. Those who d id rema in,about five thou sand
of them,gradua l ly yielded to the entrea ties and propaganda of Vardan
Hovnanian,N icol’s successor
,and embraced the Roman Ca thol ic fa ith
A century la ter,in 1790
,the Armenians of Poland lost all the i r
rel igious and pol itica l privi leges,and came under the genera l law of the
land . ( 1 )Poland was the birth-place of a certa in number of Armenian scholars
includ ing Stepanor Rochkian and Stepanor of Poland.
So ended th is colony of Ani refugees in Poland,a community wh ich
foundered on the rock of rel igious d issens ion, ever the grea t scourge of
the Armenian people . There rema in,nevertheless
,many ind ications today
of the Armenian origin of these Poles whose ancestors once came fromAsia . They have lost their language
,it is true
,but they have preserved
some of their trad i tions,they intermarry
,have the ir own church
,and for
pilgrimages they genera l ly select Lwow where they have the ir cathed ralbui lt long ago on l ines reca l l ing their churches of old in ancient Ani.Unti l compa ratively recent years
,they had the ir own a rchbishop
,Mon
s ignor Theodorovicz. The Slavic Poles a lways des ignate these fami l iesby the name of
“Armens .
”
Of those who emigra ted from Lwow in the 17th century, ten thousand or so went to Moldavia
, but in 167 1 they were forced during theTurco-Pol i sh war to settle in Bukovina and Transylvania . In Bukovinathey chose the city of Suczawa and its surround ing d istrict
,whi le in
Transylvania they themse lves found ed two new towns,Erzsebetvaros
(E l isabethstadt ) and Szamos-uj va r (Armienerstadt) wh ich were by specia l privi lege d ecla red free citie s by Cha rles VI Emperor of
‘
Austria
( 171 1 (2)
( 1 ) Cf. K . J. BASMADJIAN, op. cit., p. 71 sq .
(2) Cf. K. J. BASMADJIAN, op. cit , p . 36 sq .
Three centuries a fter the fa l l of Ani, another great
THE exodus took pla ce from the second homeland , new Ar
ARMENIANS menia . Very many Cilicians fl ed abroad for fear of
IN WESTERN the Moslems . Crowds of them were rece ived in CyEUROPE prus
,Rhodes
,and Crete, a lso at Smyrna and Con
stantinople, and a ll the lands sti l l belonging to the
Byzantine Empire . The coming of the Crusaders had fami lia rized the
Armenians,however
,with the Latin nations
,and they soon began to
flow towa rd s Venice, Leghorn, Rome, M i lan, Naples,Genoa
,and Pisa ,
Armenian colonies being gradua lly formed in a ll these cities. Other emi
grants settled in France, at Marsei l les where there is sti l l a “Rue des
Arméniens”,and in Pari s where unhappy King Leo had spent his la st
days .
Egypt,where the la st Armenian ruler wa s kept so long a pri soner,
then had a cons iderable Armenian colony, and notwithstand ing the hum
iliations and countless vexations the Chri stians were exposed to in
tha t country from the Mame lukes,qui te a number of refugees from Cil
icia settled there .
Amsterd am a lso had its Armenian colony,but not of refugees from
Ani or Sis . These a rrivals were men and women from New Julfa near
I sfahan,who had been doing bus iness in Ind ia and the Pers ian Gulf with
the Dutch and who eventua lly came to the Netherland s to settle. ( 1 )
Abba s had a purpose in protecting the Armenians and getting them
to settle just outs ide his capita l, for a ll business with the Ea st wa s then
in the hands of Chri stians (Engli sh, Portuguese, Dutch ) with whom the
Mos lems found i t d ifficult to dea l d irectly ; wherea s the Pers ian monarchrecognized tha t the Armenians would be the very midd lemen he abso
lutely needed to bring prosperi ty to his dominions. With the encouragement of the Pers ian court, la rge Armenian col
THE ARMENIANS ouies were founded in the bus iest ports of Ind ia ,IN INDIA Bombay
,Ca lcutta
,and Madra s
,a lso in Ceylon.
Armenian business relations developed far afield,
and enterpri sing merchants among them went sti l l further Ea stwa rd,es
tablishing themselves a t Singapore,in B a tavia
,and even in Ch ina .
In ea stern Asia , a s we have seen,there were Armenian colonies at
quite an ea rly d ate. The oldest record s we have of the settlements in
( 1 ) The carved inscription formerly in the Armenian church of Amsterdam i snow at Marse ill es in the Borel l i Ca stl e museum.
3 33
Ind ia go back to 1497, when they were a lready in Ca lcutta,long before
Job Cha rnoch made i t an important commercia l metropol is in 1690. Con
sequently the capita l of Ind ia owes its beginnings a s a business center to
the Armenians rather than to Europeans. (2) W e have proofs of thisin the tombstones d i scovered in the former Christian buria l-grounds of
Ca lcutta dating back ea rl ier than 1690. In 1688 Armenians trad ing inthe Ind ian ports obta ined from the E a st Ind ia Company a cha rter datedJune 22nd, securing them specia l benefits
,and their factories became
famous . In 1692 they enl isted in the English a rmy,and fought with i t
during the 18th and 19th centuries. In Ind ia and in the Ma layan archipelago, in the Ph i l ipp ines
,Siam
,Burma
,and even in Ch ina (Canton and
Nankin) , they sti l l number today more than twenty thousand .
Of a ll these colonies, however, one of theTHE
oldest ( 1 ) in the Med i terranean and one of theIN
most important, at lea st intellectua l ly, wa s that
of Venice . It owed its renown to the so—ca l ledMekhitha rist Congregation (2) who settled there on the island of Sa int
Laza rus and became the lead ing Armenian cultura l center. In 15 10, when
the a rt of printing wa s spread ing throughout Europe, the Mekhitharists
sta rted the first Armenian printing-press wh ich sub sequently rendered
inca lculable services to the ir people . A branch establi shment at Trieste
wa s fol lowed by sti l l another a t V ienna .
The Russian campa igns in Armenia aga inst
THE ARMENIANS the Pers ians and Turks, and the return of the
IN RUSSIA Ottomans to the plateau of Erzerum resulted on
numerous occa s ions in a large emigra tion of the
Armenians under Moslem rule to the Czar’
s Transcauca sian possessions
and to Ru ssia itself. Moscow,Astrakhan, and the Crimea had colonies
of them in the 17th century, and in 1708 Peter the Great gave these
fore igners specia l privileges.
( 2 ) Cf . N. 81 H. BUXTON, Travel s and Pol itics in Armenia , p. 194.
( 1 ) In 125 3 Count Marco Ziani ofiered the Armenians settl ed in Venice 3
house that stil l bears the name of“Armenian House .
”
( 2 ) From the name of i ts founder Mekh ithar of Seba ste.
— 3 34 _
IV . Chamakhi, conta ining the p rovince of B aku and the canton of
Daghestan.
V. As trakhan, cons i sting of the p rovince of Astrakhan, the eastern
Russ ian p rovinces, together with S iberia and Turkestan.
VI . Berra ra bia , compris ing the western, northern, and southern p rov
inces of Russ ia .
In add ition to the colonies in the Old World,
THE ARMENIANS a t p resent quite numerous in Pa ris,London
,
IN AMERICA Rome,Petrograd
,and most of the la rge Euro
pean and As iati c cities,we must remember the
North American Armenians of whom there a re over today .
The first Armenians to go to the New World ( 1 ) were two experts
in s i lkworm-breed ing,who a t the invita tion of the governor of V irginia
,
settled in tha t Engli sh colony in 165 5 . Very few Armenians landed on
the shores of Am erica until ea rly in the 19th century .
In 1834 a young man,16 yea rs old
,Khachatour Voskanian came
to New York to finish his educa tion. He became a journa l i st and wa s
active in American l itera ture . Later,Ha routhioun V ehapetian a rrived for
the purpose of continuing his stud ies there ; he became Pa tria rch, first atConstantinople
,and then at Jerusa lem.
From 1834 to 1867 there were no more than fifty or s ixty Armeniansin the United Sta tes a ll told
,and in 1870-187 1 they numbered only s ixty
nine . Then there began,howeve r
,the a ctua l emigration caused by Ar
menia’
s sufferings during the Russo-Turki sh wa r of 1876-1877 . Ar
menians therea fter went to the New World no longer just to study,
’
but
to ea rn a l ivel ihood and i f poss ible make enough money to go back one
d ay to the ir na tive land .
Armenian a rriva ls in America increa sed in proportion a s the un
happy people ’s woes overwhe lmed them,a s is shown by stati stics . In
1912,93 50 land ed in United Sta te s ports
,and the following year over
so tha t by 1916 the ir numbers rea ched a t lea stW e find therefore tha t
,omitting the few Armenians who a re scat
tered in South America and Oceania,and taking just the principa l settle
ments,about Armenians have left the ir homeland to l ive abroad ;a re in the United Sta tes
,in the Fa r Ea st
,in Egypt
,
and in Austria-Hunga ry . These la tter are e i ther the remnantsof the med ieva l emigra tion to Poland
,or newcomers in Budapest
,Vienna
and other la rge centers . Bulga ria ha s about Armenians who
( 1 ) Cf. Edw. EGGLESTONE, The Beg inners of a Nation, New York, 1875 .
3 36
came a fter the fa ll of Ani or later from Constantinop le . The 8000 Ar
menians in Roumania a re emigrants from Poland,a s are a lso those of
Bes sa rabia . Those a t Kief have been living there ever s ince Alexander,the grea t Prince of tha t city
,ca lled them to his s ide in 1060 to he lp him
fight the Poles . Most of the Armenian group s in the northern Cauca sus
d a te from the M iddle Age s, but s ince the incorporation of pa rt of Armenia
in the Cza r’ s territory, Russ ian Armenians have founded bus iness houses
and industries in a ll the la rge cities of the Empire .
Cyprus,the i s les of the Arch ipe lago, Greece
,Ita ly
,and western Europe
conta in about 8000 Armenians who la rgely be long to the na tion’
s él ite . So
that up to 1914 we find the tota l number of Armenians to beof whom were l iving unde r Turki sh rule
,under that
of the Russ ian Emperor, and in the p rovince s of Pers ia and va riousother fore ign settlements . Th is b rings to about the tota l number of Armenians in the world , a number wh ich the recent d isa sters havereduced to an extent we cannot yet a ccura tely ca lcula te . W e can reckon
,
however,tha t there a re a t lea st three mi ll ions of Armenians throughout
the globe . ( 1 )Th i s is not the p la ce
,in the h istory of a people
,to delve into its
poss ible future . W e have seen in the foregoing pages tha t the Armenianna tion ha s been struggling for two thousand yea rs to p re se rve its freedom
,and tha t ea rly in th i s 20th century it ha s been placed
by fate in the most crue l pos i tion tha t could befa l l a peop le . Pol iti ca llyspeaking Armenia exi sts only in the pa st, but from the viewpoint of
the ir na tiona l i ty,th is ra ce has lost none of the Vita l i ty
,of the ini tia tive
,
and the a spirations it had in the days of yore . And so she stands todaybefore the tribuna l of the world ’s conscience and cla ims her century-oldrights to l iberty and l ife .
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ON THE CHURCH OF SAFAR
( 1 ) The popul ation of many of the sma ll er states of Europe i s not above that
of the Armenian nation : Denmark h a s inhabitants ; Servia , Switzerl and . Bul garia , etc.
3 37
CHAPTER XI
L ITERATURE,SC IENCE
,AND ARTS AMONG THE ARMEN IANS
PHARAGIR ARMENIAN WRITING
When the Armenians were in As ia M inor and sti l l belonged to the
Phrygian na tion,the a rt of writing wa s unknown to them
,and such wa s
the ca se among a ll the Indo—European peoples of those remote times.
The only known systems Of wri ting u sed then were EgypANCIENT tian h ieroglyph ic and the ir deriva tives
,h iera tic and de
AS IATIC motic,in the Ni le va l ley, the cune iform in the southern pa rt
WRITING of western As ia,and the Phoenician a lphabet d rawn from
the Egyptian h iera tic on the Syrian seaboa rd. The Hitti tesma inta ined the ir h ieroglyph i c wri ting and lagged
,therefore
,beh ind the
— 3 38
to fade out entirely, but i t cea sed to be in evidence a t a ll pol itica lly
During the Achaemenian period , Arama ic writing, wh ich wa s a spe
cia l form of Phoenician, wa s in current use in the dominions of the Grea tKings . Th i s system did not suit the character of Aryan languages
,and
the Pers ians when they made use of i t wrote in the Semi tic language.
The Iranian tongue wa s expressed only by transformed cune i forms,made
into syllables . Neither of these two methods of wri ting,therefore
,could
meet the need s of the Armenians.
The conquests of Alexander wh ich made the use of the Greek a lphabet widespread, gave the As iatic Aryans a chance to crysta l l ize their variouslanguages
,but the Hellenic characters d id not include s igns tha t corres
ponded to a ll the sounds of the Pers ian and Armenian languages,and
consequently Greek wa s used in Pers ia at the same time a s the so-ca l led
Persepol itan cha ra cters . The la tter were d erived from the Aramean wh ichunder the Sassanid s had a lready developed into the Peh levi . Bactriana
evolved a d ifferent mode of wri ting,wh i le Ind ia had a d istinct develop
ment,both these countries be ing indebted
,however
, to cha racters of
Phoenician ori gin for the ba si s Of their respective graph i c systems .
There is rea son to bel ieve that many centuri es a fter
ARMENIAN Aramaean writing developed into Persepol i tan,Pehlevi
,
WRITING Syriac, and other forms that met the need s of the va riousSemi tic languages, the Armenians adopted a specia l mode
of writing wi th characters borrowed largely from the Syriac a lphabet,the
Greek, and Others akin to that u sed at Pa lmyra . Agathangelus, Faustus,and Laza ru s of Pharp seem of th is opinion. This
a lphabet must have rema ined in a rud imentary
state,however, and i t was probably inadequate
for all the sounds of the Armenian tongue. It
may have been used at the time tha t Chri stiani ty
was first preached in Armenia, but in any ca se,i f i t ever exi sted its inadequa cy soon made i t
ob solete, and towards the end of the 4th centuryARMENI AN
of our era It wa s sti l l known only to a few schol CARVED STONEa rs such a s Daniel
, the Syrian bi shop and ph i lo ERGATHACIR
Sopher. Th i s a lphabet wa s eventua lly taken and(DeparYih
’
drfil ldFMedal .
improved on by Mesrop, a ssi sted by the monk l ions in Paris )Rufin.
As long a s the Arsacid dyna sty la sted in Pers ia , Greek wa s in grea t
vogue throughout western Asia ; i t wa s the officia l language of Iran and
the second language of the Roman Empi re . It wa s very useful to those
preach ing Chri stianity in Armenia and the Caucas ian countries. With
the arriva l of the Sa ssanid rulers, however, Greek wa s forbidden through
out the dominions of the Grea t King and the Pers ians did everything
possible to drive i t out of Armenia,where Syriac took its place for re
ligious books . As a ma tter of fact the ma sses of the Armenian people
were fami l ia r nei ther wi th Greek or Syriac,nor wi th Pehlevi-Pers ian.
Only in a few border provinces were those languages used a s an auxi l iary
tongue, whi lst Armenian a lone wa s understood in the interior.
It became more than ever neces sa ry, therefore, to fol low
MESROP the genera l l ine of progress, and stabil ize in wri ting the Ar
memiam language,giving the people a sacred l iterature they
could understand . Mesrop set to work to meet th i s need .
His hardest task,certa inly
,wa s to ana lyze the d ifferent sounds, for
the Armenian tongue wa s not homogeneous ; i t varied a ccord ing to prov
inces. Mesrop selected one of the d ia lects, that of the Ara ra t country,
ei ther becau se he considered i t the purest,or because i t wa s spoken by
more Armenians than any other,or else aga in because i t was employed
at court In any ca se, with the help of Greek,Syria c
,Iranian-Avestic
,
and Semi ti c Pehlevi, he accomplished his work. He gave (as in Zend and
sometimes a lso in Greek) specia l s igns for the va rious vowe l intona tions,and he expressed a ll consonanta l sound s whether s imple or compound
by s ingle chara cters . Th is method of a lphabet-forma tion wa s adopted
la ter, moreover, by the Russ ians and the other Slavic peoples. The
splitting of consonanta l sounds would undoubted ly have s implified the
“
wruu‘mu v urnrufi "t ut l-H‘
urre
rrfl fl l nl-n-l-e l flfi
aulrb‘
tusmug ruuunrULBtu
‘
e'
rr'rmfil .
manag e
Yuruumjjjjzlrswt
uyurmrua i q ro,
’
fltL‘
LllJ ll l‘
lli ‘ml
wfi usur'
snort ,
ur r‘
wrami smrrmu i-rmrsurnu
‘
t fi u
ci n emas [rt-1 .3ml-rcuumI-II £11 1e
ERGATHAGIR ARMENIAN WRITING OF THE 1OTH CENTURY (966)(Tarkmantchatz Gospel , Constantinopl e , from document l ent by M. F. Mad er)
new a lphabet by doing without some of the letters, but the scholarly
ana lyst of those days did not use the strict methods we fol low today.
Mesrop sought to achieve a means of complete phonetic rend ition, and
he succeeded with rema rkable perspicaci ty.
Some wri ters, includ ing Va rtan, are of the Opinion tha t Daniel’s al
phabet had 22 cha racters and that Mesrop adopted only 17 of them,add
ing first 12 consonants and then 7 vowels of his own. Accord ing to Asso
ghik, on the contra ry, Danie l’s a lphabet conta ined 29 letters
,and Mesrop
merely completed i t with 7 vowels.W e feel we must reject Assoghig
’
s opinion because i t wa s imposs iblefor Daniel to find in Aramaean, Syriac, or Pehlevi a ll the consonanta lsounds of the Armenian language and practica l ly a ll the vowels werelacking in those languages. Mee p, a fter numerou s unsuccessful attemptsto employ Daniel ’s a lphabet
,took the latter a s merely his starting-point
342
yi m.
mnrug‘
rnuu'
new:
surn nsu‘
tt rrupru
1 113 18 12114mutu
m] In uit.
mlrufmrgmi s urll lu lll
'D-v 1211 111 1 11”
b
rnxumudmg t-J
‘
u
X ian-1 .
nlLttl-‘
L' murrfi
‘
u:
F l.
a s imi la r transformation,and one due to the same causes
,took place in
Iran where the Zoroastrian clergy taking the Peh levi writing a s the irba si s created an entirely made-up Zend a lphabet. The ir a im wa s to
rescue the Avestic wri tings of the old Aryan language from the obscurity
to wh ich they were relega ted by the use of Semitic characters.
The bless ing of a wri tten language in the Ararat country meant thebeginning of a grea t inte l lectua l upswing for Armenia . Not only couldthe Scriptures and scriptura l commentaries be translated into Armenian
,
thanks to the new a lphabet,but i t caused a deve lopment of secula r l itera
ture,and ra i sed the genera l
cultura l level . Unti l then the
people had been sa tisfied wi th“ h e
"f l-TMM Lora l trad itions just a s the
Greeks and a ll Indo-Euro
Ipean peoples once were . With
a language and a l i terature all
the ir own,na tiona l sentiment
NOTRAGIR ARMENIAN WRITINGtook fa st hold of both, and i t
(More recent form)(Zeitoun 1 596)
cannot be ga insa id tha t Is
la rge ly due to Mesrop that the
Armenian people came through all their centuries of struggle,servitude,
and persecution,without los ing the i r nationa l ity.
Mesrop’s ta sk wa s ch iefly undertaken with a view to spread ing the
Christian religion,but a sub sid ia ry purpose was the emancipa tion of
the Armenians from the influence of fore ign clergy. The first works in
Armenian,consequently
,were translations of Greek and Syriac wri tings
a ll dea ling with rel igious subjects. They included the Bible and the
Gospels, the writings of Ephrem the Syrian, the Hexameron of B as i l ofCaesa rea
,the homi l ies of St. John Chrysostom,
the Ecclesiasti ca l Historyof Eusebius
,tha t Of the conversion of Edessa
,the (apocrypha l ) corres
pondence of Christ with Abga r, by the Syrian La roubna , the Syriac
liturgy,tha t of St. B a s i l
,etc.
,bes ides the va rious writings in Armenian
i tself such a s Mesrop’s biography by his d i sciple Korioun
,the
‘refutations
of sects’ by Eznik, the h i story of Armenia ’s convers ion to Chri stiani ty,
a scribed to Agathangelus, and the history of Armenia under the Pers ianArsacid s, a scribed to Faustus of Byzantium. To these must be added
the hymns wri tten in Armenian ascribed by trad i tion to Mes rop and his
great col labora tor,Ca thol icos Sahak.
_ 344 _
B efore the time of Mee p, there wa s certa inly
ANCIENT no wri tten Armenian l iterature. Statutes and roya l
ARMENIAN rescripts,a long with administra tive documents, were
LITERATURE wri tten in Greek during the period of Arsacid rule,and
in Pehlevi under the Sa ssanid s . The same applies to
the h i storica l chronicles or anna ls compi led during those centuries whetherby Armenians or non-Armenians . These la tter works have not beenpreserved to us
,and Moses of Khoren a lone makes mention of any of
the ir authors . He mentions Mar-Apa s-Ka tina (whom some authoritiesth ink might have been Berose ) , O'lympius (Aghioub ) of Ani
,the high
priest of Ormuzd,who l ived in the later ha lf Of the second century of our
era and wrote a h i story of his times,Bardesanes and Khorohput, two
Iranian anna l ists. Some contempora ry authori ties look upon these wri tersa s inventions of Moses of Khoren
,but such a View is very questionable
BOLORGIR ARMENIAN WRITING
and ha rd ly tenab le, for i t is not a t a ll l ikely that a country that had
reached Armenia ’s state of development would not have recorded its
h i story . W e know,moreover, from rel iable sources tha t the Armenian
upper classes were qui te cultured , and tha t both at the court and at the
residences of the S atraps, l iving wa s sumptuous and embe l l i shed wi th
a ll kinds of expressions of a rt. Among the nobi l ity were l i terary men
of note, such a s Artavazd , the son of Tigranes the G rea t, who wrote
traged ies and d i scourses in Greek and whose works a re pra ised by Plu
ta rch ; V rouyr, of a roya l fami ly of satrap s,mentioned by Armenian his
torians a s a poet of merit ; and Pa rouyr (Proeresios in Greek ) , the“prince
of ora tors”, who wa s known for his eloquence in Rome, and to whom his
pupi l Gregory of Nazianzus refers with great admiration in his wri tings .
Hi storians tel l us that in the Imperia l City a monument wa s ra ised to
Pa rouyr with the fol lowing inscription : “Rome
,the Queen of Cities
,to
the King of E loquence .
” What constituted the rea l Armenian l i teratureof th is period
,however
,were the ora l ly transmi tted songs of the bard s .
All tha t ha s come down to us,unfortunately
,of th i s ancient poetry are
345
fragments quoted by Moses of Khoren and Gregory Magistros. W e
do know,however, from the chroniclers’ frequent reference to them,
tha tthese songs were not only numerous and d ivers ified
,but enjoyed great
popula rity. Even Chri stianity,accord ing to Faustus of Byzantium
,did
not succeed in uprooting them a ltogether in spite of centuries of effort,for
the spiri t permea ting them reappea red in a new form,in the M idd le Ages,
among the troubadours.
Th is ancient poetry wa s vibrant wi th epic inspira tion. It sang of
the god s mighty and serene, of Ormuzd“the founder of humankind”,
“the
father of the God s and a ll heroes”,
“the Arch i tect of the Universe”,
“the
Crea tor of Heaven and Earth”, the
“Wi se” and the“Va l iant One of
M ihr, the invi sib le F ire, Son of Ormuzd
,the essence of universa l l ife,
the god of l ight and hea t ; of Nana, the goddess of motherhood, the pro
tectress of the fami ly ; of Astlik, the goddes s of beauty and love, pro
tectress of virgins ; ofAmanor, the god of the New Year and of hospita l ity ;of Anahit
,goddess of fecund ity and wisdom
, the“tempera te and immacu
late Lady”, the“golden-winged Mother”
,the protectress of Armenia ; of
Vahakn, the god of strength
,Astlik
’s lover
,who fought with dragons
,
hunted wi ld bea sts,and who wa s born in the birth-throes of heaven and
earth :
In trava i l were both heaven and earth,
In trava i l wa s the crimson sea,
The sma l l red reed wa s se ized with labor in theAnd from its stem there i ssued smoke
,
From the sma l l reed ’s stem there i ssued flame,
And athwart the flame there sprang a youth,
Sprang a fa ir-ha ired youth ;His ha ir wa s a s of fire
,
His na scent heard of flame,
And his eyes,they were a s suns ! ( 1 )
This early Armenian poetry sang of legendary or h i storic heroes,
of Haik,the
“sturdy hero Of noble frame, with his curly ha ir, his keen
eye and robust a rm,brave and renowned among the G iants” of
Aram,the vanquisher of Nioukar
,the Med ian tyrant whom he took pris
( l ) Moses of KHOREN, I, chap. m i.
(2 ) ID., chap X XI .
346
the cond i tions under wh ich the poetry sprang up, point rather to the i rbe ing detached composi tions
,love poems
, dancing and wedd ing songs,sacred hymns
,and invoca tions to the gods,
'
reminding one of the Spani shromancero.
These epic songs were, moreover, not the only literary output of theArmenians in pagan times ; they undoubted ly possessed narra tives pa ssedon by word of mouth
,recited by the ir old folk during the long winter
evenings to the fami ly seated around the hearth, stories in prose or in
verse,reca l l ing for their emula tion the deeds of prowess ach ieved by men
of the ir race,by vi llages
,or by tribes . These are lost trea sures
,unfor
tunately, forgotten epics whose fables would have been so much va luedby us today
,but for wh ich Chri stian h i storians substituted fictions woven
a round Bible subj ects . The first h i stori ca l works a re so imbued wi ththi s superpos ition of Chri stian legend that for centuries the ea rly daysof the Armenians were represented by fanciful ta les mostly ba sed on
Hebrew legend,and the effects of thi s unfortunate deviation are seen too
in a ll wri tings of med ieva l Chri stendom.
The l i terature pecul iar to Chri stian Armenia owed its inception and
ma in development to the clergy and wa s na tura lly governed by the spiri t
of the new rel igion. It cons i sted of Scriptura l translations and commen
ta ries,theologica l wri tings
,l i turgica l hymns
,d i sserta tions
,sermons
,and
numerous h i storica l works wherein the religious e lement wa s predominant.Nevertheless
,notwithstand ing th i s ab sorption of thought and the ex
clusiveness of the clergy,ancient pred i lections were so deeply rooted among
the people tha t some l inks were ma inta ined between the ancient heathen
poetry and that of the new civi l iza tion. There came about in Armeniajust a s in western Europe a reviva l of that pre-Chri stian sent iment
,and
qui te a number of priests (a s wa s the ca se in France from the 15th centuryon) let themselves be carried away by secular themes .
As we find i t in the most ancient writings preserved to us, whether in
the origina l or in trans la tion, the Armenian language is seen to conta in a
wea lth of poetry and lyri c rhythm,and to be permeated with sturdy
pa triotism. W e cannot help conclud ing tha t its ea rly wri ters, in fash ion
ing the nationa l med ium of thought tha t they used so splend id ly, must
have drawn generous ly on the ancient Armenian bards . Aided by Greekculture mostly imbibed in the Byzantine centers wh ich they purposelyvi s ited
,they endowed the ir na tive tongue, a lready wel l-rounded by the i r
heathen predecessors,with a scholarly and refined finish . All experts
who have undertaken a close study of the Armenian language agree in
— 34s
a ssigning to i t a very h igh place among the most a ccura te vehicles of
human thought. The trans la tion of the Bible,for instance
,is looked
upon a s an outstand ing litera ry monument,and the origina l work of
Eznik, the purest Armenian writer of that period
,is the equa l of tha t of
any among the most renowned ma sters of prose.
Although we a re not in a pos ition to compa re the lost hea then l i terature of Armenia wi th that of its early Chri stian period, we notice nevertheless many fl ights of ancient nationa l thought in frequent pa ssage s of
certa in h istorians,a s a lso even in rel igiou s hymns . Cannot the same
be sa id, moreover, of the Ca thol ic literature of the west,in our own
church hymns, and a lso in the l i turgica l words of the Orthodox Church ?The breath of Greece and Rome left inde lible impress ions everywheretha t i t reached .
In an h istorica l work such as this, i t is impossible to mention a ll
the writers among such an abundant l itera ture, much less to give any
ana lys is of the ir respective works . I will l imi t mysel f, consequently,to naming just a few of the ch ief Armenian authors, and beg the re ader
seeking to enlarge his knowledge of the subj ect to refer to the specia l
works thereon. 1)
( 1 ) Th e fol lowing are some of the books and articl e s deal ing with th is subjectEd. DULAURIER, Recue i l d es Historiens des Cro is ades, vol . 2, Les Documents
arméniens . Etienne ASSOGHIK, Histoire universe l le , transl of part I. VictorLANGLOIS, Co l lection d
’Historiens arméniens , 2 vol s . BROSSET, Co l lection
d’Historiens arméniens, 2 vol s . Histo ire d ’Arménie , by VARTABED ARISTACES
of La stivert, transl . by Eva ri ste PRUD’ HOMME. SAINT-MARTIN, Memories h istoriques et géograph iques sur l
’
Arménie. vol . 2. Histoire des Orpél ians ,by Etienne ORPELIAN. ProsOpopée-Al légorie , from the Rose and th e Nightinga leof Mark-Zach aria CHODJENTZ of Erivan, transl . by Ed . LEVAILLANT DE FLORIVAL. Fel ix NEVE, L’
Arménie chrétienne et sa l ittéra ture . A TCHOBANIAN,
Poemas arméniens anciens et mod ernes ; Chants popula ires arméniens ; Les Trouvéres arméniens ; L’
Armenie, son Histoire , sa Littéra ture, son ré le en Or ient ; L’Ar
ménie , son pa ssé, sa culture , son avenir ; La France e t lo Peup le arménien ; Poems :La V ie et le Reve ; Ofirande poétique it la France ; La Littérature a rménienne an
cienne et contempora ine , 3 articl e s (Revue Encyclopéd ique La rousse ) ; Gregoirede NAREK, (Mercure d e France ) ; transl . of the novel Dje la ledd in, by RAFFI(Revue d es Revues ) . Frederic MACLER, Histoire d
’Arménie, of Bi shop SEBEOS,
Fa bles of MEKHITAR GOCHE, Contes arméniens , Nouve l les , by Marie SEVADJIANPetite B ibl iotheque a rménienne , (a serie s of volume s conta ining transl ations of the
works of CHIRVANZADE, Bupon ZARTARIAN, Av. AHARONIAN, BARONIAN,
and H. ARAKELIAN) . M inas TCHERAZ, Nouve l les a rméniennes ; Poetes a r
méniens . Tigrane YERGAT, Littéra ture arménienne , (Revue d es Revues ) . RevueFranco-Etrangere ( i ssue of May 1916) poems by Daniel VAROUJAN, Adom YARJANIAN, H TOUMANIAN, DJIVANI, etc. M iss Al ice Stone BLACKWELL,Armenian Poems , Boston. Mi ss Zabelh BOYAJ IAN, Armenian Poems and Legends ,London. La Poés ie a rménienne , transl ation of se lections publ i sh ed under ed itor
sh ip oi Va l ery BRUSOFF, Moscow. Antho log ie arménienne , publ ished at Petrograd under ed itorsh ip of Maxim GORKY.
— 349
Most of the large number of h istorians and chroniclers of the 5th
to the 14th centuries furnish us with highly interesting documentation
rega rd ing not only Armenia but a lso adj acent Asiatic peoples and the
Byzantine Empire. Some of them,moreover
,are authors of cons iderable
note,includ ing a few who a re rea l poets ra ther than anna l ists .
The ea rl iest of these wri ters is undoubted ly Korioun,who l ived about
the midd le of the 5th century, and whose Life of Mesrop conta ins very
many interesting deta i ls concerning Armenia ’s convers ion to Christianity,
a lso concerning the invention of writing. The most noteworthy h istorians
of th is period, however, are Aga thangelus and Faus tus of Byzantium.
It wa s long thought tha t the two books a scribed to these authors (bel ievedby some to have been wri tten by Korioun h imself ) were origina lly in
Greek,but th is opinion is no longer held . The History of Gregory the
Il lumina tor and King Tirida tes by Agathangelus is a fine piece of l iterature
,both for purity of style and language
,wh i le Faustus’ Chronicle
is more picturesque and vivid . As h istori ca l documents these two works,especia l ly the second, a re most V a luable. The same may be sa id of The
His tory of Ta ron, by Zenobius of G lak, who l ived in the same period .
He relates the furious fighting of the pagan priests aga inst the preachers
of Chri stiani ty and the satraps who accompanied the la tter.
One of the lead ing figu res of the same period wa s E lisha to whomwe a re indebted for the story of the upris ing of Chri stian Armenia aga inst
the rule of the Sa ssanid Pers ians, worsh ipers of Ormuzd,includ ing the
deeds of va lor of Va rdanMamikonian,Armenia ’s na tiona l hero. E l isha is
a rea l epic poet. Then we have Lazarus of Pha rp, an excellent h i storian,
restra ined, cha ste, and preci se in style. In his History of Vahan Mami
konian, (his contemporary ) , he rehea rses the prowess of th is va l iant
prince whose courage and abi l ity ra i sed Armenia from the ru in she wa s
in a fter the fa l l of the Arsacid dynasty.
In the 7th century Sebeos , another author of note,wrote his His tory
of Emperor Hera clius , most va luable for students of tha t time and ex
tremely useful for Byzantine h i story . L i kewise Moses ofKa lanka’
it wroteconcerning the Aghouan people and events of the same period in Transcauca s ia .
Teh Bagratid era is no less prolific in writers than the preced ing periodof the Gracco—Pers ian struggles for Armenia . Th is era includes ] ohnCa tholicos and Thomas Artzruni, both of whom re late the events of
the ir day in the kingdom of the Bagratid s and that of V a spurakan; Ste
phen Assoghik, author of a Universa l His tory, the second pa rt of which
3 50
was able to turn to in the origina ls . W e owe to him wha t l ittle has beenpreserved of the ancient songs of the people, a long with a la rge number
of documents tha t open up a wide vi s ion of the centuries prior to Mesrop.
Some authorities consider th is h istorian to have l ived in the centuryfollowing the Arab conquest, wh i le others a ss ign him to the s ixth century.
In any ca se his wri tings cons titute a precious record of the thought ofancient Armenia
,and a re of inestimable documenta ry and l i tera ry va lue .
Natura l ly enough, the poetica l genius of the Ar
LITURGICAL menian people underwent a change under the influence
POEMS of Christianity, at least in the subj ect-ma tter of the i rpoems . The heathen songs to the gods of yore were
repla ced by Christian hymns, composing wh ich wa s a pursui t h ighly es
teemed throughout Christendom. St. Mee p and St. Sahak themselveswere, a ccord ing to trad i tion, the pioneers of th is new vogue wh ich spread
rapid ly in Armenia . In countless mona steries, in the parish-churches, andbishop ’s pa laces
,new hymns were composed da i ly to the glory of the
Lord . These works of wh ich many are sti l l used in the Armenian l iturgywere mostly anonymous
,and we have to wa i t ti l l the 7th centu ry for a
church poet who ha s left us any name,viz : Ca tholicos Komitas .
Gregory of Na rek, the most noted among these rel igious poets belongs to the 10th century. His extant works, wh ich are entirely devotiona l
,
cons ist of rel igious poems,a commentary on the Song of Songs , eulogies
of the sa ints,and a prayer-book . All his writings voi ce fervent Christian
sentiment,both origina l and forceful in style.
The 12th century gave us St. Ners es the Gra cious , whose voluminousworks dea l wi th theology
,sacred verse
,and rel igious musi c. Many
hymns wri tten by him a re sti l l sung in the churches of Armenia . Con
tempora ry with him,Ka tcha tur of Ta ron wa s another d istingu ished writer
of the same ca tegory .
Armenian intellectua l a ctivity wa s not restri cted , however, to themesof p iety. Theologians, mora l i sts, and scholars of all sorts were numerousat a ll times . Eznik
, ] ohn Mandahuni,perhap s a lso David
,surnamed
The Invincib le, belong to the 5 th century. The last-named author wasa commentator and trans la tor of Aristotle. In the 8th century Ananiaof Shirak wa s a successful mathematician
,and in the 9th, ] ohn, ca l led
The Ph i losopher, wa s in grea t repute a s a mora l ist and theologian.
Even deep in the M idd le Ages,in the l 0th and 1 1th centuries, Greek
l i terature wa s not neglected,for Prince Gregory Magis tros transla ted
3 52
some of Pla to’s works a long with other Greek authors not yet seen in
Armenian, in add ition to wh ich he wa s the author of epistles and poemsof cons iderable meri t.
In the 12th century Nerses of Lampron wa s a theologian and mora l i stof Ci licia
,and a renowned orator.
Mekhita r Goche, in the 13 th century,the author of much esteemed
compend iums,wa s a wel l-known jurist
,and drew up the Armenian Code.
] ohn ofE rzenga , a mora l ist, theologian, and poet, wa s a lso a d i stingui shedgramma rian. Constable Sempad, a lready mentioned
,wrote in thi s same
period a summary and commenta ry in demotic Armenian of Mekhitar
Goche’
s Code and tha t of Byzant ium,together with a transla tion of the
Ass izes of Antioch . Al i shan used this trans la tion into Armenian to pro
duce a French vers ion of the As s izes , which is most va luable a s the ori
gina l text is now lost . The works of Sempad , a s a lso those of the phys icianMekhitar of Her
,a re written in demotic Armenian
,and a re the ea rl iest
specimens of works of a serious na ture in the language of the people.
Mekhitar of Her wrote on med icine .
The above a re the outstand ing representa tives of Armenian cla ssi ca ll i tera ture
, but a longs ide of these lea rned works of the h igher stratum of
society, there exi sted another l itera ture in the language of the people,un
restricted by the austerity of religion and voicing in its native puri ty the
feel ings and ta stes of the Armenian na tion. Th is poetry sprang from
the primi tive folk-songs wh ich from time immemoria l ti l l now have a l
ways expre ssed the impulses of the hea rt in anonymous verse .
I cannot do better,to depict thi s form of Armenian
SECULAR poetry,than quote A. Tchobanian’s eulogy of it . In
POETRY severa l of his works he ha s revea led to the world the beautyof th is l itera ture wh ich hitherto had never been suspected
in Europe .
“The poetry of Armenia shows,in its form
,some of the cha racteris
tics pecul ia r to the whole E a stern world . It,a lso
,found birth under the
dazzling sky of ancient Asia . But running through th i s Orienta l im
press,even through these genera l features of Ea stern culture
,Armenian
poetry a long with a ll other branches of Armenian art makes us con
scious of a deep-seated kinship , an innermost connection with‘ the art
of our western lands .
“There is comparatively more restra int, more cla ri ty, and purity
of express ion,in Armenian a rt than in the complex and sensuous art
35 3
of most other peoples, e specia l ly tha t of the ea stern Moslems . The
rea son is tha t the Armenian soul is Aryan and responds to tha t brea th of
heaven i t rece ived at its birth, for the flame tha t burns with in i t is thatsame flame wh ich gave the He l lenes both Phoebus and the Muses .
“The poetry of the people ha s blossomed forth in na ture’s school,and na ture pervades and rules i t. Na ture is not merely scenery forthese poems, i t is a lead ing figure in them; i t is the confidant
, the friend ,who suffers and rejoi ces wi th man. A deep tenderness inheres in th ispoetry and is fe lt ; even pa in there in is freed of its sha rpness, and be itssound soft or strong, i t is never strident, never hateful .
“These songs a re usua l ly composed by achoughs or wandering ba rds,but often the people themselves improvi se them. The womenfolk share
conspicuously in these compos i tions, and the finest vi llage songs of
Kobh in Russ ia Armenia come from the young girls of tha t loc
a l ity. E specia l ly in the town of Eghine in Turkish Armenia , the women a re celebrated for their poetica l ta lent.” ( 1 )
Does not th is evoke the very same picture a s tha t wh ich we have
a lways conce ived of the ea rl iest poetry of the Greeks ? Homer s inging
on his lyre of his ancestors’ prowess, ma idens playing in grove or meadow,
dancing a round a trunk-hewn image of Ce res or E ros,chanting to the
beneficent de ities their ingenuous poems redolent wi th nature and the
joy of l iving. Thus they sang to the springs and the murmuring brooks,to the flowery pastures and the da rk forests
,to the rustic courts of good
old King Sa turn. Armenia ha s happi ly preserved th is ancestra l poetica l
spiri t so fa st d isappea ring from our own countrys ide .
How can foreign influence stand aga inst such spontaneous expressron of a people’s soul ? The ir language is the same a s of old except fora few adaptations to present needs ; i t reta ins its ma in purity because i tis unconstra ined, echoing only the feel ings of unpretentiou s hearts .
Th is poetry of the people is of a ll categories,includ ing love-songs,
lul labies,chi ldrens’ rhymes
,playful or satirica l couplets
,prayers
,d irges,
dancing and hol iday songs,marriage hymns
,rhymed ta les
,h istorica l and
nationa l ba llads, exiles’ laments
,and va rious other songs glori fying nature
or ha rvest,apostroph izing the birds or the sea sons or depicting the scenes
of da i ly l ife .
There a re a lso popular epics of wh i ch the finest is undoubted ly that
( 1 ) A. TCHOBANIAN, Le Peup le arménien, son pa sse'
, sa culture, son avenir.
Paris, 1913 . p . 21 sq .
3 54
who wa s born probably in the 15th century and ha s left us a long seriesof sma l l poems
,mostly qua tra ins
,the ma jori ty of them del ightful love
songs .
Among the poetica lly-minded clergy who composed in imita tion of
the troubadours, we must mention Cons tantine of E rzenga , F rile, Hov
hannes of Telgouran, Gregory of Akhtamar, a ll of whose colorful andrefreshing verses exh ib it at the same time much a ltitude of thought andfee l ing.
The above brief summary is ample proof that from the 5th to the
14th century,notwithstand ing the terrible struggles in wh ich they were
ever involved for the ir very existence,the Armenians never dropped out
of the world ’s scientific and l i tera ry movement. In the mona steries freedom of the mind sti ll found expression even amid the nameless terrorswithout. The whole world wa s in great turmoi l during those centuriesof barbari sm
,but in the western lands
,in Byzantium
,and among the
Arab s and Pers ians,there were neverthe less compa ra tive ly long periods
of ca lm such a s the Armenians never knew. The Armenian people must
certa inly have been possessed of unusua l strength of cha racter for themto have kept the ir hold on spiri tua l and cultura l subj ects in the verycenter of Western As ia
,a veritable furnace throughout the M idd le Ages.
Fol lowing both the fa l l of Ani and the departure
MODERN of the la st sove re ign of New Armenia into exile, the
ARMENIAN na tion find ing itse lf subjected to the most crue l OpLITERATURE p ress ion sent away its sons to settle in many a foreign
land,and these expa tria tes took with them the ir love
for the ir na tive tongue and l ite ra ture . New centers of culture were thus
formed,whereas in the ens laved homeland the pursui t of letters wa s
restricted to the mona steries and a few privi leged homes . Armenian l iterature wa s a lready abundant
,however
,and persecution only made the
works of the past a ll the more highly trea sured . The Armenians con
sequently looked up to the ir wri ters a s be ing the champions of their
nationa l ind ependence . There came about a s a result a number of in
dependent l i terary centers with l ittle or no interconne ction, but a ll workinga long the same l ines
,so that their endeavors a s a whole never lost the ir
homogeneous cha ra cter.
Neverthe less the d istance from one another of these same centers,and the ir d iffering environments, d id have considerable influence on the ir
trend of development.
356
At Moscow and Tifl is, the spiri t of Russ ia oriented the exi les, and
the influence of German l itera ture so widespread in the Czar’s empirewa s l ikewi se fe lt. At Constantinople and Smyrna
,where there wa s a
h igher leve l of scholarsh ip than in the homeland, the Armenians came
into contact with Europeans and ma inta ined grea ter intel lectua l inde
pendence, and the same was the ca se at Venice and Vienna and in a ll
the grea t western centers where the cultured in mind found every oppor
tunity and freedom of thought. At Etchmiadzin and the other mona steries of Armenia the men of letters had to l ive to themse lves and feedma inly on the ir nation’s pa st
,not taking so la rge a pa rt in the genera l
l i te ra ry movement. In a ll the above-mentioned foreign cente rs,the pre
dominant element of l i tera ry educa tion wa s tha t of F rench authors.
Gradua lly the new l iterature sp read everywhere and comprised all
branches of express ion : the thea ter,the nove l
,the epic, and the epigram
,
a ll appea red in the Armenian tongue . Historica l,a rchaeologica l, ph i lo
logica l,ph i losoph ica l
,sociologica l
,and scientific works were added to Ar
menian bibliography,wh i le the pol itica l press a lso began to promote
the a spira tions of the na tion. All these endeavors under the influence of
a ll manner of teachers,but ma inly F rench
,grew rapid ly and resulted in
l itera ry a ch ievements where in the spiri t of Armenia,a lbe i t in evolution
,
reta ined its d i stinctive cha racter.
Owing to the innumerable d ifficulties the Armenians encountered in
striving to keep up with the genera l advancement of thought of the civi l
ized world , the ir progress in the va rious centers wa s d i ss imi la r. Con
stantinople, Etchmiadzin, Moscow,Tifl is
,St. Lazarus at Venice, and the
Armenian mona stery at V ienna were for many yea rs in the fore of the
movement ; of these Venice for a cons iderable time wa s the lead ing center.
There in the city of the Doges,the Mekh ita ri sts found not only freedom
to express their thought in wri ting, but a lso hosp itable hosts , a long with
the inexhaustible resources of the western world for men of science and
letters . For these reasons,St. Lazarus during the 18th century and the
first ha lf of the 19th wa s preeminetnly the inte l lectua l center of the Ar
menian people .
The teach ing a t St. Laza rus included the study of the best ancient
and modern authors whom the Mekh i ta ri sts specia l ized in translating.
It turned out schola rs often of the h ighe st meri t, men who went out into
the world to impa rt to the va rious Armenian colonies the spirit and ex
quisite ta ste of the Gra cco-Latin writers . Many of them became eminent
3 57
in the l iterary world and ach ieved pos i tions of d istinction in Armenia’
s
na tiona l l i fe.
From the 17th century onward a veritable reviva l of Armenian
l iterature took place. The first wri ters of th is period, ch iefly at Venice,u sed cla ss ica l Armenian, whi lst those in Russia and Turkey endeavored
to ra ise the spoken tongue to the rank of a l i tera ry med ium. The i r ef
forts,though at first timid
,were crowned with succes s, among Russ ian
Armenians about the midd le of the 19th century, and among those in
Turkey some twenty or th irty years later. Th i s movement had been
foreseen by Mekhita r, the founder of St. Laza rus, for in his l i fetime hecomposed a tentative gramma r of the modern language. The printingpress and the appearance of reviews and period ica ls of a ll kinds wa s of
grea t a ss istance in bringing about thi s change,by making fore ign and
Armenian works known to the masse s and reach ing the people instead
of merely the schola rs. The grea t questions of nationa l freedom whi ch
rightly stirred a ll Armenians could not be treated in archa ic language .
At Tifl is, Moscow,Constantinople
,a ll the centers where the mind s of
the people needed to be reached,cla ss ica l Armenian wa s re legated to the
role of a lea rned language meant only for the Church and a l i terary élite .
The works and wri tings in Armenian from the 17th century to our
time are innumerable,and they a re of infini te va riety a s rega rds subj ect
ma tter. I cannot li st them,therefore
,any more than I could those of
cla ss ica l times . I will just mention the most noted wri ters in each b ranchof l iterature
,and am sorry I have not spa ce for even a brief ana lys i s
of the ir respective works.
The name ofMekhita r,the founder of the Congrega tion of St. Lazarus
at Venice ha s rema ined famous,not only in the Armenian nation but
throughout the world . To Mekhita r,whose many works were wri tten in
cla ss ica l Armenian, we a re indebted for his admirable action in creatingth is center respons ib le for a ga laxy of scholars and men of letters . Amongthe pupi ls of th is grea t school were : Tchamtehian and his History of Armenia ; Ina
’
jidjian and his archaeologica l trea ti ses,a lso his Geography
ofAncient Armenia ; Aucher, who wrote theologica l works and biographiesof the Sa ints ; Arrene Bagra tuni, and E dua rd Hurmuz, trans la tors of
Homer, Virgi l, Sophocles, M i lton, Racine , Volta ire, Alfieri, and Fenelon
’s
Telemachus . Bagra tuni wrote a great epic poem on the struggle of Haikwi th Bel the G iant, and Hurmuz an imi tation of the Georgia: entitled “TheGa rdens .
”Th i s a ll shows how des irous the St. Lazarus Institute was to
a ssocia te Armenian thought wi th the great development of l i tera ry progress
— 3 58
and essayi st Gregory Artzruni, each in turn contributed to th is reviva l,
and were in the ir day among the leaders of Armenian l i tera ture in Russ ia .
These writers exe rci sed grea t influence on the awakening of the whole
na tion. The ir work wa s ca rried on by nove l ists such a s Moura tsan, Chir
vanzadé, Léo; by short story-wri ters l ike Agka ian, Papas ian,H. Ara
ke’
lian—playrights, includ ing Soundoukian, Chir'a anzadé, Léon Chanth,— by the lyrica l prose-writer Avetik Aharonian who depicted the sufferingsof Armenia both under the tyranni ca l Abdul-Hamid and a fter tha t b loody
despot’s downfa l l— and a lso by Hovannes Toumanian, the best of the
epic poets of Russ ia . L ikewi se the poets Hovhannes Hovhanessian,Avetik
Issahakian A. Tsa tourian,Va han Terian
,Madame Kourghinian, a ll of
whom p roduced excel lent verse ; the h i storiamAra/eel Ba bakhanian (Leo) ,the ph i lologi sts Cha la tianz
,Emine
,Pa tkanian
,S . Ma lkhas ian; the eth
nologist La layan; Ba rkhoudarian who trans la ted Goethe and Sch i ller,
Ohannes KhanMa ss ehian who gave his people a splend id vers ion of ShakeSpea re
’
s ch ief ma sterpiece s ; scholars such a s Ca rapet Ter—Mkrtchiantz,Ga rekin Hovs epian, Ga lous t Ter-Mkrtchiantz, Mesrop Ter—Movsess iantz;
Kornita s,the mus i cian
,with others of the Congrega tion of Etchmiadzin.
In Turkey, the Armenian l itera ry impetus wa s not long in producingworks of note . Constantinople from Byzantine times had a la rge Armenian colony, and l iterary light had never been extingui shed there
,but
with few exceptions Armenian l i tera ture on the Bosphorus wa s a l
most a ll of i t grea tly influenced byLatin standa rds
,especia l ly Ita l ian
and French . However,there were
a few wri ters who rema ined pure lyArmenian
,for instance
,Mons ignor
Khrimian,
an orator,author
,and
a pub lic-spiri ted man who everp reached pa trioti sm to his people.
He left numerous works both in
p rose and verse . Also Servantzta’
iantz, the author of folklore stories
and word-pictures of Armenian l i fe ;Devkantz
,known for his nove l
,
MGR. KHRIMIAN brea thing love of country ; in S iberia
,Chahen; Hrand Telga dints i ,
and Za rta rian a ll of whom depict the l ives of the ir compa triots in im
press ive language .
The two la st-named wri ters,together with the author Zohrab and
the poet and essayi st Arda shes Ha routiounian,were d eported to an un
known d estina tion, and i t is to be fea red tha t they shared the fa te of thei rd istingui shed colleague Zohrab who wa s murdered during the deportations .
The fi rst grea t Armenian newspaper, the Ara ra t Dawn
,appea red in
Smyrna in 1840, and from then on newspaper wri ters a cquired considerableprestige in Turkey . Tchilinguirian, Osganian, Gosa
'
anian,and Mamourian
are those chiefly remembered ; the la st-named transla ted some of the
best works of western l i tera ture,and thus made his fe l low-countrymen
fami l ia r wi th the l i tera ry progress of France,Ita ly
,England and Germany.
Deroyentz, Utudji an, Zora i an, Odian, Missakian, Bechiktachelian,Hekimian, Ters ian, and Adjemian, severa l of whom were former students
of the Mekh itari sts a t Venice, a cquired a reputation in the press through
the ir a rticles on varied subjects, and a lso in the wri ting of plays and
poems . Bechiktachelian and Ters ian, a long with the ir contemporaries
Bedros Taurian and Archbi shop Khoen Na rbey were the best lyri c poets
of the period, whi le Dzerentz and Madame Dussap were a lso d i stinguished
novel i sts .
The satire or epigram wa s a lso we ll represented by Ha routioun Se
oadjian, its pioneer, and by Ba ronian, another pa stma ster of the a rt.
It would take very long to mention a ll the Armenian authors whohave written of la te years on a ll kinds of subj ects
,which a re today dea l t
with in Armenian l i tera ture in the demotic language,often by men and
women of outstand ing meri t. I will mention just the poets Setian, Madame
S ibille,Meza rentz
,Tekeian; the authors Demirdjiba chian, Berberian,
Tcheraz,Arpia rian, Tcherahian,
Mrmrian,Zohrab
,Pacha lian
,Zarian
,
Gamsaragan,Tigran Yerga t, V. Sava djian, M . Gura
’
jian, S . Barte'vian,
Mons ignorMouchegh Seropian, Madame Marie Sea a a’
jian, Madame Zabe lE ssa
'
ian,Madame Ana
'
is,the humori st Yervant Odian
, the scholars Norayr
Puzanta ts i,Mons ignor Ormanian
,Mons ignor E lisha Taurian
,Monsignor
Pap/een Gnlesserian, Ka rnig Funduklian,Tiria/ein
,Adja rian,
K. H. Bas
madjian,Torornanian
,etc. I would reca l l a lso Daniel Va roujan and Adorn
Ya rjanian who were grea t poets tha t sang of Armenia ’s sufferings and
struggles . They were deported a long with so many of the ir fel low-coun
— 361
trymen; it is feared tha t they succumbed to Turkish crue lty in the vis ita tion
of 1896.
I must mention fina lly the poet A. Tchobanian who is so we l l known
for his writings in French in wh ich he ha s made us a cqua inted wi th l itcra ry Armenia and ha s pleaded so fervently the cause of his na tion. He
has composed splend id poetry and his extens ive Armenian work has earned
for him cons iderable and we l l-ea rned renown among his compa triots .
The foregoing pages give an idea of the grea t impetus tha t Armenian
l iterature ha s had for the la st hund red yea rs, and show that a ll branches of
human thought a re included in its wide cultura l deve lopment, and tha ti t is sti l l going forwa rd in the pursui t of knowledge that ha s genera l ly
but l i ttle appea l for Ea stern peoples .
Armenia today is in the same pos i tion l inguistica l ly a s wa s France
in the days of langue d’
oc and langue d ’o'
i l. One branch of its language,tha t in Russ ia
,is ba sed on the d ia lect of the Ara rat region
,wherea s
Turkish Armenian ha s for its foundation the speech of Lesse r Armenia
(Armenia M inor) and New Armenia (Cilicia ) . The latter form is des
cended from the Armenian of the M idd le Ages,wh i lst the former is more
d ia lecta l,more mixed wi th fore ign words and express ions, and its gram
mar conta ins more Iranian infiltrations . As for the vocabula ry,the Tur
kish is purer and more cla ss ica l than the Russ ian,wh ich on the other hand
is more demotic and intermingled with foreign terms . In Turkey, es
pecia lly in Constantinople, wri ters have turned to the F rench languagea s the ir standa rd in giving Armenian its modern pol i sh and form
,but
in Russ ia German lite ra ture ra ther ha s preva i led in tha t d irection.
B efore clos ing thi s chapter on the Armenian language,i t may be
helpful to add a few words on versification.
The few fragments of hea then poems and
ARMEN IAN the ea rl iest specimens of re l igious poetry tha tVERS IFICATION have been preserved to us a re in blank verse
,
Without metre or rhyme,but neverthe les s rhyth
mica l and adapted to song. Such a re most of the church hymns, and
th is mode continued unti l about the loth century. Then there beganunder Arab influence a metri ca l and rhymed versification tha t wa s ex
pres sed in a grea t va riety of forms . Verses were of 15 , 12, l l , 10, 9, 8,
7 etc. syllab les composed of 4,3,and 2 hemi stichs
,but in the longest
verses the caesura s a re a lways numerous . All the troubadour poetry is
In this brief review of Armenian inte l lectua l progress,PRINTING we must not forget the importance of the press and the
growth of printing.
It wa s in the Venetian republic,a lways so hospitable to the Ar
menians,tha t the first book in St. Mesrop
’
s cha racters was printed in
15 13 . An Armenian from Cilicia,named Hakob (Ja cob , or James ) sent
out from a Venice printing-house a Ca lenda r followed in 15 14 by a M issa l,
an anthology of poetry,and a book on a strology . Th is wa s ha rd ly fifty
yea rs a fter the invention of printing,long before Russ ia and the Whole
Ea stern world adopted th is means of d issemina ting thought,dest ined to
revolutionize the world . About 1565,under the pa tron
age of Ca thol icos M ikael,an Armenian press wa s set
up in Constantinople, and from the midd le of the 17th
century on,increa s ing quantities of rel igious books
were publi shed a t Venice,Ma rsei lles
,and Amsterdam.
Etchmiadzin and ] ulfa-by-I sfahan followed the ex
ample of the western world and soon Armenian presseswere establ i shed at Smyrna
,in the Cauca sus
,and at
STAMP OF THEMadra s . The Mekhitha rist Congrega tion wa s founded
, ARMENIANa s we have seen
,at the beginning of the 18th century.
P
13 2)?Its printing—house wa s set up from the outset, and when ( 15 13 )
i t opened a branch in Vienna i t a lso sta rted presses inAustria . Sub sequently a ll grea t cities of the world have come to have the irprinting establishments equipped wi th Armenian type
,and there is ha rd ly
a country today where a book in tha t language cou ld not be turned out.
W e must remember tha t the Armenians were not only suffering fromrel igious and l itera ry restrictions ; d riven from the ir land by the tyrannyof the oppressor
,they th irsted for l iberty
,and p rinting gave them a means
of d i ssemina ting their thought,of communi ca ting with the ir many colonies
sca ttered so fa r throughout the world,and enabling the va rious sections
of the i r people to find a common ground for hopesNEW SPAPERS for the future . The rea son that the Armenians
AND MAGAZINES and the Greeks were the first two peoples of a ll
REVIEWS the nea r Ea st to sta rt newspapers and reviewsis tha t they both were s imi larly s ituated
, de
prived of the ir na tiona l independence .
364
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Armenians in Ca lcutta,in
the enjoyment of the freedom they were given in Ind ia,founded the first
newspaper ever to appea r in the ir language,viz : Azta ra r (The Intelligen
cer) . The i r example wa s not fol lowed by the Mekhitha rists unti l the end
of tha t century,when the Yeghanah Puzantian (Byzantine Sea son) wa s
brought out in Venice . The same Congrega tion l ikewi se about the midd le
of the 19th century sta rted the publication of Pazmaveb, a h ighly es
teemed review from both the l iterary and documenta ry standpoint,wh ich
is sti ll appea ring today .
About the same time,the Armenians of the Protestant fa i th in Con
stantinople brought out Chtemaran bidani kidelia tz, a mi ss ionary mag
azine,whi le at Smyrna the fi rst da i ly made its appea rance
,entitled
Archa lou'
is Ara ra dian (the Dawn of Ara rat ) . Therea fter newspapers mul
tiplied, and every Armenian colony had its loca l press .
At Constantinople, the grea t inte l lectua l center for the Armenians , a
grea t number of newspapers and reviews came out,the ch ief ones among
them be ing : Ma s is (Ara rat) , wh i ch sta rted a s a newspaper but la ter be
came a review ; Arevelk (the Ea st) , Ha i renik (the Fatherland ) , Puzantion,Aza ta rna rt,—among the newspapers ; Iergrakound (the G lobe ) , Dzahik
( the F lower) , Vosdan (the City ) — among the reviews .
Meanwh i le the Armenians in Russ ia were a lso active in the same direc
tion. There appea red atMoscow : Huss issapa'
il (the Northern Dawn) , a te
view wh ich came out about 1850 ; at Tifl is,-Krounk Ha iots Achkha rhi (the
Crane of the Armenian Land ) , Ports (Endeavor) , Mourtch, (The Ham
mer) , Gords (The Work ) , and the d a i ly newspapers entitled Mscha le (The
Worker) , Ardzagank (The Echo ) , Norda r (The New Century ) , and Hori
zon, a ll of them published a t Tifl is ; Area (The Sun) publi shed a t Baku.
There wa s a l so an interesting ethnograph i c review Azgahragan Handes and
the a rt period ica l Gheha rvest (F ine Arts ) .
The newspaperHa i astan (Armenia ) published at Tifl is s ince the out
break of the present wa r ( 1914) is the organ of the refugees from Turkey .
Andranik, the people’s hero
,is its ed itor-in-ch ief.
365
At Etchmiadzin, the
Arara t ha s been pub
lished for a good many
years. In Turkey,-there
appea red about 1860, at
the mona stery of V arag
near V an, Ardziv Vas
purakani (the Eagle of
V a spurakan) , and at
Mouch, Artsvik Tarono
(The Taron Eaglet) ,
both of themmonthly re
views .Among the most im
portant of the period ical s
in Armenia centers, we
should mention alsoHan
des Ams orya , a monthly
ph ilological review of
h igh repute publ ished by
the Mekh itharists in V i
enna .
In England , the
headquarters of the Ar
m e n i a n revolutiona ry
Commi ttee founded in
London a monthly organ
called Hentchak (The
Handbell ) , and also in
the Engl i sh capital there
h a s appeared for many
y e a r s the bil ingua l
French and Engl ish re
view ent i tled aArrnenia ,
publ i shed by the eminent
Wh itmlimnfum.
a mt.
A PAGE FROM THE CALENDAR PUBLISHEDAT VENICE IN 1 5 1 3 BY THE ARMENIAN
PRINTER HAKOB
patriotic writerMinas Tcheraz.
ia tz Aghanni (the Arara t Dove ) , Anahit, publ i shed by A. Tchobanian, and
Banasser by K . J . B a smadj ian ; wh i le at Ma rse illes we have Armenia , and
- 3 66
na tiona l l ife . It is obvious,of course
,tha t mos t of the Armenian l iterary
men and schola rs a re happy to find organs in wh ich they can publishthe ir wri tings
,and i t may be mentioned tha t for the grea ter part these
authors ’ works a re conta ined in the reviews and have not yet been published in book form.
Armenian cultura l output is not confined,howeve r
,to l ite ra ture . All
branches of a rt,mus ic
,d ancing
,a rchi tecture
,fresco and minia ture pa inting
,
sculpture , gold smith’s work
,in short a ll the a rts and cra fts represented in
the incompa rable trea sures of the M idd le Ages,a re successful ly pursued
by Armenians today, and in many ca ses the ta lent and cra ftsmanship are
ma inta ined and deve loped in new forms adapted to mod ern times .
The Armenian people ha s from a ll time enjoyed the art
MUSIC of mus i c,been fami lia r with i t
,loved i t and practised i t. With
or without h i stori ca l founda tion,trad i tion ha s i t tha t two thous
and yea rs ago and more,the ir ancestors sang of the exploits of the ir
heroes to the a ccompaniment of instruments of wh ich we have unfort
unately but scanty informa tion.
Armenia certa inly reta ins both in its l iturgy and its folksongs,many
lingering traces of th i s ancient mus ic, just a s in the churches of the westernworld many a stra in from the old hea then times is sti l l in use ; but
the ori gin of these remote tunes can no longer be traced because
of the la te dates of the ir record ings . In any ca se, the oldest Armenian mu s ic
to wh ich we a re able to a ss ign a definite period is tha t of the M idd le Ages ,wh ich wa s of two very d istinct ca tegories, viz : the grea t storehouse of l it
urgica l materia l,and the numerous folksongs
,both of them unisona l .
The first of these two forms of musi c is grave and myst ica l,the second,
l ively and d istinctly pecul ia r to the Armenian people, a lthough showing
sometimes foreign influence s,e i ther Pers ian or Turkish . A lea rned mem
ber of the clergy a t Etchmiadzin,Fa ther Komitas
,who ha s col lected a
la rge number of these me lod ies and harmonized some of them,wa s the
first to make a competent se lection from th i s grea t amount of materia l .
Alexanian,a ta lented composer and performer l iving in Pari s, ha s put
( 1 ) F. MACLER, La Mus ique en Arménia, p . 3 . Pari s, 1917.
these ancient tunes into use and wi th his profound knowledge of western
mus ic ha s obta ined exce llent results from them.
Trad ition ha s i t that in the 5th century St. Sahak and St. Mesrop
wrote the first models of sa cred mus ic which the Armenians ca l l by the
name of cha rakans . There is no certa inty of th is,but we do know that
those two bishop s had successors whose names a re defini tely recorded and
whose compos itions have been preserved to modern times. The mostfamous a re Hohan Mandahuni, the s ister of Vahan of Golthn (martyredApri l 18th
,Stepanos of Sunik, Ka tchatnre Va rdapet of Ta ron,
St.
Ners es the Gra cious , etc.
Rega rd ing the troubadours,we have a lready seen wha t a la rge pa rt
they played in the l i tera ture of the people . They were not only poets, butta lented mus icians who composed new me lod ies or e lse ma inta ined the
ancient mus i c by ora l transmiss ion. When copying the poems of some
of these troubadours,such a s those of Koutchak for instance
,the copy
ists were a lways ca reful,moreover
, to s tate on the ir manuscripts tha t thesongs were composed on the
“Armenian mode .
”
These achoughs, or wandering bard s, were not sa ti sfied with s ingingwith in the confines of ens laved Armenia whose nationa l l i fe they thushe lped keep up, but they a lso went abroad into Turkey proper, intoPers ia , Georgia
,and Kurd istan
,where they exh ib ited
.their ta lent to the
Moslems,and sang the ir verses in fore ign tongues following the mus ica l
modes of the country they were in. Armenian mus icians and s ingers are
known to have been in h igh repute at the courts of the Sultans and the
Shahs, a lso at those of the Georgian kings and the most powerful of theKurd i sh ch iefta ins .
Modern Armenian mus i c ha s kept pace wi th genera l development in
thi s field . Composers and performers have become more and more num
e rous s ince the ea rly 19th century, and fore ign works not only were included
in the Armenian repertory,but they added the ir technica l progress to the
expand ing output of na tiona l melod ies . Even though adopting the various
mus ica l schoo ls and styles preva i l ing abroad, the Armenians have suc
ceeded in keeping to the ir own nationa l trad itiona l modes of expression.
V ery ta lented composers, such a s Alexanian a lready ment ioned, have
been able,sometimes wi th nationa l themes for thei r ba s is, to crea te a
— 369
modernArmenianmus ic combining scientific exce l lence with an ind ividua li ty of its own equa l to that of the med ieva l bards . Alexanian
,moreover
,
had for his forerunne rs in th i s modern fie ld E cma lian,Komitas
,Spendia r
ian,Tigranian, Prof -Ka lfav
'
ian, and M irza'
iants .
The strides made in l itera ture and mus ic mu st nec
THE STAGE essarily have their counterpart in thea tri ca l p rogress, andsuch wa s the ca se about the midd le of the 19th century.
In ancient times the Armenians, a long with the Greeks of the Asia ti c
ma inland, were great lovers of the stage . Artavazd,the son of Ti granes
,a s
we have seen,composed traged ies, and the Arsacid court had its theaters,
for example the one at Tigranocerta . These plays were only in Greek,how
ever,for no wri ter ever mentions the use of any na tive language on the
stage in those days .
With the a rriva l of Chri stiani ty, love of the stage d i sappeared a lmost
everywhere throughout western As ia , and rel igious ceremonies and popula rfestiva ls were the ch ief features of da i ly life . Armenia never even had our
western mystery plays,and not unti l modern times did there spring up an
Armenian stage, due to the influence of Europe . Constantinople and Tifl is
were the scenes of the first a ttempts in th is d irection, and the Armenian
thea ters in those cities blossomed forth on d ivers ified l ines ; foreign playswere given in Armenian
,together with origina l ones wri tten in the native
tongue,Furthermore, a European thea ter in the Turki sh language wa s
inaugura ted at about the same time by Armenians a lso ; they e i ther translated we stern plays or composed entirely new Ea ste rn ones. Both in Armenian and Turki sh
,the Armenian a ctors
,men and women
,ach ieved dis
tinction through the ir perfect interpretation a long every line. Adamian,an
Armenian Sa lvini,made a name for h imse lf by his Shake spearean reper
tory ; Rechtuni and Abe lian were noted for comedy ; Touriantz wa s a de
l ightful comed ian,and among other ta lented players were Madame Hraz
chia and Madame S iranouche . About the same period Tchouhadjian,who had stud ied his a rt in Ita ly
,introduced thea trica l mus ic
,for both the
Armenian stage and the Turki sh .
For ind ica tions of ta ste for sculpture amongARCHITECTURE the Armenians we have only the Chri stian period
SCULPTURE to guide us,and even there the specimens we
possess do not belong to the ea rly days of con
3 70
pagan l ines,adapted to the need s of the new rel igion and with symbol ic
pa intings on the wa l ls . Persecuted in every d irection a s they were,the
Christians were sti l l obliged to rema in h idden and to conduct the ir wor-ship
out of s ight both of the crowd and of the Roman oflicials . These precautionswere cons iderably re laxed
,however
,in the second century—e specia lly in
Syria and the otherAs ia tic provinces. Prior to Armenia ’s ofli cia l convers ion,the Christian rel igion wa s a lready preva lent throughout the Roman
Ea st,and it had ea rly reached the Arara t country only it dared not yet
come out into the open. Church-bui ld ing wa s sti l l out of the question.
The priests who preached the gospe l in Armeni a brought wi th themfrom Syria not only the new rel igion but a lso the Syriac liturgy and plansfor organizing the new clergy. Undoubted ly they rece ived from theirteachers instructions how to lay out the ir places of worship
,and the first
churches in the Ara rat region were bui lt on Syrian l ines .
Zenobius of Glak ( l ) wri tes asfol lows rega rd ing the bui ld ing of thefirst Chri stian ed ifice at Ta ron at
the orde r of St. Gregory : “When“the sold iers had destroyed the idol
(of Demetri ) , St. Gregory la idthe founda tions for a church .
There be ing no ma teria ls ava i lableloca lly
,he took rough stones
,and
having d i scovered l ime in the
heathen temple,he began the
bui ld ing of a chu rch on the s i te of
the shrine of Demetri,following
“the same mea surements .
From‘
these l ines we may presume tha t the film ChurChes in
PLAN OF THE CHURArmenia were bu'
l 0 1 CH OFI t appr Kim “: Y ST. GREGORY (ZVARTNOTS )
a long the same l ines a s the pagan NEAR ETCHMIADZINed ifices, but we have no pos i tivedocumenta ry evidence regard ing e i ther.
( I ) Transl . V. Langlois, vol . II, p . 348 .
372
Emperor Constantine ’s con
vers ion,a few yea rs only a fter
tha t of King Tiridates, wa s revolutionary in its effects on the
world not only from the mora lstandpoint but a lso tha t of a rch i
tectura l development throughoutthe Empire . Everywhere
,in
every big city,town
,and vil lage,
churches sprang up. They were
sometimes of the ba si l ica type
l ike St. Soph ia or St. Irene at
Constantinople,or round or oc
tagona l bui ld ings such a s the
Church of the Holy Apostles at
PLAN OF THE PRESENT MONASTERY Byzantium,the f ownda Of St.
AT ETCHMIADZIN Constance at Rome, the Church
of the Ascens ion on the Mount of
Ol ives at Jerusa lem,or the great octagona l Church of Antioch, the oldest
example of th i s style of edifice . ( l ) The Emperor encouraged the bui ld ing
of rel igious institutions,and gave l ibera l ly from his trea sury to the
VIEW OF ETCHMIADZIN CATHEDRAL
( 1 ) Cf. Ch DIEHL, Man. d’
a rt byzantin, p . 3 .
— 3 73
Christians . The large ed ifices that were bui lt on his orders and at his ex
pense became a rch itectura l patterns throughout the Christian world .
PLAN OF ETCHMIADZINCATHEDRAL
bui lt qui te a few ed ifices in va riousd istricts of Armenia that could betaken for models. From these twocontacts, Greece and the East
,
there a rose in the 7th century a
style of a rch itecture in Armeniatha t wa s interesting and origina l .This style is compara tive ly li ttleknown a s yet, not having beenadequa te ly stud ied . Many umsolved questions confront us te
gard ing it, but those who haveexamined Armenian constructionsa re awa re that th i s na tion’s bui lders were outstand ing cra ftsmenwho
, l iving a s they did in an es
sentia lly rocky country,brought
the a rt of stone-cutting to an un
usua lly h igh pitch of exce l lence .
( 1)
By rea son of its geograph ical location
,Armenia at an early date was in a
specia l ly conspicuous pos ition. Havingconsiderable intercourse with Syria
,
Mesopotamia , and Pers ia,she natur
a lly derived much useful instruction
from these countries . On the otherhand
,her close pol i tica l re lations wi th
Byzantium subj ected her to Greek influence . Anumber of the pa triarchs at
the head of the Armenian church from
the 5th to the 7th century had beenbrought up in Byzantine terri tory, andJustinian’
s a rchitects, moreover, had
THE CHURCHVALARSAPAT
VIEW AND PLANOF ST. RIPSIME
The Ca thedra l of Etchmiadzin bui lt,i t is sa id
,in the 5th centu ry
and restored in the 7th,is apparently a s rega rds its des ign one of the
( I ) Ch . DIEHL, op . laud .. p . 3 15 .
3 74
old est churches in Armenia . Th is des ign is quite origina l,being in the
genera l form of a Greek cross with a centra l cupola . It seems to havebeen bui lt on the model of Sa ssanid structures . The Church of St. Ripsimé
a t V a la rapat, d a ting a lso from the 7th century, shows the same des ign,but
is roofed in a s ixteen—s ided cupola of conica l shape, used from very re
mote times in the Ea st. Th is structura l des ign wa s copied by the westabout the 10th century and probably wa s the guid ing influence in the
bui ld ing of the churches of Mount Athos in Greece.
L ikewi se in the 7th century, Ca thol icos Nerses I I I (640-666 ) bui lt
fa r from Etchmiadzin the church of St. Gregory the I l lumina tor
(Zva rnots ) . Th is church, now in
ruins,is an immense round tower 128
feet in d iameter,
surmounted by a
cupola uphe ld by four enormous sup
ports . The outl ine of th is ed ifice is
clea rly Byzantine , includ ing the capit
a ls wh ich we re appa rently ca rved by
Greek sculptors . Accord ing to Sebeos,the above pre la te wa s
“rea red from
ch i ldhood in the land of the Greeks .
”
The plan of the ruins reminds one
MONASTERY OF NAREKstrikingly of the church of the Holy
Apostles at Byzantium.
Were the ancient structures of Armenia bui lt a long Byzantine arch i
tectura l patterns, or wa s i t Armenia tha t taught Byzantium ?”is a question
a sked by M . Ch . Dieh l . My opinion is that both suppos itions are war
ranted, for G reek modes of construction apparently underwent a ltera
a tions at the hand s of the Armenians influenced in turn by the ir ne ighbors
and frequently by the ir Persian Sa ssanid rulers . These ve ry changes
wh ich were governed by d i scriminating ta ste were destined later to furnish
a rch itects of the western world with fresh inspira tion in the ir profess ion.
Long before i t came into use in the West,the a rch wa s known to the
peoples of Asia . It is foundin Egypt dating from the
first dyna sties,
sometimes
even with a fa ir amount ofamplifica tion The
structures of N ineveh l ikewi se show numerous ex
amples of the cupola . The
Sa ssanid s were consequently only ca rrying on the irancestra l trad i tion in us ingthese modes of a rch i tecture .
(2 ) They seem,however
,
to have added the cornerpend entive to join the
spring of the cupola withma in ed ifices of square des ign ; (3 ) and because of
using ma teria ls of sma l l anduneven s ize (4) they wereled to bui ld ra i sed e ll iptica rches, with or wi thoutframed soffits
, ( 5 ) from
whi ch la ter sprang the CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE AT ANI
Gothic a rch . At the same
time they a ttached much importance to decoration, and a ccord ing to the an
cient custom of the ir country,they were very fond of polychromy. Th ese
( 1 ) e .g. a t Dahchur, a long with others of the 12th dynasty.
( 2 ) Servi stan, Firuzabz‘
id .
( 3 ) Pa lace of Chosroe s II at Ka sr-e-Ch irin.
(4) Smooth pebble s. Pa laces of Ka s-e-Ch irin, Haouch-Kouri , Rumichkhan,Ch irvan, Derre-i-Chahr, ets . Cf. J . DE MORGAN, Miss ion en Perse , Etudes a rcheo
log iques .
( 5 ) In the Sa ssanid buil d ings (Ka sr-é-Ch ir in, Haouch-Kouri . Derre-i-Chahr,Ch irvan, etc.) th ere can stil l be seen on the l ower surface of the arch es the markl e ft in the pla ster by th e wooden support of the soffit.
—377
notions of a rt superimposed on those of Greece and Rome were la rgely
respons ible for the creations of the Byzantine schools,and i f a rch i tectural
ta ste on the Bosphorus wa s influenced by the Orient, such must have been
even more the ca se in Armenia wh ich wa s nearer to the Sa ssanid Empire
and frequently under its rule.
Among none of the peoples of ancient times who reached to high
levels of arch i tecture,whether Egypt
,Assyria
,Cha ldea
, Greece, or Ita ly,did the disasters e ncountered in the course of the centuries ever wipe out
a ll vestiges of the ir structures ; and pa st grandeurs a re evidenced by num
CHURCH AKHTAMAR
378
a re cross-shaped , but others,e .g. the Chape l of St.
Gregory,a re octagona l wi th a conica l dome over a
round tower uphe ld by co lumns wh ich in turn a re
sepa rated by semi-circula r recesses.
One chape l,near the citadel of the Bagratid capital,
shows a squa re door with a fl at mould ing, the orna
menta tion of wh i ch in some respects reca l ls pagan Greek
or poss ibly Achaemenean times,wherea s the e a stern
facade of the Church of the Apostles,bui lt before 1348,
is purely Mos lem in style,and the ba sements of the
Ca stle of Ani a re clea rly Sa ssanid both in their ground
and structura l outlines .
As can be seen,Armenian bui lders were guided
not by any set purpose of copying western mode ls,but
by a wi sh to enrich the ir structures wi th both Byzan
tine and Ea stern standa rd s of ta ste .
TOMBSTONES
When they came under Moslem sway, the Ar
menians were influenced by the a rchitectura l and decor
a tive idea s of the ir rulers . Thus we see the ga te of
the pa lace of Ani surmounted by a semi-circular a rch
wi th Moslem ornamentation,wh i lst the window above th is gate is ogival
in shape . But these transformations of a structure, wh ich was original ly
Byzantine and wa s ruined by the Arabs and the Se ljuks, and restored
under Manoucha r,the son of Abul-Seva r
,the first Moslem prince of Ani,
were ca rried out a t the time they were rebui ld ing the city’s mosque, it
self a western-style construction.
In Armenian churche s,the capita ls are nearly all of clear Byzantine
type, e .g. a t Etchmiadzin and at Ani,a lso at Khoscha Vank where the
porch ha s columns and capita ls wh ich would not be out of place in a
Roman bui ld ing of the 3 rd or 4th century.
The ornamentation, ca rved a long Byzantine l ines,shows nevertheless
some pecul ia ri ties of deta i l . W e must remember tha t the S a ssanid decor
ators la rge ly used cut-out pla ster-work ( 1 ) and tha t the Moguls
the Arabs, and the Turks ca rried forwa rd the Pers ian trad i tion. It is
ea sy to understand,therefore
,how orienta l influence invaded the Ar
menians ’ style and a ltered somewhat the ir Byzantine patterns.
Even the tombstones with the ir carvings are Byzantine in conception.
They a re very numerous in the buria l-ground s of Armenia,and but for
the ir inscriptions might ea s i ly be taken for Coptic or Syrian funera ry
steles of the same period .
I must hold to the same opinion a s regards both
mura l pa intings and manuscript ornamentation. Byzan
tine Chri stian a rt adopted its wa l l decora tion from the
ancient technica l p rocesses of Rome and Syria,adapting
i t to the needs of the new re l igion. Taken a ltogether,Byzantine fresco
pa intings and mosa ics a re entirely homogeneous,and any va ria tions ac
cord ing to difl erent periods or loca l ities a re only minor changes due to
tempora ry or provincia l preferences, with s l ight effect on the prima l con
ception. Armenian pa intings,l ike those of Egypt and the Neo
-Byzantine
mosa ics of Rus s ia,a ll derive from the same d ecora tive method s .
The same is the ca se with icons ; whether Greek. Rus sian, Georgian,
or Armenian, they a ll show the same motifs, they a re a ll s imi la rly trea ted
and express the same spirit. Any d ifferences among these pictures a re
due only to va rying trends of schools, va ria tions tha t are a lways minimized
by strict rules of trad i tion.
The i l lumina tion of manuscripts offers more
MANUSCRIPT variety because the arti sts gave freer re in to theirILLUMINATION imagina tion and were not above introducing popular
scenes into the ir work, giving the latter a rea l istic
( I ) Qal ’a i-Hazar-dar at Derre-i-Chahr, Ka sr-é-Ch irin, etc.
( 2) Mosque of Hamadan.
3 8 1
TOMBSTONES
touch with l ittle concern for flagrant anachronisms.
This grea t la titude in the i llumina tion of manuscripts wa s genera l
throughout the Midd le-Ages, and i t is a s common in ea stern MSS. a s in
western. It is peculia r to each country and fa ithful ly portrays local tastes .
In Armenia , not only were popula r scenes and legenda ry monsters de
picted, but a lso fore ign subject-ma tters,and designs suggested by Pers ian
and Arab i llumina tors a re constantly met with. These latter themselves
sometimes origina ted much farther east,so tha t Armenian miniatu re
—3 82
time more and more h iera tic, quite the contra ry of wha t took place in the
west where drawings became increa singly rea l istic and reached the ir peakof elegance in our incompa rable manuscripts of the Rena is sance .
Th is freedom in the choice of deta i ls is a lso seen,but to a much lesser
degree,in the ca rved motifs Of church ornamenta tion. There too, the
sculptors have sometimes given free re in to fancy,but they have a lways
ma inta ined the gene ra l l ines of Byzantine style . W e must not,however
,
forget to mention a very curious and handsome church at Akhtama r,on an
i sland of Lake V an,where the wa l ls a re covered with ca rved relief repre
sentations of Chri st, the V irgin, the Sa ints, and a lso anima ls and fanciful
THE FALLING ASLEEP OF THE VIRGIN MINIATURE PAINTING ON A
FROM THE ARMENIAN ICONOGRAPHY SISSOUAN MS. DATED 13 30
subj ects .Looking at these s ingula r carvings, one cannot help th inking of
the rock-ca rved bas-rel iefs of the Cha ldeans, the Assyrians , and the
Hittites .Th is church, bui lt in Greek-cross shape accord ing to Byzantine
rules, da tes from the first quarter of the loth century. Thousand-yea r
3 84
old trad itions of ornamentation seem to havebeen preserved on its wa l ls .
There is practica l ly noth ing left us of the
civi l a rch i tecture of the Armenians prior to
the taking of Ani by the Se ljuks . There isevery rea son to bel ieve
,however
,tha t it like
wi se wa s Byzantine and Pers ian in conception.
As for mi l i ta ry construction the wa l ls of Ani
seem to show the same a rchi tecture a s tha t used
ANIMALS FIGHTING by the Byzantines and the Sa ssanid s,and even
(Armenian iconography a ll Med i terranean countri es at tha t time . Thetaken from Al i shan) only d ifference is in the abundant ornamenta
tion and the unusua l se lection and a rrangement of the
ma teria l used . Although they a re very ma ss ive, the
fortifications of Ani are quite elegant and a re a hand
some spectacle .
There exists unfortuna tely no success ions of
coins of Grea te r Armenia sub sequent to the series
of entire ly Greek-style coins minted contemporan
cously by the Syrian Se leucids and the Pers ian Ar
sacids . Th is hia tus is much to be regretted,not only on
account of the va lue of numi smatics in confirming his
tory,but a lso because coins would have given accura te
informa tion a s to the preva lent trends in art of each
success ive period,from the advent of the Sa ssanid ru l
ers in I ran down to the downfa ll of the Bagratid dyna sty. La cking any Armenian coins for the period
referred to, we must fa l l back on those we have of
the Georgian rulers who were so often mixed up in the T3 113 VIRGIN(M ini ature pa int
affa i rs of Armeni a and whose terri tory in the Kurah ing on a MS. writ
va l ley wa s subj ected to a lmost the same vi ci ss i tudes ten for KingH t 111 II )
a s the northern and eastern provinces Of Armeni a .
8 0
About A.D . 575,the Georgian eristhaws, who were
GEORGIAN fighting the Pers ians then hold ing a lmost a ll Trans
COINS cauca s ia,coined money s imi la r to tha t of the la st Sa s
sanid kings Hormida s IV, Chosroes I I, etc. Byzantine
influence wa s considerably on the wane at tha t time in th is part of As ia .
Fol lowing th is come s a break of four centuries in the numi smatics of
Ka rth l i (Georgia ) , a break coincident with the Arab conquest, the a rriva l
3 85
of the S eljuks, and the wa rs tha t convulsed Transcaucas ia . David, the
ruler ofTaiq , late in the l 0th century struck a fol l is of the current Byzantine style
,and Bagra t IV (the adversa ry of the Turk Alp-Ars lan) ,
Georgi I I ( 1072 and Koriké ( 1046 king of Armenian Albania , a ll minted s imi lar coins Of the Byzantine type . David I I
,surnamed
The Restorer,then struck a spers with obverse stamped s imi la rly to money
of the Empire of Trebizond,and
reverse read ing in Arabic chara cters : “King of Kings Daoud son
of G iorgi : the Sword of the
Messiah .
”D imi tri ( 1 125
however,wa s obliged to have his
coins bear the name s of the Arab
ruler Al Moktafy and Mahmoud,
the Seljuk Sultan of Pers ia .
G iorgi I I I ( 1 154-1 184) who
se ized from the Turks the cities GOURGEN’ ERISTHAW OF GEORGIA
of Ani,Etchmiadzin, Dovin, Gandzak,
and a large pa rt of Armenia , issued
coins of uncommon appea rance , a s did
a lso his daughter, Queen Thamar, but
both these Georgian sovereigns struckp ra ctica l ly at the same time other
money tha t wa s mixed Byzantine and
Mos lem.
BAGRAT IV, KING OF GEORGIA Roussoudan ( 1223 Tha
ma r’
s daughter, copied Byzantine coin
age, and her son David V i ssued imi ta tions ofthat of the Comneni of Trebizond . The Mon
gols had just extended the ir rule over Georgia
and Armenia,however, so that coins of the
same David V ( 1243 of Dimitri I I
( 1273 David VI ( 1292—13 10) and Wakh
tang I II ( 1301-1307 ) a ll carry,in Mogul or
Arabic cha racters, the names of the Khans the ir GIORGI 11, KING OFsuzera ins . Under B agra t ( 1360 a sper GEORGIA
s imi la r to those Of the Comneni reappea r, a s
they did a lso under G iorgi VIII ( 1452 After tha t,there were no
further issues of Georgian coins unti l the time of Russ ian occupa tion.
— 3 86
RELIQUARY ATETCHMIADZIN
3 88
a rch i tecture and sculp ture,a s a lso in
mosa ic .
GIORGI VIII.KING OF GEORGIA
Coptic,the Rumanian
,and
From our knowledge of the goldsmith’s
INDUSTRIAL ARTS work,the weaving of cloth and ca rpets, em
broide-ry, and other branchesrof Armenian
cra ftsmanship,this people stands out a s p roficient in those minor arts
,
a t any ra te s ince the M idd le Ages. Today they may be sa fe ly sa id to bea lmost the only people in the Turkish empire engaged in fine a rti sti chand icra fts .
The l ibra ries and churches of the Ea st a ll conta in triptychs,icons,
bookbind ings,sacred vessels
,re l iqua ries
,church vestments
,and tapestries,
rugs,and fabrics of Armenian workmanship
,and among them a ll i t is easy
to pick out those express ing na tive culture (mostly Byzantine ) and those
fa shioned or woven a long Mos lem l ines,the latter having been wrought
presumably for Turkish or Persian patrons .
At Constantinople,Smyrna
,Trebizond
,Teheran
,Hama dan, Tabriz,
Erzerum,E rivan
,Tifl is and nea rly a ll the northern centers Of western
As ia,jewe lry and gold smi-th
’
s work is produced in the“Armenistan
”
,or
Armenian qua rter,of each ci ty wh i le inside the Armenian homes the
womenfo lk weave and embroide r rugs,ca rpets
,and the l ike
,wh ich go out
into the world includ ing European centers where both commercia l houses
and the genera l public a re under the impress ion they a re Moslem workmansh ip . The Armenians put the ir ind ividua l native stamp on wha t theyproduce for themse lves
,and
,na tura l ly enough
,meet the customer’s prefer
ences a s rega rd s the rema inder placed on sa le . These industrious peoplehave a lways shown themse lves a s s iduous and progress ive a rti sans
,and
we can be sure tha t numbers of the goldsmi ths and engravers who workedfor the Byzantine emperors were Armenians .
I would be the la st to wish to denythe Armenians some origina l ity in the ir
a rchi tecture . They adapted Byzantine a rt
to the ir own p references,and made skill
ful use of wha t they learned from the ir
Pers ian ne ighbors,but Armenian art
must,I cons ider
,be looked on a s a branch
of Byzantine,in the same manner a s the
Russ ian.
In the h igher sphe re of a rchitecture, Armenians l ikewi se have played
an important pa rt in the East. It is known tha t the arch itect Tiridates,who bui l t so many of the Ani churches, restored the magnificent cupola of
St. Sophia at Constantinople, which wa s origina lly constructed by the
Greek a rchi te cts Anthemius of Tra l les and I sidorus ofM i letus, and wh ich
col lapsed during the earthquake tha t struck the city in A.D . 989. Th is
16W cupola , which we sti l l admire, is in the form of an e l l iptica l
arch, and,bui lt of l ight ma teria l
,is stil l c ited today as an outstand ing
model, in cla sses dea l ing wi th the stonecutter’s a rt. Tiridates had a large
number Of emula tors in the Byzantine empire.
Furthermore, the Arabs, Turks, and Mongols,
-who were incompetentthemse lves to bui ld the fine structures wh ich we mistakenly a scribe to
them and whereon were inscribed in gold the names of the i r Ca liphs,Sultans
,or Khans,—entrusted to Christians the ta sk of immorta l izing
their great men. Accord ing to the d ifferent countrie s, Greeks, Syrians, and
Armenians were the master-bui lders throughout western As ia and a s far
east as Ind ia,with the one exception of Pers ia . In the latter country
the Iranian trad itiona l skil l handed down from their great architects of
old had been preserved .
Love of a rt ha s never d ied out among the Armenians, whethera s applied to the ir own requirements or a s exerci sed in working for the irMos lem rulers
,and in every branch of i t wh ich they have ma inta ined
s ince the M idd le Ages they have reta ined their preeminence Of old . Unti lthe 18th century
,they clung to the ir ancient styles of work imposed on
them by trad i tion or nece ss ity,but with the 19th century an era of progress
Opened up for them,and a s the ca se wi th their l iterature and mus ic, they
launched out into fresh modes of expression under Europe’s influence .
Architects,pa inters
,and sculptors
,a ll subscribed to the western schools
,
rece ived instruction in Art’s larger unfoldment,and kept pace with its
forwa rd movement.
In the 18th century,Stepanos of Poland , an Armenian pa inter, exe
cuted for the mona stery of Etchmiadzin some pa intings in wh i ch the
Ita l ian schoo l predominates .S ince the early nineteenth century
,a whole genera tion of workers
have striven wi th success to assimi late European standard s in sculpture,
pa inting, engraving,and dancing. Yervant Osgan, a ta lented sculptor
;
ha s for many years been the Director of the Ottoman School of F ine Artsa t Constantinople
,and many Armenian names a re to be seen on the rol l
of our lead ing European a rtists,e .g. Aivazovsky, the best Russ ian marine
— 3 90
CHAPTER XII
EVENTS IN ARME N IA SUBSEQU ENT TO THE FALL OF THECZAR IN RUSS IA ( 1917
Wh i le this book wa s in the press, grave events in Russ ia have thrownturmoi l into E a stern affa irs and once more caused the Armenian people
to weep, infl icting on them one Of the most frightful crises in h istory.
Ever mind ful of Peter the Great’s testament to his successors,the
Cza rs a imed a t the possess ion of Constantinople and the Stra its . F ind ingthemselves blocked of la te years in the ir attempts to reach the shores of
the Bosphorus via Europe,the Bulga rians and the Rumanians having
been freed from Turkish rule and secured na tiona l independence,Russ ian
d ip loma cy wa s seeking to a ch ieve its purpose by way of As ia,and a s a
step towa rd the century-old goa l Of the Romanofl s,i t coveted Turkish
Armenia and Ana tol ia . From 1914 on,Russ ian a rmies in As ia strove to
tha t end,in furtherance Of wh ich France
,England
,and Ita ly gave
Petrograd a free hand . Under the conviction that German mi l itary powerwas invincible
,the Young Turks confident of Berl in’s victory were im
prudent enough to declare war on the Entente, a step which threw Openthe door to the Russ ian genera ls and gave the subjugated Chri stians of
Turkey the Opportunity to ri se and a ssert the ir freedom.
But a lthough the Armenians had Openly espoused the cause of
Germany ’s enemies,Petrograd d id not see eye to eye with Tifl is and
E rzerum. Russ ia d id not intend to grant pol i tica l l iberty to Armenia ,whose l ibera l and home-rule notions were in h igh Cza ri st circles lookedon a s dangerous to the Imperia l régime and the Romanoff dynasty.
Furthermore an independ ent Armenia would have blocked the road to the
Stra i ts viaAs ia M inor,just a s Rumania and Bulga ria by ga ining na tiona l
freedom had closed the way through Thrace. The Armenians were con
sidered,therefore
,from the Russ ian Government’s standpoint
,a s future
subj ects of the Cza r, just a s the many other subj ect peoples of thatEmpire . This prospect
,a lthough not the one nea rest to right and justice,
had at least the merit of de l ivering the Armenians from Turki sh tyranny,
and the Russian rule wa s looked on a s a stepping-stone to further laterdevelopments . The progress achieved by the ir people in the Russ ian Trans
cauca s ian provinces,d espite the ir re lative unpopula rity there
,encouraged
them to look forwa rd self-re l iantly to the ir na tiona l future. Consciou s of
the ir own energy,they fel t that the above outlook wa s only tempora ry and
tha t changes would occur a fter the wa r. Anyone with perspicacity couldsee tha t the Russ ian empire, serious ly affected by its agra rian and soc ia ld ifficulties and i l l-supported by a d ecadent gove rnment, must inevi tablyundergo a very severe cri s is a s the outcome of wh ich the causes of the
va rious na tiona l i ties would come to the fore, for they were bound to be
upheld by the western democracies . It wa s felt a lso on the other handtha t the Cza r’s government
,to save itsel f
,would be forced to grant large
conces s ions . In V iew Of a ll th is,Armenia ’s future despite the uncerta inty
seemed auspicious .
The Russ ian troop s had a lready se ized the ma jori ty of the Turkishvi layets o f Armenia . E rzerum,
V an,Mouch
,E rzindj an
,Baibourt, and
Trebizond had a ll just been sna tched from the infamous Turki sh rule,when at the beginning of the yea r 19 17 there ensued the frightful cata s
trOphe of the Russian revolution.
Petrograd ’s fore ign pol icy thereupon entered on a new pha se, that ofdefea tism. Imperia l trends
,i.e . des ire for conquest
,gave way abruptly
to the abandonment of centuries Of trad i tion. Peter the Grea t’s testamentwa s torn up, and at B erl in’
s orders,the new Government in G ermany’s
pay, forsaking a ll Russ ian views concerning Constantinople,gave up any
interest in As ia . As a ma tter of form,i t did enuncia te the principle of the
l ibera tion of opp ressed peoples (the guid ing principle of the Ententeaga inst the Centra l Powers ) , but thi s l ip-service, too lofty to ma inta inthe Russ ian ma sses
,soon gave way to the cra ss se lfishness and greed of
the new ma sters in Petrograd . The ir pious utterance rema ined just word sand soon were flagrantly contrad icted by the frenzied acts Of those whose ized power with Germany’s a id .
The Russ ian debac le wa s not long in a ssuming incred ible proportions ;its extent wa s vivid ly brought out in the trea ty of B rest-L itowsk
,where
the lawless Soviet government abj ectly surrendered to Berl in’
s imperiousorders . From then on
,amid the most terrible d isorders
,the va rious peo
ples fe lt abandoned,i solated ; ea ch nationa l ity
,thrown back on its own
resources and home forces,imagined i t could save i tse lf from the tempest
by procla iming its independence . An ephemera l republic wa s formed in
Transcauca s ia composed of Armenians, Georgians, and Ta rta rs
,but this
393
pol iti ca l ama lgam had no poss ibi l i ty of la sting. The Mos lem Ta rta rs hadha ted the Armenians for centuries
,and se rious d i ssens ions had recent ly
cropped up between the Mos lems and the Georgians . The result was tha tthe Ta rtars espoused the cause of Is lam and took s ides with the Turksaga inst the ir a l l ies of the day before . As for the Georgians
,they took
part in the defense of Transcauca s ia aga inst the Ottomans,but then for
sook the Armenians who were left to face the enemy a lone.
The Soviet Government, however, though ready for any act of be
traya l, thought i t might be to its interest to have i t believed that i t en
tertained l ibera l views regard ing the freedom of oppressed nations,and
therefore on January 13 th, 1918, the fol lowing Decree wa s published inPetrograd
The Counci l of Commissa ries of the People declares to the Armenian
people that the Government of Workers and Pea sants of Russia upholdsthe right of the Armenians in Turki sh Armenia occupied by Russ ia to
make free choice Of country and even to choose ind ependence . The
Counci l of C ommi ssa ries cons iders that th is right may be rea l ized byd rawing up a l i st of pre l imina ry guarantees, wh ich a re absolutely re
quisite for a referendum on the pa rt of the Armenian people. The Counci lof Commi ssarie s recognizes the following cond i tions to be partia l guarantees to thi s end
ART. I .—Evacuation ofArmenia by the Russ ian troops and immed iate
forma tion of an a rmy of Armenian mi l itia in order to guarantee the“s afety Of the l ives and property of the inhabitants of Turki sh Armenia .
ART. I I . —Return to Armenia,without hindrance
,of the Armenian
fugitives,a s well a s Of the Armenian emigrants d ispersed in d ifferent
countries .
ART. I I I . —Return to Armenia,without h indrance
, of the Armen
ians d riven out by force during the war by the Turkish authori ties intothe interior Of Turkey . The Counci l of Commi ssa ries wi ll ins ist on thiscond ition in the peace negotiations wi th the Turkish delegates .
ART. IV.—Ah Armenian provis iona l government wi l l be created in
Turkish Armenia in the form of a Counci l of De lega tes of the Armenian
people,e lected on a democra tic ba s is . Stepan Chahoumanian
,who has
been appointed provis iona l Commissa ry Extraord ina ry for Cau
— 394
Th i s shameful capitula tion read s,Art. IV
“Russ ia will do a ll in her power to ensure the rapid evacua tion Of
the ea stern provinces of Ana tol ia and the ir restora tion to Turkey. Arda
han,Ka rs
,and Batum will be eva cua ted without delay by the Russ ian
troop s .
”
The name of Armenia even is no longer mentioned in th i s enemy
d icta ted text ; instead we read“e a stern provinces Of Ana tol ia .
” It is equiva l
ent to saying tha t the Armenian people do not exi st ; they a re Officia lly
handed over to the ha tred of the ir former rulers . Thus the Bolsheviks
d enied the most sa cred rights of humanity and trampled on the ir own
p rofessed princip les .
The blow wa s a terrible one for the Armenians, for not only werethe vi layets to be re- invaded
,but the evacua tion of Ba tum
,Ardahan
,and
Ka rs ins isted on by the Turks showed beyond doubt tha t they expecteda t lea st the Ottoman reoccupa tion of the ir d i stricts lost in the war of 1878.
They even went so fa r in Constantinople a s to say that“the natura l
bounda ry of the Ottoman Empire is the Grea ter Cauca sus cha in.
”
Confronted with such a menace,the Armenians resolved to defend
the ir homes to the dea th,and they there fore a rmed themse lves wh i le the
Russ ian troop s were eva cua ting Ottoman terri tory and the western d istrictsof Rus sian Armenia . But Of wha t ava i l were a handful of brave menaga inst the Turki sh a rmies ? The fight began in Apri l . Trebizond fe l l
,a s
a lso did Erzindj an despite the despe ra te res i stance put up by five thousandArmenian volunteers defend ing the la tter city ; then Erzerum
,Mouch
,
V an,in turn were the scenes of stubborn ba ttles wh ich sometimes ended
THE ISLAND AND MONASTERY OF LAKE SEVAN(RUSSIAN ARMENIA)
396
successful ly for the Armenians . These loca l successes d id not affect the
outcome, however, and gradua l ly the ba ttle turned to the north, to the
former Russ ian provinces .
Batum had just been captured by the Turks from the Georgians, and
the victors had bes ieged Ka rs, were by-pa ss ing tha t city and laying wa ste
the regions of the Lesser Cauca sus, when the Georgians forsook the com
mon Christian cause and sta rted negotia tions with the enemy. The Armen
ians themselves had to be sa tisfied with a tiny portion of the ir country, in
the region of Erivan and Lake Sevan. The re they formed a sma l l republic,pend ing better days . These la tter seem to be d rawing nea r, now tha t B ri t
a in ha s intervened in northern Pers ia and ha s gone so fa r a s to se izeBaku for the present in her intention of clos ing the way to Ind ia
,— and
now tha t grea t events a re occurring in the we st. Meanwhi le,sma l l Armen
ian forces are sti l l fierce ly defend ing themse lves in the mounta ins aga instthe Ta rta rs
,for the struggle is sti l l fa r from fini shed .
By occupying B aku,the important Ca spian port, B rita in secured a
most vita l point on the transcontinenta l route to Ind ia but her interventionwould have meant so much more had she given a ss istance a few months
before to the Armenians,who were then sti ll in cons iderable numbers .
The Transcauca s ian natura l stronghold would have been secured,intercept
ing communi ca tions between Turkey and the ea stern Mos lems,—Ta rta r
,
Turki sh,Azerbaidjanian, and Turcoman.
As I have a lready sa id,the h istorian is not entitled to speak of the
future . Whatever the outcome of th i s merci less wa r between the Armeniannation and its oppre ssors
,the memory of th i s struggle wi ll rema in one of
the finest pages in the anna ls of the Haikian people . Her stead fa stness,
courage, and name less woes have ea rned Armenia a glorious niche in the
record of the World W a r.
DRAGON
(Armenian Iconography, from Al ishan)“
CHRONOLOGY ( l )
R E M O TE S T T I M E S
LEGENDARY DATA
Patria rchs.
Ha i k, 23 50 B.C.
ArmenakArma
'
i s
Ama ssia
GueghamHarma
AramAra the HandsomeAra Ara
'
ian, or
Ka rdosAnouchavanPa retArhakZavanPharna s
SourHavanakV a chtakBa i hak I
(None of the above date s Shoul d be given undue consideration. )
( 1 ) W e a re indebted for thi s appendix l’
Or ient ch rétien, Vol XIX, 1914. Myentire ly to th e fine work by K. J . only contribution to It i s the data we
BASMADJ IAN, Chronolog ie d e l’Histo ire have on events prior to the 4th century
d e l’
Arménie , publ ished in th e Revue d e B.C.
_ 401 _
HISTORICAL DATA
Earl iest times .
Arrival of the Armeno-Phrygians in ThraceCrossing of th e Bosphorus by the Armeno-PhrygiansSettl ement of the Armeno-Phrygians in PhrygiaThe Armenians separa te from the PhrygiansOccupation of the Ararat regionMed ian rul e (Cyaxares )Acha emeni an rul e of PersiaMacedonian rul e
FIRST PERIOD OF INDEPENDENCE
Phraatapherne s or Neoptol emy seizes Armeni a , 3 23 B.C.
Orontes I Hrant o '
r Ervand , 322-301 .
Ardoate s or Artavazd, 301 .
Aftabazanes or Artavaz, 239-220Orontes II, 220 -215a
s
“P
“
RULE OF THE SELEUCIDS 215 -l 9o B.C.
SECOND PERIOD OF INDEPENDENCE
DYNASTY OF ARTAxrAs
Artaxi a s or Arta she s I, 190-159 B.C.
Artavazd I, 159 -l 49.
Ti granes I , 149-123 .
Artavazd II or Artoadistus, 123-94.
Ti granes II The Great, 94-54.
Artavazd III, 56-34.Al exander, 343 1 ,
Arta sh es II. 3 0-20.
Ti granes III, 20-12,
Tigrane s IV125 B.C. and AD .Erato
Artavazd IV, 5-2 B .C.
FOREIGN DYNASTYl . Ariobarzane s, Med ian, A.D. 2.
2. Artavazd V, Med ian, 2-1 1 .
3 . Tigrane s V, Jewish , 1 1-14.
Era to ( a ga in) . 14-1 5 .
4. V onone s, (Pa rth ian) , 16-1 7.
1250 B.C.
ca . 800
ca . 600
ca . 590-5 59
ca . 5 59-3 30
ca . 3 30-3 15
Sahak Bagratuni , Armenian, 481-482 ,
Chapouh Mihranian, Pers ian, 483-484.
Andekan, Pers ian, 484
Vahan Mamikonian, Armenian, 485-505 .Va rd Mamikonian, Armenian, 505-509.
X. Nikh orakan, Pers ian, 548-5 52V e chna sp Bahram, Pers ian, 5 5 2-5 54Denchapouh, Pers ian, 5 54-560
V arazdat, Pers ian, 560-564
Suren, Pers ian, 5 64 -5 72,
Va rda n V Mamikonian, Armenian general, 5 72-5 78.Vardan V e chna sp, Pers ian, 5 72-5 73 .Golon Mihrab, Pers ian, 5 73 .
Ph il ippus , Lord of Sunik, Armenian, 5 73-5 78 .Tam Kh osrov, Pers ia n, 5 78-580.Va raz V ezur, Pers ia n, 5 80-5 81 .
The Grea t Pa rthi an Genera l i ssimo, Pers ian, 5 81-5 88.Frahat, Pers ia n, 588 .Frartin Datan, Pers ian, 588-590.
V endatakan Nikh orakan, Pers ian, 59l
Merakbout, Pers ian, 594-598.Yazden, Pers ia n, 598-600.Bondmah , Pers ian, 600 -604.
Foyiman, Pers ian, A.D. 604-608 .
Ash tat Ye zta'
inr, Pe rs ian, 608-610.
Chah en, Pers ian, 61 1-612,
Chahra'
i anpet, Pers ian, 612-613
Pa rseanpet Pa rch ena zdat, Persmn, 613
Namgaran Chonazp , Pers ian, 616-619Ch ahraplakan, Pers ian, 620-624
Tchrotch or Rotch Vehau, Pers ian, 624 -627
V ara ztirotz Ba gra tun i , Armenian, 628-634.
Fa l l of the Pers ian Emp ire , A.D. 652.
GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF BYZANTINE ARM EN IA
John th e Patr ician, Armenian, 5 91 .
Hera cl ius , gene ra l , Armenian, fath er of Emperor Hera cl ius I, 594.
Suren, general , Pers ian 604.
( 9 )Mejej Griuni , general , Armenian,
-63 5 .
David Sah aruni , Curopa l atus , Armenian, 63 5-63 8 .
Th e Arabs break into Armenia , A.D. 636.
Th eodoru s Rechtuni , genera l and patrician, Armenian, 641-646.Thoma s , Byzantine 640-646.
V a ra ztirotz Ba gra tuni , Curopa la tus , Armenian, 646-646.
Sembat V ara ztirotzian, Curopa l atus , Armenian, 646-656
Th eodorus Rech tuni comes back , ( genera l ) , Armenian, 646-65 3
Maurianus. general , Byza ntine , 65 3 .
Hama za sp Mamikonian. Curop a la tu s and Patrician Armenian, 658-661 .Sembat Bagratuni Sembatian, Curopa l atus , Armeni a n, 703-705 .
— 404 _
ARAB RULE
OS '
I‘
IKAN S on GOVERNORS-GENERAL ( 1 )
l . Theodorus Rechtuni , Armenia n, 654-65 8 .
2. Mouche gh Mamikonian, Armenian, 65 8-660.
3 . Grigor Mamikonian, Armenian, 661-685 .
( 1 ) To complete the l ist of Arab gov
cruors of Armenia from Armeni an
source s, we give the fol lowing rol l of
the same period a s taken by K. J . BAS
MADJ IAN from Arabic writers such a s
AL-BELASDORI, TABARI, IBN-KHALDUN, IBN
AL-ATH IR, etc. The numbers in brack etsprece ded by re fer to the corre spond
ing name on the Armenian l i st.
1 . Abd-er-Rahman, 63 6 -644.
2.
3 .
4.
re
se
re
ox
10.
l l .
12 .
13 .
14.
15 .
16.
1 7.
W el id , son of q a , 644
Hoze ifa und er Othman, 644-656.
Mogh ira , son of Choba , under
Othman.
of Rab ia under
son of M Othman
El-Oq a'
i l i hman.
Achath , son of Qa is und er Al i,65 6-661 .
Hab ib , son of Ma sl ama , d ied 663
under Moawiya I, 660-680.Abd-Al lah 6 son of Hatim
und er Moawiya I.
Abd-el-Aziz 8 ) son of Hatimunder Moawiya I.
Othman, son of W e l id , und er
Abd-e l-Me l ik , 685-705 .
Moh ammed I, son of Merwan, brother of Abd-el-Me l ik, 692-700
and 704-710 d ied 719.
Abou-Che ikh , son of Abd-Al l ah , 701
702.
Ma sl ama I, brother of W el id , 710Ad i , son of Ad i, or Hatim, son of
Noman, und er So le iman, 715
717.
Milaq, son of Isafar Behrani ,under Yezid 11, 720-724.
Ha rith , son of Amr, under Yezid
II.
405
Dje rrah , son of Abd-Al l ah Hakami ,723-725 and 730.
Ma sl ama II, son of Abd-el-Me l ik,725-730.
Sa id I e l-Ba rich i 730-73 2.
Merwan 73 2-744.
Thab it, 744.
Ishaq ( z: son of Mosl im ) , 744-749.
Ab ou-Dja fa r e l-Mansur, 749-75 3 .
Ye zid I ( z son of e s-SeyyidSe l ami , 75 3
Ha ssan ( z son of Qahtaba , 7
und er Mansur, 75 4-775 .
Othman son of Omara ,
und er Mohammed eLMahd i, 775
785 .
Raouh son of Ha tim,
und er Mohammed e l-Mahd i,
Khoze ima ( z: son of Kh a zim,
und er Moussa e l-Had i , 785-786.
Ye zid II son of Mezyed ,und er Ha run-er-Ras ch id , 786
809.
Obe id-Al l ah , son of Mahd i 9 nu
d er Ha run-er-Ra sch id .
Fad i . son of Yahya , 792Sa i’ d II, son of Sa l im, under
Ha run-ar-Ra sch id .
Moh ammed II, son of Yezid ,under Mohammed e l-Emin ? , 809
81 3 .
Kha l il , son of Yezid , und er Abda l lah e l-Mamoun, 81 3-83 3 .
Ha rder, son of Kaous , under
Mohammed-e l-Motecim, 83 3-842.
under Ha run-e l-Wa th iq , 842-847.
Yussuf son of Moh ammed ,849-856
Bogha , 856
Rule of the Khazars, A.D. 685 .
Ashot Bagratuni , Armenian, 685-688 .Sembat Bagra tuni Sembatian, 688-703 .Mohammed , Arab genera l .Abd-Al lah , Arab, 703-705 .
Qacim, Arab, 705-706.
Ab d-e l-Aziz, Arab, 706-730.
Seth Harach i, Arab, 730-732.
Meruan, Arab, 732-744.
Ashot Bagra tuni, Armeni an Patrician.
Ishaq, Arab, 745-750.
Grigor Mamikonian, Armenian general .Mouch egh Mamikonian, Armenian general .Yezid I, Ara b, 75 1-760Sahak Bagra tuni, Armeni an general .Bekr, Arab, 760 ( 7 ) -761Ha ssan, Arab, 762 -775
,
Semba t Bagratuni, Armeni an general issimo, d ied 775 .
Yezid II, Arab, 775-780.
Othman, Arab, 780 -785
Bagara t Bagra tuni. Armeni an general issimo
Roh , Arab, 785 ,
Kha zim, Arab, 785-786.Yezid III, Arab, 786-787.Abd-e l-Kebir, Arab, 787.Sol e iman, Arab, 787-790.Yezid IV, Arab, 790-795 .
Khoze ima , Arab, 796-806.Hol , Arab, 807-847.Semba t Bagra tuni , Armenian general issimo.
Bagara t Bagra tuni, Armenian prince of Taraun.
Ashot Artzruni , Armenian prince of V a spurakan.
Abou-Seth , Arab, 847-851 .Yussuf, Arab, 85 1 .Bogha , Arab general .Ashot Bagra tuni Semba tian,
general i ss imo ( 856) and Armenian
Princes .” ( 1 )
“Prince
THIRD PERIOD OF INDEPENDENCE
DYNASTY OF THE ARMEN IAN BAGRATIDS
Ashot I, A.D. 885-890.
Sembat I, 890-914.
Ashot II, Th e Iron, 914-929.
Ashot the Usurper, 921 .“Mb—4
( 1 ) Concerning the Persian rule of
Armenia , consul t : M . PORTOUKAL, Critique d
’
El isé ( in Armeni an) , Veni ce ,1903 ; P. GULESSERIAN , Etud e critique sur
El ise ( in Armenian ) , Vienna , 1909 ;SEBEOS , History of Heracl ius ( in Armenian) , Constantinople , 185 1 ; J. CATERCIAN , Universa l History ( in Arme
nian ) , Vienna , 1852 ; K. J. BASMADJ IAN,La Vra ie Histo ire d
’
Arménie, Constantinopl e , 1914. For the period of Arabrul e , see : GHEVOND, History of Armenia ( in Armenian) , St. Petersburg,188 7 ; S. AS SOGHIK, Universa l History( in Armenian) , St. Petersbur g, 1885 .
— 406
4. Le o I, 1 129-1 13 7, di ed 1 141 a t Constantinople .
Rule of the Byzantines, 1 13 7-1 145 .5 . Thoros II, 1 145-1 169.6. Meleh, 1 1 70-1 1 75 .
7. Rupen II, 1 175-1 187.8 . Leo II, 1 187-1 196, th en a s King Leo I, 1 196-1219.
1 . Leo I, 1 196-1219.Isa be l , A.D
,1219-1252.
Ph il ip , 1222-1225 .
He tum I, 1226-1270.
Leo II, 1270-1289.
B etam II, 1289-1297.Thoros , 1293-1295 .Sembat, 1296-1298 .
Constantine I, 1298-1299.
Leo 111 , 1 301-13 07.Och in, 1308-1320.
Leo IV, 1 320-1342.
Guy or Constantine II, 1342-1344.
Constantine 111, 1344-13 65 .
Leo the Usurper, 1 363-1 365
Constantine IV , 13 65-1 3 73 .
Mariam, 1 3 73-13 74.
Leo V, 13 74-1 3 75 , died 1393 at Paris.
ECCLESIASTICAL CHRONOLOGY
I . CATHOLICI ( 1 )
CATHOLICI or ETCHM IADZINGrigor I the Ill uminator, 302-3 25 . 27. Movses II of Egh ivard , 5 74-604.Ari stace s I the Parth ian, 3 25-3 3 3
,28 . Hovhannes of Bagaran (Anti
V erthane s I th e Parth ian, 3 3 3-3 41 . Patriarch ) , 590-611 .Houcik I the Pa rth ian, 341-347. Verthanes the Poet ( locumPharene I of Achtichat, 348-3 52. tenens , 604-607.Nerse s I the Great, 3 5 3-3 58 . 29. Abraham I of Aghbathank 607-615 .
3 63-3 73 . 3 0. Komita s I of Aghtsik, 615-628 .
Chahak I of Manazkert, 3 73-3 77. 3 1 . Christaphorus II Apahuni , 628-630.
Zavene I of Manazkert, 3 77-3 81 . 3 2. Ezr I of Pharajnakert, 630-641 .Aspurace s I of Manazkert, 3 81-3 86. 3 3 . Nerses III the Buil der, 641-652.Sahak I the Great, 3 87-428 . 65 8-661 .
43 2-439. 3 4. Ana sta sius I of Akori , 661-667.Surmak (Anti-Patriarch ) 428-429 3 5 . Israel I of Othmous , 667-677.
43 7-439. 36. Sahak III of Dzorapor, 677-703 .
440-444. 3 7. Egh ia I of Artchech , 703-717.Berk icho the Syrian (Anti 3 8 . Hovhannes III of Odzun, 712-728 .
Patriarch ) , 429-432. 3 9. David I of Aramonk , 728-741 .
Chamul the Syrian (Anti 40. Tiridates I of Othmous, 741-764.
Patriarch ) , 432-43 7. 41 . Tiridate s II of Dasnavork, 764-767.Hosvep I of Hoghotzime, 440-452. 42. Sion I of Bavonk, 767-775 .
Mel ité of Manazkert, 452-456. 43 . Essa i I of Egh ipa truch , 775-788.
Movse s I of Manazkert, 456-461 . 44. Stephanus I of Dovine , 788-790.
Gut I of Arabeze,
461-478 . 45 . Hovah I of Bovine , 790-791 .Hovhanne s I Mandakuni, 478-490. 46. Soghomon I of Garni , 791-792.
Babguen I of Othmous, 490-5 15 . 47. Gueorg I of Ochakan, 792-795 .
Samue l I of Artzke , 5 16-526. 48 . Hovsep II of Parpi , 795-806.
Mouche I of Adaberk, 526-534 49. David 11 of Kakagh , 806-83 3 .
Sahak II of Oughki , 5 34-5 39. 50. Hovh anne s IV of Ova , 83 3-85 5 .
Chri staphorus I of Tiraritch , 5 39-545 . 5 1 . Zacharia I of Dza g, 85 5-877.
Ghevond of Bra st, 545-548. 52. Gueorg II of Garni , 878-898 .
Nerses II of Ba grevand 548-5 5 7. 5 3 . Matchtotz I of Egh ivard, 898-899.
Hovhanne s II Gabegh ian, 5 57-5 74. 54. Hovhanne s V the Historian, 899-93 1 .
( I ) Mgr. Ma l ach ia Ormanian in h i swork Egl ise Arménienne (Paris, 1910)give s a l ist of the first preach ers of thegospel in Armenia , viz : St. Thaddeus ,martyred at Ardazus about A.D. 50 ; St.Ba rtholomew, martyred at Albacus aboutA.D. 68 ; St. Zakaria , martyred about
— 409
A.D. 76 ; St. Zementos, died about A.D.
8 1 ; St. Atirnerseh , martyred about A.D.
97 ; St. Mousché, d ied about A.D. 128 ;
St. Scha chen, d ied about A.D. 1 54 ; St.
Schava rche , died about A.D. 1 75 ; St.
Gh evond ios , martyred about AD,193 ;
and St. Mehranjan 230-260.
5 5 . Stephanus II Rechtuni ,5 6. Th eodoru s I Rechtuni,5 7. Egh iche I Rechtuni ,5 8 . Anania I of Moks,5 9. Vahan I Suni ,60. Stephanus III of Sevan,61 . Khatch ik I Archa runi,62. Sarguis I of Sevan63 . Petrus I Guetadardz,
64. Dioscorus of Sanah in
(Anti-Pa tria rch )65 . Khatch ik II of Ani, a s
Coad jutor,a lone ,(vacancy ) ,
66. Grigor II or V ahram,
67. Gueorg III of Lori, co
ad jutor,68 . Sa rguis of Honi (Anti
Pa triarch ) ,69. Theodorus A l a k h o c ik
(Anti-Pa triarch )70. Ba rsegh I of Ani a s
coajutor,a lone ,
71 . Poghos of Va rag (AntiPa triarch )
72 . Gri gor III Pahl avuni ,73 . David Thornik ian (Anti
Patriarch ) ,74. Nerse s IV the Gracious,75 . Grigor IV th e Younger,76. Grigor V or V ahram,
77. Grigor VI the Wicked ,78 . Ba rsegh II of Ani (Anti
Patriarch ) ,79. Hovhanne s VI of Si s,80. Anania of S iva s (Anti
Pa triarch ) ,81 . Davi d 111 of Arkaka
gh ine , coadjutor,82. Constantine I of Partzer
pert,
83 . Hakob I the Learned ,84. Constantine II of Katuk,85 . Stephanus IV of Rum
ka l e ,86. Grigor I of Anavarza ,87. Constantine III of
Ca e sarea ,88 . Constantine IV of Lam
pron,
89. Hakob II of Tarsus,
90. Mekh ithar I of Gruer,91 . Mesrop I of Arta ze ,92. Constantine V of Si s,
4 10
1467-1468 .
Poghos I of Si s, 13 74-13 77.
Theodorus II of C ili cia , 1 3 77-1 392.
( Va cancy ) , 1392-1393 .
Ka rapet I of Ke gh i 1393-1408.
Hakob III of Si s, 1408-141 1.
Grigor VIII of Kh andzoghat, 1411-1416.
Poghos II of Cam i , 1416-1429.
Constantine VI of V ahka , 1429-1439.Grigor IX Mussabegian, 1439-1441 .
Kirakos I of V irap, 1441-1443 .
Grigor X of Makou, 1443-1466.
Ka rapet of Toka t, (AntiPa triarch ) 1446-1447.
Arista ce s II a s coadjutor, 1448-1466a lone , 1466-1470.
Zacha ria of Akhtama r
(Anti-Pa tria rch ) 1461-1462.
Sarguis II, a s coadjutor, 1462-1470.
a lone , 1470-1474.
Stephanos of Akhtama r(Anti-Patria rch )Hovhannes VII, a s
coadjutor, 1470-1474.
a lone , 1474-1484.
Sargui s 111, a s coadjutor, 1474-1484.
a lone , 1484-1 5 15 .
Ari stace s III of Etchmia dzin, coadjutor, 1484-1499.
Thadeus 1 of V a ghar
ch apet, coad jutor, 1499-1504.
Egh ich e II of Etchmiadzin, coadjutor, 1 505-15 15 .
Hovhanne s VIII of Etchmiadzin, coadjutor, 1505
Nerse s V of Etchmiadzin, coad jutor, 1506-17
Zacharia II of V a ghar
chapet, a s coadjutor, 1507-1 5 15 .
a lone, 15 15-1520.
Sargui s IV of Georgia ,a s coa djutor, ‘
1 5 15-1520.
a lone . 1520-1 5 3 7.
Grigor XI of Byzantium, 15 3 7-1542.
Steph anus V of Sa lma sd,a s coad jutor,a lone ,Micha el I of Siva s, as
coad jutor,a lone ,
Barsegh III of Etchmia dzin. coadjutor, 1549-1567 ( 7)Grigor XII of V aghar
chapat, coadjutor, 15 52-15 70.
a lone , 15 70-1587.
Arista ce s IV of V aghar
chapa t, coadjutor, 15 55
3 7. Ephrem II,3 8 . Micha e l 11 of Sis,3 9. Ki rakos II,40. Kirakos 111,
1 822-183 3 41. Mkrtitch I Kefsizian,183 3-185 3 . 42. Gr igoris Alea tdjian, (not185 3-1866. consecra ted )
1866 43 . Sahak II Khaba l an,
CATHOLIC! or AKHTAMAR
David I Thornik ian,
Stephanus I,Stephanus II Sefedinian,Za charia I Sefed inian,Stephanus III Sefedinian,David II Sefed inian,Nerses I Pol ad,Za charia II the Martyr,Nerse s 11,David 111 of Akhtamar,
Za charia III of Akhtamar,
Stephanus IV Gurdjibe guian,
Nerse s III GurdJ Ibegu ian,
Zach a ria IV,Atom 1 ,Grigoris I of Akhtamar,
Gri gori s II the Younger,Stephanus V,
Ka rapet I,Martyros I of Moks,Hovh annes 1 ,Thoma s I Doghlanb eguian,
Sahak I of Artzke ,Hovh anne s II
,
Ha irapet I V erdanessian,
CATHOLICI or AGHOUAN
Ehgiche the Apostle ,X. X. consecra ted by GrigorI the Il luminator, ( 302
Grigori s I the Pa rth ian, 340-342.
Matheos I, 342
Sah ak I,Movses I,Pant,Gha zar,Zach a ria I,David I, -399.
Hovhan I,Eremia I, 423 .Choup
’
h agh icho, 500-5 5 1
Aba s, 5 52-594.
Viro, 5 96-630.
Za cha ria 11, 630-645 .Hovh an 11, 645-670.
Ukh tane s, 670-682.
di ed 79.
1871-1894.
Grigori s III of Gavach , 1711
Hovhanne s III of Ha iotzDzor, 1720-9
Thoma s 11 of AmukGha zar I of Moks,Grigor IV of Hizan,Pa ghta sar I of Bitl i s, 1 73 5-173 6.
Sah ak II of Alb ac,Hakob I of Amid , -173 8 .
Nikogh a ios 1 of Sparkert, 1 738-1 75 1 .
Grigor V, 1 75 1-1 762.
Thoma s 111 of Akhtamar, 1 762-1 783 .Karapet II of Van, 1 783-1 787.
Markos I of Chatak, 1788-1791 .
Hovh anne s IV of Sparkert,Theodoru s I, 1 792-1794.
Mich a e l I of V an, 1796
Karapet III of Chatak, -1 803 .
1814-1 816.
Khatch atour I the Miracl e-worker, 1803-18 14.
Haruth ium I of Taraun, 1816-1823 .
Hovh anne s V of Chatak, 1825-1843 .Kh a tch atour II of Moks , 1844-185 1 .
Pe tros I Bulbuli an, 1 859-1 864.
Khatch atour III Ch iroian, 1864-1895 .Vacant from 1895 to th e present time .
Hovnan, 886-896.
Simeon 11, 896-917.
David V, 91 7-923 .
Sahak 11, 923-941 .
Gaguik l l (Anti-Patriarch ) 941-958
Hovhanne s IV, 941-961 .
David VI 961-968 .
David VII, 968-974.
Petros I, 974-990.
Movse s IV, 990-996.
Ma rkos I, 996
Hovsep III, 103 8 .
Markos II, -1077.
Stephanos I, 1077-1 103 .
Hovh anne s V, 1 103-1 130.
Steph anos II, 1 130-1 13 2.
Vacancy, 1 13 2-1 140.
Grigoris II or Gagh ik II, 1140
Bejguene ,Ne rse s II,Stephanos III, -1 195
,
Hovhanne s VI, 1 195-123 5 .
Nerse s 111, 123 5-1262.
Stephanos IV, 1262-1323 .
Souk ia s, 13 23-7
Pe tros II, -1406.
Karapet, 1406-1411 .
David VIII. 141 1-141 1 .
Matheos 111, 1412-1440.
Athana sius, 1440-1441 .
Grigor I, 1441
II. PATRIARCHS
PATRIARCHS or JERUSALEM
Abraham I,
63 7-669.
Grigor I Ezekielan, 669-696.
Gueorg, 696-708 .
Mkrtitch I, 708-73 0.
Hovhannes I, 730-75 8.
Stephanos, 758-774.
Egh ia , 774-797.
797-885 .
8 . Abraham 11, 885-916.
916-981 .
Grigor 11, 981-1006.Arsene , 1006-103 8 .
103 8-1090.
Simeon, 1090-1 109.
Movse s, 1 109-1 13 3 .
Essa i I, 1 13 3-1152.Sahak I, 1 152-1 180.
Abraham III of Jerusalem, 1 180-1 191 .Mina s I, 1 191-1205 .
Hovhannes VII,Ma th eos IV,
Ar ista ce s I,Ne rse s IV,
Chmavon 1 ,Thoma s ,
Arak ia l ,Ari stace s II,Sargu is I,Grigor 11,David IX,
Ph i l ippos,Hovhanne s VIII,Chmavon II.Aristace s III,Me lch iseth ,Simeon III,Hovhanne s IX,
Grigor III,Pe tros III,S imeon IV (Anti-Patri
a rch ) ,Eremia II,Essa i ,Nerse s V (Anti-Patri
a rch 1 706-1 763 .
Isra e l (Anti-Patria rch ) , 1 763-1765 .Hovhanne s X, 1 763-1786.
Simeon V, 1 794-18 10.
Sargu i s II Ha ssan-Dja lal iantz,
Abraham IV,Arake l ,Hovhanne s II of Erzerum,
Karapet I of Jerusal em,
Hakob I,Sa rgui s I,Astva tzatour 1,David I
,
Poghos I,Va rdan,
Hovh annes III,Barsegh ,Grigor III,Mkrtitch II,Hovhanne s IV of Pol and ,Grigor IV of Egypt,Essa i II,Sarguis II,Poghos II of Garni ,
3 6.
3 7.
3 8 .
3 9.
40.
41 .
42.
43 .
46.
47.
48 .
49.
50.
5 1 .
5 2.
5 3 .
54.
5 5 .
Ma rtyros I of Egypt,Essa i III,Hovhannes V,Abraham V,
Me srop ,
Pe tros I,Mkrtitch III,Hovh anne s VI,
44 Martyros II of Brusa ,45 . Petros II,
Sarguis III,Astva tzatour II of Mard in,
Ph il ippos ,Andrea s of Mard in,David 11 of Mard in,
Grigor IV Margarian“Baron-Ter”
Astvatza tour III ofTa raun,
Egh ia zar of Aintab,
Martyros III of Ka fa ,
Hovhannes VII of Constantinople ,
Hovak im of Brusa ,Nikogha ios,Karapet I,Martyros I,Grigor I,Astvatztour I,Steph anus I,Tira tour,
Hakob I,Hovh anne s I of D iarbekir,Th oma s I,Sargui s I of Ze itoun,
Hovh annes II,Aza ria of Jul fa ,Me l ch i sedech I of Garni ,Hovhannes III of Constantinopl e ,
Gri gor II of Ca esarea ,
1684-1691 .
1461-1478 .1478-1489.
1489-1509.1509-1526.
1 526-15 3 7.
1 5 3 7-1 5 50,
1 5 50-15 61 .
1 561-1563 .
1596-1599.
15 63-15 73,
1 5 73-15 81 .
1 5 81-15 87.
1 5 87-1590.
1 592-15 96,
1590-15 91 .
1591-1592.
1 599-1600.
PATRIARCHS or CONSTANTINOPLE
Zacharia I of V an,
David ,
Mina s II of Amid ,
Ga loust, coad jutor,Avetik,
Grigor VI “Pitzak”Matheos of Caesarea ,Martyros IV,Michael of KharputSahak II of Aboutchek,
Hovhanne s VIII of Smyrna ,
1689-1 701 .
1703-1 704,
-1701 .1701-1 703 .1 704-1705 .
1 705-1707.1 705-1 706.
1 706-1706.1 706-1707.1 707-1707.1 708-1714.
1 707-1 708.Hovhanne s IX of Gandzak, 1 714-1 715Grigor VII of Ch irvan
“Cheghtha iakir
”,
Hakob II Na l ian,Theodorus I,Karapet II of Gandzak,Poghos III of V an,
Hovak im of Kanaker,Petros III of Tokat,Theodorus II of V an,
Gabriel of Nicodemia ,Zacharia Ter-Grigorian,Kirakos Mnatzakanian,
Hovhanne s X Movse ssian,
Essa i IV Karapetian,Haruth ioun V ehapetian,
Kirakos of Er ivan,
Kh a tchatour I of Siva s,Thoma s 11 of Al eppo,
Egh iazar of Aintab,Hovhannes IV of Moghni ,Martyros II of Kafa ,Gh azar of Siva s,Hovh annes V,
Sarguis II of Rodosto,
Stephanus II of Me ghri ,Hovhannes VI of Ama ssia ,Andrea s of Constantinopl e ,Karapet II of Ca esarea ,
1715-1 749.
1 749-1 752.
1 752-1761
1761-1768 .
1 768-1 775 .
1 775-1793 .
1 793-1800.
1 800-1819.
1819-1840.
1840-1846.
1846-1850.
1850-1860.
1864-1885 .
1885-1910.
1626-163 1 .
1636-1639.
1639-1641 .
1643-1644.
1644-1649.
1650-165 1,
1641-1642.
1642-1643 .
1644-1644.
165 7-1659.
165 1-1652.
1652-165 5,
1659-1660.
1660-1663 .
1663-1664.
1665-1667.
1664-1665 .
1667-1670.
1670-1674,
1674-1675 .
1675-1676.
1676-1679.
1680-1681 .
168 1-1684.
1686-1 687.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER I .
The two Ararats , view taken from the Araxes val leyThe city of Samosata and th e Euph ra te s , a l legorica l fi gure on an ol d co in
Map : region of Lake V an
Map : position of th e Armenian pl a teau compared to ne ighboring countriesMap : the Armenian strongho ldMap : Armenia in Roman time s
Map : provinces of Grea te r Armeni a
Map of the re gions of we stern As ia inh ab ited by the Armenians
The river Cydnus , al l e gorical figure on an ol d coin
The river and city of Ta rsus, a l l e gorical figure on a coin of EmperorCommodus
The river Pyramis, a ll e gorica l figure on an o l d co in
The city of An azarbus, a l le gorica l figure on an old coin
CHAPTER 11 .
Map : Armenia and a djoining countrie s a ccord ing to Herodotus
Map : Mi gra tions of the Armenians
Coins a scribed to Croe sus, king of Lvd ia
Vannic winged bul lMap : Armenia and ne ighboring countrie s a ccord ing to the AssyriansEthno graphy of we stern Asia , from Gene si s. chapter XHieroglyph ic inscription at Ani
Pa gan Ba s-re l ief a t Bagrevant near Baya zidDoubl e golden da ric of the Acha emenids
Coin of the Acha emenean satrap Pha rnaba zus
Tetradrachma of Al exander th e GreatTetradrachma of Se l eucus I Nica torTetradra chma s of Antiochus th e Gre atCo in of Sames, king of Comma gene
Coin of Chara spe s, king of Armenia
Coin of Arsame s , king of Armenia
Co in of Abd i s sare s , king of Armenia
Coin of Xerxe s, king of Armenia
—417
CHAPTER I I I .
Effigy of King Tigranes II th e Great, from a tetradrachma in th e Briti sh
MuseumTe tradra chma of Mith idrate s th e Grea t "
Dra chma of th e Pa rth ian king Mith idra tEs“
11m
m .
Te trad ra chma of th e Pa rth ian king Orode s IAureus of Sul laMap : Kingdoms of the Pontus and Armenia during th e wars with th e
Romans
Coin of Antiochus Th eos , king of Comma gene
Tetradrachma of th e Pa rth ian king Phraat 111Tetradrachma of king Tigrane s II of Armenia
Bronze co in of Tigrane s II W
Co in of the Pa rth ian king Mi th idrates IIICoin of king Artava zd III of Armeni a
Dra chma of th e Parth ian rul er Pacorus I m m m w w m m w m m
Te tradrachma of Phraa t IV, Arsacid king of PersiaDenarius of Mark Antony and Cl eopatra , ARMENIA DEVICTACo in of Ti grane s 11, king of Armenia
Denarius of Augustus , ARMENIA CAPTACoin of Ti grane s III, king of Armenia
Co in of Tigrane s III, king of Armeni a , with h i s s ister Era to
CHAPTER IV.
Dra chma of Onone s or V odone s a s king of PersiaImitation of a denarius of Augu stus struck in Transcauca siaCo in of Au gu stus and Artava zd V .
Co in of Abgar XI of Osrh oene and GordianIIIDenarius of Germanicus with , reverse , the crowning of Artaxia sCo in of Antiochus IV Ep iph anus with Iotapé m m .m m m -w m m -m
Coin of Antiochus IV Ep iphanus, king of Comma gene
Coin with h ead of Iotapé , sister and wife of An tiochus IV Ep iphanusSilver coin of Lucius Veru s sh owing captive ArmeniaBronze coin showing Lucius Veru s giving Armenia a kingCoin of Antoninus Pius showing h im crowning the king of Armeni a
Coins of Emperor Tra jan commemorating h i s Armenian campa igns
“ m oo-t oo.“
Coin of Artaban V, l a st of th e Arsacid kings of PersiaThe Zoroa strian Fire-Templ e , reverse of a tetradrachma of th e rul ers of
St. Gre gory from a miniature of th e l 0th century
Drachma of the Sa ssanid typ e of the Georgian Eri sthaw GourgenDrachma of th e Sa ssanid typ e of the Georgian Eristhaw Stephanos IDrachma of Sapor I, Sa ssanid king of Persia .
Coin of V aba l ath , son of Zenobia , queen of Palmyra m mmm m m m m mmm m m m m
Coin of.Zenob ia , queen of Pa lmyra
Gold coin of Chosroes II, Sa ssanid king of PersiaArmeni an inscription at Ani (A.D. 662 ) m .m . .m -m a -.m m m m m
om
c—m m w m m w w
Coin of Alexi s I ComnenusCoin of Raymond of Po itie rs, prince of Antioch
Coin of Emperor John 11 ComnenusCoin of Emperor Manue l I ComnenusView of Ca stl e of Anazarbus (C il icia )Coin of Bimad-cd-Din Zangui , Sul tan of IconiumCoin of Rokn-cd-Din Me saoud , Sultan of Iconium a .
Coin of Emperor Andronicus I ComnenusCo in of Richa rd of Ma ra sch .
Plan of the Ca stl e of Monté (CIl IcIa )Co in of Amaury 1, king of Jerusa l emCoin of Sul tan Nur-cd-Din Mahmoud
Co in of El Sal ih-Isma'
i l , Zengu id Atabek of AleppoGold co in of Emperor Micha e l Duca sCoin of Ki l idj-Arslan II, sul tan of IconiumCoin of Emperor Isa ac AngelusCoin of Bohemond III of AntiochCoin of Sa l adin ( Sal ah-cd Din ) .
Coins of John of Brienne and theHoly Sepul chreMap : La tin principa l ities of the Ea st . -m . .
Coin of Leo II, baron of New ArmeniaCo in of Isaac Duca s Comnenus, de spot of Cyp rus
:Coin of Guy of Lusignan, first king ofSt. Nerses ( from the Armenian iconography )Signa ture of Leo I, first king of New Armenia ..
Handwriting of St. Nerse s of Lampron on a Greek"
MSW
Coin of Emperor Al exi s ComnenusCo in of Henry of Champa gneSea l of Raymond-Rupen
Coin of Tripol i , without rul er’s name
CHAPTER VI I I .
Effigy of Leo 1, king of New Armenia
Coins of king Leo IGol d Bul l a of king LeoGold coin of Hugh 1, king of Cyp rusCoin of Bohemond IV , prince of Antioch
Co in of Raymond Hupen, prince of
Coin ofTh eodore La sca ri s, Emperor of Nica eam m
Imitations by the Crusaders of Mosl em coins
Coin of Ka ikhosrou, Sul tan of IconiumCoin of Sol e iman-Sh ah , Sul tan of IconiumEffigy of Hetum 1 , king of New Armenia
Coin of Hetum 1, k ing of New Armenia
Coins with name s of Hetum I and Sul tans ofHandwriting of Betam I
Sea l of Constantine I, patria rch of Pa rtzerpert
Coin of Rousoudan, queen of GeorgiaCo in of Ka ikobad I, Sul tan of IconiumCoin of Ka ikhosrou II, Sul tan of IconiumCo in of Mango-KhanCoin of David V, k ing of Georgia , and Mango-Kh anCoin of Houl ago
—420
Coin of Micha e l VIII Pa la eologus, Byzantine emperorCoins of Leo 11, king of New Armenia
Coins of Emperor Andronicus IISignature of king Leo IICoins of He tum 11, king of New Armenia
Sea l of Brother Ian (Hetum 11 )Lead Bull a of ThorosCoins of Sempad , king of New Armenia
Co ins of Constantine 11. king of New Armenia
Map : Empire of NicaeaCoins of Leo III, king of New Armenia
Coins of Och in, king of New Armenia
Co ins of Henry II of Lusi gnan, king of Cyp rusCoins of Leo IV, king of New Armenia
Leo IV of Armenia administering justice , contemporary minia ture pa intingEscutcheons of Tarsus -.m w m m
Coin of Emperor Michael IX Pa l aeologusCoin of Emperor John V Pa lae ologusCoin of Emperor Andronicus III Pa laeolol gusCoin of Guy of Lus ignan (Constantine king of New Armenia
Coins of Constantine III, king of New Armenia
Coin of Dieudonné of Gozon, Grand Ma ster of Rhode sCoin of Peter 1, king of Cyprus m
Co ins of Constantine IV, king of New Armenia
Coins of Leo V. of Lusi gnan, king of New Armenia
Coin of Peter 11 of Lusi gnan, king of CyprusView of the ruins of the city and ca stle of Gorigos
Tombstone at NicosiaPlan of the port of Gorigos
View of Ca stl e of Gorigos
Castle of Ch ah i-Maran (C il icia )Ruins of the fortre ss of
Escutcheon on tombstone of LeoV. ofLusi gnan, king of New Armenia
Tomb of Leo V of Lusi gnan, at St. DenisSea l and signature of king Leo V of Lusignan
CHAPTER IX.
Coin of Giorgi III, king of Georgia , with AI MoktafyCoin of Djela l-cd-Din, Sul tan of Ch are smCoin of David V. Sol san, king of GeorgiaCo in of Arghoun-Kh an and Demetri II of GeorgiaCoin of Ghazan-Khan and W akhtang III king of GeorgiaCoin of Ba grat V. king of GeorgiaCoin of Giorgi VIII, king of Georgia -m e m e
Georgian co in (uncerta in ) 14th centuryCo ins of Erekl é, king of GeorgiaMap : Russia ’ s advances in Armenia
Russian coin of Georgia
CHAPTER X.
Co ins of Emperor Mauricius TiberiusCoin of Mauricius Tiberius, Constantine and Theodos iusCoin of Heracl ius I, a s Consul
— 421 _
Coin of Heracl ius I, a s EmperorCoin of Heracl ius I, Heracl ius Constantine , and EudoxiaCoin of Hera cl ius, Heracl ius Constantine , Heracleona sCoin of Heracl eona s, David Tiberius, and Constans IICoin of Heracl ius Constantine and Heracl eona sCoin of Hera cl ius I, He ra cl ius Constantine , Ma rtinaCoin of Heracl eona s a lone
Coin of Constans II and Constantine Pogona tus
Coin of Constans II, Constantine Pogonatus, Heracl ius and TiberiusCoin of Constans II, Heracl ius, and Tiberius m
Coin of Constantine IV PogonatusCo in of FIl ep Icus BardanesCoin of Artavazdus and ConstantineVCoin of Artavazdus and Nicephorus m m
Co in of Leo V th e Armenian and Constantine VIICo in of Leo V the Armenian alone
CoinCoin of Ba si l I and Constantine IXCoin of Emperor Le o the Ph ilosopherCoin of Leo VI and Alexander
Coin of Leo VI and Constantine XCoin of Al exander a lone
Coin of Constantine X and Zoe
Coin of Constantine X and Romanus ICoin of Constantine X and Romanus IICoin of Romanus I a lone
Coin of Romanus I, Constantine X, and Chri stophorusCoin of Romanus II a l one
Coin of Romanus II and Ba sil II m m m mmmm m
Coin of Empress Theoph anonCo in of Ba sil II and ConstantineXICoin of John ZimiscesCoin of Constantine XI al oneCoin of Th eodora , wi fe of Constantine XIICoin of Theodora and Mich ae l 111Narse s and Th eodora (Mosa ic at Ravenna )Sarcoph a gus of Isaac the Armenian
Arch itectural de sign on the Church at Sa far
CHAPTER XI .
Armenian Pha ragir WritingArmenian carved Stone , Ergatha gir writingArmenian Ergath agir writing of l 0th cent.
Armeni an Ergatha gir writing of l 0th cent.
Armenian Notra gir writing, most recent form ( 1 596)
(966)(989)
“ 00 .on ! “ I t 000 0” 0O.
Armenian Bolorgir writingPortra it of Monsignor Kh rimianThe Island of St. Lazarus a t VeniceStamp of the Armenian prlinter Hakob (VenicePa ge from th e Ca l endar publ i shed a t Venice in 15 1 3 byth e ArmenIan prInter
Th e Armenian printer Abgar of Venice pre senting h i s psa l tery to Pope IV
Pl an of the Church of St. Gre gory (Zva rtsnots ) , near Etchmiadzin
- 422
CONTENTS
DED ICATION
FOREW ORD
CHAPTER I .
Phys ica l fea tures of Armenia . Geography. Genera lities .—49
Ararat, 1 5 . The Al agheuz, 16. The Gh euk-tcha'
i or Sevanga , 20. TheAraxe s . 21 . The pla in of Erivan, 22 . Th e Qa ra-bagh and the Qara-da gh , 24.
Th e pla in of Moughan, 27. Azerba i djan, 28 . Pers ian Kurdi stan, 29.
The Erzerum plateau, 30. Lazi stan and the Pontic Al ps, 3 2. Cl ima te of th e
Armenian plateau, 34. The Armenian stronghold, 3 5 . Southern Armeni a ,3 7. Turki sh Kurd istan, 3 8 . We stern Armenia , 39. Frontiers of Armeni a ,41 . The province s of Armenia , 43 . Grea ter and Lesser Armenia , 45 . NewArmenia or Sissouan, 45 . The thre e Armenia s , 49.
CHAPTER I I .
Origin of the Armenian people . Sojourn of the Armeno-‘
Phrygians in
Thra ce . Their cross ing into As ia . Their ma rch to the Ara ra t
country Conques t of the E rzerum plateau. The Hai kia n
pa triarchs . The legenda ry dynasty. Median a scendancy. The
kingdom ofArmenia under Acha emenean suzera inty. TheMacedon
ian conquest. The dyna sty of Phra a taphernes . Rule of the
Seleucids of Syria -84
Armenian be ginnings, 5 1 . The Armeno-Ph rygians of Herodotus, 52. The
Armenians of the 12th to the 8th century B.C., 5 3 . Th e Iranians in the 8th
century B.C., 54. Th e Ura rta eans not the ance stors of th e Armeni ans, 5 5
Armenian trad itions conce rning the kingdom of Urartu, 5 8 . Migration of the
Armeni ans, 59. Legenda ry dyna sties, 62. The inva sion of th e Scyth ians ,65 . Conque st of Armenia by Ha i k, 65 . Th e Armenian langua ge , 67.The rel igion of the Armenians in ancient time s, 69. Armenia subdued by th e
425
Persian Achaemeneans, 72 . The An aba s is of the Ten Thousand throughArmeni a , 75 . The Al exandrian conque st, 78. Armeni a under Al exander
’
s
successors, 79. Erivan founded, 79. Ervand (Oronte s ) , governor of Armenia , 79. Artaxia s, king of Armenia , 8 1 . Zari adra s, 82.
Numi smaticrecords, Chara spe s, Arsame s, Abd issare s, and Xerxe s, kings of Armenia , knownonly from th eir coins, 83 . sq .
CHAPTER III.
Reign of Tigranes II the Grea t, Lucul lus and Pompey in Armenia .
The country divided by the Romans . The la st kings of the dynastyof Artaxias . 85-109
Artavazd II, 86. Ti grane s 11 the Great, 87. Mith idrates V. de feated by Sul la ,89. Lucul lus, 90. Battl e of Tigranocerta , 91 . Reca l l of Lucul lus, 94.
Pompey in Armeni a , 95 . Submission of Ti granes II, 96. Armeni a underTi granes II, 98. Marcus Cra ssus in As ia , 100. Artava zd III, 100. De feat ofCra ssus, 101 . Mark Antony in Asia , 104. Al exander, son of Antony andCleopatra , king of Armenia , 107. Arta sh e s II, 107. La st succe ssors of
Artaxia s, 108. Tigrane s III and Tigrane s IV, 108.
CHAPTER IV.
The foreign dynasty (A.D . 2 The Arsacids of Armenia (A.D . 53
Tirida tes II the Great (A.D . 2 17 Convers ion ofArmenia to Christianity. Saint Gregory the I llumina tor.
Ariobarzanes, 1 10. Artavazd V, 1 1 1 . Ti grane s V, 1 1 1 . Erato, 1 1 1 . V onones,1 1 1 . Arta shes III, 1 12. Arch ak I, 1 12. Mith idra te s , 1 12. Rhadami stus,1 12. Tiridates I, 1 15 . Corbulo, 1 16. Tigrane s VI, 1 16. Exeda re s,1 17. First Arsacids of Armeni a 1 1 8. Tiridate s II (Chosroes I ) , 118. Aocession of the Sa ssanids to th e Persian throne , 226. Tirida te s III and St.Gre gory the Il luminator, 124. Conversion of Armenia to Chri stianity, 124.
Founding of the Patriarcha l See of Etchmiadzin, 127. The Armenian Church ,1 3 0. Artavazd VI, 132. Chosroe s I-I, Tiran, Archak II, Pap , V arazdat, ArchakIII, Chosroe s III, V rampachouh , 1 32. St. Sahak and St. Mesrop 13 3 . In
vention of Writing, 13 3 . La st Arsacid kings of Armenia , 1 3 5 . The Marzpans,
1 3 5 . Vardan Mamikonian, 13 5 . Vahan Mamikonian, 13 6.
CHAPTER V.
The Arab conques t. — Armenia a province of the Empire of the
Ca liphs—152
End of the Sa ssanid Emp ire , Yezdedjerd IV, 13 8 . Abd-er-Raham enters Armenia ,1 39. Struggle between th e Byzantine s and Arabs in Armenia , 140. Arabgovernment se t up in Georgia and Armenia , 142. Ashot, governor of Armenia
for th e Arabs, 143 .—De scription of th e site of Ani , 144. Ashot,
“
prince of
princes”, (king of Ani ) , 148.
— 426
CHAPTER X.
The Armenians outs ide ofArmenia . The popula tion of Armenia and ofthe Armenian Colonies 3 15-3 37
The Armenian Emperors of Byzantium, 3 1 5 . Mauricius Tiberius, 3 17. FlaviusHera cl ius I, 3 18 . Constans II, 3 20. Constantine IV Pogona tus, 320. Justinian II, 321 . Tiberius IV, 3 21 . Fi lepicus Bardane s, 321. Artavazdus, 3 21 .Leo V the Armenian, 322. Mich ael III and Ba sil I, 3 22. Al exander, 3 23 .
Constantine X. Porphyrogenetus , 323 . Romanus I, 3 24. John Zimesce s,
3 25 . Constantine XI Porphyrogenetus, 3 25 . Armeni an Empresses andPrince sses, 326. The Armenian officia l s of the Greek Empire , 3 26. TheBagratid dyna sty of Georgia , 327. The Armenians in Persia and Constantinople ,328 . The Armenians in Pol and , 3 30. The Armeni ans in we stern Europe , 3 3 3 .The Armeni ans in India and the Far-Ea st, 3 34. The Armenians in Veni ce ,
the Mekh itha ri sts. 3 34. The Armenians in Russia , 3 34. Russian a dmini stration of the Armenians, 3 3 5 . The Armenians in America , 3 36.
CHAPTER XI .
Litera ture , Science, and Art among the Armenians 3 3 8 391
Ancient writing of Asia , 3 3 8 . Armenian writing, 340. Mesrop, 341 . Ancient
Armeni an l iterature , 345 . Mose s of Khoren, 3 5 1 . Liturgica l poetry, 3 52.
Secul ar poetry, 3 5 3 . Armenian troub adours, 3 5 5 . Modern Armeni an l itera
ture , 3 56. Armenian versification, 3 62. The Sciences , 363 . Printing, 3 64.
Newspapers and Reviews, 364. Music, 3 68 . The Sta ge, 3 70 Arch itec
ture and Sculpture , 3 70. Fre scoe s and Icons, 3 81 . Il lumina ti on of Manuscripts, 3 8 1 . Co ining of money in Georgia , 3 85 . The industrial arts, 3 89.
Dancing, 391 .
CHAPTER XII .
Events in Armenia ,s ince the fa l l of the Cza r
’
s government in Russia
( 1917-1918 )
APPENDICES
CHRONOLOGY. Remotest times. Legenda ry data , 401 . Histor ica l data , Ea rl iesttimes, 402. F irst Period of Ind ep end ence , 402. Rule of the Se leucids , 402.
Second period of Independ ence , Dyna sty of Artaxia s, 402. Fore ign Dyna sty,402. Arsacids of Armenia , 403 . Pers ia n Rule, Marzp ans or Governors-General , 403 . Governors-General of Byzantine Armeni a , 404. Arab rule, 0 8
tikans or Governors-Genera l , 405 . Th ird Period of Independence , Dynastyof the Armenian Bagra tid s, 407. Fourth Per iod of Independ ence , Dyna sty of
the Rupenians in New Armenia , 1, th e Barons, II. the Kings, 407-8.
ECCLESIASTICAL CHRONOLOGY. Cathol ici of Etchmiadzin, 409. Cathol ici of Cil icia ,41 1 . Cathol ici of Akhthamar, 412. Cathol ici of Agbonan, 412. Patriarch s ofJerusal em, 413 . Patriarch s of Constantinople , 414.