In the continual struggle between Rome and Parthia for the control
of Armenia, the Parthian kings had one great advantage; they were
Arsacids, and could put their sons or brothers on the Armenian throne
with the good-will of the people, thus strengthening their dynastic
position without much cost in military force. Often, too, the Armenian
kingship was obtained by Parthian princes, who fled after a family
quarrel, or after deposition or other misfortune. One of these Armenian
kings was Chosroes, who reigned in the time of Ardashir, the first king
of Persia, before spoken of. It is not certain just who he was; some
say a brother of Ardvan, the last king of Parthia; some say the son
of Ardvan, who fled after his father's death. Anyway, he was a mortal
enemy of Ardashir, and was at first supported by the Romans. Ardashir
invaded Armenia, but was beaten later. Chosroes quarreled with the
Romans, who withdrew their support, and assailed him, but he defeated
them; and when Ardashir again invaded the country, Chosroes again
drove him back. The old days of Tigranes seemed to have returned, and
Armenia to be on the road again to unity and independence; and Chosroes
was called the Great. Ardashir was furious at being baffled, and is
said to have offered his daughter's hand and a share in the kingdom
to any one of his leading nobles who would assassinate Chosroes. An
Arsacid named Anag accepted the offer, though he had a wife already,
and went with his family to Armenia, pretending to be in flight from
Persian troops. Chosroes gave him a military escort into the province
of Ardaz, where he lived for a time in the very place St. Thaddeus'
bones were deposited. Later on, Anag removed to Vagharshabad (the
present city of Etchmiazin, where the Armenian Catholicos resides),
Chosroes' royal city. Here Anag seizing his opportunity, stabbed
Chosroes to the heart. In his flight he was drowned in trying to
cross the Aras, and his family were massacred by the soldiery.
Ardashir had gotten rid of his unconquerable enemy, and without having
to pay the stipulated price. He at once entered Armenia and put to
death every member of Chosroes' family save a boy and a girl, Tiridates
and Chosrovitukht, who were somehow smuggled away, and the old game
of Perso-Roman foot-ball over Armenia went on as before. Tiridates
entered the Roman army, when grown up, and became distinguished there,
evidently inheriting his father's military ability; and remained in
the Roman service certainly to the age of over 45, and perhaps till
over 50. That the Romans waited all this time before using him as
a candidate for the Armenian throne seems strange; but the reason
probably is that the early years of his manhood fell in a time when
Rome was weak and Persia strong. The great Shahpur, Ardashir's son,
reigned in Persia till about 272; the imbecile Gallienus of Rome
reigned from 260 till 268, and was succeeded by a crowd of emperors
able indeed, but too short-lived to carry out any steady policy,
or drive the Persians out of their strong places. The first emperor
who found himself in a position to restore the Roman power in the
East was Diocletian, who came to the Roman throne in 284, and it is
significant that he made Tiridates king of Armenia only two years
later. As Diocletian was a soldier of fortune, probably he had known
and respected Tiridates long before. Anyway, in 286 Rome once more
had her turn in Armenian affairs, and with one short interval, kept
absolute control of the country for over half a century.
Now there had been born in Armenia about 257 a child who had early
been taken to Caesarea by Christian relatives, baptized, named
Gregory, and reared in the Christian faith. On reaching maturity
he married a Christian girl by whom he had two sons; but after
three years they separated by mutual consent. The wife entered a
convent. Gregory, hearing of Tiridates' renown in the Roman army,
went and obtained service near the prince's person, to be able to have
influence with him if he ever regained his kingdom. They became fast
friends. When Tiridates was proclaimed king, he went first to Erija,
in the province of Egueghatz, where was a temple of Anahid (Diana),
whom the Armenians worshiped as guardian goddess of the country;
and making offerings to her of garlands and crowns, asked Gregory to
join him in his idolatry. Gregory refused to worship anything but the
one God. Tiridates ordered him imprisoned for a while, thinking the
loathsome dungeon of that time would change his resolution; finding
him still firm, he had him tortured in a dozen frightful ways, and
at last taken to the fortress of Ardashad and thrown into a deep pit,
where criminals were left to starve. There Gregory remained fourteen
years, supported all that time by the charity of a pious Christian
woman. After about ten years of reign, Tiridates was driven from
his throne by Persians, and once more became a wanderer; but two
years later he was reinstated by the Romans, and finished his life
on the throne. In gratitude for this second restoration, he had daily
offerings made to the heathen gods all over his kingdom; and on being
told that the Christians refused to comply, ordered all recusants to
be tortured, and their property confiscated.
About this time Diocletian determined to find and marry the handsomest
woman in his empire, and sent officers all over in search of noted
beauties. One party, hearing that a nun named Ripsime was very
beautiful, entered her convent by force, had a portrait made of her,
and carried it to the emperor. Diocletian was enchanted with it, and
ordered preparations made for the nuptials; but the abbess, Kayane,
to save the nun from sin, and the community from danger, broke up the
convent, and the inmates with several priests--seventy in all--went
to the East, and scattered themselves in different localities. Ripsime
and Kayane, with thirty-five companions, reached Ardashad in Armenia,
and took refuge in a building among the vineyards, where wine vats
were stored. Diocletian had search made for his flown bird, and,
hearing that her company had gone to Armenia, commanded Tiridates
to send her back to him unless he wished to keep her for his own
wife. Tiridates had her hunted out, and the officers bringing a report
of her extraordinary beauty, so great that people flocked to admire
her, he ordered her brought to him, intending to marry her. Kayane
exhorted her not to deny Christ for the sake of earthly honors,
and she refused to go. She was carried by force, however, and the
king undertook to gain a husband's rights at once; but the virgin,
strengthened by divine power, resisted him successfully. Tiridates then
had the Abbess Kayane brought to him to overcome the girl's scruples;
but instead, she once more exhorted Ripsime to keep herself pure
in spite of all offered grandeur. The king once more endeavored to
deflower the maiden, and was once more beaten; and Ripsime, opening
the doors and passing out through the astonished guards, walked out
of the city, to her companions in the vineyard, went to a high place,
and knelt down in prayer. The incensed Tiridates sent a body of guards
to put her to death by the most dreadful tortures, which was done,
and her body cut into small pieces. Her companions gathered to bury
her remains, and were at once butchered by the soldiery, as well as a
sick one, who had stayed behind in the wine press. The bodies of the
thirty-four martyrs were thrown into the fields as food for the beasts
of prey. The next day Tiridates had Kayane and two other companions
put to death. These events occurred on the 5th and 6th of October, 301.
Shortly after, God visited the king and many of his household with a
dreadful disease for his persecution of the saints. They ran around
like mad people or demoniacs. While they were in this state, the
king's virgin sister Chosrovitukht had a divine revelation that she
should go to Ardashad and release Gregory from the pit, and he would
heal them all. As he had been thrown there fourteen years ago, and
was believed to be long dead, no attention was paid to it; but the
next day it was repeated five times with threats, and a chief named
Oda was sent, who brought him back alive, to their great amazement
and joy. They prostrated themselves before him and asked forgiveness,
but he told them to worship only their Creator. Then he demanded to
be shown the bodies of the holy martyrs lately just slain for belief
in Christ; they were found after nine days and nights untouched,
and he gathered them up and put them into the wine press, where
he also established himself. First he ordered the king and all the
people to fast five days, and commended them to the mercy of God; and
after that for sixty consecutive days he preached the word of God,
instructing them in all the mysteries of the Christian religion. On
the sixty-sixth day they again besought him to heal them, but first
he made them build three chapels for the relics of the martyrs, each
in a separate coffin, wall in the place where he had seen a vision of
the Son of God coming down from heaven, and erect a crucifix before
which the people should prostrate themselves. Finally, seeing that
they all believed in the true God, St. Gregory bade them kneel down
and pray to Him for healing; he himself prayed for them at the same
time, and a miraculous cure was at once effected on all the sufferers.
This done, Gregory and Tiridates set about exterminating idolatry;
they smashed the idols and demolished the temples, the new converts
joyfully assisting them. The work of conversion went on rapidly,
under the wonderful preaching of the Saint, and the zeal of the king;
all the people converted were baptized by immersion. In eight years
the majority of the Armenian nation, many millions in number, had
become Christians. That religion was made the State creed of Armenia
in 310, while the Council of Nice, which did the same work for Rome,
was not held till 325.
Gregory deserves every credit for this magnificent work; but I
cannot help wishing he had been less zealous in destroying the
pagan literature, which is a very great loss to the world. However,
Christianity is worth it, if we could not have it at a less price.
Schools, as well as churches and benevolent institutions, were
organized in great numbers under Christian auspices during the next
two or three centuries, and a brilliant band of scholars and preachers
went out from them, the equals of any in their age, and perhaps in
any age. I will give sketches of some of the principal figures, but
first let me briefly tell the history of Armenia during that period.
The rivalry between Rome and Persia grew fiercer than ever with the
introduction of Christianity, for now religious hate was added to
political ambition; and on the side of Persia the Armenian difficulties
were doubled, for a considerable part of the Armenians were still
Zoroastrians, and sympathized with the Persians against their own
government, while many of the Persians had become Christian, and
opposed their pagan rulers. Thus the Persians felt that they had
a civil war on their hands as well as foreign wars, and persecuted
their Christians horribly. On the other hand, they had the help of the
pagan part of the Armenians in invading or controlling that state;
still again, the Armenian Christians now favored the Romans much
more strongly than they had before, because Rome was now Christian;
while on top of all were the great barons, almost independent of
the nominal kings, and who favored neither party but wanted their
feudal independence. Yet the Roman control of the kingship, for
what it was worth, lasted without a break for over half a century
after the victory of Christianity, and over three-quarters of a
century from the accession of Tiridates; which was due largely to
the great ability of the Roman emperors Diocletian and Constantine,
and the excellent administration and military organization they left,
which saved the eastern provinces from Persia for over a quarter
of a century after Constantine's death. Shahpur II, of Persia, won
many victories, but he could not hold even the places he captured,
and he gained no territory till the death of "Julian the Apostate"
in his Persian campaign of 363. His weak and frightened successor
Jovian surrendered a great section of the Eastern Roman territory,
and still more disgracefully agreed that the Romans should not help
their ally Arshag (Arsaces), king of Armenia, against Shahpur. Armenia
was at once invaded, but she felt her national existence at stake, and
fought with desperation. Though Shahpur had the help of two apostate
Armenian princes, Merujan and Vahan, and other native traitors, who
ravaged the country and fought their king because he was a Christian,
Arshag held out four years, aided by his heroic though unprincipled
wife Parantzem, and his able chief commander Vashag. Vagharshabad,
Ardashad, Ervandshad, and many other cities were taken and destroyed;
finally Arshag and Vashag were captured. Arshag's eyes were put out,
and he was thrown into a Persian dungeon in Ecbatana; Vashag was
flayed alive, and his skin stuffed and set near the king. Queen
Parantzem still refused to surrender, and with 11,000 soldiers and
6,000 fugitive women held the fortress of Ardis fourteen months,
till nearly all of them were dead from hunger or disease; then she
opened the gates herself. Instead of honoring her, Shahpur, who was a
worthy predecessor of the Turks, had her violated on a public platform
by his soldiers, and then impaled (368). Meantime, her and Ashag's
son, Bab (Papa), had escaped to Constantinople and asked the help of
the co-Emperor Valens. That emperor hated to break the treaty, and
involve Rome in a new eastern war; but he could not suffer Persia to be
strengthened by the possession of all Armenia, and the Roman statesmen
had determined to end the long struggle over Armenia by dividing it
between Persia and themselves. Bab was secretly helped by the Romans;
he kept up a guerrilla warfare in the mountains, and a large part of
the Armenian people were prepared to welcome him back to his rightful
throne. The Romans tried to keep within the letter of their treaty
by not letting him assume the title of king. The Persians considered
his support by Greek troops a breach of the treaty, none the less,
and Valens alternately aided and disavowed him. The matter was not
mended by the worthless character of Bab himself, who murdered his
best friends on the least suspicion, and had the incredible baseness
to hold a secret correspondence with Shahpur, the worse than murderer
of his parents. Finally the Romans, convinced that he must be under
their watch if they were to have any security of him, tolled him down
to Cilicia, and prevented him from returning by guards of soldiers. He
made his escape, and professed his allegiance to the Romans as before;
but Valens resolved to be rid of him, and had him murdered by Count
Trajan, the Roman commander in the East.
Meantime a powerful Roman army under Count Trajan, and the chief
Persian host, had actually camped opposite each other on the borders of
Armenia (371); but neither side wanted a general war just then,--Rome
must have her hands free for the Goths, and Persia hers for the
Mongols. Finally, in 379, Shahpur died, and there was an instant
and entire change in Persian policy toward Rome, and even toward
Christianity for a while. His brother and successor, Ardashir, was an
old man, and reigned but four years; his successor, Shahpur III, at
once sent embassies to Rome, and made a treaty of peace (384). Finally,
on the succession of Bahram IV (Kirman Shah), in 390, that monarch
arranged a treaty of partition with Theodosius, the Roman emperor,
by which Armenia ceased to exist. The western portion became a Roman
province; the then reigning sovereign, Arshag IV, was made governor to
keep the people contented. The eastern, and much the larger section,
was annexed to Persia, under the name of Persarmenia; and to please
the people, an Arsacid, Chosroes IV, was made governor, and the
dynasty was continued in its rule over the Armenians till after the
great Perso-Roman war of 421-2, and the persecution of Christians by
Persia, which was the pretext of it. The persecution and the war led
to a movement for Armenian independence; after it was over, Bahram V
of Persia (Gor, the Wild Ass, "the mighty hunter") put a new vassal,
Ardashes IV, into the governorship; but the great Armenian barons
would not give up the struggle, and this last of the Arshagoonian
dynasty was removed in 428 and Persian governors substituted.
Thus ended the rule of the line of Arshag. It was a mighty race, and
swarms with brilliant names; but in Persia it was justly displaced
by one of better public policy, and in Armenia the position of the
country was fatal to it.