Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - X. Chapters in the history of Armenia
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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
254
Under Trdat’s son Khosrov {Chosroes) 11, known as the
Little (d. circa 342), several powerfu] Nakharar families carried
on feuds and rebelled against the king, with the result that
at last he put them all to death and confiscated their lands.
Then the country was invaded and laid waste by an army
composed of Iberians (Georgians) and Albanians (Caucasian
tribes) under King Sanesan. Khosrov and the Katholikos
had to flee, but in the end the invaders were driven out by
Khosrov’s generals, Vache Mamikonean and Vahan Amatu
nian. Sanesan was killed and his head was brought to the
king, who wept bitterly over him, for though an enemy he
was one of the Arsacids. Khosrov built the town of Dvin
as a residence for himself, adorned it with palaces and castles
for hunting and recreation, and planted woods round it. He
also transferred to it the inhabitants of Artashat.
Meanwhile Persia had got a powerful king, Shapur 11,
known as the Great (310-379). He was still in his cradle
when he came to the throne, but on reaching man’s estate he
set himself the task of avenging Narseh’s humiliating defeat
at the hands of the Romans. It is recorded that his army
attacked Armenia, but was defeated near Lake Van by
Khosrov’s forces, possibly aided by the imperial troops. In the
reign of Khosrov’s son, Tiran II (342-350), the bitter conflict
between the heads of the State and the Church began, and it
went so far that the king, whom the Katholikos Yusik had
forbidden to enter the church on account of his sinful life,
had the primate flogged to death. Although Tiran does not
seem to have been at war with Persia, we read that a Persian
satrap seized him by a treacherous stratagem and had his
eyes put out ; afterwards, when a large Persian army invaded
Armenia, it was routed by an imperial army, which captured
the Persian king’s harem.
The blind king Tiran refused to take the burden of
government upon himself again, so the emperor placed his
son Arshak II (3 5o?-36y) on the throne. The ecclesiastical
writers’ unfavourable accounts of this king are obviously
much biased ; he seems to have been in many ways an able
man who was alive to the inner weakness of his country, and
cvidently did much to strengthen the crown and the kingdom.
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