Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - X. Chapters in the history of Armenia
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264 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
Gaghik II of Ani (1042-1045) was at war with Byzantium,
which ought to have been a trustworthy ally against the Turks.
After a series of battles fought with varying success, in which
the Armenians defeated both the Seljuks and the imperial
army, King Gaghik was enticed to Constantinople by imperial
promises, while the imperial forces attacked Ani, which
capitulated. Armenia now became, like Vaspurakan, a
Roman province with a By2antine governor, and the deluded
king was allowed to have a country in Cappadocia and a palace
in Constantinople. Thus ended the glamorous rule of the
Bagratids in Armenia. In Lori the Bagratid dynasty continued
in power until the thirteenth century.
But not even By2antium could check the hosts of Seljuk
Turks who pressed on under the leadership of Toghrul bey.
One raid followed another ; they advanced to the upper
valleys of the Euphrates, to Arzen (near Erzerum), to the
forests of Pontus, and even to Sebastia, where Senekherim, the
king of the Artsruni, had thought himself safe. His sons
now fled for their lives. The Turks paused when they
caught sight of the numerous white cupolas of the church,
which they took to be the tents of the enemy ; then the order
was given to pillage the town, and the streets ran with blood.
Meanwhile the Byzantine Church was doing its best to
subject the Armenian Church and induce it to renounce
the Monophysite doctrine of the nature of Christ. But on
this point the Armenians remained adamant, and these
attempts at coercion only served to exasperate them.
Then, in 1064, after a raid on Georgia (p. 92), the Seljuk
Turks, led by Alp Arslan, their new and enterprising sultan,
appeared before the gates of Ani. After a siege lasting
twenty-five days the Turks swarmed into the splendid city
of " a thousand and one churches," every man holding a
knife in each hand and a third in his mouth, and the inhabitants
were " mown down like grass." After this disaster the
defence collapsed in 1071, when the Emperor Romanos was
defeated and tåken prisoner by Alp Arslan at Manazkert
(Melazkert), north of Lake Van, and the struggle for Armenia
came to an end. The country now passed into the hands of
the Turks and the Kurdish Emir of Karabagh. In the twelfth
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