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CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF ARMENIA 249
attempt was made to enforce the adoption of the Sasanid State
religion, which was the later form of the Avesta teaching
and fire-worship.
Meanwhile Khosrov’s son Tdrat (or Tiridates), who was
still a child, had been saved, and was apparently brought to
Rome, where he is said to have distinguished himself as a
warrior, whose remarkable feats and exceptional strength
were afterwards celebrated in popular legend. It scems that
soon after the Persians were defeated by Odenath, Prince of
Palmyra, circa a.d. 265, Trdat returned to his own country,
with Rome’s support, to claim his father’s throne. He
expelled the Persians, Consolidated his power by various
successful campaigns, and became famous as one of the most
remarkable hero-kings of Armenia, Trdat 111, " the Great."
The Advent of Christianity.—Trdat adopted Christianity as
the State religion, apparently about the year 280. This faith
must have been introduced into Armenia at an early date,
probably by Syrian missionaries from Edessa, and even in
the second century there may have been many Christians in
the land. Trdat was apparently a devout worshipper of the
ancient gods of his country, anxious to defend them both
against the fire-worship of the hated Sasanids and against the
Christian religion. But eventually the Apostle of Armenia,
Gregory the Illuminator, appeared on the scene, and Trdat was
converted by a number of improbable occurrences. The later
ecclesiastical authors’ legendary accounts of his conversion,
and the events connected with it, do not seem to contain much
historical truth. According to these, Gregory was the son
of Anak, the Parthian who murdered Trdat’s father, and he,
too, was a refugee. He found his way to Cappadocia, the
ancient country of the Armenians, and was given a Christian
education at Cæsarea. Learning of his father’s crime, he
resolved to expiate it, sought out Trdat in his place of exile,
and, after serving him faithfully without revealing his identity,
accompanied him when he returned to Armenia. One day,
however, a serious difficulty arose ; the king håving com
manded Gregory to make an offering of garlands in the
temple of the goddess Anahit near Eres (Erzinjian), the latter
refused to betray the God of the Christians. The upshot of
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