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256 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
These cvents took place about a.d. 367. Shapur’s perse
cution of the Christians in Persia and Armenia was due to
political considerations rather than to religious fanaticism.
Christians were naturally favourable to the Christian State of
Rome, and therefore it was good policy to exterminate them.
Arshak’s son Pap (368 ?~374) succeeded to the throne with
the emperor’s help, and assisted by the imperial troops he
managed to drive his enemies out of the country. We read
that Varsak Mamikonean’s son, the mighty war-lord Musheg,
avenged his father and his people, defeated the Persians!
destroyed the fire-temples of the Magicians, and burned alive
those of their priests who fell into his hands. He had many
Persian leaders and princes flayed, and stuffing their skins with
straw, exhibited them on the battlements. But when Shapur’s
chief queen and other ladies of his harem fell into Musheg’s
hands he treated them chivalrously and sent them back to
Shapur, escorted by a bodyguard of Persian war-prisoners.
Evidently this was meant as a contrast to Shapur’s cruel
treatment of noble Armenian ladies, which is depicted in the
most lurid colours.
King Pap was also successful in subjugating the Nakharars,
who had deserted his father, and, like the latter, he did his best
to strengthen the central power of the crown. But he could
not avoid coming into collision with the perhaps unduly
powerful Katholikos Nerses, and the upshot seems to have
been that the king poisoned this primate with a loving-cup
which he gave him at a banquet intended to mark their
reconciliation. He closed the convents, and let it be known
that he thought marriage a more profitable vocation for the
nuns. He confiscated five-sixths of the Church lands, which
had augmented to a fantastic extent, and even then he was of
the opinion that enough was left to support the clergy.
Moreover, he reduced their numbers, holding that one priest
and a deacon would be sufficient for each village. Much of
this seems reasonable enough. But even King Pap vacillated
in his foreign policy. Eventually, håving defied the emperor,
he was enticed to the Roman general Terentius and cut down
from behind while sitting intoxicated at a banquet held in
his honour (a.d. 374).
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