162 Vologases III of Parthia expels Sohæmus, who is friendly to Rome, and makes Pacorus king.
163 or 164 Sohæmus restored by the Romans, and is succeeded (date unknown) by his son, Sanatruces or Sanadrug, who is established on the throne by Septimius Severus.
212 Caracalla seizes Sanatruces.
Armenian historians speak of a Chosroes I, the Great, who rules about this time, but the Romans do not mention him. Sanatruces seems to have been followed by Vologases, his son, and he in turn by his son Tiridates II, who escapes from the Romans to Vologases V of Parthia, about 227. His successor is Arsaces II, brother of Artabanus IV of Parthia. He wars against Ardashir, the Sassanid.
258 Sapor I of Persia puts Artavasdes III on the Armenian throne.
285 About this date Tiridates III, the rightful heir of the throne and a Christian, is established by Diocletian. Narseh expels him after a few years, and this brings on a war between Persia and Rome. Tiridates is restored.
341 Probably at this date Arsaces III ascends the throne, after his father, Tiridates III, has been imprisoned by Sapor II of Persia. He assists Sapor in his wars with Rome, and then allies himself with Rome.
363 Arsaces deserts the Romans in the siege of Ctesiphon. He is seized by Sapor, and imprisoned. Sapor puts Aspacures on the throne, but Para, son of Arsaces, is also acknowledged king, with the help of the Romans.
374 or 377 Valens, dissatisfied with Para, has him put to death. Para’s nephew, Arsaces IV, succeeds, together with a brother, Valarsaces II, who dies soon. Arsaces proves so weak a ruler that Theodosius the Great and Sapor III decide to divide the kingdom.
387 or 390 Division of Armenia between Rome and Persia. Arsaces continues to reign in the Roman dominions. Sapor gives his (the eastern) portion to a Persian noble, Khosrau, or Chosroes.
389 Death of Arsaces IV. Theodosius confers his portion upon his general, Casavon, who plots with Chosroes to bring all Armenia under Roman dominion. Bahram IV of Persia seizes Chosroes and
392 puts the latter’s brother, Bahram Sapor, on the vassal throne of eastern Armenia.
414 Chosroes restored by Yezdegerd I.
415 Death of Chosroes. Yezdegerd’s son, Sapor, becomes king.
419 Death of Sapor. Interregnum until
422 when Artasires, son of Bahram Sapor, is appointed king by Bahram V.
429 The Armenian nobles apply to Bahram to remove Artasires. The Persian king decides to make Armenia a province, and deposes Artasires. Henceforth the province is known as Pers-Armenia.
From 429 to 632 Armenia is ruled by Persian governors, who are remarkable chiefly for their cruel attempts to subvert Christianity.
632 Heraclius restores Armenia to the Roman Empire, but in
636 it passes under Mohammedan rule.
885 The caliph Mutamid crowns Ashod I, one of the Bagratid family, king of Armenia. He rules in central and northern Armenia, and founds a dynasty that lasts until the assassination of Kagig II, in 1079, when the kingdom is incorporated with the Byzantine Empire.
908 The Ardzurian family, claiming to be descendants of Sennacherib, founds a dynasty in the province of Vashpuragan, or Van. Kagig is crowned by the caliph Mutadir, and the family rules until 1080.
962-1080 The Bagratids found and rule a dynasty in Kars.
962 The Bagratids found a dynasty in Georgia, which continues until that country is absorbed by Russia, in 1801.
984-1085 The Meravind dynasty of Kurds rules the country west of Lake Van.
1080 Rhupen, a relative of Kagig II, the last Bagratid king of Armenia, founds the kingdom of Lesser Armenia. It allies itself with the crusaders. Among the kings is
1224 Hayton I.
Some of the kings are Latin princes, who are trying to make their subjects conform to the Roman church, break up the country into discordant factions, until
1375 it is conquered by the caliph of Egypt. King Leo VI, the last king of Armenia, is driven out, and dies at Paris in 1393.
CHAPTER I. THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE
[250 B.C.-228 A.D.]
The battle of Arbela (331 B.C.) made Alexander the heir of the Persian Empire. In the volumes devoted to Grecian history we have shown how he verified his claims of conquest, subdivided his empire among satraps of his own appointment, and left the enormous heritage, when he died, to “the best man.” It was further shown how no one man among the generals of the Alexandrian school could prove himself the best man, and how, in consequence, the empire fell into a chaos of civil wars until at last certain major divisions assumed a particularly definite form—among them the Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Iran of Seleucus and his family the Seleucidæ, among whom the name Antiochus frequently appears, the city of Antioch in Syria being taken as a capital. The degeneracy of these rulers was the opportunity of the obscure race of Parthians, who, with qualities and customs that in many ways remind one of the American Indian, rose to a power so great that under the first Cæsars the Romans thought of them as dividing the power of the world with Rome.
The only continuous ancient history of this race is that of Justin, which ends with the year 9 B.C. and shows a gap between 94 and 55 B.C. We quote this unique account entire; but the reader is cautioned that it is not to be given full credence everywhere: it is introductory to the more critical modern account that follows.a
Justin’s Account of the Parthians
[331-9 B.C.]
The Parthians, who are now in possession of the empire of the East, having, as it were, divided the world with the Romans, came originally from Scythian exiles. This too is evident from their name: for in the Scythian language the word Parthi signifies exiles. This nation, in the times both of the Assyrians and Medes, was the obscurest in the East. Afterwards too, when the empire of the East was transferred from the Medes to the Persians, they were an easy prey to the conquerors, like a vulgar herd without a name. At last, they came under the Macedonian yoke, when they carried their triumphant arms into these parts of the world; so that it is really strange that they should have arrived to such power as to rule over those nations, whose slaves they had formerly been.
Being thrice attacked by the Romans, under the conduct of their greatest generals, in the most flourishing times of the republic, they alone of all nations were not only a match for them, but came off victorious; yet perhaps it was still a greater glory for them to be able to rise, amidst the Assyrian, Median, and Persian kingdoms, so famous of old, and the most opulent empire of Bactria, consisting of a thousand cities, than that they defeated a people that came from so remote a part of the world; especially when at that time they were incessantly alarmed by the Scythians and their other neighbours, and exposed to so many uncertainties of war. They being forced to leave Scythia by seditions at home did, by stealth, possess themselves of the deserts between Hyrcania, the Dahæ, the Arians, the Spartans, and Margians. After which, their neighbours not resisting at first, they at last, in spite of their opposition, when they came too late to hinder them, so far extended their frontiers that they not only took possession of vast plains, but also of craggy hills and steep mountains. And hence it comes that the heat and cold are excessive in several provinces of Parthia; for the snow is troublesome in the mountainous parts, and the heat in the plains.