The Historians' History of the World 08

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.