232-632 - Between Persia and Rome
After this time Armenia became an object of unceasing contention between the Romans and the Parthians, who alternately installed and dethroned its rulers. In A.D. 232, Armenia was conquered by Ardeshir, the first of the Sassanide kings of Persia. The country remained subject to this dynasty till Dertad, or Tiridates, the son of Khosru, and the only survivor of the Arsacide family, supported by a Roman army, made it free again. Early in the fourth century Tiridates and many of the Armenian nobility were converted to Christianity by St. Gregory, whom pope Sylvester I., in A.d. 319, confirmed as pontiff of Armenia. The conversion of Constantino to the Christian faith occurred about the same time : this circumstance, while establishing friendly relations between the Greek empire and Armenia, exposed the latter country to the increased hatred of the heathen government of Persia.
New conflicts and disturbances ensued, until n 387 A.D., the rivals agreed to settle the Armenian question by the drastic expedient of partition. Theodosius the Great entered into a compact with the Persian king, Sapores, according to which the eastern part of Armenia was to belong to Persia, and the western part to the Roman empire.
The Parthians succeeded in replacing the descendants of Tigranes by a junior branch of their own Arsacid Dynasty. Sapores, with a view to conciliate the minds of the Armenian nobles, many of whom were quitting the country in disgust, appointed Khosru, an offspring of the Arsacide family, as a tributary king over Persian Armenia. In 428, however, the Persian king, Behram V., deposed Arfaces, or Artashir, the last of the tributary Arsacide rulers, and, with the consent of the degenerate Armenian nobles, appointed a Persian officer to govern the country.
The Sassanid kings of Persia (who had superseded the Parthians in the Empire of Iran) secured the lion's share of the spoils, while the Romans only received a strip of country on the western border which gave them Erzeroum and Diyarbekir for their frontier fortresses. All the efforts of the Persian court were now directed towards the suppression of Christianity in Armenia, and the introduction of the doctrine of Zoroaster, as the difference of religion appeared to be the chief obstacle to the lasting fealty of the province. On these grounds the Armenian Christians became subject to constant vexations, and even cruel persecutions, from their Persian rulers, with religious wars under which Armenia was suffering about the middle of the fifth century.
Armenia was from this time governed by prefects sent by the government of Persia, by the caliphs of Bagdad, and by the Greeks, being oppressed with every kind of persecution. This was the time of the extraordinary struggles of Christianity against idolatry, the memorable martyrdoms of the Vardanians and Levondians, the treachery of the Vasakians, the heroic bravery of the Vahanians, and of other faithful Armenian chiefs, who shed their blood in defending their church from the profanation of the fire-worshippers, the Persians, and the infidel caliphs. Armenia was literally rendered a slaughter-house, churches were converted into temples for the worship of fire; priests were superseded by the infidel magi; clergy and laity were doomed to imprisonment or banishment, and exposed to the tortures of fire and the rack. In short, a general gloom overspread Armenia till the rise of the Bagratian kings.
The partition of 387 A.D. produced as long a political interregnum in Armenian history as the fall of Urartu in the seventh century B.C. In the second quarter of the seventh century A.D., the mastery of Western Asia passed from the Persians to the Arabs, and the Armenian provinces changed masters with the rest. Even after the fall of the Sassanide dynasty in 632, Armenia did not enjoy tranquillity, as its provinces soon became the scene of conflict between the Grecian and the rising Mohammedan empire.
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