The inscriptions of these kings are of the vain-glorious, selfpraise order, so characteristic of Asiatics.

Besides those of the local rulers, there are inscriptions at the city of Van to the god Armazt, or Ormazd, left by Xerxes, praising himself and referring to his father Darius. Curses of the air and sun gods are commonly called down on him who should dare to mar these inscriptions. However, some of the stones thus inscribed are now found in the walls of Christian churches with the continuity of their record broken. In some other cases they are still legible. Though religion, manners and customs in the region of Ararat during this era were Assyrian, and though their inscriptions were cuneiform, still the Armenians had a language of their own in which they shielded their identity.

Through a multitude of the fortunes of war, they have emerged from the retreating files of conflicting armies a national unit. They have furnished the battlefield for Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, Scythians, Romans, MedoPersians, Saracens, Turks and Kurds. The evidence of history overwhelmingly affirms that, through it all, no material amalgamation with the invaders has ever occurred. This exceptional result, as compared with other less fortunate nations, must be attributed first of all to the reverence for "home," its domestic ties and sacred obligations. The social law and customs preventing the intermarriage of relatives has done much to sustain the physical health, which the fine climate of our mountain homes and rural life for ages engendered.

For centuries prior to the introduction of Christianity, Armenia was practically divided into eastern and western Armenia, or Armenia Major and Armenia Minor, the former east of the Euphrates river and the latter west of it.

Tigranes I., a king of Armenia, was the friend and colleague of Cyrus, and aided him in the overthrow of Babylon in fulfillment of prophesy (Jeremiah ii., 27-28). His descendants possessed the land of their ancestor in comparative peace, until Alexander the Great invaded Armenia (328 B. C.).

Before the long spears, splendid discipline and unquestioned bravery of the Macedonian Phalanxes, king Vahi of Armenia fell in defence of his country and people. His memory is embalmed in the songs and legends of our countrymen.

In 217 B. C. Macedonian rule ceased, and the country (Armenia Major) became independent, and this state of affairs continued until the death of Ardvates our king, thirty-three years later, when we submitted to Syria. About 190 B. C., Artaxias proclaimed Armenia Major independent, and offered an asylum to Hannibal, the greatest strategist of all times, who had sworn to his father, when a boy of twelve years, "eternal enmity to Rome," and for forty years had kept the field against the Imperial Eagles. It must have required courage of the highest order to harbor the greatest enemy of Rome. Lesser Armenia soon followed the example of Greater Armenia and revolted under Zadriades, whose descendants

kept the throne until the time of Tigranees II., when it became part of Greater Armenia.

About the middle of the second century, B. C., the mighty hand of Mithridates, the Parthian king, laid hold of Amenian affairs and placed his brother Valarsaces on the throne. Under his rule the country flourished, laws were established, personal merit among his subjects was rewarded, and great cities founded. His wise policy laid a good foundation for a great empire. The superior talents of his great-grandson, Tigranes, had nearly accomplished this result, when the advice of his father-in-law, Mithridates of Pontus, brought him in conflict with the Roman empire, and opened the way for that widespread influence of Rome, which was to prepare the way for the kingdom of peace in the hearts of men, soon to be proclaimed to the world.

By a compromise all of Armenia except two provinces, Sophene and Gordyene, became Roman provinces. What was left became the Kingdom of Tigranes. Tigranes himself ruled the Roman Armenian provinces as a loyal Roman governor, until the time of his death (55 B. C.), and in this office was succeeded by his son, Artavasdes. The true greatness of the father was not inherited by the son, who violated his obligations to Rome, was arrested by Mark Antony, carried away as prisoner, and beheaded by Cleopatra, whose charms had captured Antony in Egypt (30 B. C.).

A son of Artavasdes, aided by the Parthians, in a rebellion which followed this event, massacred all the Romans found in Armenia. The Armenians looked to the Parthians as their natural allies, while the events of history prove that it would have been wiser to have followed the policy of great Tigranes I. and remained loyal to Rome.

The massacre of the Romans was followed by a period of anarchy, which is one of the darkest pages in Armenian history, as it was the legitimate result of the violation of solemn pledges; at any rate, poor Armenia was between two mill-stones, Rome on the west and Parthia on the east. The latter was desperate in the throes of declining power, with Persia crowding hard for supremacy in the region of Ararat. Within his own borders, too, Armenia was torn by the broils of a multitude of claimants who were struggling for the throne. In the midst of this domestic strife, an alien usurper, Erovant, became a sort of king (58 A. D.) and kept in power until his overthrow by Ardashes, one of the Arsacidæ line, Ardashes, who did some good for his people, though several times dethroned by the power east and west of his country. In 232 A. D. the Armenians became subject to Persia, through the attempt of their king, Chosroes the Great, to retain the Arsacidæ in power. With the assassination of the Armenian king begins one of the most remarkable chapters in all history. The deed was done, it is claimed, by the father of St. Gregory, the Christian illuminator of Armenia.

All of the royal family except Tiridates, who escaped to

Rome, was slain. In return the assassin and his entire family except Gregory, who was then two years old and was saved by a nurse, were slain.

Tiridates made an alliance at Rome, taking upon himself the obligations of Tigranes the Great-which were broken by Tigranes' son, to the sad undoing of Armenia for three hundred years. He was rewarded by Rome with the throne of his unhappy country. His honorable course was approved of heaven, in that he became the first Christian sovereign. In the first acts of his reign he persecuted the Christians, but like Paul he verily believed that he was right in doing so. Gregory, the son of the assassin of his father, received a Christian education at Cesarea and at Rome. He went to preach the Gospel in his native Armenia, but the king imprisoned him for fourteen years in a dungeon. The light of truth could not be imprisoned, and beginning with the king and the nobles it soon won the hearts of nearly all the people.*

This religious change angered the Persians, so that the political troubles continued until Theodisus the Great ceded the eastern part of the country to Persia, which was then called Perse-Armedia. Here we have Persian and Roman Armenia, governed by native rulers of the Armenian family until 652 A. D. During this period the Persians were untiring in their efforts to do Christianity. Among the Armenians numerous insurrections resulted, the

*The history of the Armenian church will be found in an appropriate chapter bearing on that subject.