Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/407

Rh where they say the ark rested after the flood. Around this are all manner of stories. They show the places where he got out of the ark, where he first planted the vine, and they have a piece of the ark as a relic in their monastery at Etshmiadzin.

Returning to history, we find the Armenians first under the Medes, then under Persian authority. They rose with other vassal nations against Darius I (B.C. 521-486), but were subdued. Alexander (B.C. 336-323) included Armenia in his vast empire; when this broke up Armenia fell to the lot of the Seleucid kings. When Antiochus III (B.C. 223-187) was defeated by the Romans (B.C. 190) Armenia for the first time became an independent state. But it was not ruled by a native king. Two Greek generals of Antiochus, Artaxias and Zariadris, proclaimed themselves independent kings. Artaxias ruled most of Armenia proper, Zariadris made a smaller kingdom (Sophene) in the south-east. The rule of Artaxias's successors spread in the country round. Armenia became a great power. But the Parthian kings of the second Persian Empire (see pp. 21, 23) conquered the country, and made it a feudal state ruled by their satraps. Dikran (Tigranes) I (c. 90-55 B.C), a descendant of Artaxias, rose against the Persians and made himself independent. His reign is the most glorious episode in Armenian history; but he was not a native Armenian. However, by this time, no doubt, his family had become so practically; he rules as Armenian king; Armenians have a right to be proud of his memory. He incorporated the other Armenian state (Sophene), and made a number of neighbouring princes pay him tribute. In B.C. 86 he conquered what was left of the Seleucid kingdom in Syria, and so made Armenia a very great power. A national poetic literature has grown up around this "King of Kings," and still the persecuted Armenian looks back to the age when subject princes obeyed Dikran. But this glorious period did not last long. The Roman power advanced in Asia,