Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/194

 HISTORY or ARUEKIA. I4fi

qtiest.'* Pleased and emboldened by this reply of the god, Severianus made a rapid march to Armenia, accompanied by a large army. He was met by the Armenian general Khosrove, commanding the combined armies,. who attacked and totally routed him. His army was almost annihilated, and he fell by an arrow. Alexander, the priest before mentioned, apprized of the issue of this battle, erased the false oracle, which he had given Severianus, from the records of the temple, and wrote in its stead, '* March not against Armenia, for there lie plots and snares, and imminent danger. A subtle man shall array himself against thee in the garb of a female, and prove a dire foe to thine army. Thou shalt perish by the discharge of an arrow, and thy country shall deplore thy defeat/' When the news of the destruction of the Roman a. d. i<>2. army reached Rome, Marcus Aurelius, who had succeeded Antoninus Pius in the imperial sway, sent his colleague, the joint emperor Verus Lucius, against the Armenians. Previous to this, however, Tigranes undertook an expedition into Armenia Minor, with a view of reducing it to his power. Unfortunately, he became enamour- ed of a certain female, who, using her power for the purpose of baffling his projects of conquest, allured him into a snare» seized his person, and placed him in confinement. Verus proved

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