Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/199

 IS4 HSSTORT OF ARMENIA.

coine to blows at that time, released Khofnrovei. On the return of the former, however, to Nicor demia, he sent an army against Armenia, which was met by the troops of Khosrove, defeated^ and put to flight. The emperor Antoninus, not not long after this, dieB, during a war which be was waging against Artavan, king of Persia*

A. D. 226. xijg latter, elated by the impunity with which he had braved the Roman power, set no bounds to his tyranny, and harrassed his subjects ta that degree that at length a rebellion broke out, headed by the chief Artashir, the son of Sasan, a Persian, assisted by other distinguished leaders of the same nation. After a contest which lasted a year, Artavan was defeated and killed, and

A.D.226. Artashir crowned king in his stead. In tb:$ civil war two of the tribes of the Pahlavies, the Surenies and Aspahapeties, took part with, the rebels, th.e third (the Caranies) espoused the cause of the king, but were unable to eflbct. any thing, by reason of the great unpopularity of the royal cause. By the death of Artavan the kingdom of Persia was lost to the family of Arsaces the Parthian, having been possessed by years.

The dynasty of the Sasanians was established by Artashir, in the year of our Lord 226, which lasted 409 years, down to the period in which

�� �