Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/252

 HISTORY OP ARMEKtA. 20^

&is kingdom. He was cruel, treacherous, and tyrannical; implacable in his resentment, a stranger to every virtue that can render power amiable, and devoid of every feeling that en^ nobles humanity.

Sbapuh, some short time after, assembled a large army, and placed it under the command of Merujan the apostate, directing him to enter Armenia again, and promising him the sove- reignty of it, if he succeeded in subduing the chiefs, and prevailing on the inhabitants to em- brace the religion of the Persians. To assist him, in attaining this latter object, he sent with the army a number of Magi, the ministers of the Persian religion. Merujan accepted the terms, and forthwith set forward on his expe- dition. He entered Armenia like a raging and hungry wolf, and seizing the wives and relations of the self-exiled chiefs, he confined them in eastles; in the hopes that their husbandi^ would be induced again to come to their native country to sue for their release. He then seized the bishops and priests, and sent them aH to Persia and Assyria, where many of them perished by various tortures in defence of their religion. The remainder of the christian mi- nisters were kept in close confinement. All the books wihch he found in the country, written in

ee

�� �