Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/60

 REIGNS OF ARMENAC AND HARMA. Page 15

of perfection. In person he was of a towering height, and athletic make, yet with a countenance of the highest cast of manly beauty. His mental endowments and acquirements were of a no less distinguished nature. He was quick in his perception, and admirably just in his discrimination; gifted also with such a persuasive eloquence, that his rude contemporaries bestowed upon him the surname of the Savoury, or the man in whose language shone the highest excellence. He was the most skilful archer of the age in which he lived; and, indeed, in whatever point of view his character is taken, the same superiority is exhibited throughout. Sisac, on receiving this country from his father, covered the whole face of it with villages and hamlets, giving it the name of Sisakan. It is sometimes also called Seunic, and from these two appellations the inhabitants took the names of Sisakans and Seunics. Gelam, after settling the condition of this new province, proceeded eastward, and extended his dominions as far as the river Core; the inhabitants of the country, even to the Caspian Sea, willingly submitted to his sway, and took the name of Aluans, from one of his surnames. Gelam then returned into the heart of his kingdom, and founded a city near a stream at the foot of a mountain, which he called Gelamy, be-