Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/65

 HISTORY OF ARMENIA. Page 20

of Haic. In the course of time, however, Aram extended his arms into other countries, which being reduced, received the name of their conqueror, like Cappadocia, only with this difference, that each was numbered according to priority of conquest. Thus, Cappadocia is styled the first Armenia; the next conquest, second Armenia; the next, third Armenia. Here the progress of Aram's arms ceased, and the whole three provinces were thenceforward called Armenia Minor, in reference to the country of Haic, which took the title of Armenia Major. One of the fifteen provinces of the latter, situate near the river Euphrates, borders on Armenia Minor, and is sometimes, in allusion to the divisions of the latter, called the fourth Armenia. At this period Aram was threatened with a formidable enemy in the person of Ninus, the powerful king of Assyria, who was a descendant of that Belus who had fallen by the hand of the great progenitor of the Armenian nation. Ninus recollecting this circumstance, meditated revenge on the posterity of Haicus, and would have invaded Armenia had it not been for his counsellors, who felt rather intimidated by the fame of Aram's skill and courage. The two monarchs, some time afterwards, entered into a bond of amity, Ninus bestowing on Aram a wreath of pearls,