Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/68

 HISTORY OF ARMENIA. Page 23

the life of Arah, and to endeavour to take him alive. The issue of the fight proved disastrous to the Armenians; they were defeated, and their prince was slain in the 26th year of his reign. Semiramis, on learning this last circumstance, was deeply afflicted; and having procured his dead body, endeavoured to restore life to it by means of magical incantations. The Armenians, in the mean time, irritated at the fall of their king, prepared to revenge his death on the invaders. Semiramis, alarmed at their preparations, and perceiving that all her attempts were fruitless to recal Arah to life, the body having already become putrid, directed the corpse to be flung into a dungeon, and one of her favourites to personate the unfortunate Arah, who, as she gave out to his subjects, had been restored to life by the peculiar favour of the gods. This artifice succeeded in pacifying the Armenians, and Semiramis raised the young Cardus, then 12 years of age, to the throne of his father, directing him to assume the name of Arah. The Assyrian queen was so pleased with the salubrity of the air, and the fertility and picturesque nature of the country, that she left a splendid mark of her munificence in it, on her returning to Assyria, having built a magnificent city on the shores of the sea of Akhthamar. Twelve thousand workmen and