Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/69

 HISTORY OF ARMENIA. Page 24

six hundred architects were employed in the erection of the buildings in this city. It became thenceforward the summer residence of Semiramis, and was afterwards known by the name of Van. Cardus, surnamed Arah succeeded to the throne of Armenia at the death of his father, under the auspices of Semiramis. This prince, on attaining maturity, married, and had one son named Anushavan, who, (through a superstitious idea that those trees were the favourite terrestrial residences of the gods) was solemnly dedicated to the poplars planted around Armavir by king Armenac. People at that period imagined that those who were thus offered to the gods would become the special objects of their care.

On this account Anushavan was surnamed the Poplar. Some few years after this event, Ninyas, the son of Semiramis, rebelled against his mother, and having formed a party vastly superior to what was attached to the queen, she was obliged to fly, and take refuge in Armenia. Here she was received by Cardus with all the friendship he could demonstrate, and raising an army he marched with her at the head of it to reduce her rebellious son. A battle ensued, in which. Semiramis and her gallant ally Cardus were defeated and slain; the former in her 62nd year, the latter in his