Armenia and Her People; or, The Story of Armenia by an ArmenianFilian, George H.
History
Armenia and Her People; or, The Story of Armenia by an Armenian
Filian, George H.
Armenia; Armenian question
The next great interesting event was in 710 B.C. when Sennacherib of
Assyria was assassinated by his two sons, Adramelich and Sharezer, who
escaped into Armenia. The king of Armenia at this time was Sgayorti,
which means "son of a giant." He received the sons of Sennacherib
with great kindness; they married Armenian women, and remained in
the country till their death. Their descendants were great Armenian
princes, bearing the titles Prince Arziroonian and Prince Kinoonian.
Armenia comes to view again in connection with Biblical history in the
capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 600 B.C., and the deportation
of the Judean people; the Armenian king, Hurachia, was one of his
allies in the siege, and on returning to Armenia carried with him a
Hebrew prince named Shampad. This was a very intelligent man, and made
himself greatly loved and esteemed by the Armenians; a sort of Daniel
or Joseph. He, too, married an Armenian noblewoman, and his descendants
became the very foremost of the noble families and ecclesiastical
functionaries of the country, crowning the kings on occasion. They
were called Pakradoonian Princes, and at last one of them founded the
third dynasty of Armenian kings, the Pakradoonian. Though the nation
is Aryan, there is noble Hebrew (Semitic) blood mixed with it.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the Haigazian Dynasty comes
just before the end; the time of Dikran or Tigranes I. In him both
wisdom and valor were combined to an eminent degree. As soon as he
succeeded his father, Yerevant, he instituted great reforms to improve
the state of the country. He not only enlarged it by conquest, but he
greatly improved public education and morals, removed obstructions to
international commerce, introduced navigation on the lakes and rivers,
encouraged cultivation; trade flourished, every acre of ground was
tilled, the country was alive with energy and hope. This vigor and
prosperity aroused the envy of Ashdahag, King of Media; he resolved
to kill Dikran, and to throw him off his guard married his sister,
Princess Dikranoohi. A plot to murder Dikran was then set on foot;
the princess learned of it, warned her brother, whom she loved,
and ran away. Dikran collected an army, made a rapid march to Media,
surprised and slew Ashdahag, and brought back a vast amount of spoils
in captives and goods. He built a fine city on the banks of the Tigris,
and called it Dikranagerd, the city of Dikran; it was afterwards the
residence of the sister who had saved his life. It is now called by
the Turks Diarbekr, and was the scene of a frightful massacre a few
months since. The most important political achievement of his life was
assisting Cyrus in the capture of Babylon 538 B.C.; the two monarchs
were very friendly, and Dikran's Armenian army was a chief factor in
the conquest. In Jeremiah's prophecy of the capture, about a century
before it occurred, he mentions the Armenian Kingdom as one of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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