To Erzerum belongs an antiquity which, if not remote, is at least respectable; and her history, or rather the glimpses which we obtain of that history, illustrate the time-honoured struggle between East and West. Founded during the reign of the second Theodosius (A.D. 408-450), at the instance of one of the greatest of the early Armenian patriarchs, and upon the site of a village which dated from ancient times, [196] the new city received the name of Theodosiopolis, and was designed to constitute an outer bulwark to the Roman Empire of the East. In the description of this event which we receive from Moses of Khorene the traveller recognises the familiar surroundings of the present town. The emissary of the emperor had journeyed over an extensive tract of country in search of a suitable site. His choice at length fell upon a position in the province of Karin, at the foot of a mountain in which several rivulets had their origin. At no great distance were situated the sources of the Euphrates, which, collecting into a sluggish stream, formed a large marsh, supporting abundance of wildfowl, on the eggs of which the inhabitants lived. The province lay in the centre of the country. Upon this site were laid the foundations of a fortified city, defended by moat and walls and towers. Baths of solid masonry were erected in the vicinity over the hot springs which welled from the ground. [197] Seized in the year 502 by the Sasanian king of Persia at the inception of his war with Rome, this remote stronghold was shortly afterwards recovered by the Emperor Anastasius and restored to its former fame. [198] The fortifications were enlarged and increased by Justinian; [199] but at the close of the sixth century it again fell into Persian hands. [200] I do not know that we are able to follow its fortunes during the campaigns of Heraclius, who is said to have assembled there a council of Armenian bishops (A.D. 629?). [201] In the year 647 Theodosiopolis became the prize of the Arabs; and more than a century elapsed before it was regained by the Cæsars under Constantine the Fifth (755). [202] That monarch razed the walls, reduced the inhabitants to slavery, and transported a great number of Armenians of the Paulician sect to Constantinople and to Thrace. [203] Shortly after this event it appears to have been rebuilt by the Mussulmans; and it played an important part during the wars of Leo (886-911) and his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus (911-959) with the Arabs in the neighbouring province of Pasin. [204] But the waves of Mussulman conquest were closing in upon the Eastern Empire. About the commencement of the thirteenth century we find the place in the possession of a prince who bears the Turkish name of Toghrul Ben Kilijarslan. From his hands it passed into the dominions of the Sultan of Iconium. [205] The Seljuk Sultan was known as the lord of Erzerum, just as his Ottoman successors bore the title of lords of Kars.