In old times the Armenians had a king of their own nation, as we are told by the historians of remotest antiquity. When, however, Alexander of Macedon overthrew the King of Persia, the Persians remained quiet under his yoke, but the Parthians revolted against the Macedonians, conquered them in war, drove them out of their country, and pushed their frontier as far as the river Tigris. Subsequently the Persians remained subject to them for five hundred years, up to the time when Alexander, the son of Mamæa, ruled over the Romans. At this time one of the kings of the Parthians made his brother, named Arsaces, King of the Armenians, as the history of the Armenians tells us; for let no one suppose that the Arsacidæ are Armenians. Now for five hundred years there was peace between them in consequence of their relationship. The King of the Armenians dwelt in what is called Greater Armenia, having been from ancient times subject to the Emperor of the Romans; but afterwards one Arsaces, King of Armenia, had two sons, named Tigranes and Arsaces. When this King was about to die, he made a will by which he left the succession to his kingdom to both his sons, not dividing its power equally between them, but giving a fourfold greater share to Tigranes. The elder Arsaces, after making this division of his kingdom, passed away, but Arsaces his son, grieved and enraged at the inferiority of his position, laid the matter before the Roman Empire, hoping that by using all means in his power he might drive his brother from the kingdom, and render his father’s unjust wishes of no effect. At this time Theodosius, the son of Arcadius, ruled over the Romans, being still a child. Tigranes, fearing the Emperor’s vengeance, put himself in the hands of the Persians and handed over his kingdom to them, preferring to live as a private man amongst the Persians, rather than to make an equitable arrangement with his brother, and rule jointly over the Armenians with him in good faith and honour. Arsaces, being equally afraid of the attacks of the Persians and of his brother, abdicated his own kingdom in favour of the Emperor Theodosius, on certain conditions, which I have explained at length in my History of the Wars. For some time the country of the Armenians was an object of contention between the Romans and the Persians, but they finally agreed that the Persians should possess the share of Tigranes, and the Romans that of Arsaces. Both parties signed a treaty on these conditions, and henceforth the Emperor of the Romans appointed whom he pleased, and at what time he thought proper, to rule over the Armenians. This ruler was called the Count of Armenia down to my own time.