908 The Ardzurian family, claiming to be descendants of Sennacherib, founds a dynasty in the province of Vashpuragan, or Van. Kagig is crowned by the caliph Mutadir, and the family rules until 1080. 962-1080 The Bagratids found and rule a dynasty in Kars. 962 The Bagratids found a dynasty in Georgia, which continues until that country is absorbed by Russia, in 1801. 984-1085 The Meravind dynasty of Kurds rules the country west of Lake Van. 1080 =Rhupen=, a relative of Kagig II, the last Bagratid king of Armenia, founds the kingdom of Lesser Armenia. It allies itself with the crusaders. Among the kings is 1224 =Hayton I.= Some of the kings are Latin princes, who are trying to make their subjects conform to the Roman church, break up the country into discordant factions, until 1375 it is conquered by the caliph of Egypt. King =Leo VI=, the last king of Armenia, is driven out, and dies at Paris in 1393. [Illustration] CHAPTER I. THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE [Sidenote: [250 B.C.-228 A.D.]] The battle of Arbela (331 B.C.) made Alexander the heir of the Persian Empire. In the volumes devoted to Grecian history we have shown how he verified his claims of conquest, subdivided his empire among satraps of his own appointment, and left the enormous heritage, when he died, to “the best man.” It was further shown how no one man among the generals of the Alexandrian school could prove himself the best man, and how, in consequence, the empire fell into a chaos of civil wars until at last certain major divisions assumed a particularly definite form--among them the Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Iran of Seleucus and his family the Seleucidæ, among whom the name Antiochus frequently appears, the city of Antioch in Syria being taken as a capital. The degeneracy of these rulers was the opportunity of the obscure race of Parthians, who, with qualities and customs that in many ways remind one of the American Indian, rose to a power so great that under the first Cæsars the Romans thought of them as dividing the power of the world with Rome. The only continuous ancient history of this race is that of Justin, which ends with the year 9 B.C. and shows a gap between 94 and 55 B.C. We quote this unique account entire; but the reader is cautioned that it is not to be given full credence everywhere: it is introductory to the more critical modern account that follows.[a] JUSTIN’S ACCOUNT OF THE PARTHIANS [Sidenote: [331-9 B.C.]]