Pap of Armenia
Encyclopedia
Pap was king of Armenia of the Arshakuni dynasty from 370 to 374. He was the son of King Arshak II
and is notorious for poisoning the Catholicos of Armenia
Nerses the Great.
's invasion of the Kingdom of Armenia, Arshak II's wife Parandzem and their son, the future king Pap were holed up with the Armenian treasure in the fortress of Artogerassa defended by a troop of azat
k. According to Ammianus, the Persian invasion force was commanded by two Armenian defectors, Cylaces (Glak) and Artabanes (Vahan). Shapur's intention was to replace the Armenian Arshakuni monarchy with a non-Arshakuni but still Armenian nakharar
diarchy
. Faustus of Byzantium
in his Epic Histories also mentions two Armenian nakharars, Meruzhan Artsruni and Vahan Mamikonian in leadership positions under Shapur's suzerainty as well as Zik and Karen who carried Persian noble titles. This also implies that Shapur might have intended to combine Sassanid administrative rule (Zik and Karen) with that of nakharar rule (Artsruni and Mamikonian).
During the siege, Arshak's wife Parandzem appealed to Cylaces and Artabanes in the name of her husband who defected back to the Arshakuni monarchy and engineered the escape of Pap. Themistius
reported of Pap's arrival at Valens' court in Marcianople where the Emperor was wintering. Valens bade him to stay at Neocaesarea in Pontus Polemoniacus
three hundred kilometers from the Armenian border. In 369, Pap returned to Armenian territory at the request of the nobility
. He was accompanied by the comes
et dux
Terentius but was not yet endowed with a royal rank.
to the throne of Iberia, but the king appointed by the Persians, Aspacures
retained control of the eastern part of that kingdom. Instead of going after Pap, Shapur concentrated his attack on the now long besieged fortress of Artogerassa which fell in the winter of 370, the royal treasure was captured by the Persians and Pap's mother Queen Parandzem raped and murdered. Shapur also began systematically persecuting the local Christians by forcing apostasy to Mazdaism, a form of Orthodox Zoroastrianism.
Shapur contacted Pap who was still in hiding and tried to persuade him to come over to his side. Under Shapur's influence Pap murderded the duplicitious Cylaces and Artabanes and sent their heads to the shahanshah as a sign of loyalty. In the spring of 370 Shapur preparded a massive invasion of Armenia which was realized in the spring of 371. Valens' generals Traianus and Vadomarius met the Persian force in Armenia at Bagavan
and came off victorious. Faustus of Byzantium gives considerable credit for the victory to sparapet
Mushegh Mamikonian
. During the ensuing battles more Armenian territories were reclaimed from the Persians, including Arzanene and Corduene
which were ceded to Persians by Jovian in 363.
By the end of the summer Shapur retreated to his capital at Ctesiphon
and Valens went back to Antioch
. Shapur was unable to confront the massive Roman buildup in Armenia as a result of his preoccupation with Kushan attacks in the eastern realm of his empire. While peace prevailed with Persia, the situation inside Armenia began to crumble.
, the bishop of Caesarea Basil refused to consecrate the nominee but Valens requested that Basil quickly resolve the situation by finding a new nominee acceptable to Pap. Basil failed to do so and the Roman see of Caesarea effectively lost its traditional role of consecrating the Catholicos of Armenia. Pap's refusal to cooperate with Basil angered Valens. In addition, Pap demanded control over Caesarea and twelve other Roman cities including Edessa
as former Arsacid
domains while openly courting Persia. Valens decided to execute Pap and invited him to a meeting in Tarsus
. Pap arrived with 300 mounted escorts but quickly became anxious when he found out the Emperor was not there in person, fleeing back to Armenia.
Terentius sent two generals with scutarii (shielded cavalry) familiar with the local terrain after Pap, an Armenian named Danielus and an Iberian
named Barzimeres who failed to capture and execute Pap. Both generals gave an excuse that Pap had used magical powers to avoid capture and used a dark cloud to mask his party. Faustus' in his Epic Histories also claimed that Pap was possessed by dev
s (demons). This could have simply been an attack against Pap's sympathies towards Arians
and pagans
. Valens then assigned Traianus
to gain Pap's confidence and murder him. Traianus murdered Pap in 374 during a banquet which he had organized for the young king. Ammianus drew parallels between the treacherous murder of the Quadi
King Gabinius
by Valentinian I
and the murder of Pap by Valens, who also wrote that the murder of Pap haunted Valens prior to the Battle of Adrianople
.
The Armenian nakharars still loyal to Pap did little to protest as a result of a large Roman army present on Armenian territory. The new Roman nominee for a king was accepted virtually by everyone. It was another Arshakuni and Pap's nephew, who grew up in Rome named Varazdat
that began to rule under the regency of Mushegh Mamikonian. The Mamikonian
s were notoriously pro-Roman. Shapur had long been courting Pap and he was infuriated when Pap was murdered and a new Arsacid placed on the Armenian throne instead.
Arshak II
Arshak II or Arsaces II, was the son of King Tiran and was himself king of Armenia from 350 to 367.- Reign :In the early years of Arshak's reign, he found himself courted by the empires of Rome and Persia, both of which hope to win Armenia to their side in the ongoing conflicts between them...
and is notorious for poisoning the Catholicos of Armenia
Catholicos of Armenia
The Catholicos of All Armenians is the chief bishop of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that do not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The first Catholicos of All Armenians was Saint Gregory the Illuminator...
Nerses the Great.
Ascendancy
During Shapur IIShapur II
Shapur II the Great was the ninth King of the Persian Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379 and son of Hormizd II. During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I...
's invasion of the Kingdom of Armenia, Arshak II's wife Parandzem and their son, the future king Pap were holed up with the Armenian treasure in the fortress of Artogerassa defended by a troop of azat
Azat
Azat was a class of Armenian nobility; the term came to designate the middle and lower nobility originally, in contrast to the naxararkʿ who were the great lords...
k. According to Ammianus, the Persian invasion force was commanded by two Armenian defectors, Cylaces (Glak) and Artabanes (Vahan). Shapur's intention was to replace the Armenian Arshakuni monarchy with a non-Arshakuni but still Armenian nakharar
Nakharar
Nakharar was a hereditary title of the highest order given to houses of the ancient and medieval Armenian nobility.-Nakharar system:Medieval Armenia was divided into large estates, which were the property of an enlarged noble family and were ruled by a member of it, to whom the title of Nahapet...
diarchy
Diarchy
Diarchy , from the Greek δι- "twice" and αρχια, "rule", is a form of government in which two individuals, the diarchs, are the heads of state. In most diarchies, the diarchs hold their position for life and pass the responsibilities and power of the position to their children or family when they...
. Faustus of Byzantium
Faustus of Byzantium
Faustus of Byzantium was an Armenian historian of the 5th century. He wrote a six volume history, of which the first two volumes are lost. He described in details the reign of Arshak II and his son Pap of Armenia...
in his Epic Histories also mentions two Armenian nakharars, Meruzhan Artsruni and Vahan Mamikonian in leadership positions under Shapur's suzerainty as well as Zik and Karen who carried Persian noble titles. This also implies that Shapur might have intended to combine Sassanid administrative rule (Zik and Karen) with that of nakharar rule (Artsruni and Mamikonian).
During the siege, Arshak's wife Parandzem appealed to Cylaces and Artabanes in the name of her husband who defected back to the Arshakuni monarchy and engineered the escape of Pap. Themistius
Themistius
Themistius , named , was a statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius I; and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding their many differences, and the fact that he himself was not a...
reported of Pap's arrival at Valens' court in Marcianople where the Emperor was wintering. Valens bade him to stay at Neocaesarea in Pontus Polemoniacus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
three hundred kilometers from the Armenian border. In 369, Pap returned to Armenian territory at the request of the nobility
Armenian nobility
Armenian nobility has a long history with many interruptions, most notable of which were the Ottoman and Russian occupations of Armenia.-Terminology:...
. He was accompanied by the comes
Comes
Comes , plural comites , is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus, especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" +...
et dux
Dux
Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....
Terentius but was not yet endowed with a royal rank.
King of Armenia
Valens was reluctant to bestow a royal title upon Pap in order not to violate an earlier treaty signed by Jovian in July of 363. Valens dispatched his magister peditum praesentalis Arintheus to Armenia just as Shapur invaded the country in pursuit of Pap who was hiding near the Roman frontier in Lazica. Meanwhile Terentius restored SauromacesSauromaces II of Iberia
Saurmag II |Latinized]] as Sauromaces), of the Chosroid Dynasty, was a king of Iberia from AD 361 to 363 and diarch from 370 to 378...
to the throne of Iberia, but the king appointed by the Persians, Aspacures
Mihrdat III of Iberia
Mihrdat III |Latinized]] as Mithridates), of the Chosroid Dynasty, was the king of Iberia from c. 365 to 380 ....
retained control of the eastern part of that kingdom. Instead of going after Pap, Shapur concentrated his attack on the now long besieged fortress of Artogerassa which fell in the winter of 370, the royal treasure was captured by the Persians and Pap's mother Queen Parandzem raped and murdered. Shapur also began systematically persecuting the local Christians by forcing apostasy to Mazdaism, a form of Orthodox Zoroastrianism.
Shapur contacted Pap who was still in hiding and tried to persuade him to come over to his side. Under Shapur's influence Pap murderded the duplicitious Cylaces and Artabanes and sent their heads to the shahanshah as a sign of loyalty. In the spring of 370 Shapur preparded a massive invasion of Armenia which was realized in the spring of 371. Valens' generals Traianus and Vadomarius met the Persian force in Armenia at Bagavan
Bagavan
Bagavan was an ancient Armenian church-city complex situated in the south-east of nowadays Ağrı Province in eastern part of modern Turkey. It was a well known settlement of pagan and later medieval Armenia because of a huge monastic complex in it called St. Hovhannes Mkrtich Bagavan was an ancient...
and came off victorious. Faustus of Byzantium gives considerable credit for the victory to sparapet
Sparapet
Sparapet was a hereditary military rank that originated in the 2nd century BC, under the reign of King Artashes I, and was used in the Kingdom of Armenia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia , was supreme commander of the armed forces. It was the equivalent of the Parthian Spahbod Sparapet was a...
Mushegh Mamikonian
Musel Mamikonian
Musel Mamikonian, also spelled Mushegh was the Sparapet of Armenia under Pap and then, after Pap was killed, was the regent for his nephew Varazdat.While in the service of Pap, Musel was a key figure in defeating the invading Persian forces...
. During the ensuing battles more Armenian territories were reclaimed from the Persians, including Arzanene and Corduene
Corduene
Corduene was an ancient region located in northern Mesopotamia and modern day Kurdish inhabited south east Turkey. It was a province of the Greater Armenia. It was referred to by the Greeks as Karduchia and by both the Greeks and Romans as Corduene...
which were ceded to Persians by Jovian in 363.
By the end of the summer Shapur retreated to his capital at Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon, the imperial capital of the Parthian Arsacids and of the Persian Sassanids, was one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia.The ruins of the city are located on the east bank of the Tigris, across the river from the Hellenistic city of Seleucia...
and Valens went back to Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
. Shapur was unable to confront the massive Roman buildup in Armenia as a result of his preoccupation with Kushan attacks in the eastern realm of his empire. While peace prevailed with Persia, the situation inside Armenia began to crumble.
Fall
Pap had been struggling to rule a kingdom that had been recently dismantled by Shapur; his actions to keep a tight grip on power led to his downfall. Pap poisoned the popular Armenian Catholicos Nerses in 371, who was a very close Roman ally. Pap had nominated a certain Yusik as a replacement and sent him for consecration in CaesareaKayseri
Kayseri is a large and industrialized city in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It is the seat of Kayseri Province. The city of Kayseri, as defined by the boundaries of Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, is structurally composed of five metropolitan districts, the two core districts of Kocasinan and...
, the bishop of Caesarea Basil refused to consecrate the nominee but Valens requested that Basil quickly resolve the situation by finding a new nominee acceptable to Pap. Basil failed to do so and the Roman see of Caesarea effectively lost its traditional role of consecrating the Catholicos of Armenia. Pap's refusal to cooperate with Basil angered Valens. In addition, Pap demanded control over Caesarea and twelve other Roman cities including Edessa
Edessa, Mesopotamia
Edessa is the Greek name of an Aramaic town in northern Mesopotamia, as refounded by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...
as former Arsacid
Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia
The Arsacid dynasty or Arshakuni dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Armenia from 54 AD to 428 AD. Formerly a branch of the Iranian Parthian Arsacids, they became a distinctly Armenian dynasty. Arsacid Kings reigned intermittently throughout the chaotic years following the fall of the Artaxiad Dynasty...
domains while openly courting Persia. Valens decided to execute Pap and invited him to a meeting in Tarsus
Tarsus (city)
Tarsus is a historic city in south-central Turkey, 20 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 2.75 million...
. Pap arrived with 300 mounted escorts but quickly became anxious when he found out the Emperor was not there in person, fleeing back to Armenia.
Terentius sent two generals with scutarii (shielded cavalry) familiar with the local terrain after Pap, an Armenian named Danielus and an Iberian
Caucasian Iberia
Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
named Barzimeres who failed to capture and execute Pap. Both generals gave an excuse that Pap had used magical powers to avoid capture and used a dark cloud to mask his party. Faustus' in his Epic Histories also claimed that Pap was possessed by dev
Daeva
Daeva in Avestan language meaning "a being of shining light", is a term for a particular sort of supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. Equivalents in Iranian languages include Pashto dêw , Baluchi dêw , Persian dīv , Kurdish dêw...
s (demons). This could have simply been an attack against Pap's sympathies towards Arians
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
and pagans
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
. Valens then assigned Traianus
Traianus (magister peditum)
Traianus was a Roman general under Emperor Valens with whom he died in the battle of Adrianople.- Life :...
to gain Pap's confidence and murder him. Traianus murdered Pap in 374 during a banquet which he had organized for the young king. Ammianus drew parallels between the treacherous murder of the Quadi
Quadi
The Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little is definitively known. We only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through reports of the Romans themselves...
King Gabinius
Gabinius
Gabinius was a Roman nomen of several historical figures, including:* Aulus Gabinius, consul 58 BC* Publius Gabinius Capito, supporter of Catiline* Publius Gabinius Secundus Chaucius , general under Claudius...
by Valentinian I
Valentinian I
Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....
and the murder of Pap by Valens, who also wrote that the murder of Pap haunted Valens prior to the Battle of Adrianople
Battle of Adrianople
The Battle of Adrianople , sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Gothic rebels led by Fritigern...
.
The Armenian nakharars still loyal to Pap did little to protest as a result of a large Roman army present on Armenian territory. The new Roman nominee for a king was accepted virtually by everyone. It was another Arshakuni and Pap's nephew, who grew up in Rome named Varazdat
Varazdat
Varazdat |Latinized]] as Varasdates) was an Armenian prince who succeeded his uncle King Pap as King of Armenia in 374.-Appointment:...
that began to rule under the regency of Mushegh Mamikonian. The Mamikonian
Mamikonian
Mamikonian, Mamikoneans, or Mamigonian was a noble family which dominated Armenian politics between the 4th and 8th century. They ruled the Armenian regions of Taron, Sasun, Bagrevand and others...
s were notoriously pro-Roman. Shapur had long been courting Pap and he was infuriated when Pap was murdered and a new Arsacid placed on the Armenian throne instead.