Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

184 6 Shared interests: Continuing conflicts
battle. The outcome was not decisive but the armies withdrew to Ktēsiphōn
and Antioch respectively. When ˇ Sāpūr II was informed that the claimant
to the Armenian throne Papās, on whom he had hoped to exercise great
influence, had been assassinated (374), 53 he tried to approach Valens in
order to find a common solution to the Armenia problem. The following
passage tells us about the agreement that was reached by the great powers. Its
anonymous author wrote his work, which has mistakenly been attributed
to P‘awstos Buzand/Faustus of Byzantium, in the 470s in the Armenian
language. Going back to local oral traditions, in an epic style, the source
describes the history of the late Arsacid dynasty in Armenia.
Epic Histories vi.1
After the death of the commander of Armenia Manuēl, no one could confirm the
reign of Arˇsak (Arsaces) over the country; instead many of the Armenian nobles
left the court and went to the king of Persia and surrendered to him the country
of Armenia. And they requested from him a king [who was] an Arsacid. And he
consented with great joy on his part to give by his word (a king) from the same line,
from the Armenian Arsacid royal house, and through him to seize for himself the
country of Armenia. Therefore he found a youth from that house named Xusrō
and he placed a crown on his head and gave him as his wife his sister Zruanduxt and
placed at his disposal all the forces of his authority. And he gave his deputy Zich as
a tutor for king Xusrō. And they went and reached the country of Armenia. When
king Arsaces saw them, he left the place and travelled and went to the borders of
the Greeks. And the king of the Greeks was assisting Arsaces and the king of the
Persians was assisting Xusrō.
Then the forces of the king of the Greeks came in support. And king Arsaces was
around the district of Ekel̷eac and the Persian forces and king Xusrō were in the
district of Ayrayrat. Then envoys and messengers of the two kings, of the Greeks
and of the Persians, shuttled back and forth between them. And as a result the
king of the Greeks and the king of the Persians decided to make a joint agreement
with one another, and they resolved that it would be better to divide the country
of Armenia between themselves; for they said, ‘Since this powerful and wealthy
country is situated between us, it would be better if we were able to disorder and
ruin this kingdom. First let us divide it into two through these two Arsacid kings,
whom we have installed; then let us try to nibble away at them, to impoverish
them, to intervene and reduce to submission so that they shall not be able to raise
their heads between us.’
And they approved this plan and they divided the country into two. The portion
on the Persian side belonged to king Xusrō and the portion on the Greek side
belonged to king Arsaces. But many districts, being eaten away from these, were
53 Amm. xxx.1.1–23.