Now when the next year had come, once more the emperor sent other troops who arrived with [siege] machinery. Putting the engines of war into place, they commenced demolishing the stronghold's wall. When those who were in the fortress saw that there was no way out for them, and since many of them had died, they beseeched the military commanders to permit them to depart unharmed to their own land, [so that] they [the Byzantines] could occupy the stronghold and its estates. When [the Byzantines] heard this, they did as they were requested, and from that day forth the domination of the Persians over that place was ended.

At the begining of [Michael's] reign, there was an eclipse of the sun during the month Arac', on a Friday evening, in the year 482 of our [Armenian] era [1033]. Many learned people, seeing [the eclipse] believed that the birth of the anti-Christ had occurred on that day, or that it presaged very great evils. Indeed, such [disasters] did occur in our day, and this narration is leading to [a description] of them. [42] With our own eyes we saw the blows of divine anger and the unheard of punishment directed against Armenia because of our sins. Previously yet another sign had been revealed which greatly astounded viewers. This was similar to the signs [preceding] the final destruction of Jerusalem, about which the Savior had spoken, in warning: "For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be" [Matthew 13.19]. For [the people] had grown frenzied with regard to their lord and creator, thinking Him to be a man. A man named Ananias stood in the midst of the city of Jerusalem crying out this lament in a loud voice: "Alas Jerusalem, woe city of blood, days of revenge have befallen you," and so forth, as the great Eusebius indicated in his Ecclesiastical History. Likewise here in our times, a man similar to him appeared, unknown by anyone, destitute and homeless. He came from the eastern parts, crossed [g49] through the districts of Apahunik' and Hark', descended into Mananaghi and Ekegheac', [intending] never to return to the [East], and saying in a loud voice day and night without cease "Woe is me, woe is me!" He said no more than this. Should anyone ask him: "Where have you come from?" or "From which [43] district?" or "Why are you saying that?" [the man] would give no reply, but only repeat endlessly what he had said. Senseless people, seeing him, thought that he had gone out of his wits. The wise, however, said: "That 'Woe' will be for the entire country." Let us leave this matter here as it stands, and return to the course of the narration, concerning the aforementioned emperor.

[Michael] named his sister's son Caesar (kesar). Then, after reigning for 7 years and 8 months, he grew ill and died. Now the queen adopted the Caesar and enthroned him in her husband's stead. However, [this Caesar (Michael V Calfat, 1041-1042)], rather than being grateful to the queen for the good turn she had done him, plotted with his relatives to send the queen to a distant island in exile, so that the authority would belong to them alone. Indeed, they did just that. Now the queen's sister, who was named Theodora, summoned the chiefs of the city and informed them of what had transpired. When they learned about it, they notified the Western army to assemble there. Then forcibly going against [Michael V], they demanded: "Show us our imperial queen who has inherited the kingdom from her fathers [44] and grandfathers." For many people believed that she had died. Now [Michael V] as soon as he observed their strenth and unity, became frightened and hastily ordered that the queen be brought back out of exile. Seeing her sister, Theodora instantly ordered that the emperor, his relatives, and their intimates be seized [g50]. The emperor took to flight, wanting to enter the senior church and save himself by hiding under the altar. However he was unable to reach [the church], for pursuors quickly caught him, turned him back, and, at an unholy spot they threw him to the ground and blinded him. [The same thing was done] to the one styled demeslikos, and to numerous others. And she ordered that their homes be plundered, pillaged, and destroyed. The entire city struck out and effected great pillaging, demolishing to the foundations very large and beautiful mansions, and destroying them. But the agitated mob, thirsting for booty, had grown so large that it even breached the wall of the palace, and excavated numerous precious items from the royal treasuries. The principals of the city were barely able to stop the mob, and [in this] the sun helped them, by setting.

[45] Now the emperor who yesterday was seated on a golden throne giving out orders to the whole world, today, blinded, sat on a chair of futility and insult; and those who thought to rule in perpetuity over land and sea, in one moment had lost their own salvation. Indeed it came to pass just as the prophet had said, that [they were like] the grass on the housetops which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand or the binder of sheaves his bosom, nor were the good tidings of passersby heard [compare Psalms 128.6]. Such is the ephemeral history of the Caesar who reigned for six months.

In accordance with that apparition of the prophet, this [Constantine] [Constantine IX, Monomachus 1042-1055] also was part of the crockery. For in the palace his father had occupied the office of gayiosut'iwn from which all the [g51] judges of the land were dispatched. Following the incomplete reign of the Caesar, the lioness [the queen] was roaring in her den for a companion. [46] For she was greatly troubled that none of her own people were worthy of the realm; and as for the one she had adopted and made lord and emperor of the lands, she was requited by him as we described above. So what did she do? Going outside the canonical stipulations, she called forth this man [Constantine] and made him her husband, and enthroned him on the throne of the kingdom. Many thought that he was her lover. I do not know whether this is true, or whether it was as she herself had written in her edict that "For the good of the land and for peace I have not spared myself, and therefore dared to do such an unworthy deed."

In the first year of [Constantine's] reign, the son of Maneak, who held sway in the western part, a brave and renowned man rebelled, and many united with him. With numerous troops he came as far as the gate of the royal city, and with the force of his bravery so tyrannized over [the city] that many involuntarily submitted to him. For they believed that he would be emperor, because of the numerous [examples] of good fortune which attended him. For two and three times the army of the emperor had arisen, [47] fought with, and were defeated by him, returning to the emperor with great dishonor. During the last battle everyone was intending that after his triumph they would submit and make him emperor. However, since [Maneak's son] did not think to reign through God but rather placed his hopes on the power of his might having become infected from afar by Abisoghom, filled [g52] with impiety, [God] requited him with the verdict [visited upon Abisoghom]. For they found [Maneak's son] fallen in the battle, without having fought anyone: a powerful angel took his soul. The creator and lord of all did this and does this in the most wise fashion. He who is more awesome than all kings can harvest the souls of princes so that "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth" [I. Kings 2.10 and Jeremiah 9.23-24]. Such [a man] truly is worthy of great glories and praise, and a memory of him will endure until eternity "His horn shall be elevated in glory," as is written in Psalms [Psalms 111. 9-10]. Such a one was the great David who was annointed king by the prophet, and received with that the soul of strength [48] and prophecy, (he could crush wild beasts as though they were goats' kids). Confident of his [powers] he battled against the unbeatable giant, crushing his head with a jawbone, laying him flat on the ground, and putting to rest the insult against Israel. Nonetheless [even the mighty David] pardoned Saul who had persecuted him many times, and hearkened to the caller's order. Not only did he not attempt to rule his realm with brute force, but two times he let his hands drop, sparing his persecutor as a benevolent act, and angrily replying to those wishing to kill: "Do not touch him, for he is the Lord's annointed" [I Kings 24.7]. For this reason God loved [David] and said: "I have found a man after my heart who shall do what pleases me" [Acts 13.22]. However, [Maneak's son] did not think about such matters, and did not heed God's command. Rather, he wanted to rule alone, without God, forgetting that divine command which [God] had announced by means of the prophet, in anger against the kings of Israel: "Woe to those who wish to rule without me," and so forth.

Now it was not that this monarch was worthy of any praise and was so pitied by God, but that [God] wanted to honor the throne and stop the source of impiety. [49] [It was] just as the Savior said when preaching to the Jews: "Scribes and Pharasees have sat on the throne of Moses" [Matthew 23.2]. Despite the fact that they were hypocrites, [the Savior] commanded [the people] to obey them because of the throne. The great Paul, counseled by such venerable words wrote to the Romans: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God" [Romans 13.1]. He was not speaking about a prince, but about princeship, that is, about the throne, for God did not set up every prince. [Paul] added: "Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment" [Romans 13.2-3]. This is exactly what befell [Maneak's son], for he was not punished by any man but by the righteous verdict of God, which judges all properly and justly. For His eye is alert and our secrets are revealed before His all-seeing wisdom. Just as the blessed David confessed to God in a Psalm: "You knew of my actions and my deeds" [Psalms 138.5]. The Apostle wrote to the Hebrews in a similar vein: "And before Him no creature is hidden" [Hebrews 4.13]. And the children in the fiery furnace said in praise of Him: "You Who sit among the cherubim and gaze at the void are eternally praised and yet more glorified" [Daniel 3.54]. For from the elevation of [His] place [50] they revealed [His] accurate knowledge, as the Psalm [g54] states: "The Lord looked from Heaven to earth" [Psalms 13.2]. Thus did the great Isaiah say: "The haughty looks of man shall be brought low and the pride of men shall be humbled; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day" [Isaiah 2.11]. Such things occurred at the outset of Constantine's reign, which was the year 490 according to our [Armenian] calendar [1041].

Three years later, Armenia's life came to an end. For in one year the two brothers Ashot and Yovhannes, who held the kingship of our land, died. Thereupon their throne of stability was moved and never more came to rest; thereupon the princes arose and departed from their patrimonial inheritances and became wanderers in a foreign country; thereupon districts were destroyed, looted by the Greeks. Cultivated awans became the dwellings of wild beasts, and their fields the pastures of deer. Houses, desirable, many-storied and grand, became the habitations of sirens and centaurs (hambareac', yushkaparkac'). Thus did the blessed prophets lament the desolation of Israel: "The porcupine shall bear her young there and raise them without fear" [Isaiah 34.15].

[51] The solemn places in the monasteries became [dwelling places] for robbers as did the churches in them. [These churches] with their glowing structures, their gorgeous adornments, their ever-lit candles and candelabras whose light, mixing with the air, flickering here and there, resembled the waves of the sea at rest when gentle zephyrs cause them to ripple, gently embracing each other. The generously donated incense, whose [g55] smoke rose fragrantly up from the power of the fire, resembled the spring mists settled around the summit of a mountain which blocks and covers the sunbeams. As for [the clerics] who dwelled in [the monasteries], what language is sufficient to describe them? Their sweet songs and ceaseless singing of psalms, their reading of Scripture, their commemorations of the Lord's feast-days and of the martyrs, their united will, and their enthusiasm for the divine, and much else.

Things were once this way. But now, [the churches] are stripped and denuded of everything, devoid of all glories, sacked. In place of those mellifluous songs, now we have [the cries] of owls and screech-owls who have become the choirmasters. In place of psalm-singing, the dove and turtle-dove are [52] singing, as the prophet said: they sweetly summon their young. The candles have been extinguished, the sweet fragrance of incense has passed. The holy altar which at one time had been adorned and embellished like a new bride wearing a crown of glory, has now become a pitiful spectacle, one worthy of many tears: stripped of adornments, covered with dust, and a perching place for crows. A description of all of this would lengthen the narration and require the aid of grace from On High to complete it. It is time now to move forward in [g56] our narration.

When the great Constantine had fallen sick with the illness that killed him, he ordered those close to him to go forth and find someone from Armenia and to bring him there. Those who went out found a certain elder, named Kiwrakos, who served as superintendant of the guest apartments at the kat'oghikosate. They led him before the emperor. When the emperor saw him, he gave him a letter regarding the land of Armenia and said: "Take this document and give it to the king of Armenia and say, 'Since that invitation for death which is sent to all mortal beings has also come to me, take your letter and give your realm to your son, and [53] let your son give it to his sons, for all time!'" Then, lying on his bed, [Constantine] died. Now [Kiwrakos] took that letter and kept it until the time of Michael's reign, when he sold it to him for much treasure. Oh that bitter deal! Responsible for the blood of how many people? How many churches were destroyed by reason of that sale? How many districts were depopulated and became desolate? How many populous awans became uninhabited! We shall speak about all of this in the [proper] place, but now let us proceed in the order we commenced.

When the Byzantine emperor heard news of the kings' deaths, he found that document dealing with Armenia, and became concerned with acquiring the city of Ani and the land, as though it were his own inheritance. A certain one of the principal azats of Armenia, named Sargis, intended to rule over Shirak and the districts surrounding it, for he had gathered up all the treasures found in the home of king Yovhannes, since upon [Yovhannes'] death [Sargis] was his executor. Now Vahram Pahlaw, a man mighty, renowned, and sublimely pious [g57]—to the point that no one was his equal—together with his relatives, sons and nephews (brothers' sons) [54] some thirty azats refused to unite with [Sargis]. Instead they called to themselves Gagik son of Ashot, made him their king, then wisely and with strategems they brought him to the city,

When Sargis saw what had developed, he took the royal treasures and entered the citadel of impregnable Ani. Gagik descended to see him alone, with manly brave-heartedness, and, using beseeching words, he was able to persuade him. [Sargis] quit the stronghold, and went to the fortified city called Surmarhi. However he gave to Gagik neither the stronghold [of Ani] nor the other strongholds under his sway. Having gone [to Surmarhi] once again, [Sargis] thought up a futile scheme; to give whatever he possessed to the Byzantines, and to go to them. Now Gagik with a few men went amidst the army to the tent where Sargis was. He arrested him and entered his capital city. The rebel should have been killed. But Gagik, reasoning like Saul, spared that second Agag, seating him in his own carriage. Therefore, like Saul, he was requited with a life more bitter than death.

[55] In these days Byzantine armies entered the land of Armenia four times in succession until they had rendered the whole country uninhabited through sword, fire, and captive-taking. When I think about these calamities my senses take leave of me, my brain becomes befuddled, and terror makes my hands tremble so that I cannot continue my composition. For it is a bitter narration, worthy of copious tears.

Prior to this, our land appeared to travelers as a paradise with vegetation dense, green, leafy, fruit-bearing, gorgeous and happy. For princes occupied their princely stations with beaming countenances, and their troops stood before them resembling spring gardens in their blazing colors. And [military] reviews were but occasions for joyous songs and words, where the sounds of trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments thrilled listeners with delight. At that time too the elderly sat in the squares resplendent with their venerable white hair. Mothers, babies in arm, displaying maternal compassion, and, because of their great joy having forgotten the sad period of labour, like doves constantly fluttered about their newly-feathered chicks. What shall I say about brides in [the wedding] chamber [56] about grooms on the nuptial-couch, about passionate, fiery, unrestrained desires and propensities. But let us ascend to the patriarchal throne and the royal dignity. For [the patriarchal throne] was like thickening clouds laden with spiritual gifts which their by means of doctrinal grace rained their life-giving waters, fertilizing the Church's fruitful garden, and [for protection, the patriarchal throne] had set up alert guards, ordained by it, poised on the ramparts. As for the king, at dawn when he came forth from the city he resembled the bride-groom arising from his nuptial-couch, or the sun which, rising over the heads of all creatures, arrests everyone's gaze. The king also glittered in resplendent clothing and in a crown adorned with pearls, capturing everyone's attention and astonishing them. The white steed, adorned with golden ornaments, which went before [the king], returned the sun's rays and dazzled the eyes of beholders. [g59] The dense multitude of the people which went in advance were like waves of the sea, piling upon each other. The retreats were crowded and filled with the clerical orders, to the point that villages and fields, motivated by good envy, became abodes of clerics. Our land had many such things [in the past]. I have written down this [description] so that when I explain what befell [the country] all shall be moved to tears.

[57] Today, the king, fallen from honor, sits like a captive in a distant place. Similarly the patriarchal throne devoid of occupants, displays the sad face of a new bride, newly widowed. The cavalry wanders about lordlessly, some in Persia, some in Greece, some in Georgia. The sepuh brigade of azats has left its patrimony and fallen from wealth; they growl wherever they happen to be, like lion cubs in their lairs. The royal palace has become an uninhabited ruin. The populated land has become stripped of its inhabitants. I hear not the sound of joy when the vineyards [were] harvested, nor praise for those who trample in the wine presses. Children do not play before their parents, nor do the elderly sit in chairs in the squares. I hear no sound of weddings, nor are bridal chambers embellished. All of this has become reduced and then lost as the psalm says: "It shall not return" [Psalms 40.9].

Our everything has turned to lamentation, our robe of gladness has become melancholy sack-cloth. What ear can bear the narration of our misfortunes? What heart of stone is there which does not turn to sighing, and break into sobs? It is time to mingle our sighs with Jeremiah's laments: "Zion's roads are mourning because [g60] there is none to cross over them" [Lamentations 1.4]. Such things were said when Jerusalem was ruined, but [the same words] were fulfilled in these [present] days.

[58] Now all of this [calamity] was visited upon Armenia because of that sale which we recalled a while earlier. It seems to me that this sale was more inhuman than the one effected by Judas, for in that case, although the seller was subjected to indignities, nonetheless that sale became the price of salvation for the entire land. Thus did the great Peter write in his catholic letters: "You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ" [I Peter 1.18-19]. But in this case, the seller was extremely inhuman and cruel since he became the cause of so much evil. For the vineyard which the Lord had planted and which our Illuminator tended with fifteen years of his fatiguing labor, [this merchant] deprived of its fence and he destroyed its towers, making of it a place for passersby to trample on, to the point that "The hog of the forest sullied it, and the wild boar grazed in it" [Psalms 79.14], as the Davidic psalm states. Let the news of all this reach the Lord, and may justice be meted out to him [the perpertrator). We shall now return to our narration.

[59] In the year 494A.E. [1045], Ani was taken, not through warfare, but through treachery. For [the Byzantines] by the emperor's order succeeded in convincing Gagik, using an oath and the Cross, that "I need but to see you, then shall return your kingdom to you and shall write a document giving you your land and city in perpetual inheritance." As the learned say: "The wise man swears, and the fool believes," or, similarly, "The words of liars are as succulent as cheese, and fools gulp them down." I do not know why [Gagik] believed them, whether [g61] because of the oaths and the Cross, because of immaturity, or because of a timid nature, but [in any case] he gave the keys of the city [of Ani] to Petros [I Gedadardz, 1019-1058] who then occupied the patriarchal throne of our Illuminator; and [Gagik] with great conditions and oaths entrusted [Petros] with all the concerns of the land. [Gagik] did not heed Vahram and the other azats who had put him on the throne, but rather he listened to the deceitful support of Sargis and so left the city and went to the Greeks on a one-way journey, like a fish caught on the line, or a bird ensnared in a trap. Now when the [Byzantine] emperor saw [Gagik], he forgot about his oath and the intercession of the Cross. No, [60] he obliged [Gagik] to remain with him and demanded: "Give me Ani and I shall give you in exchange [the city of] Melitine (Malatya) and the surrounding districts." But [Gagik] did not consent.

As the demand [for Ani] was being prolonged, Grigor, son of the brave Vasak, went before the emperor. [Grigor] was a sagacious man, so learned in theology that he was without equal. When he realized that they would not permit Gagik to return to his country, [Grigor] went before the [Byzantine] emperor and gave him the key to Bjni and to all of his patrimonial inheritance. He was honored by the emperor and received from him the dignity of magister and a place to dwell including villages and cities in the Mesopotamian borders. [This was given] in writing and stamped with a golden seal, and [the territory] was to be [Grigor's family property] from generation to generation until the end of time.

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