This practice was applied on a large scale during the reign of Basil II and resulted in the annexation by the empire of virtually all Armenia. In most instances, the cessions were induced under pressure and not infrequently force was required to bring about actual annexation.
The first important annexation thus made was the domain of the Curopolates David, a Georgian potentate of Armenian origin. The region [49] known as the Taik constituted the core of his territories, but the latter extended from Manzikert, north of Lake Van, to Erzerum on the upper Euphrates and northward to the district of Kola and Artans, northwest of Kars. David had aided Basil II at the time of the revolt of Bardas Skleros, but some years later he sided with Bardas Phocas when the latter rose in revolt against the same Emperor (987). It was no doubt in order to escape the vengeance of the victorious Emperor that David made him his heir so that when he died in 1000, apparently the victim of poison, administered perhaps at the instigation of the Emperor, his realm was annexed to the empire and became the theme of Iberia (180).
The annexation of Taik was followed some years later (1022) by that of Vaspurakan. Vaspurakan, which extended from Lake Van to the Araxes and to the chain of mountains which today separates Turkey from Iran, was ceded to the empire apparently because its king, Senacherim, was no longer able to withstand the various foreign and internal pressures, especially the invasion of the Seljuk Turks. The newly annexed country was organized into a catepanate, i. e., a frontier province (181).
The annexation of Vaspurakan had hardly been completed when Basil II received a bequest which resulted eventually in the acquisition of another important Armenian territory. The bequest came from Sempad (Smbat) of Ani, King of Greater Armenia who, having sided with Georgi, the King of the nascent Georgian feudal monarchy, against Basil, had become rather uneasy concerning the intentions of the Byzantine Emperor. Its substance was that while Sempad would continue to rule his realm until his death, the Byzantine emperor was to be his successor. When Sempad died in 1041, however, he was succeeded by his nephew Gagik who, while ready to acknowledge the suzerainty of the emperor, refused to turn his kingdom over to the empire. But the pressures which were brought to bear against him were in the end too strong and he was forced to abdicate. Thus, Ani and the Kingdom of Greater Armenia were annexed to the empire in 1045 (182). About the same time Gregory Pahlavuni, a learned Armenian better known as Gregory the Magister, yielded to the empire the stronghold of Bgni, located some distance to the east of Ani on the [50] Churastan (Hurastan) river (183). And in 1064 Gagik, prince of Kars, also ceded his possessions to Byzantium (184).
Thus virtually all Armenia had now become an integral part of the Byzantine empire. The newly acquired land was, of course, inhabited predominantly by Armenians. There were also some Georgians and perhaps elements of other nationalities, but there were no Greeks. This at least, is the impression given by the statement of a native of the theme of Cappadocia, obviously Greek-speaking, who had migrated to Taik about the middle of the eleventh century. "I became an emigrant", he writes, "and I went a distance of one and one-half weeks from my fatherland. And I settled among alien nations with strange religion and tongue". Among the "alien nations" to which he alludes, he mentions only the Armenians (185).
The Armenian princes whose territories were annexed were settled and given lands elsewhere in the empire. Thus Senacherim, the former king of Vaspurakan, together with his three sons, was settled in Sebasteia where he was given extensive possessions. Other lands located in Larissa on the upper Tochma-su, Abara or Amara, placed by Honigmann on the road from Sebasteia to Melitene, somewhat to the northeast of the latter. and Gabadonia, today Develi, south of Caesarea, were also given to him (186). Gagik, the former king of Ani, was given extensive new possessions in the themes of Cappadocia, Charsianon and Lycandos (187). Gregory Pahlavuni and Gagik of Kars were also similarly rewarded. The new lands given to Gregory were located in the theme of Mesopotamia (188), while those of Gagik of Kars were scattered in various places, some located at Tzamandos, others at Larissa and still others at Amasia and Comana. Gagik fixed his residence at Tzamandos (189). The Armenian princes were also honored with important titles. Senacherim was named patrician (190), Gagik of Ani, magister (191), Gregory Pahlavuni magister and dux of Mesopotamia and in addition was entrusted with the administration of a part of Taron, Sasun and Vaspurakan (192).
The displaced Armenian princes took along with them to their new domicile, besides their families, a numerous retinue consisting primarily [51] of their nobility and the latter's following. So numerous indeed was the nobility that followed their princes that their going is said to have emptied Armenia of the most valiant elements of its population. The Greeks, wrote Matthew of Edessa, "Dispersed the most courageous children of Armenia" (193). "Their most constant care was to scatter from the orient all that there was of courageous men and valiant generals of Armenian origin" (194). Of the actual number involved in this displacement no figure can be given. The national Armenian historian Tchamtchian puts those who followed Senacherim to his new domicile at 400,000 (195) and this figure has been repeated by others (195), but there is nothing in the existing sources which bears this figure out. All that we have is the figure of a medieval Armenian historian who says that Senacherim was followed by 16,000 of his compatriots, not counting the women and children (197). But whatever the final figure, there can be little doubt that the number of Armenians who left their homes and settled elsewhere in the empire was a large one. The repeated raids of the Seljuk Turks which began in earnest about this time increased this number still more, and gave to the movement of the Armenians away from their native homes the aspect of a mass migration. The chroniclers who report this movement no doubt exaggerate in their descriptions (198), but their accounts, after allowance has been made for this exaggeration remain nevertheless impressive. Armenians by the thousands left their homeland and went to settle in northern Syria, in Cappadocia, and in Cilicia where they laid the basis for the foundation later in the eleventh century of new Armenian principalities and, toward the end of the twelfth century, of the feudal kingdom of Little Armenia.
When the Armenians began to move into Cappadocia, Cilicia, and northern Syria sometime after the middle of the tenth century, they were, no doubt, as we have already observed, encouraged by the imperial authorities, anxious to repeople the various towns newly captured from the Saracens, particularly in Cilicia and northern Syria, which had suffered considerable losses in population as the result of the departure of most of the Moslems. Their displacement in the eleventh century served a similar purpose, but its primary objective was to assure the peaceful control of the newly acquired Armenian lands by removing the various elements that might be a source of trouble. This was traditional Byzantine policy which had often worked. This time, however, it proved to be one [52] of the major factors in the breakdown of Byzantine authority in Asia Minor. For the displacement of the Armenians, coming as it did at a time when their homeland was being subjected to the repeated raids of the Seljuks, had removed the element which, fighting for its native land, might have checked these raids. But more important, the displacement of the Armenians weakened the position of the empire in the regions in which they were settled. For, in some of these regions as, for instance, in Cappadocia, their settlement disturbed the social and ethnic complexion and so created serious tensions, while in others, as for instance, Cilicia and northern Syria, the new settlers were ready to start separatist movements the moment the opportunity presented itself (199). What particularly contributed to the development of tension between the Armenian element and the rest of the population were the ecclesiastical problems which the annexation of the Armenian lands and the consequent dispersion of the Armenians had created. There had always been heretical groups in the empire, but orthodoxy, as it finally crystalized, had come to prevail as one of the unifying forces of the empire--the Greek language and the imperial tradition were the other two--but now for the first time since the loss of Egypt and Syria in the seventh century there was a powerful religious minority, dominant in certain regions of the empire, very strong in others. Both church and state were very much concerned about this situation and, as a consequence, brought pressure to bear upon the Armenians to accept the orthodox point of view. But the Armenians, whose cultural and national development was strongly associated with their religious beliefs and practices, resisted stubbornly. As a result, the efforts of the Byzantine church to bring them in line made of them dubious subjects (200). The Armenian element in the Byzantine army was as dominant as ever, but one could no longer be sure of its loyalty (201). Equally questionable was the loyalty of the civil population (202). Still the number of Armenians holding [53] important military commands in the eleventh is as impressive as that of any other century (203). And if many of them did not integrate themselves definitely into the social, political, and military life of the empire as in the past it was largely because of the changed political conditions in Asia Minor.