When this was heard by the man called Jebu Xak'an—who was second to the king of the North, the second in his kingdom—and when he considered the promise of great gifts and the loot he could get [g248] by attacking all the lands subject to the king of Persia, he replied with great enthusiasm: "I shall avenge [Heraclius] on his enemies, and shall arise and go to his aid in person with my brave army. I shall satisfy him by warring with sword and bow as he wishes." Then, to confirm the agreement, he sent the same noble [Andre'] [south] with a body of some thousand strong, select cavalry and skilled archers. They quickly passed through the Ch'oray gates, ignoring the garrison and army of the Persian king which was stationed at the great gate. Then they swooped down like eagles on the great Kur River, not sparing anyone who came to resist them. Then they travelled over the land of the Iberians/Georgians and the Egerians and cut across the great sea up to the royal palace. They entered into the presence of the great emperor Heraclius, and swore mutual oaths each according to his own law. [The Northerners] received their instructions from him concerning their expedition, and then they returned to their own land via the same route. And no one suspected anything.
At the beginning of the thirty-seventh year of Xosrov['s reign], the king of the North sent the promised fighting force [g249]. He appointed his brother's son as its general, a man named Shat' in honor of his authority. He came and raided throughout all the borders of the land of Aghuania and part of Atrpatakan, putting many Christians and pagans to the sword. As for the number of people taken captive, who can estimate their number, or put it into writing?
[65] Establishing camp on the shore of the Arax River, [Shat'] sent an envoy to the great king Xosrov informing him of [the Khazars'] alliance with the emperor and that they had come to help him. The texts of their messages to each other ran as follows: "The king of the North, ruler of the entire world, your king, and the king of kings says: 'If you do not withdraw from the king of the Byzantines and surrender to him all the lands and cities which you have taken by force and return all the prisoners of his country now in your hands, together with the Wood of the Cross which all Christian peoples worship and glorify; if you do not recall your troops from all of his territory, then I shall turn against you, governor of Asorestan, and for each evil deed you committed against him, I shall repay you double. I shall put all your lands to my sword, just as you put his lands to your sword [g250]. I shall not spare you, nor shall I delay doing to you what I am telling you I shall do.'"
When the great king Xosrov heard all this, he arose like a raging torrent, like a lion against its hunters, like a bear whose cub has been taken. This is how he was. Although he saw that [the Khazars and the Byzantines] had united and come against him, in his cunning he did not show that he feared [Shat'] or sought to hide from him. On the contrary, he replied proudly and wrathfully: "Go tell your king, my brother Xak'an, that your House has been honored and respected for ages by my ancestors and myself as that of our dear brother. Indeed, we have been allied with each other through the marriage ties of our sons and daughters. It was unworthy of you to be paralysed and to allow yourself to be led astray by the words of that Byzantine fighter [Heraclius], who is my servant." [Taking this message] the courrier returned to his own land.
The emperor took his army and marched against the Persian lands, trying single-mindedly and resolutely to reach the court of the Persian king. When the king of the Persians saw that the matter had not been settled and that [Heraclius] was coming against him boldly [g251], he fled and arrived at his own capital, the great Ctesiphon (Tizbon). He evacuated his wives, concubines, and children to the other side of the Tigris River. He assembled and prepared the troops nearby, which were few in number, organized them and sent them against the emperor. Now there was a certain man at court who was known for his bravery. [Xosrov], through flattery, honors, and great riches enticed him [to participate]. [Xosrov even] changed [the man's] name, calling him R'ochveh ("Fortunate"). He appointed him commander of the force and sent him against the waves [of invaders], designating him commander of the troops. [R'ochveh], through fear of the king's command, accepted this position unwillingly because he knew that Xosrov's hastily assembled and weak force would be defeated by the emperor. He wrote to Xosrov once, twice, four times in warning: "I must inform you that if you do not quickly increase [my strength] with auxiliary troops you will soon hear about my death and the destruction of your army. I do not fear my own death, but you must be aware of the situation."
[66] The king ordered this reply to be written: "Do not fear them, but fight and defeat them!" In the end he wrote him an angry reply: "If you cannot conquer them, then why should you not die [g252]?" When [R'ochveh] read this stern reply in the presence of his troops, he raised his hands to the sun and the moon and loudly cried out: "My gods, judge between me and my merciless king."
He and his troops fell in battle before the Byzantine forces, like dust swept away by a hurricane.
Now when the Persian nobles saw this additional disaster which had befallen the Persian army, they began to murmur among themselves. "How long will these streams of blood—the blood of folk from the Aryan world—flow in one place and another because of warfare? How long must we fear and tremble before this blood-thirsty king? How long will our goods and belongings, our gold and silver be gathered into the royal treasury? How long will our roads be shut and blocked to the detriment of trade and profit [we might derive] from various regions? How long will our souls tremble in our bodies from fear of his orders? Truly, did he not exhaust and swallow up like the sea the choicest of our comrades, the leaders of the land? And did not many of our brothers, company by company, detachment by detachment, die on many occasions through various tortures at his command? Some were even drowned. Did he not separate men from their wives and fathers from their children sending them to distant peoples as servants and slaves [g253] and assembling them to fight all over the world against cruel enemies?"
They expressed these and many similar sentiments among themselves, whispering, not daring to utter anything aloud until the time came for his life to end. Then a man arose who was a lord from one of Xosrov's trusted families, and the dayeak ("guardian/tutor") of his eldest son Kawad. He advised Kawad and got him to kill his father and the multitude of his brothers. Then [Kawad] seized [rule of] the kingdom of Persia, [all] through the planning and guidance of his tutor, who charmed and confused the most honourable suite of courtiers at Xosrov's court. He quickly won the hearts of all for his ward Kawad in order to enthrone him in place of his father.
[The guardian] ordered that letters be written in Kawad's name to the grandees and leaders of the different brigades of the great court of the kingdom of Persia to the following effect: "The kingdom has been taken from my father and given to me; be ready [to assist me] with a few cavalry." He positioned [these troops] at the head of the bridge over the Tigris River, at the town of Veh Artashir opposite the palace of Ctesiphon where his father Xosrov was protected by his bodyguard. He had it proclaimed loudly to the right and left of Kawad: "Whoever values his life and wishes to live out his days in happiness [g255] should quickly come out in support of Kawad's rule, for he is now the king of kings." They opened the doors of Anyushn berd (the Fortress of Oblivion) and boldly called out all the king's prisoners, an enormous multitude, who had been shut up in the shadow of death for a long time. And they said to them: "Come out, you poor wretches, tormented by Xosrov, for the gates of life have been opened to you by the newly-crowned king, his son Kawad!" Their chains broken, all of them emerged together, and the sound of their blessings rose up to heaven. They blessed Kawad and cried "May the king live for ever!" And mounted on excellent horses, and galloping here and there and reviling Xosrov, they rode to attack him, chains in hand.
Many of the palace guards, the king's bodyguard, and the charioteers of the Xosrov's court took their banners and went over to his son Kawad. Those who remained at the court were urged by Kawad's messengers to observe things carefully and to seize Xosrov or be killed.
Now when Xosrov heard the noise and the shouting, he asked those [g256] near him: "What is that clamor?" They remained silent, too embarrassed to tell him. When the confused sounds of trumpets grew even louder, [Xosrov] again asked those near him: "What is that disorderly racket?' And they replied: "Your son Kawad intends to rule in your place, and eveyone is running to him. They have massed opposite this city on the bank of the river, and have freed all those who were detained in the great prison at your command. They are overjoyed and bless him, and call him king."
[68] When Xosrov heard this disastrous news, especially about the freeing of the prisoners, he groaned and sighed and lamented within himself. Sitting or standing he was unable to think or feel anything, for he watched the enormous army advancing on him. He walked through the gate of his garden and hid among the trees, and his soul trembled and cringed for sudden fear. His eyes saw the merciless sword raised above his head. Then a brigade came and surrounded the palace, and a search-party came looking for him. They found him seated there [in the garden] in despair. They took him out of the palace and put him into a hall called the "House of the Indians (K'ataki Hndukn)" [g257] within a palace named Maraspan['s palace]. When [Xosrov] was inside and ascertained what the place was and who its owner was, he struck his breast and sobbed: "Woe is me, wretch that I am. How I was charmed by the sorcerers who willed me among the Indians, seized at a place called Maraspan, And now, lo, it has befallen me, not straightforwardly but according to their misleading words."
They guarded him that day and early the next day they beheaded him with a sword. And thus was this wicked man eliminated. Then King Kawad maimed his brothers, hand and foot [thereby making them unfit to rule as king and], intending to spare their lives by such mutilation. However, they too were [later] put to the sword because of many complaints.
He now occupied the place of his father King Xosrov in the kingdom. [Kawad] was kind and merciful to all the lands and to his subjects, and he sought peace with his fellow kings. He sent all the men who had been imprisoned by his father at the court back to their homes and wrote letters to all parts of his realm bidding [the people] to live in joy and gladness. Everywhere in his kingdom he excused all royal taxes and fees for three years. And he tried to arrange it so that no one would need to gird his sword about him during his entire reign [g258]. However [Kawad's] good intentions were in vain and failed. [This was] because our own sins injured us—sins which were committed in leaderless and disordered times. [Kawad's] life came to an end after seven months, and the one who had killed his father was gathered to his fathers. As for the kingdom, it was about to be taken from the House of Sasan and given into the hands of the sons of Ishmael.
Among them was the great kat'oghikos of the principality of Aghuania, Viroy. He was a brilliant and wise man, forceful in speaking wise words and having a tongue that resembled the pen of a ready writer when relating words of counsel and sensible words to kings and nobles. The humility of his speech was sweet to the ears of the common people and the masses. He would talk at great length, adapting the discourse of wise men and their parables, putting them in his own plain words and arranging them so that they were like pearls set in gold. He was especially skilled in translating the Persian language, which he had learned during his 25 years of detention at Xosrov's court. [Viroy] had been found guilty along with the rebellious grandee princes of Aghuania who had revolted against the king of Persia. Many of these [princes] had died, some by the sword, others mutilated, others exiled to distant lands. Viroy, however, had fled to the king's court. It was the Holy Cross that favored him and opened a path to the [Christian] queen's palace for him. [The queen], after exerting great efforts, was able to save his life as a present from the king. However, the king swore a mighty oath stipulating that [Viroy] should never return to his country all the years of his life [g260]. No, he would stay in detention at court. Nonetheless, [Xosrov] did not withhold from him the income (has) that was due to him from his princely throne, nor did he deprive him of the title of kat'oghikos. Instead, he kept him like some precious vessel, tending him like a swift horse primed for the day of battle, until the period of his exile had been fulfilled. Misfortunes and merciless torments at the hands of evil foes were visited on our land of Aghuania. [God] sent [Viroy] as once He sent Moses from Midian, that he might come and deliver his country and take it back from the hands of people who killed the men and violated the women, and [that he might] rear the few children who remained in the country, one from each family and two from the city.
Now when [Viroy] left the court and came to the borders of the country of his birth, he fell down and kissed the doors and the floors of the churches in his diocese everywhere; he shed tears and wept, and kneeling down he watered the ground with his tears. Rising to his feet, he took courage and comforted those who were with him, thanking God who had freed him from the jaws of the lion and had permitted him to see again the roofs of the blessed churches. He planned to rest a short while and to satisfy the tender longing he had for his homeland after his long absence. But untold mourning, labor, and toil awaited him [g261], for soon he would see the destruction [of Aghuania].
[70] It was while [Viroy], spurred on by his love, travelled around the various localities where he had been raised, that it happened: the wind from the North [the Khazars] suddenly blew a second time and struck the great Eastern Sea [the Caspian]. The polluting beast [the Qaqan] came down with its bloodthirsty cub Shat'. First he turned his face toward the land of the Iberians/Georgians and the city of Tiflis. None of the brave men previously to be found among them was present now, and so [the Khazars] were able to vent the anger that had accumulated within them since the [time of the] insult they had previously endured. They besieged the city and fought and harassed the inhabitants. The latter turned and fought back and for two months worked and strived in vain against the sentence of death which faced them. Fear of their own bloodletting, a danger which was about to happen, terrified them. Then the frightful beast roared at them. It had hunted down and slaughtered enough for its brood. Now it came forth from its lair to hunt and it troops, to loot. Raising their swords, they all stormed the walls. They were able to go over the top by piling one on top of the other, their numbers were so great. A dark shadow of dread came upon the pitiful inhabitants of the city. The joints of their limbs were loosed [g262] and their arms grew weak. They were defeated, and drew back from the walls, terrified as sparrows trapped in the devices of hunters. No one had time to get home to warn his family of the horrible disaster, to instruct his beloved wife to care for the fruits of her womb, or to consider their duty as parents. Exhausted with fatigue and terror-stricken, they tried to hide themselves. Some hid on the rooftops and others in the drains, while many made for the sacred refuge of the churches and clung to the horns of the altar.
The cries of mothers lamenting for their sons rose up like the cries of a huge flock of sheep, like that of ewes calling to their lambs. They were followed by the merciless reapers, their hands shedding torrents of blood, their feet trampling on corpses, their eyes beholding the dead fall like a hail storm. When the wailing and groaning ended and no one was left alive, [the Khazars] knew that their swords had been satiated. They brought two princes—one a prince who was a governor for the Persian kingdom and the other a native Iberian/Georgian from the clan of the princes of the land—bound before the king [g263]. The latter ordered that their eyes be gouged out for having insulted his image, showing it as blind. With bitter tortures he strangled them to death, then flayed the skin from their bodies, stretched it, stood it up, filled it with straw and hanged it from the top of the wall.
Then [the Khazars] laid their hands on the chests full of treasure. The entire army, each man heavily laden, carried [loot] before their ruler and placed it in great heaps and piles. So much was brought before him that his eyes grew weary of looking at the countless number of gold and silver talents. As for the church ornaments, vessels set with pearls and jewels, who could ever describe them?
When he had accomplished what he wanted, [the Qaqan] ordered all the loot to be carried away. Departing with the treasure, he returned home, leaving his fighting forces in the hands of his son Shat' with brave men as his advisers. He ordered them to march to the land of the Aghuans, and he said: "If the grandees and leaders of their land come before my son and surrender their land into my service and surrender [g264] the towns and fortresses and markets to my army, in that case, allow them to live and serve me. If not, do not spare any man above the age of fifteen that your eyes fall upon, and you shall keep the boys and the women for me and yourselves as slaves and handmaidens."
The troops parted company and acted accordingly. They arrived at the area specified in his instructions and [Shat'] sent envoys in accordance with his father's wishes to the governing Persian prince named Semavshnasp who was the marzpan of Aghuania, and to the aforementioned kat'oghikos Viroy. But the Persian would not accept [the initiative]. "Who are you," he asked, "and why should I obey this order for the sake of the House of the Aghuans?" And taking his household belongings with him, he ravished many goods from the land and fled to Persian territory. When Viroy, the patriarch of Aghuania, heard that a heavy yoke had fallen upon their necks, he was troubled within himself. Now he distrusted and feared the king of Persia, for on a similar charge of rebellion he had been sent into exile and banishment for a long time [g265]. He wanted to obey the envoys and to go before the enemy to avoid the ruin and destruction of his land. In his shrewdness he wrote a letter to the king of Persia secretly disclosing the enemy's threats, and saying that if the king would allow, he would humor the enemy by submitting to him. If on the other hand [the Persian king ] disapproved, he would leave the land.
[71] While he was waiting for an answer from the king, he wanted to delay the envoys sent by the enemy, and he bribed them with a little silver. He spoke with them using various [delaying] tactics. Sometimes he would say: "I shall summon the chief leaders of all the districts of the land so that they also might join me in formulating a reply to the message from your king." At other times he would say: "There is no need for me to wait for the views of the majority. I myself shall write a reply with gifts and honors befitting your king."
However, the messengers began to press him. "What are you waiting for?" they asked. "Why are you delaying? Behold, the day designated to begin raiding over the whole face of Aghuania has arrived. We have revealed to you the covert plans of our princes and our lord, Shat' [g266]. If you do not want to comply with his command, hurry and escape and flee. [We tell you this] because we ourselves have received honors and gifts from your hands. We fear our god, and we are not able to deceive you and watch the multitude of our troops raise their hands against you and your retinue and your people."
Now it happened that while they were saying these things, a dark fog [the Khazar invasion] suddenly enveloped the whole of our country, the plains and mountaintops, the hills and deep valleys. Not a single piece of ground remained untouched anywhere throughout the entire extent of our country, in the cultivated places or in the fields, in houses or along the roads. Every mouth cried "Alas! Vay!". The shouts of the barbarians did not die down and there was nowhere where the murderous clamor of the wicked enemy did not resound. This [invasion] took place at the very same hour and on one day! For they had planned it all in advance and had divided by lot among the different brigades the various districts and villages, ravines and rivers, springs and marshes, mountains and plains. At the designated time all of them together spread about looting, and they devoured our land. Our land shook from end to end.
The words of the prophet were fulfilled then and there: "As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the [g267] house and leaned with his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him" [Amos 5. 19]. Just such days descended upon us. For as one might escape from the terrifying lion to fall into the flesh-rending claws of the murderous bear, those who escaped the sword fell into famine. Abandoned, paralysed, and starving, they were enslaved against their will and were stung by the sight of the bitter foe as though by the poison of snakes.
As the waves of that ocean engulfed us, [the Khazars] also pursued our kat'oghikos and overtook him in a rocky, stony place among the mountains, in the village of Koght'agarak. [The kat'oghikos Viroy] abandoned his baggage and belongings and the vessels of treasure, mounted a horse, and fled before them. Not one of his retinue was able to accompany him excepting a certain immigrant nobleman of this land. He was a strong, well-built man named Gadvshnasp from a family which held the rank of brigade-leader (gundapet) among his people. He alone managed to accompany him. Nor did the stones, rocks, and numerous ravines of the mountains of the districts of secure Artsakh deter the raids of the enemy. Our sins made difficulties easy for them. Without a stumble, their swift horses galloped over the mountan-tops.
[72] The enemy pursued the kat'oghikos and bitterly discharged their bows at him. But it happened that the [g268] marvellous grace of the Holy Cross which he had with him separated him and the enemy, and no hand was laid upon him that day. As the day waned, the fugitives prayed for the darkness of night rather than the light of day. The road to salvation was that night opened to the great patriarch and all the survivors. The enemy's envoys came again, and said [on behalf of their prince]: "Do what I have already commanded and you and your House and all the survivors of your country shall live. But if you refuse, I have ordered that you to be seized and brought before me against your will." The kat'oghikos assembled by him all the chiefs, sons of the great royalty of the land, the district chiefs, and the village chiefs, priests, deacons, scribes, and all met at the time appointed in the fortress of Ch'araberd. And he said to them: "Men and brothers! You yourselves know the tremendous blows, the fear and the trembling [we have endured] before the insatiable and merciless sword which was sent down upon us because of our sins and suddenly drowned us. Now we are in doubt and do not know who to turn to or where to flee before their faces. Whether we do as he wants or not, the day of our death at their hands is still ever present before our eyes [g269]. Quickly give me your answer and tell me what you think is good, for the messenger who has come presses me. Moreover, he is not of the common people, but is a lord in the enemy's army and the trusted dayeak (tutor) and governor of the king's son Shat'."
When he had said this, they called out together: "Why do you speak so, our lord, and mock our wretched selves? Is there any of us wiser than you, that we should know what is wise and should give advice? Who would dare to open his mouth before you and utter words of wisdom? However, if humane God will bear with us, do not hesitate to protect us as a good shepherd, and for this we shall protect you to the extent that we are able." [Kat'oghikos Viroy] said to them: "If the Lord alone approves, I will not fear them. Now do as I say. Let each of you bring as much silver and gold and clothing as he is able. Do not be stingy in your hearts, for with our gifts we may be able to soften his countenance."
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