For that [i.e., the most ancient parts] we [should] look to the writings of the philosopher Mar Abas of Mtsurn, [containing information] which he found written on a monument in the city of Mtsurn at the court of King Sanatruk, opposite the door of the royal palace, covered by the ruins of the royal dwelling.

The columns of the [ruined] palace had been requested by the Persian king's court. Excavating the ruin for the columns, they found an inscription there engraved on rock [listing] the years and days of the old kings of the Armenians and Parthians, in Greek writing. When I discovered [the contents of the inscription] in Mesopotamia from his students, I wanted to describe it to you. It had the following title:

I, Agat'angeghos, the scribe, wrote upon this monument with my own hand the years of the first kings of the Armenians, by order of brave Trdat, taking [the information] from the royal diwan.

First I shall begin to describe tales [concerning] the awesome king and brave man, the history of the ancestors from whom the entire country was settled; then, added to these, tales about the giants and vain fables about inept troops which conceived and gave birth to the Tower, and then were dispersed throughout the great, countless uninhabited places where [previously] no voice had penetrated. Titans were ceaselessly putting each other to the sword; [and they were] the first to rule over the world.

Be'l the Titan regarded himself as above all the races of mankind, not recognizing his own nature; rather, he summoned all the races of mankind to his service. Now at that time Hayk, born of Japheth (Abet'), did not want to submit in service to King Be'l, disdaining to call him a god. So Be'l attacked Hayk in battle, but valiant Hayk harassed him with [his] bow.

This is the Hayk who begat his son Aramenak in Babylon. Aramenak begat numerous sons and daughters, the eldest [son being] Aramayis. Aramayis begat many sons and daughters, the eldest being Amasia. Amasia begat many sons and daughters, the eldest being Gegham. Gegham begat many sons and daughters, the eldest being Harma. Harma begat many sons and daughters, the eldest being Aram. Aram begat many sons and daughters, the eldest being Ara the Handsome.

[2] Now these are the names of the men who gave birth to [the Armenian] race who were born in Babylon and went to the northern areas, to the country of Ararad. For Hayk left Babylon with his wife and sons and all their household. He went and settled in the Ararad country in an estate at the foot of a mountain, which previously had been built by Zruan together with his fathers and brothers.

Hayk gave to his grandson Kadmos, Aramenak's son, [this] property in inheritance. Then [Hayk] himself went farther north and settled in the midst of a highland plain which he named Hark', after the name of the Fathers [g48].

The country was called Hayk', appropriately [named] after him, and the people, Haykids [Armenians].

Now this Hayk was very strong and handsome, and an extremely powerful archer and warrior.

At that time the giant Be'l the Titan ruled as king in Babylon, a hunter and grand false god who was extremely powerful and very handsome. He was ruler over all peoples spread across the face of the entire world and he [accomplished] his royal commands over all peoples with the aid of witchcraft. In his boastful pride, [Be'l] erected images of himself and had the country worship him as a god and offer sacrifices.

All peoples immediately implemented his orders, except for a certain [man] named Hayk, the patriarch (nahapet) of peoples who did not submit to his service, did not erect [Be'l's] image in his home and did not glorify him as a god.

This man's name was Hayk, and King Be'l conceived a great grudge against him. King Be'l massed troops in Babylon and went against Hayk to kill him.

He reached the country of Ararad and the estate which was their patrimony which had been built at the base of the mountain. Kadmos fled to Hark' to inform his father, saying: "King Be'l is coming against you and has reached the estate there, and so I, with my wife and children have come [to you] as fugitives."

Hayk took Aramenak and his son Kadmos as well as their sons and the sons of their seven daughters, gigantic men but few in number.

Hayk went to fight King Be'l but was unable to confront him because of the multitude of [Be'l's] gigantic armored men.

Now when Hayk struck at King Be'l, Be'l wanted to seize him with his own hands, but Hayk evaded him and fled. In hot pursuit, Be'l went after him with his weapons-bearer.

Hayk halted and asked him: "Why do you pursue me? Return to your own place so that you do not die today at my hands, for my arrow will not miss its mark." Then Be'l replied: "[I pursue you in person] so that you do not fall into the hands of my young men and perish. Instead [g49], give yourself up to me and live in my house in peace, looking after the young hunters in my house."

Hayk answered him, saying: "You are a dog and from a pack of dogs, you and your people. Therefore, today I will empty my quiver at you." The Titan King [Be'l] was armored and trusted in the full armoring of his person.

[3] Hayk, [descendant] of Japheth, advanced closer, holding in his hand a bow which was like a branch of a mighty pine tree, and then he took position against [Be'l] with his bow at the ready. He picked up [the] quiver from the ground by him and [putting an arrow] to the gigantic arc of his bow, drew it back to his shoulder and [released the] arrow [which] forcefully penetrated the armor plating, pierced the bronze shield, passed through the pillar of meat and emerged, falling on the ground. The giant, who thought himself to be a god, immediately fell to the ground and his troops fled. Pursuing them, [Hayk and his troops] took herds of horses, mules and camels from them.

Hayk returned to his own place; and he went and took over the country of Ararad and dwelled there with his clan (azg), until now. At the time of his death, he gave his heritable property to his grandson, Katmos, son of Aramenak, brother of Harma. And he ordered Aramenak to go to the northern region where he himself had first dwelled.

After the death of Hayk, Aramenak took his sons and daughters and their husbands, the seven sisters and their husbands, sons, and daughters, with all of their belongings, and went and dwelled there in the first district which they called Hark', after the name of their father, Hayk'. Then Aramenak went farther north, descending onto a deep plain which is between lofty mountains and which is crossed by a fast-moving river. Crossing this, Aramenak settled there and built up the country of his inheritance, a place of mountains and rocks.

After Aramenak, his son, Aramayis, built his residential dwelling over the river banks and called it Aramayir after his own name. Then his sons began to multiply and fill the country. And they built districts.

Aramayis, too, died and his son, Amasia, took over his country; and after him was Gegham. Gegham died and his son, Harma, ruled, then Harma's son, Aram [ruled]. [Aram's] son was Ara the Handsome, by whose name that very plain was known, Ayrarad [g50].

Shamiram, the wife of Ninos, the king of the Assyrians, heard about his beauty and wanted to have relations with [Ara] to fulfill her desire with prostitution. [This was] because she was extremely aroused by what she had heard and was inflamed by his person and physical beauty, since there was no other man having his striking good looks anywhere. She sent emissaries with offerings to him, calling him to her at Ninue'. But Ara did not accept her offerings, nor did he agree to go to Shamiram in Ninue'. So Shamiram took her troops and went against Hayk. She came and reached the plain of Ara, and made war with Ara, striking [his] troops and killing him in battle.

Shamiram ordered that his body be taken to the roof of her palace and said: "I will tell the gods to lick his wounds and bring him back to life."

But when his corpse began to decay, she secretly ordered that it be thrown into a pit and covered up. She then adorned one of her lovers, a man who was an appropriate [substitute], and then noised it about that Ara had been licked by the gods and had resurrected. She kept [the double] hidden and did not show him to anyone who knew him. Thus did Queen Shamiram cause the story of the [mythological creatures called] aralezk' to be spread about.

[4] Then Shamiram ruled over the country of the Armenians and from that time the kings of Assyria ruled [over Armenia] until the death of Senek'arim, when they rebelled from service to the kings of Assyria.

Zareh, son of the sons of Aramenak, ruled over them; he was a powerful man and able with the bow. Then Armog [ruled the Armenians], then Sarhang, then Shawash, followed by P'ar'awaz.

[P'ar'awaz] begat Bagam and Bagarat. And Bagarat begat Biwrat who begat Aspat. The sons of Bagarat had their inheritance in the western parts, namely Angeghtun, for Bagarat was called Angegh which in that period, the nation of barbarians styled god.

This P'ar'awaz was obedient to King Nabugodonosor in Babylon. From that time on, the kings of the Babylonians and the Mark' [Medes] ruled [over the Armenians] until Alexander the Macedonian, who put the entire world into his service.

And [the Armenians] served the Macedonians until the uprising of the Parthians against the Macedonians [g51] and the rise of the Arsacid kingship. This is what [the text] before me by the same chronicler [?Mar Abas] narrates.

They say that Abraham's adopted son, Marseak, left Damascus, fleeing from Isaac; and he came and settled by the foot of two mountains which face the great plain of Ara, the peak of Aragats and Gegh mountain.

He named the mountain after himself; thus they call the mountain Azat. [Marseak] had three sons [one of whom was] P'ar'ox, who is Eliazar. They named the place of their habitation P'ar'oxt, and named the plain of their hunts and horse races P'ar'akan; and they mixed with the clan of Aramenak.

In the eleventh year of King Antiochus, the Parthians rebelled from service to the Macedonians. And Arshak the Great, son of the king of the T'e'talats'ik' ruled in Bahl Shahastan, the country of the Kushans, and all the peoples of the east and north served him.

King Arshak with all his troops went from the east to Babylon, the property of the first kings, so that he could establish his kingship there. He arrived in Babylon.

Now when Antiochus saw that Arshak, king of the Parthians, had come against him with such a multitude, he thereafter was unable to trust in the great numbers of his troops to resist that fierce man, and so he fled from him, going to Asiastan. He ruled over Asiastan for five years. Then, one after the other, for a certain period, Macedonians ruled in Asiastan. King Arshak [g52] subjugated Asorestan, which [had been] under Antiochus, as well as the Babylonians, Persians, and Medes and the country of the Armenians as far as the great Mount Kapkoh and as far as the shore of the great Western Sea. Arshak ruled in Babylon for many years.

[5] In the one hundred fourteenth year of Arshak, king of the Parthians, [which was] in the fourth year of Demetrius' kingship over Asiastan and the Syrians, when King Arshak had gone to the east, Demetrius massed troops and went and captured Babylon.

Demetrios, seeing what a multitude Arshak brought against him, gave way and went as far as Antioch. There he fought a war against Arshak. By the city of Antioch a great battle occurred. [Arshak's troops] struck and destroyed Demetrius' troops and arrested Demetrius. King Arshak bound [Demetrius] hand and foot, took him, and went east to Bahl Shahastan.

As soon as Demetrius' brother, Antiochus, saw that Demetrius had fallen into King Arshak's hands, he himself ruled over the Syrians and Asiastan. He massed troops and went to Babylon, ten years later. News was brought [to Arshak] that Demetrius' brother, Antiochus, was ruling as king and had come to Babylon.

Arshak freed Demetrius after ten years and dispatched him to his brother to tell him what [Arshak] would do to him. However, Demetrius did not go to his brother in Babylon; rather, he went to Asiastan. Then Arshak went to Babylon with 130,000 [troops].

In the one hundred and twentieth year of his kingship, as [Arshak] neared Babylon, Antiochus fell upon him, suddenly, in summer at a narrow place. [Antiochus'] troops were unable to battle and [Arshak's forces] wiped out [Antiochus'] troops. They struck Antiochus to the ground and killed him. Then they arrested Antiochus' son, Seleucus, whom, he relates, the King had kept at court.

In that time, Arshak installed his son, called Arshak the Lesser, as king over the land of the Armenians, in the city of Mtsurn. [Arshak] designated the borders [of his son's realm]: Aruastan to the country of the Tachiks and to the country of the Syrians; Cappadocia to Cilicia, to the shore of the great Western Sea; and in the northern areas to the great Kovkas Mountain which extends through the eastern areas and to the borders of the secure land [g53] of the Medes, reaching to Zarasp Mountain and crossing through Nor Shirak.

[King Arshak the Great] sent [his son] from Mtsurn to the west with a large force of seventy thousand well-armed men and with countless grandee princes of the lords (naxarars) whom no one could resist in warfare. Bagarat P'ar'azean, [a descendant] of the sons of Aramenak, a great lord, came before [Arshak the Lesser] with his troops. He made an offering to him of gold and silver and adorned him in silk and vestments; he crowned him with the ancestral crown and seated him on a throne covered with gold and inlaid with gems, and gave him his daughter as a wife.

King Arshak made him aspet of the land of Armenia, prince and commander, chief of the edicts [issued] for the entire realm, as well as father and brother of the king. He gave rule over that lordship [to Bagarat]. He crushed the giants who had massed against him in Syrian Mesopotamia.

Here are [the names of] the princes of the Parthians who ruled after their father, Arshak, in Bahl Shahastan in the country of the Kushans. They say that Arshak, king of the Parthians, had four sons. They say that he installed the first as king in the land of the T'etalats'ik'; the second [was placed] over the Cilicians; the third, over the Parthians; and the fourth over the land of Armenia.

[6] Arshak lived for one hundred thirty years, reigning for fifty-six years. After him his son, Arshak, ruled over the Parthians in Bahl Shahastan, in the country of the Kushans for seventy years. Then his son, Ashnash, for thirty-two years; then Arshe'n, for twenty-two years. Then Arshawir, for forty-five years; then Artashe's, for thirty-four years. Then Dareh, for thirty years; Arshak, for seventeen years; Artashir, for forty-six years; Peroz, for sixty-four years; Vagharshak, for fifty years; and then Artawan, for thirty-six years. In all, Parthian rule lasted for 553 years.

Here are the [names of] the Arsacids who ruled the country of Armenia after Arshak the Great:

Arshak, styled the Lesser, in the one hundred twenty-ninth year of the reign of his father, Arshak, ruled over the country of Armenia in the city of Mtsurn with his brother, Vagharshak, whom he made king of the land of Armenia for forty-two years. Then Arshak, for thirteen years, then Artashe's, for twenty-five years. Then Artawan and Arshawir, for twelve years. Then Arshak, son of Arshawir, for thirty-seven years, then Arshak's son, Eruand, for twenty-one years [g54]. Then Artashe's, his brother, for fifty-two years. Then Tiran, son of Artashe's, for twenty-two years. Then Tigran, his brother, for forty-two years. Then Arsham for twenty years. Then Abgar, son of Arsham, for thirty-eight years. Then Sanatruk, Abgar's sister's son, for thirty years. Then Artashe's, son of Sanatruk, for forty-nine years. Then Artawazd, then Tigran, sons of Artashe's, for twenty-three years. Then Vagharsh, son of Tigran, for twenty years. Then brave [k'aj] Xosrov, son of Vagharsh, for forty-eight years. Then Trdate's the Great, son of Xosrov, for fifty-seven years. Then Xosrov, son of Trdat, for nine years; Tiran, son of Xosrov, for forty-eight years. Then Arshak, son of Tiran, for thirty years. Shapuh, the king of Persia, for twelve years. Then Bab, son of Arshak, for seven years [g55].

At that point, with great entreaties, Chenbakur sought them from the king of the Parthians, [saying]: "Get rid of them. Otherwise, the oath of peace between us will be dissolved." However, [the Parthian king] protected the men and did not hand them over. Instead, he wrote affectionately [to Chenbakur]: "May the oath of peace existing between us solidly endure, for I swore to them that they would not be killed. But I had them taken [to the West] to the edge of the earth, where the sun goes [home] to its mother."

Then the king of the Parthians ordered his troops to take [Mamik and Konak] with great precaution, and with their women and children and all their household to the country of the Armenians, to his relation the Arshakuni king, who was king of the country of Armenia. There they multiplied greatly and became a great clan [deriving] from Mamik and Konak. The sparapet comes from them.

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