ruled by five dynasties acknowledging the suzerainty of the Empire. At the same epoch, parts of the Arabian and Median Marches, as well as the province of Caspiane, passed to Iran; Otene and Arts'akh became parts of Albania; and the Iberian March, having already in the first century briefly entered the Georgian world, now once again reverted to Iberia. Under new suzerainty, the House of Gogarene, the sole remaining member of the Artaxiad tetrarchal system, retained its control over much of the territory of the march and continued, alone, to enjoy the dignity of Vitaxa.
Armenia so diminished contained only six of her former fifteen provinces. Three of the limitrophe ones that remained--Tayk', Siunia, Moxoene--constitued single princely States; the rest was divided into a number of smaller principalities. On the par with the margravial Tetrarchs, stood two dynasties: the Bagratids (Bagratuni) and the Mamikonids (Mamikonian), the one ruling Syspiritis and other cantons in Upper Armenia, Turuberan, and Vaspurakan, the other holding the whole of Tayk' and contons elsewhere: Taraun, Bagravandene or Bagrevand, Acilisene or Ekegheats'. the one was enfeoffed of the office of Coronoant of Armenia (t'agadir) and the other of that of High Constable of Armenia (sparapet). In the central lands, other dynasties held sway. In Ayrarat, besides the Royal House, the Houses of Kamsarakan and Amatuni were sovereign; in Turuberan, those of Apahuni, Gnuni, Khorkhor'uni, Vahevuni--the High Priests of Armenian paganism--and the latter's successors, the Gregorids, the dynasty of the first chief Bishops of Armenia. In Vaspurakan, reigned the Houses of Artsruni, Rshtuni, Andzevats'i, and--again--Gnuni. Finally, Siunia and Moxoene were ruled by their own, homonymous, dynasties. Of the remaining princes, many were in their day as important, but none perhaps as historically significant, as these; and of these, four dynasties stand out exceeding all the rest in historical importance: the Bagratids, the Mamikonids, the Artsrunis, and the Siunis.
16. The political weight of the Caucasian princely States can be estimated by examining their international position and their military might. The geopolitical self-sufficiency of these principalities, as has been pointed out earlier, made itself manifest in the facility with which they passed, while retaining their individuality and autonomy, from one overlord to another. In this way, the Vitaxae of Gogarene exchanged, in the first century, the suzerainty of the Armenian Crown for that of the Iberian and the princes of the Syrian and the Arabian March passed to Rome, in 298, through the cession by the Great King, then overlord of the Armenian kingdom. Then, in the years 330-339, the Vitaxa of Arzanene, or of the Arabian March, attempted to transfer his feudal allegiance to the Great King; and in 363 a part of the Syrian and the whole of the Arabian March reverted to Iran, the princes themselves accepting the suzerainty of the Great King instead of the still