dred years was solemnly ratified;
and although the revolutions of Armenia might threaten the public
tranquillity, the essential conditions of this treaty were respected
near fourscore years by the successors of Constantine and Artaxerxes.

Since the Roman and Parthian standards first encountered on the banks of
the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia was alternately oppressed by
its formidable protectors; and in the course of this History, several
events, which inclined the balance of peace and war, have been already
related. A disgraceful treaty had resigned Armenia to the ambition of
Sapor; and the scale of Persia appeared to preponderate. But the royal
race of Arsaces impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the
turbulent nobles asserted, or betrayed, their hereditary independence;
and the nation was still attached to the _Christian_ princes of
Constantinople. In the beginning of the fifth century, Armenia was
divided by the progress of war and faction; and the unnatural division
precipitated the downfall of that ancient monarchy. Chosroes, the
Persian vassal, reigned over the Eastern and most extensive portion of
the country; while the Western province acknowledged the jurisdiction of
Arsaces, and the supremacy of the emperor Arcadius. After the death
of Arsaces, the Romans suppressed the regal government, and imposed
on their allies the condition of subjects. The military command
was delegated to the count of the Armenian frontier; the city of
Theodosiopolis was built and fortified in a strong situation, on a
fertile and lofty ground, near the sources of the Euphrates; and the
dependent territories were ruled by five satraps, whose dignity was
marked by a peculiar habit of gold and purple. The less fortunate
nobles, who lamented the loss of their king, and envied the honors of
their equals, were provoked to negotiate their peace and pardon at the
Persian court; and returning, with their followers, to the palace of
Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes for their lawful sovereign. About thirty
years afterwards, Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes, fell
under the displeasure of the haughty and capricious nobles of Armenia;
and they unanimously desired a Persian governor in the room of an
unworthy king. The answer of the archbishop Isaac, whose sanction they
earnestly solicited, is expressive of the character of a superstitious
people. He deplored the manifest and inexcusable vices of Artasires; and
declared,