Материал: Payaslian S., The History of Armenia From the Origins to the Present

home he wished to leave no doubt that he was the king of Armenia and that sources of patronage emanated from him according to degrees of loyalty and goodwill.

While domestic politics clearly facilitated centralization of power under Smbat’s rule, international struggles for power did not afford him the luxury of a peaceful reign. Byzantium was determined to establish its hegemony in the east, from Asia Minor to as far east as the Caucasus Mountains, and in the Middle East as far south as Egypt. In 966 Byzantium captured Taron, west of Lake Van, and in 1000, under the emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025), established its rule in Tayk, farther to the north. Constantinople’s territorial aspirations directly clashed with those of both the Muslim Caliphate in the Middle East and the invading Seljuks from Central Asia.53

A crisis confronting Smbat II early in his reign involved the conflict between Basil II and Bardas Sclerus, one of the leaders of the opposition movement in the east based at Melitene, who had his own ambitions to become emperor. Sclerus was intensely hostile to Basil II and his military stationed in the Anti-Taurus. Smbat II at first attempted to remain neutral in their conflict, but the spreading hostilities so rapidly altered the geopolitical situation as to render moot any claims to neutrality. Subsequent events considerably undermined the power of both the Bagratuni and Artsruni houses. As the Byzantine military clashed with Sclerus in the western parts of Armenia, Muslim forces escalated their military campaigns toward Dvin and Ani. In retaliation for the seizure of a fortress in Shirak by Smbat II, his uncle, King Mushegh at Kars, urged the Persian Sallarid emir Abul Haijan (Ablhaj) of Dvin to attack Ani. The campaign surprised Smbat II and the Armenian military command, but as Abul Haijan’s forces advanced to the Bagratuni capital in 982 and to nearby Horomos—the latter also famous for its church architecture—they were pushed back at Ayrarat by Abu Dulaf, the emir of Goghtn. Before the conflict escalated into a regional war, the curopalate (governor) David of Tayk (Tao) of the Iberian Bagratuni family intervened and reconciled Smbat II and Mushegh. The death in 990 of the Bagratuni monarch terminated the Ani-Kars reconciliation.54

David of Tayk had also supported Basil II during the first wave of rebellions by Bardas Sclerus between 976 and 979. The emperor had amply rewarded him, granting David the entire region extending from the western boundaries of the Bagratuni kingdom to the south and southwestern areas of Tayk, encompassing the kleisura (military district) of Khaldoharidz, the district of Theodosiopolis (Karin; Erzerum) and its fortress, and the provinces of Basean, Hark, and Apahunik, the latter including the city of Manazkert, at the time the center of the Kurdish Marwanid emirs, who had captured it from the Kaysites. David forced the withdrawal of the Marwanids from the region in 992–993 and, with the

support of the Bagratuni kings at Ani, Kars, and Iberia, brought Armenians and Iberians to replace the Muslims.55 David miscalculated Basil’s reaction, however, when in 989/90 he supported the revolution against the emperor. Having quelled the movement, Basil II demanded that David sign an agreement providing for the return to Byzantium, upon the curopalate’s death, all of the lands awarded to him in the aftermath of the earlier revolution in 976 to 979.

David died in 1000/01 under suspicious circumstances. Contemporary author Asoghik states that David died of old age on Easter day in the year 1000. The eleventh-century Armenian historian Aristakes Lastiverttsi and the twelfth-century chronicler Matteos Urhayetsi (Matthew of Edessa), however, maintain that certain members of the Georgian nobility who had been promised rewards by Basil II poisoned David during Holy Communion. Urhayetsi adds that David realized that he had been poisoned and took antidotes immediately after returning to his palace. Bishop Ilarios, with similar expectations for rewards either from Basil II or from the Georgian leaders, followed David to the palace soon thereafter. Finding him asleep, he placed a pillow over his mouth and suffocated him. The Byzantine emperor annexed David’s territories in accordance with the arrangement of 990.56

KING GAGIK I AT ANI

Gagik I (r. 990–1017/20) enjoyed enormous power and prestige because of his personal capabilities but also because he inherited a prosperous economy and powerful military from his able predecessors. Gagik, ever masterful in the utilization of personalities and bureaucracies, cultivated close familial ties with the nakharar houses. He took for wife Princess Katramidé, daughter of King Vasak of Siunik. His daughter, Khushush, married King Senekerim (Senekerim-Hovhannes) Artsruni of Vaspurakan. Tigran Andzevatsi of the Artsruni house in Vaspurakan permitted his daughter Sofi to marry Vahram Pahlavuni, the nakharar house that led the sparapetutiun under the Bagratunis.57 During Gagik’s reign, no significant opposition appeared to his rule. The principal competitors against the Bagratunis, the Artsrunis of Vaspurakan, could not compete for hegemony over Armenia as they came under sustained attack by the Daylamites and Turkomans and accepted Byzantine protectorate. The kingdom of Siunik, weakened by invasions from the East, granted its lands to Gagik as protectorate. King Abas of Kars, Gagik’s cousin, showed little interest in the struggle for power. Two other leaders, the king’s nephew Abusahl of Kogovit and King Davit Anhoghin (the Landless) of Tashir-Dzoraget (Lori), who sought to establish their own independent

kingdoms, posed the greatest challenge to Gagik but were eventually forced into submission. It was unfortunate for the Bagratuni kingdom that Gagik’s death created a power vacuum and led to hostilities between his sons, Hovhannes-Smbat and Ashot.58

Both sons had been active in the affairs of state in various capacities, and immediately after their father died they became mired in a malicious struggle for power. The responsibility for the unfolding crisis rested to a large extent, if not solely, on Gagik’s shoulders, for he had bequeathed the crown to both sons on equitable terms, in theory establishing a diarchical royalty, whereby each son would hold equal power and territory—an arrangement that in fact proved impracticable. The acrimonious affair eventually ended after the intensive mediation by Catholicos Petros I Getadardz and influential members of the nobility. Gagik’s eldest son, Hovhannes-Smbat (r. 1017/20–1041), inherited the key territories including the capital Ani, Shirak, the plain of Ayrarat, and Aragatsotn, while the inheritance of his brother Ashot, now King Ashot IV (r. 1017/20–1041) with his capital at Talin, remained confined to peripheral lands but with the proviso that he succeed his brother and acquire the inheritance in its entirety after Hovhannes-Smbat’s death.59

Unfortunately for Hovhannes-Smbat, Basil II turned his attention to Armenia and Georgia upon his conquest of Bulgaria in 1019. The following year Basil traveled to Theodosiopolis to survey his potential territorial acquisitions and demanded that the Bagratuni king grant him the key cities of Ani and Kars. Basil also launched a military campaign against Georgia, drawing Hovhannes-Smbat into the conflict on the side of the latter. Basil II defeated both forces and was posed to attack across the regions of Her and Shirak when, in the winter of 1021–1022, the Armenian king dispatched a delegation headed by Catholicos Petros I Getadardz to Trebizond to negotiate peace. Basil demanded that Hovhannes-Smbat in his will grant his entire domain to Byzantium. The Armenian delegation, under extreme pressure with instructions from Ani not to give occasion for disagreements, consented and agreed to bequeath Hovhannes-Smbat’s crown and royal domain to the Byzantine emperor. Contemporary Armenians labeled the Trebizond Will as gir korstutyan (the “writ of loss”).60 This act gave rise to wide opposition to HovhannesSmbat, severely criticizing him for imposing such an accord upon the kingdom. Ashot IV and Catholicos Petros, who had served as his envoy in Trebizond, led the opposition, and the Bagratuni king reacted to the threat by resorting to force and arrests. Fearing for his life, Catholicos Petros fled to Vaspurakan in 1037, but a few years later he returned to the capital with the king’s personal guarantees for his safety. Nevertheless, the authorities arrested the catholicos as he was entering Ani.61

No one was as perturbed by the Trebizond Will as Hovhannes-Smbat’s brother Ashot IV. Despite their agreement, Ashot had refused to relinquish his aspirations to capture the throne of Ani and on occasion even resorted to military invasion and instigation of armed rebellion against his brother. The onerous ramifications of the Trebizond agreement for the Bagratuni kingdom were obvious. For Ashot, however, the gravity of the matter was intensely personal as the accord negated the succession agreement he had sealed with his brother in a rare mood of reconciliation. Ashot, adamantly insisting on his right to succession, traveled to Constantinople to petition for a reconsideration of the Trebizond Will and to Baghdad to secure military and diplomatic support from the caliphate. No evidence suggests that he succeeded in directing the interest of the caliphate to the matter; in Constantinople, the imperial government agreed to extend military support but only against the Muslim emirs who repeatedly invaded and seized Ashot’s ever-shrinking territory. The political implications of such support against the emirs did not escape him; the Byzantine emperor sought to exploit the situation to contain the Muslim armies now advancing into the territories of Hovhannes-Smbat, the same lands promised to Basil II under the Trebizond Will. The emperor had in fact relegated Ashot IV to a mere holder of a buffer state, while continuing to recognize Hovhannes-Smbat as the king of Ani. Having exhausted all other means to win his father’s throne, Ashot IV resorted to trickery. He dispatched news to Ani reporting his purportedly failing health and invited Hovhannes-Smbat to Talin to make fraternal amends. When his brother arrived, Ashot arrested him and ordered a vassal, Apirat Pahlavuni, to execute him. The latter refused and instead freed Hovhannes-Smbat. Soon thereafter, whether because of fate or foul play, both Hovhannes-Smbat and Ashot IV died in 1041. The former had no sons, and therefore the kingdom was left to Ashot’s sixteen-year-old son Gagik. Ironically, Ashot was buried in Ani, the city he so intensely coveted but never ruled.62

Upon ascending to the throne at Ani, Gagik II (r. 1041/2–1045) found the Armenian leadership deeply divided on matters of foreign policy. In hopes of reconciliation, he released Catholicos Petros from prison. The Byzantine emperors Michael IV the Paphlagonian (r. 1034–1041) and Michael V the Calaphates (r. 1041–1042) demanded the Armenian territories, as stipulated by the Trebizond Will, but the pro-Gagik faction, led by Sparapet Vahram Pahlavuni, refused to acknowledge such an obligation. The anti-Gagik faction, headed by the regent vestis (steward) Sargis Haykazn of Siunik and with a strong western orientation favorable to Byzantium and personal aspirations to control Armenia, expressed concern that failure to comply with the terms of the Trebizond Will could lead to warfare.63 In 1044 Gagik II was invited to Constantinople by Emperor