to Seleucus, they acquiesced in the arrangement. It was
not until Antiochus the Great suffered his great defeat at the hands of
the Romans (B.C. 190) that Armenia bestirred itself, and, after probably
four and a half centuries of subjection, became once more an independent
power. Even then the movement seems to have originated rather in the
ambition of a chief than in a desire for liberty on the part of
the people. Artaxias had been governor of the Greater Armenia under
Antiochus, and seized the opportunity afforded by the battle of Magnesia
to change his title of satrap into that of sovereign. No war followed.
Antiochus was too much weakened by his reverses to make any attempt to
reduce Artaxias or recover Armenia; and the nation obtained autonomy
without having to undergo the usual ordeal of a bloody struggle. When at
the expiration of five-and-twenty years Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus
the Great, determined on an effort to reconquer the lost province, no
very stubborn resistance was offered to him. Artaxias was defeated and
made prisoner in the very first year of the war (B.C. 165), and Armenia
seems to have passed again under the sway of the Seleucidae.

It would seem that matters remained in this state for the space of about
fifteen or sixteen years. When, however, Mithridates I. (Arsaces VI.),
about B.C. 150, had overrun the eastern provinces of Syria, and made
himself master in succession of Media, Elymais, and Babylonia, the
revolutionary movement excited by his successes reached Armenia, and the
standard of independence was once more raised in that country. According
to the Armenian historians, an Arsacid prince, Wagharshag or Valarsaces,
was established as sovereign by the influence of the Parthian monarch,
but was allowed to rule independently. A reign of twenty-two years is
assigned to this prince, whose kingdom is declared to have reached from
the Caucasus to Nisibis, and from the Caspian to the Mediterranean. He
was succeeded by his son, Arshag (Arsaces), who reigned thirteen years,
and was, like his father, active and warlike, contending chiefly with
the people of Pontus. At his death the crown descended to his son,
Ardashes, who is probably the Ortoadistus of Justin.

Such were the antecedents of Armenia when Mithridates II., having
given an effectual check to the progress of the Scythians in the east,
determined to direct his arms towards the west, and to attack the
dominions of his relative, the thi