Yervand

As Yervand grew up, he became a brave and sturdy man. He entered the service of Sanatruk, who appointed him supervisor and leader. He worked with devotion, became prominent and first-class among all the ministers, and won everyone over with his humility and generosity. When Sanatruk died, all the ministers united and crowned Yervand king, but without being crowned by the Bagratunis. Yervand was endowed with a magical evil look, or as they say, the “evil eye.” Every morning, at daybreak, the royal servants would hold large boulders in front of Yervand; the boulders would burst from his evil gaze.

Yervand, Artashes, and Smbat

After becoming king, Yervand, fearing that Sanatruk's children might conspire against him, massacred them all. Only one small boy, Artashes, remained from Sanatruk. His nurse took him and fled toward the Her province, to the shepherds of Makhzazan. From there, she sent word to Artashes' tutor, Smbat Bagratuni, the son of Byurat Bagratuni, who lived in the village of Smbatavan in the Sper province.

When Smbat learned the sad news of Sanatruk's death and the massacre of his children, he took his two daughters, Smbatanuysh and Smbatuhi, placed them in the fortress of Bayberd, and appointed guards to protect them. He himself, with one of his wives and a small group of men, set out to search for the boy Artashes.

Learning of Smbat's intentions, Yervand sent men to find and arrest him. Smbat found the boy Artashes, but fearing pursuit, he went into hiding. Disguised and on foot, they wandered for a long time in the mountains and plains, sheltered in shepherds' tents, and ate with the shepherds until, finding a suitable moment, he crossed into Persia and went to the Persian King Darius. Since Smbat was a brave man and well-acquainted with the Persians, he was granted great honor by the king, equal to that of the Persian commanders. The child also lived under conditions equal to the king's own sons. The king even allocated special places for Artashes and his children to live in the Bat and Oghom provinces.

Artashes' escape greatly worried Yervand. He was constantly tormented by the thought that Smbat was plotting evil against his kingdom from Persia. When awake, doubts gnawed at his heart; he slept very restlessly, and when asleep, he had terrible dreams. So he decided to employ all possible means to prevent the threatening danger.

He sent envoys to the Persian king with great gifts, trying to persuade him to hand Artashes over to him.

“My kinsman, my relative,” he wrote to the Persian king, “why are you keeping that Median Artashes, nourishing an opponent to me and my kingdom? Why are you listening to the words of that bandit Smbat, who claims that Artashes is Sanatruk's son? He is trying to turn the son of shepherds and herdsmen into an Arsacid, falsely claiming that he is your kinsman and relative. He is not Sanatruk's son; Smbat was deceived and found a Median boy, and is raising a noise for nothing.”

In the same way, Yervand repeatedly sent envoys to Smbat, saying, “Why are you suffering so much in vain, deceived by the nurse, and raising that Median boy as an opponent to me?”

And every time, Yervand received unpleasant answers from both of them.

Seeing no other way out, Yervand sent men to Bayberd, massacred the brave guards of the fortress, captured Smbat's daughters, and took them to be imprisoned in the Ani fortress.

The Construction of Yervandashat, Tsndots Forest, and Yervandakert

During Yervand's reign, the Yeraskh River had already moved quite far from the hill of Armavir. When the winter was long, the cold winds blowing from the north completely froze the river's tributary, and the royal court was deprived of drinking water. Troubled by this, Yervand moved the royal court from Armavir to a solid rocky hill on the western side, which was surrounded by the Yeraskh on one side and the Akhuryan River flowing in front. Yervand fortified the hill with walls, and inside the walls, in many places, he had the rocks cut, creating excavations that reached to the bottom of the hill and were leveled with the ground surface, so that the river waters began to flow into the excavation and supply the city with drinking water.

Then Yervand built a citadel, reinforced it with high walls, erected copper gates within the walls, and installed iron stairs from the bottom to the top, to the gate; he created secret traps on the staircase between the steps. And if anyone wanted to betray the king and secretly climb those stairs, they would be immediately caught. The stairs were two-sided: one side was called “daytime” and served for the comings and goings of royal servants and all courtiers in general; the other was called “nighttime” and was specially built for the purpose of catching conspirators.

Yervand also planted a large forest on the north side of the river, walled it, and turned it into a hunting preserve, leaving in it fast-running deer, hinds, stag, wild goats, and boars, which grew and multiplied and filled the forest, and Yervand hunted them and amused himself during his royal hunting days. Yervand named this hunting preserve Tsndots Forest.

Yervand, again after himself, built Yervandakert—an extraordinary estate, with a beautiful and lovely design. He populated the large valley with people, built bright buildings, as luminous as the pupil of the eye. Around these populated buildings, he landscaped with flower gardens and groves, like the circle of the eye surrounding the pupil. And the many orchards he planted were like beautiful, thick eyelashes, the arched position of which on the north side truly reminded one of the eyebrows of beautiful maidens. The flatness of the fields lying in the south was like the beautiful smoothness of jaws, the river was like a mouth, and the terraces of its twin banks were like two-part lips. And this beautifully designed complex seemed to have turned its sleepless gaze toward the royal plateau.

Smbat and Artashes' Fight Against Yervand

At that time, the boy Artashes had already become a mature man in Persia. His tutor Smbat, with his military skill, performed many brave deeds in favor of Persia and earned the warm sympathy of the Aryan ministers. The ministers interceded with their king to grant Smbat rewards according to his desire. The king gladly agreed and instructed the ministers:

— Find out what that brave man desires.

— Your immortal benevolence, — said the ministers, — Smbat desires nothing else but that you establish your kinsman Artashes, the son of Sanatruk, who is deprived of his kingdom, back into his kingdom.

The King of Kings agreed, handed the forces of Atropatene and a part of the Assyrian forces to Smbat, and instructed them to take Artashes and establish him on his ancestral throne.

Yervand was in the Utik province when news reached him that Smbat was coming at him with a large force from the Persian king to hand the kingdom to the boy Artashes.

Upon hearing the news, Yervand appointed some of his ministers in Utik as partisans, and he himself hurriedly returned to his city, gathering a large army from the sides of the Armenians, Georgians, Caesarea, and Mesopotamia.

It was springtime, so all the troops soon gathered in Yervandashat. With the multitude of his infantry, Argam, the head of the Muratsyan clan, descended from Azhdahak, also arrived, to whom Yervand had returned the throne of the second place in his kingdom. Yervand honored Argam and all the ministers with great honors and rewards, and paid all the arriving soldiers generously.

At that time, Smbat, with the boy Artashes, was hurriedly approaching the borders of Utik with his army. Here, the partisan ministers left by Yervand came to meet Smbat with their troops and joined him. When this news reached the other Armenian ministers, unrest broke out among them; they became demoralized and thought of separating from Yervand, especially since the expected military aid from Rome was delayed. The more the ministers became demoralized, the more Yervand increased the rewards, distributing his treasures to each one by one. And the more he distributed, the more hateful he became, because everyone knew well that this did not stem from generosity, but from fear. Those to whom he distributed much did not like him, and those to whom he distributed little became his enemies.

Smbat, with the boy Artashes, arrived and reached the shores of Lake Geghama and hurried to reach the camp of Yervand's troops a day earlier. Not valuing the multitude of Yervand's troops, Smbat was slightly afraid of Muratsyan Argam, because he was a brave man and had many spearmen under his command.

Yervand had camped with his army more than three hundred stadia north of Yervandashat, on the Akhuryan River. Learning of the approach of Smbat's troops, Yervand led his multitude of troops against them and formed a front not far from his camp. Artashes sent envoys to the Muratsyan patriarch, giving many oaths that he would leave him all his privileges and possessions received from Yervand, and would even double them, if only he would abandon Yervand and leave.

When the insignia of Artashes' vanguard units appeared in front of Yervand's army front, Argam took his multitude of infantry and moved aside. At that time, Smbat ordered copper trumpets to be sounded as a sign of war, and, leading his army front forward, rushed upon Yervand's troops like an eagle on a flock of partridges. The Armenian ministers, who formed the right and left wings of Yervand's army with their regiments, joined Smbat's army.

Yervand's remaining troops, defeated, fled.

Yervand also fled from the battlefield. He covered many stadia on horseback, changing horses at the inns established from the camp to his city, riding, and continuing his flight. Smbat pursued Yervand closely, chasing him by night to the city gate.

And the Median troops, who had passed the encampment of Yervand's regiment, camped on the corpses in the darkness. Artashes also arrived and reached Yervand's round tent made of leather and canvas, got off, and spent the night there. In the morning, he authoritatively instructed the troops to bury the killed, and he called the valley where the Median troops had camped over the corpses, Marats Marg, and the place of the battle, Yervandavan, that is, the place to drive away Yervand.

Artashes moved with the army toward Yervandashat. Before noon, he reached Yervand's estate and ordered the troops to shout in unison “Mar amat,” which in Armenian means “The Mar came.” With this, Artashes reminded them of the insult and enmity that Yervand, harboring toward him, considered him a Mar and wanted to make the Persian king and Smbat believe the same. Because of this unison exclamation of the soldiers, Yervand's estate was subsequently called Marmet, probably by Artashes' will, so that Yervand's name would be forever removed from that estate.

Smbat, pursuing Yervand by night, arrived with his small detachment at the gates of Yervandashat, held the city door, waiting for Artashes to come. When Artashes arrived at the city with the whole army, the attack on the city began. The resistance did not last long; not enduring the pressure of Artashes' brave men, the people of the fortress surrendered and opened the city door. One of the soldiers entering the fortress hit Yervand on the head with a mace, shattered his head, and scattered his brain on the floor. But Artashes, remembering that there was a mixture of blood of the Arsacid dynasty in Yervand, ordered him to be buried and a tombstone to be erected over him.