Note 1 — Chapter V · FROM VAN TO BITLIS

For the history of the mediæval kings of Vaspurakan who flourished in the tenth century, I would refer my reader to Vol. I. Ch. XVIII. of the present work, to the second volume of Chamchean (History of Armenia, translated by Avdall, Calcutta, 1827, pp. 65 seq.) and to Saint Martin’s translation of the history of John Katholikos, who was an eye-witness of the events which he records during this period, and one of the principal actors in them (Paris, 1841. See the index, sub voce Gagig). The vivid narrative of the last of these writers transports us into that distant age. The eagle which was the emblem of the princes of the Artsruni dynasty appears to have been connected with the ancient prerogative of their family to be the bearers of the golden eagle before the king (see Saint Martin, Mémoires sur l’Arménie, vol. i. p. 424). I have already related how the present ruler of the Armenian Church has taken revenge upon the last of the kings of this dynasty for his cowardly cession of his dominions to the Byzantine emperor (see Vol. I. Ch. XVI. p. 237). ↑