Arshakid Mausoleum

"... They came and besieged the secure fortress of Angegh (which is in the Angeghtun district), for at [that place] were the mausoleums of many of the Armenian Arsacid kings, and many treasures had been stored and kept there from [our] ancestors, [g149] from ancient times on. So, [the Persians] went and besieged that fortress. But when they were unable to take it because of the security of the place, they departed. They passed by many fortresses because they were unable to fight with the strongholds. However, the secure fortress of Ani in the Daranaghi district was betrayed [156] into their hands, because the malefactor Meruzhan devised a stratagem against this secure fortress. [The Persians] climbed up, destroyed the walls, and had countless treasures lowered down from the fortress. They opened the tombs of the first kings of the Armenians, of the Arsacid braves, and took the bones of the kings into captivity. However, they were unable to open only the tomb of King Sanatruk because of its colossal, gigantic firm construction. So they left that place and went on elsewhere raiding, advancing through the Basen areas seeking to come up behind the troops of the king of Armenia.

While all this was taking place, the bad news reached King Arshak. They said to him: "Behold, while you were sitting in Atrpatakan expecting the enemy to come forth, they passed through the side, destroyed the land, and now are coming against you." When King Arshak of Armenia and his general, Vassak, heard this they reviewed their troops. At that time under general Vassak's disposition were some 60,000 select and martial men who were united in war with one mind and one heart to go and fight for their sons and wives, to give their lives for the land and for the districts of the land they inhabited, to fight for their church, for the oath of worship of their blessed churches, for the oath of faith in the [157] name of their God, and for their native Arsacid lords. For many people and even the bones of the dead kings had been seized from their own places and transferred to a foreign land.

The Sparapet Vassak with 60,000 troops advanced, turning about, [g150] leaving King Arshak in a secure spot somewhere in the Marac' country with attendants. Then [Vassak] himself came and reached the interior of Armenia, the district of Ayrarat. He found the Persian troops which had encamped en masse in the district of Ayrarat, resembling the sand on the seashore. Vassak and the brigade with him fell upon the army of the Persian king suddenly, at night. And they put all of the Persian troops to the sword. Only the King [Shapur II] was able to escape by a hairsbreadth and flee. [The Armenians] pursued the survivors and chased them beyond their borders, and retrieved from them much, countless loot, an inestimable amount. They put all [of the Persians] to the sword and retrieved from them the bones of their kings which the Persians were taking into captivity to the land of Persia. For they, in accordance with their pagan faith said: "We are taking the bones of the Armenian kings to our land so that the glory, fortune and bravery of the kings of this land will come to our land with the kings' bones". Vassak retrieved all [158] that had been captured from the land of Armenia. The bones of the Armenian kings which Vassak retrieved, they buried at the stronghold in the village called Aghtsk, in the Ayrarat district, which is located in one of the narrow crevices of the great Aragats mountain, [in a place] difficult to access..."