Gregorids

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The Gregorids were a great Armenian aristocratic family of antiquity, taking their name from the most famous member of the house - Gregory the Illuminator († c. 330) - who was the apostle of the Armenians and the first Catholicos ( patriarch ) of the Armenian Apostolic Church . It flourished from the end of the 3rd century to the beginning of the 5th century AD.

The family was of Parthian origin and descended from the Suren-Pahlav dynasty, a side branch of the Arsacids who ruled Persia and Armenia.

origin

The oldest known progenitor of the Gregorids was Anak Suren-Pahlav , who made a place in Armenian history through a little edifying act, since he was the king on behalf of the Sassanid "king of kings" of the Persian Empire , Shapur I , his relatives of Armenia Trdat II. (Tiridates II.) murdered around 252 and thus initiated the conquest of Armenia by the Sassanid Empire . As a kind of atonement, his descendants served as patriarchs and saints of the Armenian Church for over a hundred years.

The Anaks family, the House of Suren-Pahlav, were themselves a distant branch of the Parthian Arsacid dynasty, which ruled from 247 BC. BC to AD 224 as "kings of kings" ruled the Persian Empire and from AD 54 to AD 428 as kings ruled historical Greater Armenia .

The most important possessions of the Suren-Pahlav were in Sakestan - today on both sides of the Iranian-Afghan border - whereby they regularly ruled the province of Sistan in eastern Iran as governors . The house enjoyed special privileges. So his head had the right to crown the Parthian great kings of Persia from the house of the Arsacids. The office of military commander-in-chief was hereditary in the family, so that his official title “Surena” was borrowed from the family name.

A relative - and possible ancestor of the Gregorids - was the general Surenas (* c. 84 BC, † c. 52 BC), the military leader of the Parthian Empire , who died in 53 BC. Defeated the Roman army under Marcus Licinius Crassus in the famous battle of Carrhae (today Harran , a city and a district of the Turkish province of Şanlıurfa ).

Role of the Gregorids

The Gregorids took second place in the Kingdom of Greater Armenia after the ruling Arsacids , as they held the highest ecclesiastical office, that of the Catholicos (Patriarch) of the Armenian Church for five generations - and for over a hundred years - from the beginning of the third century to the death of the last Patriarchs of this house 437/439 exercised, as it were, an inheritance, with the son following the father and the brother following the brother.

This was achieved through a special procedure in which all male family members studied theology, married in their early youth, had children, but later - as soon as the possibility of a successor to the office of Catholicos arose - foregoing family life in order to succeed to the highest church office to be able to compete.

The Gregorids owed their great influence not only to their origin and spiritual dignity, but also to their position as secular princes who ruled the regions of Acilisene (Hachdeanq / Hashteank), Taron- Ashtishat (West Taron) and Bagravandene (Bagrevand). There was also a multiple marriage with the kings of Armenia from the house of the Arsacids.

The Gregorids thereby formed a parallel dynasty, which often cooperated with the ruling Arsacids, but was occasionally in open conflict with them.

The Gregorids went out in the male line in the year 439 with the death of the last Catholicos from the house of the Gregorids, Isaac the Great , whereby the extensive property over his heir-daughter Sahakanoysh fell to the house Mamikonian , whose position in the first row of the Armenian aristocracy was massive was reinforced.

Family table

According to A. Wagner and Christian Settipani, the family table of the Gregorids can be sketched as follows:

(A) Anak Suren-Pahlav († c. 252) ⚭ Okohe Ne

Son:

(B) St. Gregory the Illuminator , Catholicos of Armenia (314 - c. 327), saint , († c. 330), Prince of the Gregorian domains (Acilisene (Hachdeanq), Taraun-Ashtishat (West Taron) Bagravandene (Bagrevand ) Etc.
⚭ Mariam Ne, daughter of a David
2 sons of Gregory the Illuminator:
(C1) St. Aristakes I , Catholicos of Armenia, Prince of the Gregorian domains (320 - 327), saint
(C2) St. Vartanes I , Catholicos of Armenia (327 - 342), Prince of the Gregorian domains, saint
2 sons of Vartanes:
(D1) St. Grigoris (* c. 302, † 343), Catholicos of Albania (Aghwank) and of Iberia (both in the Caucasus ) (c. 327 to 343 AD), martyr and saint
⚭ Ne
(Children die young)
(D2) Husik I. (Hesychus), Catholicos of Armenia (342 - 348), prince of the Gregorian domains
⚭ Ne, Princess of Armenia from the House of the Arsacids, T. v. Trdat III. (Tiran (Helios)) Tiridates III. "The great", "the saint", first Christian king of Greater Armenia and the Ashken, a princess of the Ossetians
2 sons of Husik I .:
(E1) Pap, deacon, general, prince of the Gregorian domains, † 348/53
⚭ 1.) 317 Varazdukt, princess of Armenia, daughter of Chosrau III. "The little" king of Greater Armenia (330 - 339)
⚭ 2.) Ne, a noblewoman from the province of Taron
Pap's son from 2nd marriage
(F) Vrik, Prince of the Gregorian House
(E2) Atanakines (* c. 315, † 348/353), deacon, general, prince of the Gregorian domains
⚭ Bambischen, princess of Armenia from the house of the Arsacids (* c. 315), daughter of Chosrau III. "The little one", King of Greater Armenia (330 - 339)
Son of Atanakines:
(F) St. Nerses I the Great , Catholicos of Armenia (353 - 373), prince of the Gregorian domains
⚭ Sandukt Mamikonian , daughter of Vardan I. Mamikonian, prince of the Mamikonids cl. C. 350 - 365
Son of St. Narses:
(G) St. Isaac the Great (Sahak Partev), Catholicos of Armenia (387-428), prince of the Gregorian domains
⚭ Ne
Daughter of Isaac the great:
(H) Sahakanoysch (* c. 385), princess of the house of the Gregorids, heiress of the Gregorid domains
⚭ Hamazasp Mamikonian , 416 "Sparapet" (commander in chief) of the Armenian armed forces, heir to the Gregorian domains, cl. C. 387 - 432. He was the closer progenitor of the Mamikonian house, whose descendants passed the legacy of the Gregorids on not only to the Bagratids but also to Byzantine families.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abraham Terian: Patriotism and Piety in Armenian Christianity. The Early Panegyrics on Saint Gregory. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood NY 2005, ISBN 0-88141-293-7 , p. 76.
  2. ^ A b Cyril Toumanoff: Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Georgetown University Press, Washington DC 1963, p. 218.
  3. ^ Anthony Wagner: Pedigree and Progress. Essays in the genealogical interpretation of history. Phillimore, London et al. 1975, ISBN 0-85033-198-6 , p. 63 and p. 195. (Pedigree 36)
  4. ↑ VG Lukonin: Political, Social and Administrative Institutions. In: Ehsan Yarshater: Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 3, 2. Cambridge UP, London 1983, pp. 681-747.
  5. ↑ a b Anthony Wagner: Pedigree and Progress. Essays in the genealogical interpretation of history. Phillimore, London et al. 1975, ISBN 0-85033-198-6 , Pedigree 36 on p. 195.
  6. ↑ Christian Settipani: Nos Ancêtres de l'Antiquité. Editions Christian, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-86496-050-6 , pp. 58, 66
  7. ^ Anthony Wagner: Pedigree and Progress. Essays in the genealogical interpretation of history. Phillimore, London et al. 1975, ISBN 0-85033-198-6 , Pedigree 36.
  8. ↑ Christian Settipani: Nos Ancêtres de l'Antiquité. Editions Christian, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-86496-050-6 , p. 55

literature

  • René Grousset : Histoire de l'Arménie - des origines á 1071. Payot, Paris 1973.
  • Victor Langlois : Collection des historiens Anciens et Modernes de l'Armenie. Firmin Didot, Paris, 1869.
  • Christian Settipani : Nos Ancêtres de l'Antiquité. Editions Christian, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-86496-050-6 .
  • Cyril Toumanoff : Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Georgetown University Press, Washington DC 1963.
  • Gabriele Winkler: Our Present Knowledge of the History of Agat'angelos and its Oriental Versions. In: Revue des études arméniennes. 16, 1980, ISSN  0080-2549 , pp. 125-141.