Mschesch II. Gnunin

Mschesch B Gnunin ( Armenian Մժեժ Բ Գնունին , French: Mejēj II Gnouni) or Greek : Mezezios Gnouni was an Armenian nobleman from the Gnouni and Marzban family (governor of the Byzantine Empire in Armenia) from 630 to 635.

Life

Starting in 622, Emperor Herakleios , who had been waging war against the Sassanid Empire since 614 , undertook some campaigns against Armenia in order to challenge the Persians. In the years that followed, Harakleios gradually took control of Armenia until the Persians asked for peace in June 629. Soon after, when he wintered in Gandja in 628 , he made one of his Armenian supporters, Mschesch Gnunin, a strategos .

In 628, the new king of the Sassanids, Kavadh II , Waras-Tiroz II appointed Bagratuni as Marzban of the Persian-controlled remainder of Armenia, while Herakleios Mschesch Gnounin appointed governor of Byzantine Armenia, with the task of re-establishing Byzantine orthodoxy in Armenia . Mschesch therefore urged the Armenian clergy and the Patriarch Ezra (Եզր Ա Փառաժնակերտցի) to give up the Armenian rite and to adhere to the Chalcedonian creeds, despite the measure that the Catholicosate of Dvin was established in the Byzantine part of Armenia and placed under a patriarch, who was appointed by Byzantium. A council for reconciliation between the Orthodox-Greek and the Apostolic-Armenian Church, which was held in Theodosiopolis (today's Erzurum ), was concluded by the fact that the discussions between Greeks and Armenians were concluded with a creed which was given by the emperor. This formula was in full agreement with the Armenian creed, but completely ignored the decisions of the (Greek) Council of Chalcedon. The reconciliation was sealed by a mass in which the Greeks accepted the Catholicos into their Orthodox community (632).

As a rival of Waras-Tiroz, Mschesch Gnunin slandered him against the Persian commander of Azerbaijan, Rôstahm , and demanded that the title of Marzban be removed from him, under the threat of rekindling the war between Byzantium and Persia. At the same time he sent his brother Garikhpet (Waras-Gnel) to arrest Waras-Tiroz, but this fled to Byzantium, where Herakleios uncovered the slander and enfeoffed him with the title of patrician . Since he was later involved in a plot against the emperor, Waras-Tiroz was exiled in 635. Mschesch Gnunin arrested another Nacharar involved in the conspiracy: David Saharuni . He sent him to Byzantium, where he was able to get rid of his chains, returned to Armenia and Mschesch Gnunin with the help of his own people attacked and killed together with Waras-Gnel.

swell

“Then came from Armenia the general of the Greek region, Mschesch Gnunin, who occupied the whole country within the above-mentioned borders. He told the Catholicos Ezr to go to the border region and be loyal to the emperor: "If not, we will make another Catholicos and you will exercise your power over the Persian regions." Since the Catholicos the country in from whom he exercised his power, he asked the king for a creed, and they immediately sent him the creed, written by the hand of the king, to discourage Nestorius and the Heresiarks; but the Council of Chalcedon was not anathematized. - Sebeos , Histoire d'Héraclius, chapter 29.

David Saharuni also participated in this conspiracy. Mschesch arrested him and sent him to the palace. On the way, however, he broke his irons and killed the men who accompanied him; he returned and united the Armenian troops. He attacked Mschesch Gnunin, the general of the Greek province, and killed him and Varaz Gnel Gnuni; then, with the acclamation and consent of all soldiers, he assumed the dignity of general. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Grousset 1947: 273-276.
2. ↑ Theophanes the Confessor, AM 6118.
3. ^ Settipani 2006: 325.
4. ↑ Grousset 1947: 282-284.
5. ↑ Grousset 1947: pp. 285–286.
6. ↑ en vint d'Arménie le général de la région grecque, Mzêz Gnuni, qui Occupa tout le pays selon les limites susmentionnées. Il dit au catholicos Ezr d'aller dans la région des frontières et de communier loyalement avec l'empereur, "sinon, nous nous ferons un autre catholicos, et toi tu exerceras ton pouvoir sur les régions perses". Comme le catholicos ne pouvait quitter le pays où s'exerçait son pouvoir, il demanda au roi une confession de foi et immédiatement on lui envoya le livre écrit de la main du roi anathématisent Nestorius [310] et les hérésiarques; mais le concile de Chalcédoine n'était pas anathématisé. Sebeos, Histoire d'Héraclius , chapitre 29. À ce complot avait pris part aussi David Saharuni; Mzêz l'arrêta et l'envoya au palais. En route, il brisa ses fers et tua les hommes qui l'accompagnaient; il revint et s'attacha les troupes arméniennes. Il attaque Mzêz Gnuni, général de la province grecque, frappe à mort, lui et Varaz Gnel Gnuni; puis il revêt la dignité de général avec l'assentiment et la bonne volonté de tous les soldiers. Sebeos, Histoire d'Héraclius , chap. 29

literature

• René Grousset, Histoire de l'Arménie des origines à 1071, Paris, Payot, 1947 (réimpr. 1973, 1984, 1995, 2008), 644 p., P. 273-276 and 281-286.
• Christian Settipani, Continuité des élites à Byzance durant les siècles obscurs. Les princes caucasiens et l'Empire du VIe au IXe siècle, Paris, de Boccard, 2006, 634 p. [détail des éditions] ( ISBN 978-2-7018-0226-8 ), p. 104 and 325.
• Cyrille Toumanoff, Les dynasties de la Caucasie chrétienne de l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle: Tables généalogiques et chronologiques, Rome, 1990, p. 507

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Ishkhan Ishkhanats' 630-635	David Saharuni