Armenia's conversion to Christianity (to the early 4th century)

In the first centuries of the Christian era the Armenian people lived on the Armenian Plateau around three great lakes, Van, Sevan, and Urmia, south of the Caucasian Mountains. This region, previously inhabited by the Urartians, had been home to the Armenians already for about six hundred years. By this time the Armenians had reached an advanced stage in their national integration, though the process had not been completed yet. There were still various tribes who spoke separate dialects living in the inaccessible ranges of the Taurus Mountains. In the first centuries AD most of the territories inhabited by the Armenians belonged to the Kingdom of Armenia, which had passed the peak of its erstwhile grandeur and was set on a path of gradual decline. The Roman Empire graciously tolerated kings of the Arsacid (Arshakuni) dynasty (which also ruled in neighbouring Persia) on the throne of Armenia. But the situation changed in 224, when a new dynasty, the Sassanids, came to power in Persia in outcome of a coup. The new lords of Persia wanted to restore their empire to the power it had enjoyed under the Achaemenids. Armenia, which was located at a strategic point between Rome and Persia, became the object of a bitter power struggle and military conflict between the two rivals. In 251–253 the Persians gained the upper hand, and for almost the rest of the century Armenia was under their hegemony, though it was allowed to retain its status as a kingdom, with members of the Arsacid dynasty installed as “Great Kings of Armenia.” Despite its apparent independence, in reality Armenia was now a province of Persia and despite its official territorial integrity in fact within its borders there was a large number of semi-independent principalities ruled by aristocratic (nakharar) families holding hereditary offices of state and having their own private armies. Some of the nakharars even used the royal title of Melik. The nakharars and their clients, preserved the legacy of the Armenian national culture and looked back with nostalgia to the times of the now exiled Arsacids, hoping to recover their former privileges. Politically the nakharars and their followers were not at all a trustworthy group, shifting their allegiance between Rome and Persia.