Battle of Avarayr

Since 428 Armenia had been a Sasanian province under a governor (marzban). Yazdegerd II (438–457) pressed the Armenians to break with the church of the Roman Empire — to join the Church of the East or simply to become Zoroastrians; his chief minister, Mihr-Narseh, sent them a letter calling on them to abandon their faith. A council of clergy and nobles at Artashat rejected the demand. Summoned to the royal court in 450, Vardan Mamikonian, the marzban Vasak Siuni and other nobles outwardly accepted Zoroastrianism; but meanwhile the clergy had raised the people, the nobles renounced their forced conversion on their return, and the country rose in revolt. The rebels appealed to the Eastern Roman Empire, but Theodosius II was occupied with the threat from Attila, and his successor Marcian refused to help.

At Avarayr, in Vaspurakan, the Armenians met a much larger Persian army with war elephants. Yeghishe, the historian of the war, puts the Armenian army at 66,000 men; such figures are probably exaggerated. Vasak Siuni, whose sons were held as hostages, had gone over to the Persians. Vardan and eight other commanders were killed; according to Yeghishe and Ghazar Parpetsi, 1,036 rebels and 3,544 men on the Persian side fell. The survivors withdrew to mountain strongholds and fought on as guerrillas; thirty-five nobles were arrested and sent to serve on the north-eastern frontier of Iran, returning only twelve years later.

The victory cost the Persians dearly. Yazdegerd dismissed Vasak and, although the catholicos and a number of priests were executed, in the end let the Armenians keep their faith; the struggle was finally settled in 484, when after a new revolt led by Vahan Mamikonian the Treaty of Nvarsak guaranteed freedom of worship in Armenia. The main sources are the Armenian historians Yeghishe and Ghazar Parpetsi. The date is given as 26 May or 2 June 451. The Armenian Church venerates Vardan and his companions as saints and commemorates them on the Thursday before Lent.