The fourteenth month of the Persian army’s siege of the impregnable Armenian fortress of Artager was underway, but it seemed that neither deprivation, generous promises, enemy threats, or even the exceptionally harsh winter of 367 could break the spirit of its defenders – Queen Parandzem and her eleven thousand brave companions…
However, something unforeseen happened: a sudden outbreak of the plague terrified those under siege! The disease was taking people by the hundreds!
Trying to hide the desperation of her situation from the enemy, the Queen herself toured the watchtowers every evening, inspiring the weakened, wounded warriors and helping them light fires, so that the Persians would not smell how much the ranks of the fortress defenders had thinned… All hope was for the assistance promised by Byzantium.
But, it did not arrive in time. Then, to save the lives of the few who had survived, Parandzem ordered the fortress gates to be opened and surrendered to the enemy… For nine days and nights, the Persians carried away the countless treasures of the Arshakid dynasty, hidden by the Queen in the fortress.
As for Parandzem herself, she was sent to the Shah – to Tizbon, to face a martyr’s death and … immortality.
Thus, sixteen centuries ago, the fate of the great Armenian Queen ended, whose image – praised by descendants and… tainted by malevolent gossip – still stimulates imagination and raises questions for which there is not yet a definitive answer.
Without claiming strict scientific approach, let us allow ourselves to turn the pages of her tragic life anew and unbiased, and let our hearts guide our conclusions…
However, the beginning of Parandzem’s life path, it seemed, did not foretell anything bad. Nature had endowed her with beautiful appearance and a kind disposition. Moreover, as the chronicles assert, Parandzem was distinguished by modesty, rare for a girl of such noble origin.
The future queen’s father was the influential Syunik Prince Andovk, whose possessions were second in size only to the royal ones. Her mother came from the illustrious Mamikonyan family, among the worthy representatives of which later the Saint Shushanik would also become famous…
Naturally, the parents dreamed of a worthy suitor for their beautiful daughter. He turned out to be the brilliant young Prince Gnel – the nephew of King Arshak the Second.
He grew up as a hostage at the Byzantine Court and had recently returned home thanks to a change in the political situation. Cheerful, sociable, with a touch of “European” polish, he immediately attracted everyone’s attention.
People admired him. They sympathized with him (his father – the older brother of King Arshak, Trdat – had been killed by Emperor Constans). Finally, they envied him. After all, his grandfather – King Tiridates, who had ceded the throne to his son Arshak due to sad circumstances, named his beloved grandson Gnel as the heir to his vast possessions.
The wedding was celebrated with truly royal splendor! Moreover, Gnel generously gifted the nakharars, which increased the ranks of his supporters and… sparked the jealousy of his cousin Tirit. He considered himself unjustly deprived by fate. Not only had their common grandfather Tiridates preferred his brother, but the beautiful Parandzem, whom Tirit was also passionately in love with, had become his wife.
Being secretive and vengeful by nature, he patiently waited for the noose of masterfully woven intrigue to tighten around his lucky rival, who was gradually being drawn into the political games of some nakharars, dissatisfied with the pro-Byzantine politics of Arshak the Second.
Fanning the young prince’s ambition, they suggested to him that by law he had a greater right to the Armenian throne than Arshak, who was also accused of being responsible for the death of Trdat… Tirit, of course, did not fail to inform the king about Gnel’s ambitious statements and threats to “avenge his father”.
Gnel was also accused of having the audacity to settle in his grandfather’s possessions – the province of Ayrarat, which had long been considered the domain of only the direct heir to the throne. An enraged Arshak the Second demanded that he, along with Parandzem, leave the borders of Ayrarat and move to one of the three provinces intended for the residence of other members of the royal family.
Gnel had no choice but to obey the order and settle farther from the Court with its intrigues. However, soon clouds gathered over his head again… The military victories of Persia strengthened the positions of the pro-Persian party of nakharars within Armenia.
King Arshak the Second felt the threat and decided to preempt the strike… As a sign that the king was supposedly no longer angry with Gnel, the young couple was invited to participate in the festivities held in the king’s domain – in Shaapivan.
Gnel and Parandzem arrived there on a Sunday, on the day of the beheading of John the Baptist. On the same day, on the orders of Arshak the Second, Gnel was captured and beheaded… The king, in this case, feigned inconsolable sorrow and commanded everyone around to cry and mourn the killed.
“And Parandzem,” writes Pavstos Buzand about this, “with her clothes torn on her chest, disheveled and mad with grief, cried loudly, causing everyone to shed tears. That’s when Arshak noticed her and set his sights on her… Then he ordered Tirit, who was in love with Parandzem, to be killed and married the widowed beauty.”
“But,” the chronicler continues, “as much as Arshak loved his wife, she hated him just as much, calling him ‘dark-skinned and hairy-bodied’. One can only guess what passions, worthy of Shakespeare’s pen, raged in the soul of the unfortunate woman forced to share a bed with the killer of her beloved husband, who also caused her physical disgust… But fate had its own way and in the prime of her strength and beauty Parandzem ascended to the Armenian throne…
Her further path – the path to Golgotha she had to walk not just as a woman, but as the Armenian Queen, and her fate from then on was inseparable from the fate of her country, her people… It was a difficult time for Armenia with strife and feuds, forced maneuvering between Persia and Byzantium, and desperate four-year resistance to the raids of Persian troops…
And when the Armenian king Arshak was treacherously imprisoned (and then executed) by Shah Shapur the Second, and the threat of Persian invasion loomed over Armenia, Queen Parandzem bravely took responsibility for her country and led the heroic defense, remaining in the people’s memory as an example of the greatness of spirit and patriotism of a true Armenian woman…
Her image has inspired more than one generation of freedom-loving Armenian women and has been reborn in our time in Artsakh in the feats of the female battalion “Parandzem”…
And yet – as painful as it is to admit – the bright memory of the Armenian queen is still overshadowed by the shadow of a heavy, and, as some researchers believe, unjust accusation… She, as Khorenatsi and Buzand assert, allegedly ordered a court priest named Mrdzhunik to poison the second wife of Arshak the Second – Olympia, by mixing poison in the bread and wine of the Holy Communion!
But can we consider the story of the chroniclers absolutely reliable, if one of them calls Parandzem the first, and the other – the second wife of King Arshak? Meanwhile, only in the light of the exact chronology of events can either be motivated or refuted the crime imputed to her.
What do we know about Olympia? It is known that the marital union with her (which lasted only 2-3 years) was dictated strictly by political considerations and hardly made the noble haughty Greek woman happy – the bride of the late brother of the Byzantine Emperor Kostandios – forced to live among people alien to her in spirit, reciprocating her with mutual dislike.
To live in seclusion, in constant fear for her life, (fortunately there were many opponents of the alliance with Byzantium at the court, more than anyone else interested in her physical elimination), taking food only from the hands of loyal servants, and also sharing the throne and husband with the beautiful Parandzem.
It should be noted that the fact of the king’s short-lived polygamy is unprecedented, especially for the Christian period of Armenian history. The situation is unbearable for both women. Could they be jealous and hate each other? Absolutely!
But to believe that Parandzem would decide to commit murder, let alone so blasphemous, is unthinkable for a virtuous Christian, which (according to the same historical sources) she was… However, it seems, she herself has long since answered our question. With her life. And death. And glory, which has not faded for almost two millennia…
Author Karina Parsamyan
Translated by Vigen Avetisyan
