30 Artaxerxes important one was the work of Gregory Luzavorich, the “Illuminator” (d 325 c.e.) Armenians greatly treasure their heritage as the first nation that converted officially to the Christian faith Syriac Christianity first influenced Armenia: The Armenian version of the Abgar legend makes Abgar an Armenian king, and the evangelization of Addai is described as a mission to southern Armenia The influence of Syriac literature and liturgy on Armenia remained strong even after the Greek influence, primarily from Cappadocia, and increased in the third century c.e The Greek tradition states that Bartholomew was the apostle to the Armenians The Abgar/Addai legend is earlier than that of Bartholomew The traditions of the female missionaries and martyrs Rhipsime and Gaiane are among the earliest accounts of the conversion of Armenia Tertullian (c 200 c.e.) also mentions that there were Christians in Armenia The conversion of the royal house of Armenia dates officially to 301 c.e., predating the conversion of the Georgian king Gorgasali and the Ethiopian Menelik by a generation In that year Gregory the Iluminator persuaded King Tiridates III (Trdat the Great, 252–330) to be baptized Gregory is identified as the founder of the Christian Armenian nation and as the organizer of the Armenian Church Gregory founded Ejmiatsin, the mother cathedral of the Armenian Church, after an apparition by Jesus Christ who descended from heaven at the site of a significant pagan temple (Ejmiatsin means “The Onlybegotten Descended”) Gregory’s original church was at Vagharshapat The revelation to found the church at Ejmiatsin coincided with changing political circumstances Politically, Armenians were always at the mercy of the great powers of Persia and Rome, and in 387 the Roman emperor Theodosius I and the Persian emperor Shapur agreed to partition Armenia, thus ending its independence As the site of a dominical apparition, the place of Gregory’s Episcopal see, the residence of Armenian Catholicoi, and the most important administrative center of the Armenian Church, Ejmiatsin is for Armenians a holy site on a par with the Church of the Anastasis (Resurrection) in Jerusalem or the Basilica of Bethlehem, where Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth was born The second most important event of the formative period of Armenian history was Mesrob Mashtots’s (c 400) invention of the Armenian alphabet, which resulted in the translation of the Bible and the liturgy into Armenian and a rapid introduction of Christian and classical works, translated from Greek and Syriac into Armenian During the Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries, the Armenian Apostolic Church rejected the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and remains to this day one of the non-Chalcedonian churches that adhere to the strict interpretation of Cyril of Alexandria’s “one nature of the incarnate Logos” formula For this reason, Armenians are often erroneously and polemically labeled “Monophysites.” See also cappadocians; Diadochi (Successors); Ephesus and Chalcedon, Councils of; Medes, Persians, and Elamites; Oriental Orthodox Churches; Roman Empire; Seleucid Empire; Syriac culture and church Further reading: Garsoïan, Nina G Church and Culture in Early Medieval Armenia Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999; Thomson, Robert W Studies in Armenian Literature and Christianity Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1994 Robert R Phenix, Jr Artaxerxes (5th–4th centuries b.c.e.) Persian emperors The Persian Empire reached its greatest strength under Darius I; under the reign of the three Artaxerxes it began and concluded its decline, ending with Alexander the Great’s conquests in 330 b.c.e Artaxerxes I, third son of Emperor Xerxes I, acceded to the throne in 465 b.c.e following the murder of his father and his brother Darius, who was first in line to the throne According to Josephus, the first century c.e Jewish historian, Artaxerxes’ pre-throne name was Cyrus The first century b.c.e Roman historian Plutarch adds that he was nicknamed “long-armed” due to his right arm being longer than his left Earlier kings of the Persian Empire, namely Cyrus II, Darius, and Xerxes, were discussed in the comprehensive works of the near contemporary Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus, but unfortunately Herodotus’s work did not cover much of Artaxerxes’ reign, and none of the reigns of later kings ARTAXERXES I The Bible refers to Artaxerxes explicitly in Ezra 4:7, in reference to a letter written by the Jews’ enemies in Samaria Both Ezra and Nehemiah, significant figures in the later history of the biblical Israelite people, arrived in Judah in Palestine to serve the Jews there during the