248 DISTORT OF ARMENIA.
��CHAPTER XXVI.
The reign of Artashtr, or Artacts the Last.
A.D. 422. ViRAM, the king of Persia^ having for three years dreadfully harassed the inhabitants of his part of Armenia, found that it was almost depopulated ; and began to relax in his severity when he discovered that the accustomed tributes were discontinued.
By means of Sumbat the Bagratism he pro* posed terms of peace to the almost expatriated chiefs, and promised to desist from further molesting them. He also proposed to appoint them a king in the person of Artaces, the sou of Viramshapuh, their former monarch. The Ar* menian chiefs, tired of the desultory life they led, gladly closed with these terms and issued out of their fastnesses.
A.D.422. Artaces then assumed the crown in his eighteenth year, and according to the request of Viram, took the name of Artashir, in remem- brance of Artashir the Sasanian, whose memory was fondly cherished by the Persian monarch. Artashir, as we shall henceforward call him, at
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