374 MISTORT OF ARMENIA*
of Abdullah. This occurred in the fourth year of the government of Nerseb the Camsaracan. A-D.693* Abdullah was accompanied by a number of en 142. Saraccus, and on his entry into the city of Duin^ received the inhabitants with kindness and respect. His affable manners, and the mildness with which he exercised his authority, tended greatly to reassure the people. All this, however, was but a mask, for shortly after, when all ap- peared tranquil, he seized, on different pretexts, the persons of several chiefs, and putting them in chains, extorted from them their most valuable property. Nerseh perceiving this, made his escape to Taics. Abdullah however caught Isaac the pontiff, and sent him, together with Sumbat the Beuratian and general, in chains to Damascus. He then stripped all the great churches of Ararat of their treasure, with every valuable ornament that decorated them, and taking David Duinensis, caused him to be crucified. Sumbat the general, however, effected his escape from Damascus, returning to Armenia the same year in which he had been sent from it in chains. He addressed a piteous letter to Justinian the emperor, painting the dis* tress into which Armenia was plunged by the go- vernor Abdullah in the most lively colours, and imploring assistance to relieve his country from the yoke of the Saracens. Justinian hereupon
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