Sanatruk ( Latinized as ''Sanatruces'') was a member of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia who succeeded

Tiridates I of Armenia Tiridates I (, ; , ) was Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity), King of Armenia beginning in 53 AD and the founder of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. His early reign was marked by a brief interruption toward ...

as King of Armenia at the end of the 1st century. He was also King of

Osroene Osroene or Osrhoene (; ) was an ancient kingdom and region in Upper Mesopotamia. The ''Kingdom of Osroene'', also known as the "Kingdom of Edessa" ( / "Kingdom of Urhay"), according to the name of its capital city (now Urfa, Şanlıurfa, Turkey), ...

(reigned 91–109), a historic kingdom located in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

Biography

Little or no information is available from either literary or numismatic sources regarding his life. Through the collation of various Classical and Armenian sources, Sanatruk is assumed to have reigned around the start of the 2nd century. Certain scholars proposed that Sanatruk succeeded Tiridates between 75 and 110, but this hypothesis, for which there is no explicit evidence, has been rejected by others. His merits are praised by Arrian in his ''Parthica'' where he is equated with the most illustrious Greeks and Romans.

Hagiographic A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an wiktionary:adulatory, adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religi ...

tradition blames him for the

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloqui ...

of the

Apostle An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary. The word is derived from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", itself derived from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to se ...

St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew in Armenia, as well as that of his own daughter, St. Sandukht the Virgin. In 110, the throne of Armenia was held by Axidares, the son of the Parthian monarch of

Atropatene Atropatene (; ; ), also known as Media Atropatene, was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian kingdom established in by the Persian satrap Atropates (). The kingdom, centered in present-day Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region in northwestern Ira ...

, Pacorus II of Parthia who was deposed in 113 by

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

. A number of sources have named Sanatruk as one of the leaders of the revolt against

's occupation by 117.

Moses of Chorene Movses Khorenatsi ( 410–490s AD; , ) was a prominent Armenian historian from late antiquity and the author of the '' History of the Armenians''. Movses's ''History of the Armenians'' was the first attempt at a universal history of Armenia and r ...

writes that Sanatruk, while being a child was taken by a sister of King Abgar of Edessa, Avde, from

Edessa Edessa (; ) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It was founded during the Hellenistic period by Macedonian general and self proclaimed king Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Sel ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

through the Kordvats Mountains, where they were caught in a sudden snowstorm. They spent three days battling the storm and the child survived thanks to a white-coated animal that kept him warm. It is thought that the animal must have been a white dog based on the etymology of the name Sanatruk that was soon after bestowed on the child (San -

accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...

form of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Շուն (shun: dog) and truk (truk: tribute/gift ultimately from Armenian tur: give). A literal English translation of Sanatruk would be "dog's gift".

Bibliography

Notes

{{Armenian kings 1st-century kings of Armenia 2nd-century kings of Armenia 1st-century births 2nd-century deaths Kings of Osroene Arsacid kings of Armenia

Biography

See also

Bibliography

Notes