Meruzhan Artsruni

Meruzhan Artsruni (Armenian: Մերուժան Արծրունի Meružan Arcruni, also spelled Merujan, Ardzruni, Artzruni, Artsrouni; died 371 or 380/1) was a 4th-century nakharar (Armenian feudal lord) from the Artsruni family.[1]

When the Persian king Shapur II invaded Armenia in the 360s, Meruzhan, his brother-in-law Vahan Mamikonian, and several other Armenian lords renounced Christianity for Zoroastrianism and defected to Persia.[1] Meruzhan helped Shapur's army capture Tigranocerta and raid the districts of Arzanene, Ingilene, Mzur in Upper Armenia, Sophene and Acilisene, where they captured Ani-Kamakh and desecrated the graves of the Armenian Arsacid kings.[1][2] The Armenian king Arshak II fled west to Asia Minor, while sparapet (generalissimo) Vasak Mamikonian was left to defend the central province of Ayrarat alone.[2] Arsaces and Vasak would later be captured by Shapur by deception; Vasak was put to death and Arsaces committed suicide or was executed in Anhush Berd.[2]

Meruzhan is seen as a traitor in the classical Armenian histories. It is said that he was promised riches and governorship by Shapur and was given Shapur's sister as wife.[1][3] James R. Russell believes Meruzhan to have been the dynastic ruler of Sophene who saw himself as a ruler exercising his lawful powers to counter the growth of Christianity.[4] According to Moses of Chorene, Meruzhan was put to death by Smbat Bagratuni in Kogovit following the Battle of Bagavan in 371, where the Roman-Armenian army defeated the Persians.[1][2] Faustus of Byzantium, however, reports that Meruzhan was killed several years later by Manuel Mamikonian's men after attacking Armenia with an Iranian army.[5]