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Sanatruk
Sanatruk and Avde after three days in snow storm
King of Armenia
Reign	?–109 AD
Predecessor	Tiridates I
Successor	Axidares
King of Osroene
Reign	91–109 AD
Predecessor	Abgar VI
Successor	Abgar VII
Burial	Arshakid Mausoleum
Issue	Ghadama, St. Sandukht
House	Arsacid
Father	Meherdates, son of Vologases I
Mother	Awde of Osroene
Religion	Zoroastrian

Sanatruk (Latinized as Sanatruces) was a member of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia who succeeded Tiridates I of Armenia as King of Armenia at the end of the 1st century. He was also King of Osroene (reigned 91–109), a historic kingdom located in Mesopotamia.

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 tradition blames him for the martyrdom of the Apostle 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, Pacorus II of Parthia who was deposed in 113 by Trajan. A number of sources have named Sanatruk as one of the leaders of the revolt against Trajan's occupation by 117.

Moses of Chorene writes that Sanatruk, while being a child was taken by a sister of King Abgar of Edessa, Avde, from Edessa to Armenia 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 form of Armenian Շուն (shun: dog) and truk (truk: tribute/gift ultimately from Armenian tur: give). A literal English translation of Sanatruk would be "dog's gift".

See also

• Osroene

Bibliography

• Schottky, Martin (2011). "Sanatruk von Armenien". Anabasis Studia Classica et Orientalia. 2: 231–248. ISSN 2082-8993. (in German)

Notes

1. ^ "ii. The Pre-Islamic Period". ARMENIA AND IRAN. Iranica. Archived from the original on 2021-05-19. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
2. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1997). The Armenian people from ancient to modern times: from antiquity to the fourteenth century. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-312-10168-6.
3. Curtin, D. P. (January 2014). The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew: Greek, Arabic, and Armenian Versions. Dalcassian Publishing Company. ISBN 9798868951473.
4. "St. Santoukhd, the First Martyr".

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