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Amongst those Armenian noble families who were still dependent on Byzantine and regarded themselves as subjects of the empire one was most prominent, whom the Rouben-Bagratouni family was forced to fight now and then. These princes originated from the principality in Ganja. The Byzantine emperor had allowed this family to settle down in the Lambron area by the Tarsus River and its members, partly due to their loyalty towards Byzantine and partly because of their envy of the Rouben-Bagratouni family, fought for an extended period Roubinian Armenia.

From 1102-1103 onwards, Toros assisted the crusaders to neutralize the attacks of Byzantine at Ourfa and Antiochia. Later he allied with Prince Tancrède of Antiochia and began himself to fight against Byzantine, conquering the important cities of Anazarba and Sis.

From 1107 to 1108 he repelled a heavy assault from the Seljuk Turks. Then, through an alliance with an Armenian baron by the name of Kosh Basil who was the lord of the Marash region, Toros managed in 1109 to defeat the Seljuk Turks and captured their leader who called himself the sultan of Armenia. 23

It was also during the reign of Toros I that the Armenians revenged the death of king Gagik II, the last Armenian king. The Armenian forces took the fortress of Cyzistra and killed the three Greeks who had hung the last Armenian king. 25

The name Toros I is associated with the famous fortress of Trazark, where several of the members of the Armenian royal family are buried.



The successor of Toros I was his brother Levon I_A# who ruled between 1129 and 1137 over the principality of New Armenia and continued the work of his brother. He drove out Byzantine from the major parts of Cilicia, took the plains of Mamistra (Misis), Adana and Tarsus and these conquests expanded the borders of New Armenia all the way to the Mediterranean coast. At the same time Levon I mounted a defence against several attacks from the Seljuk Turks. As Jacques de Morgan comments, the hatred and the hostility of the Turks towards New Armenia was bought with the gold that the Byzantine court paid to the Turks, since the gaze of Byzantine still was fixed on Cilicia and even the Antiochia duchy. 30 The brother of Levon I, Stephan, in 1135 took the city of Marash which was in Turkish hands.



In 1137, however, the Byzantine emperor John II Comnenos (of the Comnenos dynasty which ruled between 1118-1143), took advantage of the dispute between Levon I and the prince of Antiochia over the strong southern fortress of Amanus, the mountain chain at the Alexandria Gulf, and attacked Cilicia and occupied it. Levon I fought his way out and retreated to the mountains but was finally forced to surrender to the enemy. He died in captivity and New Armenia, over a period of eight years (1137-1143), fell under the plundering of the Greeks and Turks.



Of Levon I's four sons, one was murdered by Byzantine, the other, named Toros, remained in Byzantine captivity while the other two sons, Stephan and Mleh, were given shelter at the court of Sultan Nourredin of Aleppo. Toros, who was prisoner revenged his father and liberated the New Armenia. Dressed as a merchant, Toros escaped from Constantinople on a ship from Genoa or Venice and travelled to Cyprus. From here he went to Antiochia, where he received a warm welcome from the prince of Antiochia. He arrived at Cilicia through the Amanus Mountains, led the Armenians in a revolt and with couple of thousand men and his brothers Stephan and Mleh by his side was able to attack the Byzantine army. In the course of a few battles they retook first the fortresses of Vahka, Simankha and Avindz and then the plain of Cilicia together with the cities of Anazarba and Adana and finally Sis, and thus re-conquered whole of New Armenia.