Çoruh River
The Bagratuni family first emerged as nakharars, members of the hereditary nobility of Armenia, in the early 4th century. Their heritable rights were given to them by the Arshakuni dynasty, which ruled Armenia from 52 to 428. The first Bagratuni prince identified by historian Cyril Toumanoff is Smbat I, who lived at the time of the Armenian conversion to Christianity (c. 301-314). Starting with Smbat, the Bagratunis held the hereditary titles of "aspet", meaning "Master of the Horse" or the commander of the cavalry, and "tagadir", which indicated their privilege of crowning Arshakuni kings upon their accession to the throne. Their domain included the region of Sper in the Çoruh River valley of Upper Armenia, which was famous for its gold and silver, and Tayk. The medieval Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi claimed they had an ancestor, Smbat, who came to Armenia from Judea in 6th century BC, but this is considered by modern historians to be an invention to give a biblical origin to the family. The modern historian Cyril Toumanoff, a noted expert on the history of the region, proposed instead that the Bagratunis were descended from the Orontids, the first identifiable ruling dynasty of ancient Armenia.