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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
94
to battle at her command, and generally returned victorious ;
all her campaigns ended successfully, the frontiers of the
country being extended to the Caspian Sea in the east and the
Black Sea in the west ; and the political prestige ofthe kingdom
was greatly increased, so that the neighbouring peoples in
the mountain valleys of the Caucasus had to acknowledge
her suzerainty and pay tribute. She conquered parts of
Armenia, Kars, and Erzerum. In 1204 she helped her nephew,
Alexius Comnenus, to found an empire in Trebizond, and
thereby strengthened the frontier of her country towards the
Turks in the west.
Under Thamara’s rule Georgia—state and Church alike—
had a remarkable succession of prominent men and leaders.
Several of these were Armenians. The commander-in-chief
was an Armenian named Sarkis Mkhargdseli ; and he was
supported by three relations, one of whom was the queen’s
second husband, David Soslani. The superior clergy and some
of the nobles must have been comparatively well educated,
and the latter, who won a great deal of booty in the wars,
must largely have lived a life of refinement and luxury. The
brilliant centre of all this was Thamara’s splendid court,
which constantly received visits from princes and other
distinguished men. The beautiful queen was not one to
hoard the riches which mounted up in her treasuries. She
was exceptionally liberal, and loved to be surrounded by
gaiety and lavish amusements. She gave magnificent enter
tainments with banquets, tournaments, and performances by
dancing-girls and tight-rope dancers. Above all, there were
great hunting expeditions, for she was a passionate devotee
of the chase ; it must have been a pageant worth seeing when
she rode forth into the woods and fields with her falcons and
her hounds, at the head of a train of knights mounted on fiery
steeds with gorgeous trappings. On their return they would
be regaled at a sumptuous banquet with singing and music,
and the ring of drinking-cups, and endless hunting talk.
Hunting was at all times the favourite sport of the
Georgian kings and knights when they were not engaged in
warfare. Jackals, foxes, wild boars, and stags were hunted
with hounds ; but falconry was still more popular, the chief
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