HERE THE BOOK BEGINS; AND FIRST IT SPEAKS OF THE LESSER
HERMENIA.
There are two Hermenias, the Greater and the Less. The Lesser
Hermenia is governed by a certain King, who maintains a just rule in
his dominions, but is himself subject to the Tartar.{1} The country
contains numerous towns and villages,{2} and has everything in plenty;
moreover, it is a great country for sport in the chase of all manner
of beasts and birds. It is, however, by no means a healthy region,
but grievously the reverse.{3} In days of old the nobles there were
valiant men, and did doughty deeds of arms; but nowadays they are
poor creatures, and good at nought, unless it be at boozing; they are
great at that. Howbeit, they have a city upon the sea, which is called
LAYAS, at which there is a great trade. For you must know that all
the spicery, and the cloths of silk and gold, and the other valuable
wares that come from the interior, are brought to that city. And the
merchants of Venice and Genoa, and other countries, come thither to
sell their goods, and to buy what they lack. And whatsoever persons
would travel to the interior (of the East), merchants or others, they
take their way by this city of Layas.{4}
Having now told you about the Lesser Hermenia, we shall next tell you
about Turcomania.
NOTE 1.—The _Petite Hermenie_ of the Middle Ages was quite distinct
from the Armenia Minor of the ancient geographers, which name the
latter applied to the western portion of Armenia, west of the
Euphrates, and immediately north of Cappadocia.
[Illustration: Coin of King Hetum and his Queen Isabel.]
But when the old Armenian monarchy was broken up (1079–80), Rupen,
a kinsman of the Bagratid Kings, with many of his countrymen, took
refuge in the Taurus. His first descendants ruled as _barons_, a
title adopted apparently from the Crusaders, but still preserved in
Armenia. Leon, the great-great-grandson of Rupen, was consecrated
King under the supremacy of the Pope and the Western Empire in