Arshak II's wife Parandzem and their son,…

Arshak II's wife Parandzem and their son, the future king Pap, had been holed up with the Armenian treasure in the fortress of Artogerassa defended by a troop of azatk (lesser nobility) during Shapur II's invasion of the Kingdom of Armenia.

According to Ammianus, the Persian invasion force was commanded by two Armenian defectors, Cylaces (Glak) and Artabanes (Vahan).

Shapur's intention was to replace the Armenian Arshakuni monarchy with a non-Arshakuni but still Armenian nakharar (great noble) diarchy.

Faustus of Byzantium in his Epic Histories also mentions two Armenian nakharars, Meruzhan Artsruni and Vahan Mamikonian, in leadership positions under Shapur's suzerainty as well as Zik and Karen who carried Persian noble titles.

This also implies that Shapur might have intended to combine Sassanid administrative rule (Zik and Karen) with that of nakharar rule (Artsruni and Mamikonian).

During the siege, Arshak's wife Parandzem had appealed to Cylaces and Artabanes in the name of her husband who had defected back to the Arshakuni monarchy and engineered the escape of Pap.

Themistius reported of Pap's arrival at Valens' court in Marcianople where the Emperor was wintering.

Valens had bade him to stay at Neocaesarea in Pontus Polemoniacus three hundred kilometers from the Armenian border.

Pap, returning to Armenian territory at the request of the nobility, is accompanied by the comes et dux Terentius but is not yet endowed with a royal title, which Valens is reluctant to bestow, not wishing to violate the treaty signed by Jovian in July of 363.

Valens dispatches his magister peditum praesentalis Arintheus to Armenia just as Shapur invades the country in pursuit of Pap, who is hiding near the Roman frontier in Lazica.

Meanwhile Terentius restores Sauromaces to the throne of Iberia, but the king appointed by the Persians, Aspacures, retains control of the eastern part of that kingdom.