With this, Bagratid family history becomes the history of the restored kingdom of Armenia. There followed a period of greatness, cultural and economic, no less than political, a “Bagratid renascence.” Yet it contained seeds of decay. Disintegration soon set in resulting in weakness, which, in turn, proved an invitation to external foes to put an end to it. The Bagratids had largely themselves contributed to the ruin of Armenia. They failed to keep their state consolidated by apportioning it among their several branches. Next to the kings of Armenia at Ani (bearing the title of king of kings), there thus arose the kings of Kars (962-1064) and the kings of Lorī (982, surviving until ca. 1101); there were the princes of Taraun (826-966/7), dispossessed by the Byzantines, but continuing in the empire as the houses of the Taronitae and the Tornicii. Not to be outdone, the rival, but hitherto dependent, Arcrunis and Siunis proceeded to assume, in their turn, the royal style.
