ABSTRACT
The period of Armenian history in Cilicia saw the development and the establishment of the New Kingdom under the Roupenian Baron Levon II whose shrewd but no less magnificent political manoeuvring with Catholic Rome achieved his crowning as Levon I, the first king of Cilician Armenia with Sis as its capital. Levon gifts to the vardabets included official ranks and material support to help them produce new copies of all the liturgical manuscripts and of the classical writings of the nation. These latter undertakings were invaluable contributions to the survival of the literary heritage of the Armenians, who had recently endured much suffering in the hands of the Mamluks. The history of the Armenians in Cilicia is an example of a people who had the courage and the determination to forge ahead with the vision of an independent state encompassed in territories which were essentially removed from their native historical homeland far to the east in the Cacauses.
