Vardan Mamikonian was the supreme commander of the Armenian armed forces from 432 to 451 AD, when Ancient Armenia had been partitioned between the Byzantine and Persian Empires for more than four decades. The Armenian nobility, also divided into two political camps, pro-Byzantine and pro-Persian, competed for absolute power. Vardan led the rebellion against the Sasanian overlords, and their attempt to force Armenian Christians to convert back to Zoroastrianism. He and his army of 60,000 soldiers bravely confronted the Persian imperial army of 260,000 men and their war elephants in the Battle of Avarayr, in what became one of the first holy wars between the Christian