Ashot II (Armenian: Աշոտ Բ; r. 914–29) was an Armenian monarch and the third king of the royal Bagratuni line. He was the son and successor of King Smbat I. His reign was filled with rebellions by pretenders to the throne, and foreign invasions, which Ashot fought off successfully, for which he is remembered by the epithet Yerkat (Երկաթ), or the Iron.

Ashot II had succeeded his father Smbat I upon the latter's death in 914. Smbat had fought off an invasion launched by the emir of Āzarbāijān, Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj, but when Smbat surrendered he was tortured and beheaded by Yusuf in Yernjak. With his control of the central lands of Armenia, Yusuf installed Ashot, son of Shapuh and Ashot II's first cousin, in Dvin as the "anti-king" of Bagratid Armenia. Harried by Yusuf's forces, Ashot turned west for support. In 914, he visited Constantinople to receive aid from the crown regent for the young Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Zoe Karbonopsina.

There, Ashot was well received, and a Byzantine force was created to assist Armenia in defeating the Arabs. The force, accompanying Ashot and led by the Domestic of the Schools Leo Phokas, moved out the next year and marched along Upper Euphrates, entering Taron, meeting scant opposition from the Arabs. Ashot the anti-king and Yusuf's armies were unable to stop the Byzantine advance, which stopped short of capturing Dvin due to the onset of winter. Nevertheless, the force had returned Ashot to a powerful position in Armenia and managed to inflict heavy casualties against the Arabs.

...
Wikipedia