Khorenatsi writes that the Armenian leader Skayordi settled one of the princes, Sanasar (biblical Sharezer), on the mountain of Sim (in the region of Sasun) and from him descended the Artsrunis and Gnunis.

[12] Vrezh Vardanyan writes that the dynasty was of purely local, Armenian origin and that they are mentioned in Urartian inscriptions as Arṣuniuni[c] and lived southeast of Lake Van at that time.

[1][18] Toumanoff, following Nicholas Adontz and Josef Markwart,[19] suggests that Mithrobarzanes, the viceroy of Tigranes the Great in Sophene in 69 BC, may have been the earliest attested member of the family.

[20] During the reign of the Arsacid dynasty over Armenia, the Artsrunis ruled the princely estates of Greater and Lesser Aghbak in Vaspurakan (around modern Başkale, Turkey), southeast of Lake Van, gradually annexing the surrounding territory.

In 369 the state was led by Meruzhan Artsruni who guided Persian troops to Armenia, exchanged Christianity for Mazdaism,[1] and defeated the General (sparapet) Mamikonian.

Around 772 the Artsruni presided over the families of Amatuni, Rshtuni, Teruni of Daroynk (before a possession of the Bagratuni) and ruled the regions of Maku, Artaz, Great Zab Valley and Van river.

In 1021, Senekerim-Hovhannes of Vaspurakan was given Sebaste, Evdokia, and possibly Amasia as fiefdom from the Byzantine emperor Basil II in return for his entire kingdom.

[23] The Artsrunis were patrons of the arts, which, as Toumanoff states, is evidenced in the "splendid tenth-century monuments of architecture and of fresco and miniature painting especially in the palace and the church of Aghtamar".