APPENDIX 565
Aréak, the son of Tiran, who declined to resume the sovereignty. Aréak first married Olympias, a Greek lady connected with the Constantinian house ; and afterwards a daughter of the Persian king. His policy was to hold the balance between Rome and Persia throughout the wars of Constantius and Julian.
4. In Eusebius, H. E. vi. 46, 2, we find this notice: «ai rots nara 'Appeviav aoavrws mepi peravoias emaréAdee dv emerxomeve Mepovgavys, Gelzer (p. 171 sqq.) points out that this bishopric of Meruzanes cannot have been in the Roman pro- vinces called Armenia, and therefore was in Great Armenia; and he seeks to show that it may have been in the south-eastern corner, the district of Vaspura- kan. The words in Eusebius are from a letter of Dionysios of Alexandria (248- 265), and the inference seems to be that Christianity was introduced into an out- lying district of Armenia in the fifties of the third century.! But the formal conversion of Armenia began about 280 under the auspices of King Trdat, through the labours of Gregory the Illuminator. The destruction of the temples of the gods, in spite of strong opposition from the priests, was one of the first parts of the change, and preceded Gregory’s journey to Cesarea (between 285 and 290 according to Gelzer) to be consecrated by Leontius. The Armenian Church was yee on the see of Caesarea, and under Greek influence for nearly a century.
ter the death of the Patriarch Nersés, it was severed and made autocephalous by King Pap (circa a.v. 373-4. Cp. Ter Mikelian, p. 31). During the fourth cen- tury the seat of the Catholicus and the spiritual centre of Armenia, was A&tiSat in the southern district of Taron, as has been well brought out by Gelzer. It was afterwards removed to ValarSapat, when no longer dependent on Czsarea, and then the priests of ValarSapat invented stories to prove the antiquity of their seat and the original independence of the Armenian Church. In the fourth century, the chief feature of the domestic history of Armenia is the struggle between the monarch and the Catholicus, between the spirit of nationality and the subjection to foreign influences. It culminated in the reign of Pap, who solved the question by poison.
In regard to the conversion of Armenia, its progress was partly determined by the feudal condition of the country (Gelzer, 132). The nobles were easily won over by the personal influence of the king; the priests were naturally the most obstinate opponents. The new faith seems to have been slow in taking root among the people, and it is noteworthy that women, even in high rank, clung tenaciously to the old religion (like the wife of Chosrov, Faustus, iii. 3, and the mother of Pap, ib. 44).
I have read with interest the remarkable study of N. Marr, O nachalnoi istorii Armenii Anonima, in Viz. Vremennik, i. 263 sqq. (1894). He discusses the character of the brief History of Armenia, which is prefixed to Sebeos’ History of the Emperor Heraclius (Russ. tr. by Patkanian, 1862); and its relation to Moses of Chorene. This document (which appears in the collection of Langlois under the title Pseudo-Agathange) he regards as the earliest extant Armenian history of early Armenia ; it was worked up by a later (also anonymous) writer, of whose composition a large extract has been preserved in Moses of Chorene, bk. i. c. 8 (in ae under the title, Mar Apas Catina). Moses also used the original work. Marr points out a number of resemblances between Faustus and the first Anonymous, and hazards the conjecture (295 sqq.) that this history of Armenia may be part of the first two books of Faustus, whose work, as we have it, begins with book iii.
19. CONSTANTINE AND CHRISTIANITY—(C. XX.)
The attitude of Constantine to the Christian religion has been the theme of many discussions, and historians are still far from having reached a general
1My friend Mr. F. C. Conybeare is inclined to believe that Gregory the Illuminator used an Armenian version of New Testament Scriptures made from a pre-Peshito Syriac text, long before the time of Mesrop. This version may have been due to the Church in Waaghirakort: Apparently the non-existence of Mesrop's alphabet did not prevent literary composition in Armenian.
