History of Vardan and the Armenian War

358 Pages·1982·253.24 MB·English

by  Robert W. Thomson

ELISHE

History of Vardan
and the )
Armenian War
Translation and Commentary by
Robert W. Thomson
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England 1982
Copyright © 1982 by the President and Fellows of
Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Eliseus, Saint, Vardapet, d. 480.
History of Vardan and the Armenian War.
(Harvard Armenian texts and studies ; 5)
Translation of: Vasn Vardanay ew Hayots‘
Paterazmin.
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Armenia—History—Persian and Greek rule,
429-640. 2. Vardan Mami Konian, Saint, d. 451.
I. Thomson, Robert W., 1934- . IL. Title.
III. Series.
DS186.E3413 1982 939.55 81-7117
ISBN 0-674-40335-5 AACR2
This material is presented solely for non-commercial educational/research purposes.
To Judith
The preparation of this translation was made
possible by a grant from the Translations
Program of the National Endowment for the
Humanities, an independent federal agency.
This assistance is most gratefully acknowl-
edged.
Preface

HE importance of Elisheé’s History, both as a document
in its own right and as a text that lives on in Armenian tradi-
tion, is explained in the Introduction that follows. Here I
would like to acknowledge the help I have received from nu-
merous friends and colleagues who over the past few ‘years have
endured my spoken or written words and in turn have made
useful comments. I am grateful to Frank Cross for carefully
documented criticisms, and to many others for verbal remarks.
But I cannot hold anyone else responsible for my interpreta-
tions, or misinterpretations.
It also seems appropriate to state in this preface my gen-
eral objective, for this study of Elishé follows closely on studies
of two other early Armenian Histories, those of Agathangelos
and Moses Khorenats‘i. In the first place, these great works of
Armenian literature are of sufficient interest outside the small
circle of readers of classical Armenian to merit translation.
They contain information of relevance for the study of Arme-
nian political and social history, Armenian literature, theology,
and art history, as well as information of interest for the study
of numerous other peoples and cultures with whom Armenians
came into contact over the ages. Second, these histories are lit-
erary documents of some complexity, intriguing to unravel. In
the Introduction that follows the problems of Elishé are spelled
out in detail. Here it will suffice to say in more general terms
that the classical Armenian histories are not untutored recollec-
tions of events seen by their authors or told them by witnesses.
vil
Preface

They are learned works that impose a certain form on the his-
torical matter and seek to interpret events. Their authors had
some basic assumptions (such as a Christian outlook) that col-
ored their view of things, and sometimes they had more specific
motivations (for instance, the need to flatter a patron and his
family).
Unfortunately, a critical investigation of these works
which may cast doubt on the veracity of their narratives or hint
at bias in their authors has sometimes been received with ani-
mosity. The ire of some modern readers is particularly aroused
by the suggestion that these ancient authors may have surrep-
titiously altered their sources, and indeed may have claimed to
be eyewitnesses of the events they describe, when in fact their
histories were composed at a later period. In this regard, it must
be stressed that Armenian writers of the fifth century are not
being singled out as especially culpable of tendentiousness. A
modern scholar looks at texts that have come down through
manuscripts—themselves often copied a thousand years after
the original text was written—with the same critical eye, be
they copies of Homer’s Iliad, the book of Genesis, a Syriac
chronicle, or Moses Khorenats‘i’s Hestory of the Armenians. If the
critic discerns (or thinks he discerns) anomalies and difficulties
in the text as it has survived, it is his duty to say so. If he thinks
that the text does not date to the period it describes, but is the
work of a later author who has treated his material in order to
state a certain case, he must try to identify the sources, isolate
the succeeding revisions, and elucidate the author’s motivation.
Of course, the critic may be wrong in his interpretations, but he
is not wrong in applying such methods of historical and literary
analysis to any given text.
Adverse public reaction to the study of texts some fifteen
hundred years old does point to one very significant feature
that makes such work so timely. These are not dead but living
histories with a message for the present day and an interpreta-
tion of the past that is relevant for contemporary situations.
That is why they are classics, and that is why there are “ortho-
dox” and “unorthodox” ways of reading them. Some of these
points are discussed in the Introduction. But we are now only
at the beginning of an understanding of the development of the
Armenian tradition. So my commentary is more concerned
with how Elishé put together his narrative and with the models
he used than with the later life of his History as an authoritative
text.
viii
Contents

Introduction
Vardan and the Armenian War
97
Appendix: The Armenian War According
to Lazar P‘arpets‘ 251
Bibliography 329
Index of Scriptural Quotations
and Allusions 338
Index 346
Map: The Armenia of Elishé 356
Transcription
wpqnieq¢ thy nwpp 6 nYY 5R 6 a
abgdexzzhilxkhé t ékht d z i
Gv yu pnp wpnudomp gt
ch myn sh o chi pj * s vt r tS € w
ih pono
pkuw 6
Note on Texts
All references to the texts of Elishé and Lazar are to the pages of
the critical Armenian editions. For details of these see the Bibliogra-
phy under Armenian Texts. The pages of the Armenian texts have
been noted in the texts of the translations.
All references to the Bible are to the Armenian version, which fol-
lows the numbering of the Septuagint for the Old Testament. Where
an allusion to the Bible is noted, the parallel is a verbal one in Arme-
nian; this may not be apparent if the English translation of Elishé is
compared with the text of the English Bible.
Introduction

LASSICAL Armenian literature, which begins with an
astonishing efflorescence in the fifth century of the Christian
era, is rich in historical writing. The majority of these works
were composed by learned clerics familiar with a wide range of
literary sources in Greek and Syriac, but also conscious of the
non-Hellenistic, Iranian cultural background of Armenia. For
the conversion of King Trdat (Tiridates) to Christianity in the
early fourth century and the work of Saint Gregory the Illumi-
nator in founding an organized church did not bring about an
immediate and total rejection of pre-Christian Armenian tra-
ditions. Thus, early Armenian historiography presents us with
a fascinating picture of the interplay of cultures pagan ‘and
Christian, Iranian and Hellenistic. But the Armenian histori-
ans themselves, being Christians, impose upon that compli-
cated amalgam interpretations based upon their own beliefs
and ideals, using imagery drawn from the Judaeo-Christian
world. The unraveling of the numerous strands of cultural tra-
dition that have gone into the making both of the historical sit-
uation in Armenia and then of its interpretation in the early
Armenian writers is thus a very complex task. The present work
deals with only one history, that of Elishé, and with one of
those strands, his literary models in Christian literature. There-
fore, in what follows I shall primarily be concerned with this
history as a conscious and sophisticated interpretation of events
that took place in the fifth century in an Iranian setting as
viewed through the eyes of a Christian. I trust that other schol-
ars will in turn take up other strands, so that in time a fuller
I
Introduction

understanding of Elishé’s cultural milieu and the interaction of
rival ideologies will emerge.
Early Armenian historians are of interest for what they tell
us about events in Armenia, or which affected Armenia, and
- also for their interpretations of those events—in other words,
for both the form and the matter of their literary compositions.
But there is a third reason why these histories are significant.
They are part of a living Armenian tradition that has persisted
to the present day. For the image of the Armenian past as ex-
pounded by these classical authors has had a profound impact
in the last two centuries on the way in which Armenians look
upon themselves, their history, and their nation.
In this respect, three works stand out as being of very spe-
cial importance. The History of Agathangelos, which describes
the conversion of Armenia to Christianity; the History of Moses
Khorenats‘i, which describes the origins of the Armenian na-
tion and its early history down to the time of Mashtots, inven-
tor of the Armenian script; and the History of Elishé, which de-
scribes the resistance of Christian Armenians to religious
persecution in the fifth century. Other histories may be of
greater interest to modern scholars as sources for understanding
Armenian culture in certain periods of change—that of Faustos
Buzand, for example, which describes fourth-century Armenia
and the conflicts between church and traditional pagan society.
But Agathangelos, Moses Khorenats‘i, and Elishé have a par-
ticular place in Armenian tradition as enshrining the received
account of Armenian history: Armenia, a small country but of
great antiquity where many manly deeds have been performed
(Moses); a nation converted to Christianity before others,
where God’s grace has been manifested (Agathangelos); a peo-
ple steadfast in their faith, true to their ancestral traditions,
and ready for martyrdom should larger and stronger empires
attempt to suppress Armenian liberties (Elishé).
This Introduction is therefore divided into two sections. In
the first part the sources used by Elishé are discussed and an
attempt made to elucidate his motivation and to date the text.
The second part deals with the role of this History in later Ar-
menian literature, the development of legends about the au-
thor, and the continuing influence of the figure of Vardan as an
Armenian hero and patriot. For it is that continuous life of
Elishé’s History that has made it a classic in Armenian litera-
ture, a work of perennial significance for Armenians, a book