[105] The doubts of Von Gutschmid would perhaps have been removed by the more correct translation given by Professor Gelzer of the passage relating to the journey in Agathangelus and by his editing of the context. The passage should read, “By land and sea they proceeded with haste until they reached the State of the Italians and the land of the Dalmatians and arrived in the imperial city of the Romans.” Dalmatia is the præfectura per Illyricum. The name of the bishop is given in the text of Langlois as Sylvester, and as Eusebius in the Greek translation. The best Armenian MS. also has Eusebius. The name of Sylvester appears to have been substituted much later, when the “imperial city of the Romans” was very naturally identified with Rome and the prelate with the bishop of Rome.
My friend Mr. F. C. Conybeare calls my attention to the interesting circumstance that the Armenian equivalent for Latin is Dalmatian. Thus in their Gospels it is said that the title King of the Jews was inscribed on the cross in Hebrew, Greek, and in Dalmatian. [↑]
[106] And yet the ὁμοούσιον was not incorporated into the Armenian Creed! But it does not appear that this omission was intentional. The creed already in use was allowed to stand. I confess to a feeling of astonishment, having regard to the unequivocal language in which the author of the Life attests the acceptance of the Council; but the canons could not have been much appreciated in Armenia at the time if we are to credit Koriun’s statement that he himself, with Ghevond and Eznik, brought authentic copies of them to Armenia in the fifth century (Biography of Mesrop in Langlois’ Collection, vol. ii. p. 12). Mr. F. C. Conybeare informs me that the Creed of Nice was only communicated to the Armenian diaspora in Persia and Southern Mesopotamia by the Katholikos Papken after the Council of Dvin, c. 490 A.D. It was rejected by that diaspora as in contradiction with their already established Ebionite or Adoptionist tenets (see Letter-book of the Patriarchs, MS. of the Armenian Father, St. Anthony, in Stambul).
Dr. Arshak Ter-Mikelean prints the Armenian and Nicene creeds side by side and accompanies them with some interesting remarks (Die armenische Kirche in ihren Beziehungen zur byzantinischen, Leipzig, 1892, p. 22 seq.). The statement of Agathangelus (Life of St. Gregory), that King Tiridates acted in concert with St. Gregory in making certain additions to the canons must be received with caution, although such additions do appear to have been actually made (see the note of the Mekhitarists to the Italian translation of Agathangelus, p. 196). His son, Chosroes II., appears to have come to the throne in 314. As neither Agathangelus nor Faustus gives us dates, and as the most monstrous anachronisms occur in both treatises, one may do pretty well what one likes with the chronology. I should even mistrust them when they assign a given number of years for a particular period. In the East at the present day ten years means more than one and less than twenty years; and I see no reason to credit the old historians with much greater precision of statement. That the Armenians took part in the Council of Nice is attested by Agathangelus, Faustus, Moses of Khorene, etc., and also by the list of signatures of participants in the Council:—Armeniæ majoris Aristarces, Threnius Diosponti (Von Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften, iii. 415). But we may reasonably doubt that either Tiridates or St. Gregory was alive at the time. [↑]
[107] Lazar Pharpetzi, chs. x. and xi.; Moses of Khorene, iii. 36. [↑]
[108] Moses of Khorene, iii. 10. The following chronology (which is not that of Moses) is taken from Saint Martin (apud Lebeau, Hist. du Bas-Empire). I attach to it a parallel list of the contemporary Greek Emperors and a similar column for the Sasanian monarchs, which is proudly filled by a single name. The date of Sapor II. rests on the authority of Th. Nöldeke.
| Armenian Arsakid Kings. | RomanEmperors. | Persian Sasanian Kings. | |||
| Chosroes II. (the Little) | 314–322 | Death of Constantine | 337 | Shapur II. (succeeds as an infant) 310–379 | |
| Tiran | 322–337 | Constantius | 337–361 | ||
| Arshak | 338–367 | Julian | 361–363 | ||
| Pap | 369–374 | Valens | 364–378 | ||
| Theodosius (the Great) | 379–395 | ||||
[109] Faustus wrote c. A.D. 395–416. [↑]
[110] Moses of Khorene (iii. 10) places the king at the head of a Greek army. The patriotism of Faustus was stronger than his veracity, and he maintains a discreet silence upon this circumstance. [↑]