[111] The first statement in this sentence is all that we learn from Faustus; the two last rest on the authority of Moses of Khorene, who assigns the death of Verthanes to the third year of Tiran. Aristakes, the younger son of St. Gregory, and his successor in the functions of the pontifical office during the closing years of the life of the saint, was assassinated, apparently by a Roman prefect, at an uncertain date. [↑]
[112] In A.D. 339–340, according to Th. Nöldeke (article Persia: Sasanians, in Ency. Brit.). [↑]
[113] The peace of A.D. 363. [↑]
[114] Agathangelus, Life of St. Gregory, sec. 154. [↑]
[116] Mr. F. C. Conybeare has kindly communicated to me the following interesting note to this passage:—“These communities were really cities of refuge, imitated from the old Jewish legislation; and the Armenian monarch’s aim was a wise one, namely, to set limits to the blood-feuds and vendettas of his subjects.” [↑]
[117] I adopt the ingenious suggestion of Professor Gelzer (Die Anfänge, etc., p. 155) that the dioceses of Korduk and Aghdznik were included in the provinces ceded to Persia under Jovian’s treaty in 363. Their bishops would have taken refuge in the dominions of the king and be receiving his support. The sequence of events in Faustus is against this hypothesis; but that is not of much account. [↑]
[118] We know from Ammianus Marcellinus (xxx. 1) that King Pap himself died in 374. [↑]
[119] Professor Gelzer, whose admirable essay I have freely used in the composition of this paragraph, adduces evidence from the correspondence of Basil to show that the advisers of King Pap proceeded cautiously along the path which they had chosen. [↑]
[120] Such is the translation given by Professor Gelzer of the passage in Faustus iv. 14. [↑]