[25] Samuel of Ani ap. Migne, op. cit. p. 721. [↑]
[27] These dates are taken from Chamchean. But the subject is not free from difficulty. See Prudhomme’s note appended to his translation of Aristakes of Lastivert in the Revue de l’Orient for 1863–64, ch. ii. In general the Armenian historians have a profound contempt for precision in dates and accuracy in statement. Matthew of Edessa is perhaps the worst sinner in this respect. [↑]
[28] Matthew of Edessa, chs. xxii. and xxiii.; and Asoghik, iii. 38, quoted by Dulaurier. [↑]
[29] Samuel of Ani ap. Migne, op. cit. p. 723. [↑]
[30] Samuel of Ani (ibid.) and Asoghik. [↑]
[31] Samuel of Ani (ibid.). [↑]
[32] Samuel of Ani (ibid. p. 720) and Chamchean. According to Samuel of Ani, it was in A.D. 971 that the patriarch established the seat of his spiritual government at Arghina. [↑]
[33] I have taken the dates of the deaths of these two kings from Matthew of Edessa, who is precise upon the point (see chs. liii. and lvi.). Chamchean (vol. ii. p. 122) places the death of John Sembat in 1039, and makes him predecease his brother Ashot IV. Brosset and Saint-Martin adopt the date 1039, but refuse the next fence, over which the nimble compiler sails with ease, that of the later death of Ashot IV. Perhaps there is an error in the English translation of Chamchean. One ends by getting tired of playing with dates. Happily there is an inscription at Ani which, if rightly translated by the editor of Aristakes (op. cit. ch. x. note), establishes the fact that John Sembat was alive in 1041. [↑]
[34] Aristakes of Lastivert (op. cit. ii. pp. 358 seq.) and Matthew of Edessa (op. cit. viii. p. 6). [↑]