CHRONOLOGY.
| Dates. | |
| Tiridates converted to Christianity by Gregory II. | A.D. 276 |
| St. Gregory confirmed as Pontiff by Pope Sylvester | 319 |
| Christianity proscribed and persecuted by the Persians | 428-632 |
| Fall of Sassanide dynasty. | 632 |
| Establishment of Bagratide dynasty under Ashdod | 859 |
| Greatest prosperity under Apas | 928 |
| Ashdod III. | 951 |
| Sempad II. | 977-989 |
| Alp Arslan takes Ani | 1064 |
| Gajih, last of the dynasty, slain | 1079 |
| Gengis Khan | 1222 |
The architectural province of Armenia forms an almost exact pendant to that of Greece in the history of Byzantine architecture. Both were early converted to Christianity, and Greece remained Christian without any interruption from that time to this. Yet all her earlier churches have perished, we hardly know why, and left us nothing but an essentially Mediæval style. Nearly the same thing happened in Armenia, but there the loss is only too easily accounted for. The Persian persecution in the 5th and 6th centuries must have been severe and lasting, and the great bouleversement of the Mahomedan irruption in the 7th century would easily account for the disappearance of all the earlier monuments. When, in more tranquil times—in the 8th and 9th centuries—the Christians were permitted to rebuild their churches, we find them all of the same small type as those of Greece, with tall domes, painted with frescoes internally, and depending for external effect far more on minute elaboration of details than on any grandeur of design or proportion.
Although the troubles and persecutions from the 5th to the 8th century may have caused the destruction of the greater part of the monuments, it by no means follows that all have perished. On the contrary, we know of the church above alluded to (p. [428]) as still existing at Nisibin and belonging to the 4th century, and there can be little doubt that many others exist in various corners of the land; but they have hardly yet been looked for, at least not by anyone competent to discriminate between what was really old and what may have belonged to some subsequent rebuilding or repair.
343. View of Church at Dighour. (From Texier.)
Till this more careful examination of the province shall have been accomplished, our history of the style cannot be carried back beyond the Hejira. Even then very great difficulty exists in arranging the materials, and in assigning correct dates to the various examples. In the works of Texier,[[243]] Dubois,[[244]] Brosset,[[245]] and Grimm[[246]] some forty or fifty churches are described and figured in more or less detail, but in most cases the dates assigned to them are derived from written testimony only, the authors not having sufficient knowledge of the style to be able to check the very fallacious evidence of the litera scripta. In consequence of this, the dates usually given are those of the building of the first church on the spot, whereas, in a country so troubled by persecution as Armenia, the original church may have been rebuilt several times, and what we now see is often very modern indeed.
344. Plan of Church at Dighour. (From Texier.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.