1 Hr. Acharhyan, Hayeren armatakan barharan [Dictionary of Armenian Root Words), vol I (Erevan, 1971):618-19.

2 Koriwn, Patmut'iwn varuts' arhn eranelwoy Mashtots' vardapeti [Narration of the Life of the Venerable Vardapet Mashtots'], N. Akinean, ed., text in Handes Amsoreay (Vienna, 1949), 209-74.

3 N. Adontz, Armenia in the Period of Justinian (Lisbon, 1970); English trans. of 1908 Russian edition); C. Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History (Georgetown, 1963). These works, in addition to Toumanoff's many articles in Traditio and the Cambridge Medieval History (Cambridge, 1966), and A. Perikhanian's "Agnaticheskie gruppy v drevnem irane [Agnatic Groups in Ancient Iran]," Vestnik drevnei istorii, 3(1968), 28-53, are essential reading for an understanding of the evolution of Armenian naxararism.

4 A. Grigolia, "Milkrelationship in the Caucasus", in Bedi Karthlisa, 41-42(1962), 148-67.

5 On Iran see A. Christensen, L'Iran sous les Sassanides, 2nd ed. (Copenhagen, 1944) and R. Frye, The Heritage of Persia (New York, 1963). For an annotated bibliography of shared and/or parallel religious, political, and cultural institutions in Armenia and Iran, se N. Garsoian, "Prolegomena to a Study of the Iranian Aspects in Arsacid Armenia", Handes Amsoreay (1976) cols. 177-234. As will be seen, the classical Armenian sources cited in the present study contain a welter of terms for "clan" and/or "family" suach as azg, azgatohm, tohm, etc., the precise nuances of which are no longer fully understood. Before modern times (and specifically in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. and earlier), the Armenian family was the extended family, which included large numbers of related individuals. For this reason, the term "clan" may be preferable to "family" when speaking of the major naxarar groups, though we are unsure of the extent of tribal and/or caste structures within these clan/families (specifically in the fourth and fifth centuries). Similarly, in the fourth and fifth centuries the terms tun (usually translated "House", naxararut'iwn (naxarardom), and terut'iwn (lordship) referred not to a dwelling place, but to the clan's properties and prerogatives. Some terms (such as nahapet, bdeashx, banak "army", mardpet, atean "court", ostan) we have not translated in the quotations. See note 3 above and the notes to the passages cited.

Press the Backspace key to return to text of article