Sebeos' History is a seventh
century document of special importance for the study of Armenia
and the Middle East in the sixth-seventh centuries. It was during
this period, when Iran and Byzantium were wrestling for control
of the Armenian highlands, that Armenian culture became more individual,
independent, and distinctively national. While Sebeos focusses
his attention primarily on Armenia's lay and clerical naxarars
(lords), he also provides extensive and valuable information on
events taking place in the neighboring societies of Byzantium,
Iran, and among the Arabs.
Byzantinists will find factual and anecdotal
information on the reigns of emperors Maurice (582-602), Theodosus,
Phocas, Heraclius and his successors to Constans II (641-68),
including their wars against Iran in the east and the Goths in
the west. Iranists will find information on officials such as
the hamaharz, pustipan, marzpan, ostikan,
Asparapet, patgospan, and hamarakar; and
a wealth of information on the reigns of shahs Peroz (459-84),
Valas, Kawad, Xosrov I Anushirvan, Hormizd IV, Xosrov II Aparvez,
Kawad II Sheroe, Artashir, queen Boran, and Yazdigerd III (d.
652). Sebeos' account of the rebellion of Vahram Choben and his
description of the last days of the Sasanian dynasty have the
authenticity of a contemporary. In addition, Sebeos narrates the
birth and rise of Islam and provides unusual information on Jewish
nationalism, the Khazars of the north Caucasus, and the Kushans
on Iran's northeastern border.
Regrettably, aside from canonical and
hagiographical literature and a few inscriptions, there are no
other Armenian historical sources for the period of the sixth-seventh
centuries. As such, Sebeos' information on Armenia and the Armenians
has particular importance. His account begins where the fifth
century Ghazar P'arpets'i's History left off--with the
rebellion of Vahan Mamikonean in the 480s. Unfortunately, the
account then skips the early and middle parts of the sixth century,
picking up again with the rebellion of Vardan II Mamikonean (572)
against Iran. Sebeos describes the separatist activities of the
district of Siwnik' in eastern historical Armenia; Vahram Choben's
efforts to enlist the aid of Mushegh Mamikonean, and Mushegh's
role in Vahram's defeat; the alleged plan of the emperor Maurice
and shah Xosrov to depopulate Armenia, and the rebellions
this engendered. He especially concentrates on the reign of Maurice
(582-602), who was perhaps of Armenian descent and had a peculiar
antipathy toward the Armenians. The late sixth and early seventh
centuries were a period when the Armenian naxarars were
strong and independent and prone to switching allegiance from
Byzantium to Iran, or vice versa. Sebeos describes
the careers of several such prominent lords as Smbat Bagratuni,
his son Varaztirots', T'eodos Xorxoruni and others, some of whom
became important officials in the two rival empires. As a cleric,
Sebeos was particularly interested in religious matters. He describes
the activity of Armenian kat'oghikoi; Byzantine
attempts to force Chalcedonianism on the Armenians; Iranian attempts
to force Zoroastrianism on the Armenians; Chrlstianity in Iran;
and the spread of Islam.
The present translation, which was completed
in 1979, was made from the classical Armenian edition of E. Patkanean
[Patmut'iwn Sebeosi episkoposi i Herakln
(St. Petersburg, 1879)]. Patkanean based his text on the earlier
edition of T. Mihrdatian (Constantinople, 1851) and a manuscript
at the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg. Mihrdatian in turn
had based his edition on an anonymous manuscript found in the
library of Ejmiatsin in 1842 by bishop Yovhannes Shahxat'unian.
There is extensive controversy about many aspects of the manuscript
tradition. None of the full extant manuscripts of Sebeos predates
the seventeenth century. Apparently, the now-lost text of Shahxat'unian
bore neither an author nor a title. Shahxat'unian himself determined
that the work must be the history alluded to by later medieval
historians as Sebeos' history. Consequently, with no positive
identification, the work was published as Bishop Sebeos' History
of Heraclius despite the fact that it is much more
than the history of Heraclius. Apparently, Shahxat'unian and/or
Mihrdatian divided the text into sections and chapters and prefaced
them with summaries (which were not in the original manuscript).
Another controversy surrounds an earlier
work appended to all extant manuscripts of this seventh century
history, which has come to be known as the Primary History
of Armenia [for an English translation and discussion
see R. Thomson, Moses Khorenats'i's History
of the Armenians (Cambridge, Mass., 1978)
Appendix pp. 357-68] Few Armenists today regard the Primary
History and "Sebeos" as the work of the same
author. Who Sebeos was, and if he really was the author of this
history are presently unanswerable questions [see G. Bournoutian,
"Sebeos: A Historical Controversy", Armenian
Review (Summer, 1975) pp. 138-46 ] There is nothing particularly
distinctive about Sebeos' style--the Armenian is direct and (usually)
straightforward. All that is clear from the author's biases is
that he was a patriotic historian, not unswervingly loyal to any
one House, and a fervent defender of the independence of the Armenian
Church.
In 1979, G.V. Abgaryan published a critical
edition of Sebeos (Erevan, 1979), which includes the Primary
History, and is based on numerous manuscripts and fragments.
While Abgaryan's text may be more readable than Patkanean's, the
editor's freedom in rearranging passages and completely renumbering
the chapters makes it difficult to use as a companion to the scholarly
writings on Sebeos by more than a century of prominent Armenists.
Nonetheless, the Abgaryan edition has extensive annotation, some
of which is referenced in the notes to the present translation.
The transliteration employed here is a modification of the Library
of Congress system.
Robert Bedrosian
(New York, 1985)
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