II. "Agat'angeghos"


The compilation of sources known as the History of Agat'angeghos concerns the Christianization of Armenia during the reign of King Trdat the Great (ca. 303-330) and incidents relating to that event. The work has survived in two important recensions: (1) the Armenian Agat'angelos (Aa) and a Greek translation of it made perhaps between 464 and 468 (Ag) (35); (2) the Arabic Life of St. Gregory (Va) (36) discovered by Nicholas Marr in 1902 and the Greek version of this recension (Vg) (37) published by Gerard Garitte. The Greek Life which Garitte discovered in the Codex X.III.6 of the Library of the Escorial appears to be the hitherto unknown Greek translation of an Armenian text from which Marr's Arabic Life ultimately derives (38). Toumanoff believes that Va could not have been translated before the end of the eighth century (39).

In chapter 7 of his classic Documents pour l'etude du livre d'Agathange, Garitte compared Vg with the other recensions. He concluded that (1) in general, the Armeno-Greek Agat'angeghos and the Graeco-Arabic Life of St. Gregory are parallel despite the different ordering of events and the absence or presence of episodes from one or the other (40); (2) each recension, except Va, has an element peculiar to itself whether this be the Teaching of St. Gregory in Aa, the revolt of Artasir in Ag, or Vg's story of Gregory's wife (41); (3) Vg is not a translation of Aa but an entirely different version (42); (4) Va is a concoction of an unabridged recension of Vg and a text resembling Aa (43).

Thus there are not one but several accounts of the conversion of Armenia, written, compiled, and translated at different times. Nor is one dealing with an independently written narration, the work of one man's genius. As Abeghyan pointed out long ago, in the Armenian Agat'angeghos alone the influences of Irano-Armenian folk tales and Syrian martyrologies are observed (44). The presence of numerous lengthy borrowings from Koriwn's place the compilation of Aa (from which Ag and parts of Va) after 443-450. However, the fact that the story of Armenia's conversion contains passages which date from the mid-fifth century does not necessarily mean that "Agat'angeghos" describes a fifth century reality. Toumanoff observed that the definitely fifth century list of princes which Adontz drew up based on P'arpec'i differs from the one list found in all four versions of ''Agat'angelos". Nine princes appear in the latter list but are absent from P'arpec'i. The regions represented by many of the princes were part of an Armenian state in the fourth, but not in the fifth century. Therefore Toumanoff believes that the historical situation found in the two recensions reflects one contemporaneous with Armenia's conversion (46).

Concerning the Mamikonean family and the sparapetut'iwn, there is disagreement among the versions. There are three lists in "Agat'angeghos" which mention the sparapet: (1) The princes accompanying St. Gregory to Caesarea for ordination: Aa (Venice, 1930). Mentioned fifth in this list is "prince of the sparapetut'iwn. general of Armenia'' (47); Aa (Tiflis, 1909, critical edition) the sparapet in command of the expedition is named Artawazd (48); Ag calls this officer the stratopedarch (49); Va as well as Vgs (50) employs a surname and gives an expanded statement:

Quintus princeps mqwuyn'nwn nomine 'sb'r'b'ts: hic autem praefectus erat exercitui totius Armeniae, equitum et peditum, nec discedebat a rege magnae Armeniae, atque in bellis omnes quos memorabimus principes et memorabimus, sub eius potestate erant, praeterquam quod princeps qmrdl non erat sub eius potestale, quae (regio) est iuxta fortes qrdytn (51).

Vg and Va subsequently mention Artawazd "prince of the Mamikonean and asparapet" (52); (2) The three envoys sent to Caesarea by Trdat III to fetch Gregory's sons: Aa and Ag record "prince Artawazd, generalissimo of all the armies of Greater Armenia" as the first envoy (53); Vg does not mention the name of any of the ambassadors; Va has "primus princeps 'rtw'zd' (Artawazd) qui praefectus erat patnciorum super totam regionem Armeniae" (54); (3) The princes accompanying Trdat III to Rome: Aa, "the great sparapet'" (unnamed) is recorded after Trdat's four border-lords, the prince of Angegh district and the coronant (55); Ag has "the great stratopedarch" (56) Va and Vg do not contain this passage.

While all versions mention a sparapet during the reign of Trdat III, this officer's first and last names are found together only in Va and Vg. This circumstance did not escape Movses Xorenac'i, the author of an anti-Mamikonean History of Armenia. For Movses, the sparapet under Trdat was also an Artawazd, but Artawazd Mandakuni, not Mamikonean (57). The fifth century History of P'awstos Buzand, however, confirms Artawazd Mamikonean as Trdat's sparapet. In IIl.2, P'awstos calls Vach'e Mamikonean (sparapet of King Xosrov Kotak) "the son of Artawazd." Presumably, just as Xosrov succeeded his father Trdat as king, so Vach'e succeeded his father Artawazd as sparapet.

The sparapet is not an important figure in "Agat'angeghos". Ordinarily the armies appear to be under the direct control of the monarch, a circumstance which heightens the epic grandeur of the tale. Thus King Xosrov "assembled the multitude of soldiers and all who had arrived from different parts to aid him in war" 58. The king divided his army into cohorts (59); he raided Assyria (60). A Christian, "the king and all the army" destroyed pagan temples (61). The king himself paid and dismissed his troops (62). All military affairs are in the hands of the king. The king summons his army, or the king, his sister, and the queen summon the army (63), or even St. Gregory calls the cohorts together for baptism (64). But the sparapet,though he is mentioned three times, has little to do with the army in this story.

Footnotes 35-64



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