Tag Archives: Movses Khorenatsi

EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA AND MOSES KHORENATSI:
Justification of The Royal Authority in The Christian Hellenism

Hellenistic Christianity sought to synthesize core biblical teachings with Hellenistic values across various realms, including theology, philosophy, politics, law, religion, and culture. It created new identities on individual, collective, and even imperial levels of socialization. Scholars argue that prominent rulers and religious leaders played a crucial role in this process.

This paper examines similar cases in the context of the Late Roman Empire and Greater Armenia, focusing on the reigns of Constantine the Great (306-337) and Tiridates III (298-330). Despite their differences, they share common features across various aspects of social policy, particularly in religious affairs. The conversion to Christianity opened new perspectives for both Rome and Armenia.

This paper explores these transformations through the narratives of two distinguished intellectuals: Eusebius of Caesarea and Moses Khorenatsi. The former was a close companion of Constantine; the latter, who lived more than a century later, sought to understand and justify the actions of King Tiridates. Eusebius employed an apologetic approach, while Khorenatsi adopted a historical description and interpretation. Both authors, however, drew upon Hellenistic social theory combined with biblical wisdom. According to this synthesis, the Roman Empire reached its zenith under Constantine’s wise leadership, and his new capital, Constantinople, embodied this ideal. Greater Armenia, conversely, followed a different trajectory: after Tiridates, it gradually declined into decay and disintegration. Nevertheless, even under these dire circumstances, a path to redemption emerged.

According to Khorenatsi, such a possibility could only become reality through the creation of a new elite forged in a new national culture and educational system. With this vision, the author revisited the fundamental concept of his teacher, St. Mesrop Mashtots.

THE TIME OF WRITING OF YEGHISHE’S HISTORY

In Armenian philology, different opinions have appeared regarding the time of writing of Yeghishe’s work “History of Vardan and the Armenian War”. According to the facts reflected in it, it is accepted that Yeghishe’s History was written around 462-465. The centuries-old Armenian national literary tradition recognizes the testimony of Yeghishe as absolutely reliable regarding author’s witnessing the events. However, for more than a century, the debate among philologists and historians over the primacy of Yeghishe’s “History of Vardan and the Armenian War” and Ghazar Parpetsi’s “History of Armenia” has been going on. Yeghishe as the Avarayr’s battle historian, really appears as an impartial author, documenting genuine and reliable facts. Meanwhile, Parpetsi evaluates things from a distance in time, with a certain coloring. Thus, retelling the main episodes of Yeghishe’s Vardanants History, Parpetsi tries to replace the words used by his predecessor with synonymous expressions or change them according to the information he has. He even replaces geographical place names with parallel names as much as possible.

The information reported by Yeghishe regarding the exact dates of the Vardanants war, the troops and victims, and many other details, his awareness of the near and far events that took place, truly make the history an authentic work created by an informed figure and eyewitness author, and his powerful, eloquent poetic speech and vivid imagination elevate the historically authentic work to the level of a national epic.

Our impartial, meticulous study reveals Yeghishe’s primacy over Parpetsi not only chronologically, but also in the very significant differences in the content of their works, which prove the dependence of Parpetsi’s History on Yeghishe’s original.