History of the Armenians

The author calls himself Agathangelos, “bearer of good news”, and presents himself as a contemporary writing at King Tiridates III’s command. The claim is not accepted: the book in its present form is dated to the second half of the fifth century, and the name is most likely a pen-name. It has come down in Armenian, Greek, Arabic and other versions.

It is the chief narrative of the conversion of Armenia, written long after the events it describes. Much of it is told in the manner of a saint’s life: Gregory the Illuminator survives thirteen years in a pit, the king is changed into the likeness of a beast and healed, and a vision shows where the churches are to be built. The abridgement linked here gives no dates. One point can be tested from outside: Eusebius, writing at the time, knows the Armenians as a Christian people about AD 312 (Church History 9.8.2).

The text linked here is an abridgement, and it should be used as a guide to what the History contains, not as a substitute for the full work.