Two Armenian Historians: Kirakos of Gandzak and Ukhtanes of Edessa

XIII
INTRODUCTION.

Regarding the postdiluvian patriarchs, the judges of Israel, and the kings of Judah, he gives only the specific dates of paternity or the duration of office and reign, without ever referring to any fundamental epoch. He states the total only by placing, in § 15, "the birth of the Savior in 5500 since Adam, and the foundation of the Armenian calendar in 500 after Jesus Christ." On the 1st point, one could agree with him, since it concerns the era of Julius Africanus, if one did not read in the margin, right here, the Eusebian date 5198 — undoubtedly a note from the copyist. It seems, however, that he holds to 5500, since he returns to it in § 23, saying: "There had elapsed from Adam until the birth of J.C. 5500 years; according to the Jews — Hebrew text — 4000 years; according to the Samaritans, 4000 years 1; according to the Greek calculation of Epiphanius of Cyprus, 5500 years; finally, according to the Chronicle of General History, 5195 2 years." And again in § 78, we read: "From Adam until the 15th year of Trdat (301 A.D.) there are 5800 years." This is new proof that the era of Julius Africanus dominates in our author. I will return later to the date of the foundation of the Armenian calendar.

I do not doubt that one can often find disagreement between Oukhtanès and other historians regarding the duration of the reigns of the kings of Judah, Persia, Assyria, and others; but, in my opinion, it is not worth the trouble to make a general survey of these variants, which may not be the author's fault, for a work that contains almost nothing but figures and was composed without indication of sources or critical analysis. It would be a task to do over from the first line to the last, arbitrarily substituting new data for those of the original. As for the 29 emperors "of the Romans or of the Greeks," as Oukhtanès calls them indifferently, up to Probus, he gives them the same serial numbers as Eusebius in the translation of St. Jerome, up to Tacitus and Florian, whose reigns do not occupy an entire year: thus he does not count them in the sequence of the series. The most significant variants I have noted are: for Emperor Augustus, 50 years and 6 months of reign, instead of 56 years and 6 months; for Macrinus, 20 years, written out in full, instead of one year.

Finally, in §§ 51, 58, and 76, Oukhtanès gives monthly dates for the Armenian calendar, which are not accurate.

1. According to him, St. Theodore was martyred under Maximin I (235—237 A.D.), on the twenty-fourth of the month of maréri — July 17 or 18.

1. The Samaritan text of the Bible, according to Tchamitch, Hist. of Arm. vol. III, Tables, p. 3, gives 4700 years; another calculation gives 4304 years: in any case, Oukhtanès’s figure is faulty. * The variants are so numerous that one should not attach great importance even to that of a small Samaritan chronicle, published in the Journal asiatique of Paris, December 1869, p. 427, where it is said that from Adam until the year 747 Heg. — 1346 A.D., 5778 years have elapsed; consequently, the Christian era would have begun in 5432.
   The so-called mundane era of Epiphanius cannot be the Greek era 5508, since this saint died in 403 and the 5508 era has only been in use since the year 680 A.D.
2. One might read 5192, for the writing is so cursive that it hardly allows one to distinguish the numeral letters 2 and 5.