Faustus of Byzantium

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Faustus of Byzantium was a late antique historian who is considered to be the author of a historical work handed down in Armenian .

With regard to the person of Faustus and his work, many details are controversial in modern research. It was generally assumed for a long time that Faustus wrote a history of Greater Armenia around 400 , which in ancient times was much larger than the modern Armenian state , in Greek. The work probably described the period from about 320/40 to 387, that is, until the partition of Armenia between Eastern Stream and Persia ; Faustus himself did not actually give any chronological information, which makes some more precise information difficult. It is possible that his work was available to the late antique historian Prokopios of Caesarea , who claims to have used an "Armenian story", although he does not name the author.

The historical work of Faustus is only preserved in an Armenian version, which is called Buzandaran Patmut'iwnk ' ("Epic History") and comprises four books. The Armenian version is very elaborate, the sources presumably being mainly oral and semi-legendary stories. It offers valuable information on the history of Armenia from the end of the 3rd to the end of the 4th century, especially on Eastern Roman Armenian politics and early Christianization, which according to tradition began with the conversion of King Trdate by St. Gregory and his first founding of a church in Ashtishat begins. The work contains several errors, which Richard N. Frye and others have pointed out, which is why it is not considered particularly reliable. Faustus was previously seen as the continuation of Agathangelus , which is why he called his four books 3rd to 6th book. The work of Faustus was probably used by Moses by choruses .

It is often assumed that the author is identical to an Armenian bishop named Faustus, mentioned in the work, who was related to Nerses I , but this is partly doubted in recent research.

It is also possible that the derivation of the name is wrong and that Faustus did not come from Byzantium ( i.e. Constantinople ), but from a city called Buzanda, did not live until the end of the 5th century and originally wrote the work in the Armenian language. Nina Garsoïan, a leading expert on Armenian literature and history, also takes the position that there never was a Faustus of Byzantium or a Greek original. This view dominates current research, but is not shared by all scholars.

Translations

  • Robert Bedrosian (translator): P'awstos Buzandac'i's History of the Armenians. 1981
  • Nina G. Garsoïan (translation and commentary): The Epic Histories attributed to P'awstos Buzand (Buzandaran Patmut'iwnk ') . Harvard University Press, Cambridge / Mass. 1989
  • M. Lauer (ed.): The Faustus of Byzantium history of Armenia. Translated from Armenian and introduced with a treatise on the geography of Armenia . M. DuMont-Schauberg, Cologne 1879 ( online )

literature

  • James R. Russell: Faustus . In: Encyclopædia Iranica
  • Agop J. Hacikan et al. a. (Ed.): The Heritage of Armenian Literature, Volume I . Detroit 2000, pp. 183-187.
  • Johannes Karayannopulos, Günter Weiß: Source studies on the history of Byzantium (324-1453) . Wiesbaden 1982, p. 242 (No. 5).

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Richard N. Frye: History of Ancient Iran . Munich 1984, p. 288.
  2. ↑ So Lauer, Des Faustus von Byzanz Geschichte Armeniens , p. IIIf.
  3. ↑ Lauer, Des Faustus von Byzanz Geschichte Armeniens , p. IV. Cf. also Karayannopulos / Weiß, Quellenkunde zur Geschichte von Byzanz , p. 242.
  4. ↑ Agop J. Hacikan et al. a .: The Heritage of Armenian Literature, Volume I , pp. 183f.
personal data
SURNAME Faustus of Byzantium
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late antique historian
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century or 5th century
DATE OF DEATH 5th century