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Document Details : Title: Xorenac'i and Eastern Historiography of the Hellenistic Period Author(s): TERIAN, A. Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes Volume: 28 Date: 2001-2002 Pages: 101-141 DOI: 10.2143/REA.28.0.505077 Abstract : In Book I of his History of the Armenians, entitled “Genealogy of Greater Armenia,” Moses Xorenac‘i stresses the ancient origin of his people by following certain historiographical or literary forms found also in the national histories of Eastern writers who were influenced by Greek historians: e.g., Berossus in his Babylonian History (early third century BC), Manetho in his Egyptian History (third century BC), Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities along with its Apology or Against Apion (first century AD), and Philo of Byblos in his Phoenician History (AD 64-141). In their reaction to Greek civilization and response to Greek historians, thought to be poorly informed about ancient cultures, these Eastern authors, writing in Greek, resorted to apologetic histories of their distinctive antiquity with the conviction that the older the origin of a nation, the superior its civilization. It is rather surprising that Book I of the History of the Armenians by Xorenac‘i has not been studied alongside these works which he must have encountered in Eusebius of Caesarea — his primary source for much of the antiquity transmitted by him — even though his overwhelming dependence on Eusebius has long been established. |
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