History

Title(s):
  • History
Period covered:
317-387?
Language:
Greek
State of Preservation:
Fragmentary
Genre:
  • Secular history (general)
Remarks:
Lazar Parpec'i names Faustus of Byzantium as a fourth- or fifth-century historian. The reference is usually understood as a misinterpretation of Buzandaran Patmutiwn (Anonymous, Epic histories), but Traina 2001 argues for possible historicity.
Procopius (Wars 1.5.9-40 and Buildings 3.1.6) mentions an anonymous Armenian source which older scholarship identified with Faustus, a view that led to the idea that Faustus might have translated the Epic histories or have written them originally in Greek  (cf. Garsoian 1989).  Traina 1999 demonstrates that Procopius’ account cannot derive from a Greek version of the Epic histories. So all we know about Faustus comes from Lazar.
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
  • Łazar Parpec‘i, History pr. 1-3
  • Anonymous, Epic histories 3, scholion
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • N. Garsoian (1989) The Epic histories attributed to P'awstos Buzand (Buzandaran patmut'iwnk'). Cambridge (MA).
  • D. Kouymjian (1985) Łazar P῾arpets῾i, History of the Armenians and the Letter to Vahan Mamikonean: A photographic reproduction of the 1904 Tiflis edition with a new introduction and critical bibliography. Delmar (NY).
  • R.W. Thomson (1991) The history of Łazar P'arpec'i. Atlanta.
  • G. Traina (2001) 'Faustus "of Byzantium", Procopius, and the Armenian history (Jacoby, FGrHist 679.3-4)'. In: Novum millennium: Studies on Byzantine history and culture dedicated to Paul Speck, ed. C. Sode - S. Takacs. Aldershot: 405-413.