Robert W. Thomson – författare

After the invention of a national script, c.400 AD, Armenians rapidly developed their own literary forms, drawing on foreign texts as well as their own traditions. Historical writing is the most original genre in classical and medieval Armenian literature. Greek works (including the Chronicle of Eusebius, now lost in Greek but preserved in Armenian) constituted the major part of translated histories. But in the thirteenth century the extensice Chronicle of the Syrian Patriarch Michael and the first part of the Georgian chronicles were adapted for an Armenian readership. The collection known as the `Georgian Chronicles' was finally codified in the eighteenth century and represents only a small part of Georgian historical writing. The thirteenth century Armenian version is in fact the earliest attestation of this growing corpus of texts, predating all extant Georgian manuscripts of it.This book presents the two texts, Georgian and Armenian, in English translation for the first time. The Introduction and Commentary draw attention to the ways in which the unknown Armenian translator changed his original material in a pro-Armenian fashion. His rendering became the standard source for early Georgian history used by later Armenian historians. The book includes a useful overview of the background to the chronicles, the history and culture of Christian Georgia and Armenia, and their respective languages and literature.

Contra Gentes; De Incarnatione

The first English translation of History of the Armenians.History of the Armenians, attributed to Agathangelos, is an enigmatic work that combines remembered tradition and invented legend. It also exists in several languages and various editions, not all of which derive from the text extant in Armenian. The significance of the work is unquestionable, though. With this edition, Robert W. Thomson offers the first English translation of this "received" tradition, with elucidation of the literary sources of the Armenian redactor. This translation also compares the content of the other versions and explores the tendentious purpose of the Armenian text. This work also provides key insights into the literary background of the important fifth-century author Agathangelos, his affinities for other Armenian writers, and his typically vast knowledge of Greek and Syriac texts.