Vahram's Chronicle of the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia, during the time of the Crusades

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PREFACE. XV

i ingdomis Armenin Created uti barbarian elements by the generosi ty and magnanimit of the Emporor Nicholas. Τho sollowin Chronicie is translato lsromin edition printed at adras in theyear l259 of the Armenian era, lintris theyear ISI Anno Do=nim. The volum is print sed by the command of that great prosemoteris literature, Ephrem archbi Shopan primate of the Armenians in Russin, an contains, esides the chronicie os Vahram the Elegyi Edessa by Nerses Shnoi haly and the eleg on his death, Written by the mos ominent of his disci-PleS, erSes O Lampron. It is suid in tho preface of the besore-mentioned Volume, that tho ork of Vahram the e Cretaryo Leon III., ad been previoUSi Print-ed though in a very negligent an CureteSS

other han the adras edition, here the Prope nante os places and soreign nations

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XVI PREFACE.

are osten incorrecti speli Pam Sorr tondit, that I ad the ollowin translationin a place here it Was impossibi sor meto refer to the wellanown ork on thegeograph of Armenia, o Cilicia, and os Asia inor generalty notther could Compare the narrative of Vahram illi thostate1nent of the contemporar Bygantineand Latin writer : ut Pirus the learnedreade Will ensily suppi these defect8. Vahram is nearly the latest author hois considered by the Armenian litorati towrite classically. The classical Armenian langu age ad been preserve Domthe eginning of Armenian literatur in the fifth century, amitis various politicaland religious disturbances for a periodisseight hundred years. During the eourSe stho thirtoenili centur the language beeame corrupted an in the murteenth authors began torus in their Writing the Corrupte vernacular idiom. he ancient native

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PREFACE. xvii

lations and imitations os the celebrato lGreel patierias eoam Supersede hytho barbarous iteratur of the Latins, and Jolin os Erginga, therWise lug 1326 tho inst,ho Wroto the langunge os

Alose and Elisaeus, translatexu Ork ontho sacraments by St. Thomas Aquinas. Wo thusin sonae ordor os montis in Armenia, educate in the Latin schoolsand in latin manners, ho Corrupted thenative Huican language by the introduction os many oreigri Seholasti eXPreS- Sion and a ne raee o Sanguinar barbarians the Dominicans, ecum theauthor os Wortis orthy of thei titularysaint. The Armenian literature rem ained

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Sili Tabris, St. PeterSburg, ΜΟSCOW Am Sterdam Smyrna, and principali Venice, bear Witnes to the literar energ of thesar dispersed descendant of Haig. Withthe dawn o Armenian literature, historylias been nriched by the Chronicie os Eusebius; et more and weightier literaryti eaSure may be Xpecte si om it meridian splendour. There are hinis in the writers of the fifth centuta, os translations os olybius, Diodorus Siculus, and the Chronicie os illius Africanus. Besides

these versions of the cla8steat writers of GreeCe, there eXis very valvabie originalhistories, hich have neve been printedo translated, and many a chasm might

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an to oses of horene, suid to existat a monaster in Armenia Propei ,-osthose Albanians, whoclived botu eon Iberino Georgia and the confines of the Caspian Sex butis Which eopte no traces ure tot soland in ur time S. A literar j oui ne to Armenia, Under-takeni an active laborious Cholar, Iulio unites the nowledge os the Armenian language illi classica studies, ould prove of the reates importane to the knowledge of ancient histor an to thondvanoementis generaliterature.

n. 6.

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mande me to rite his supplement also inverse , that it may be read illi more pleasures) NO I, Rabou Vahram, an convince Osmy an os talenis, ut ana et versed in the

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law of Od, and have ne ver deviated romolio pathis righteousness. Receiving the commandsos the ing have been ver ince uneas in m milid, ut os ea that in no obeying, Ι may bring on me the wo- id punishment spolieni by t. aul. For is to subjoin mymea composition to those of the ancients beaudacious, O thin that it could e compared with thei finished productioris, Ouidie solly. I his alarme me, and Dabstaine stom,riting. Considering this ver seriousty thought atlast that mylumbi an mean writin Would increas the beaut of Others, o hicli it assubjoined the fame a patiater intentionalty sui round a gold round by a blae colour, notio adorn his lac border, ut o ais thebeaut of the old. hese considerations