History of Armenia, by Father Michael Chamich; from B. C. 2247 to ...

XXVlll
PREFACE.
undertuken by these learned foreigners, must have
proved very arduous to them. It is evident that the
real meaning of the author, in several passages, has
not been sufficiently understood by the
translators, who
appear to have been unacquainted wiiii the literary
character of the author.
Elishev the INIonk flourished in the fifth century. He
was a fellow-scholar of Moses Chorenensis, and a relative
of St. Vardan, the famous Armenian general, to whom
he was secretary. By desire of that excellent prit st
David the ^lamiconian, he wrote in a beautiful style an
account of the destruction of the country of
Armenia by
the cruel Hazkert king of Persia, of the memorable
martyrdoms of the Vardanian and Levondian Saints, and
of the calamities that subsequently befel the Armenian
chiefs, the v.hole extending to the year 463. His work
has been published in Constantinople m the year 1764, or
the Haican era 1213; in ^Takhjuan m the year 1787, and
in Calcutta in the year 1S16, by Mr. Gentloom Aviet
Lazauus Pharpexsis, surnamed the Rhetorician
flourished in the fifth century. In his infancy he was
placed under the immediate tuition of St. Isaac and
St. Mesrop; and he finished
his education under the care
of the blessed Alan the Arzrunian. He takes a cursory
view of the events recorded in the histories of Agathangelus
and Pliostos Byz mdensis.
Soon after the period of
the extinction of tiie Arsacidean royalty, Lazarus gaye
a very detailed account of the martyrdoms of the Vardanian
and Levondian saints, as well as of all the eventg
that occurred in Armenia duriny: his own time. He also