Draft:Faustus of Byzantium

P’awstos Buzand (Փաւստոս Բուզանդ), also known as Faustus of Byzantium, is the reputed author of an Armenian work entitled (also known as , "History of Armenia"), composed in the second half of the 5th century. It describes events from the military, socio-cultural and political life of Arsacid-ruled Greater Armenia in the 4th century, encompassing the period from the death of Gregory the Illuminator (c. 311) until the partition of Armenia in 387. It is the only detailed account of events from this period of Armenian history, most of which are only briefly summarized in the more famous history of Movses Khorenatsi. Traditionally viewed as unreliable, it is now recognized as an invaluable source for the study of early Christian Armenia.

The ultimate identity of P’awstos is unknown, although most scholars now agree that the author of was an Armenian, rather than a Greek as had been assumed earlier. Buzand is either interpreted as meaning "the Byzantine" or, alternatively, as a word of Iranian origin meaning "composer of epics". If the latter interpretation is true, then could be translated as "Epic Histories." Historian Nina Garsoïan suggests that the author of the work was an anonymous preacher sympathetic to Armenia's nobility.

Scholars have identified three main parallel strands in : a royal history, focusing on the reigns of the last Arsacid kings of Armenia; an ecclesiastical history, giving an account of the hereditary succession of Patriarchs of Armenia from the house of Gregory the Illuminator; and the Mamikonian history, telling the story of the hereditary (generals-in-chief) of Armenia from that noble house. Faustus portrays the Mamikonians as defenders par excellence of Armenia, who show undying loyalty to the unworthy Arsacid kings.

Identity, dating and language
Scholars have long debated the issue of the identity and ethnic origin of P’awstos, as well as the date and original language of his work. The author gives virtually no information about himself in the work; a note at the end of Book Three in which the author is identified as "P’awstos Biwzand the great historian who was a Greek chronicler" has been deemed a later addition. Not long after was composed, another early Armenian historian, Ghazar Parpetsi, commented on the work and concluded that it had originally been written by a "Byzantine scholar" named  from Constantinople, but was later modified by some other "ignorant" author who could not have been educated in Byzantium. Following Parpetsi, most older scholars believed the original author of to have been a Greek or a Hellenized Armenian writing in the 4th century, with the work being translated into Armenian after the invention of the Armenian alphabet in the 5th century. Later scholarship has demonstrated that the work was originally composed in Armenian and that the author could not have been a contemporary of the 4th-century events described by him. Nina Garsoïan writes that the work was most likely written in the 470s.

Some early scholars attempted to identify Pʻawstos the author with a Greek bishop of the same name mentioned by the author as an associate of Nerses I, as well as another bishop named Faustus mentioned in the correspondence of Basil of Caesarea, although this is no longer considered tenable as the work has conclusively been dated to the 5th century. In Garsoïan's view, the actual author of remains anonymous, while later medieval authors anachronistically attributed the work to the bishop P'awstos mentioned in the text. The epithet or  was traditionally interpreted as "Byzantine" or "from Byzantium," and was changed at an early date to the more accurate Armenian form. This corresponds with the theory that ascribes a Greek origin to the author. However, this left unexplained the original title of the work. By analyzing this title, Iranologist Anahit Perikhanian concluded that is composed of an Iranian word meaning "a reciter of epic poems, a bard", and -aran, a suffix indicating location in both Iranian languages and Armenian. Thus, can be translated as "Epic Histories" or "Epic Tales."

As far as can be concluded from the work, the author of was an Armenian cleric who was deeply invested in ecclesiastical matters and supported the Nicene orthodoxy of the Armenian church against the Arianism of the 4th-century Roman emperors and Armenian kings. He was a skilled preacher who wrote in an elevated style of Classical Armenian, but was not a particularly learned man. Additionally, he had a conservative aristocratic bent and strongly supported the privilege of the descendants of Gregory the Illuminator to hereditarily hold the Armenian patriarchate. Garsoïan also tentatively proposes that the author may have been from the Armenian region of Taron, which would explain his fanatical support for the Mamikonian rulers of that region. James R. Russell further adds that the author must have been an Armenian "steeped in the Iranian traditions of the newly Christianized land."

Books
consists of a "Preliminary Statement" and four "books" or "registers", beginning with Book Three ("Beginning") and ending with Book Six ("Ending"), which appears to be due to the work of a later editor of the surviving manuscript. The incongruence between the numbering of Book Three and its title has led to debates among scholars on whether or not there were originally first and second books that were lost. Other scholars have suggested that the work is complete but was included in a collection of other texts.

Publications and translations
has a late manuscript history compared with other major Armenian histories, with the earliest known manuscript dating to 1599, excluding a fragmentary manuscript from 1224. It was first published in 1730 in Constantinople. A French translation by Mkrtich Emin was published in 1867. A German translation by M. Lauer appeared in 1879. A translation into modern Armenian was published with an introduction and explanatory notes by Stepan Malkhasyants in Yerevan in 1947. A Russian translation with commentary was published in Yerevan in 1953. In 1985, Robert Bedrosian published an English translation. Nina Garsoïan published an English translation with an introduction and commentary in 1989.