Corpus of Old Armenian Historical and Hagiographical Texts

[Text collection: AH]

[Page of edition: 55]

The History

Amasia City

And soon after

Of food and life

Of the holy Theodotos

Of the commander

Of the commander

In the time when the Macedonians

Alexander, called the son of Philip

with many thousands of godlessness

of the world-rulers,

Amasia 17, a certain brother of Nectanebo

of the father of Alexander, having been cut off

from Egypt, he went to Mesopotamia

to the side of Gambak

Pontos, called to the second

Hayovk‘, by which the Wolf flows.

a river among the rocky ravines

and he saw a cave in the rock, and he entered it, and he found there a holy man, a hermit, whose name was Yarut‘iwn, and he was a disciple of the great saint Surb Grigor. And the hermit said to him, "My son, why have you come to this desolate place?" And the man answered, "I have come to seek salvation for my soul, for I have sinned greatly." And the hermit said, "If you wish to be saved, you must remain here with me and live in prayer and fasting." And the man agreed, and he stayed with the hermit for many years, until he too became a holy man.

passed through the most daring places, and

thus he descended into Pontus Polemoniacus

through the plain of Themiscyrion

on the untrodden seashore which lies before

the riverbank, he arrives at the place which

is called Marmaridon, the beginning

taken from Pontus, from the stone-quarries.

Having ceased, making known to the twenty-five men

of Alexandria, receives the command

to dwell in that place, which city

built by his servants and the gathered people

he dwelt, in his own name

called Amasia.

And after many times

Mihrdat, the maternal uncle of Tigran

of the Armenian king, being a partisan

of his father-in-law in the city of Mijak

which is now called Caesarea, has

Amasia, taken captive in Armenia

city of the world-boundary-ruler of the prophets,

among the most expansive, he adorned

on the summit of the two mountains

of the sides of the river, built

and the arches on the northern side

they flow along the foot of the rocky hill

and first with rocks

and then with stones

large and strong, firmly standing

with stones, and upon them the arches

standing 30 and in the solar

of the face of the vast tomb, hewn from rock

and roads, stair-shaped

and houses of rock, treasure chambers

32 forged, made in like manner

of the handiworks of Shamiram, which were in

Van and in Khaznatkepʿays 33. Those which

filled with treasures, he ruled not a few

34 months until the arrival of Pompey.

in which he fought and was defeated

of Mihrdat and fell into

Pontos died in Sinop. And

Pompey took the treasure from Amasia

and having moved the inhabitants of Yolovs

build a city, calling it by his own name

Pompeiopolis. But also Amasia

having been held in the presidency

having made Espontos a metropolis of 35

which was full of all evils 36

and with the worship of Satan, until

to the life-giving power of the apostles

in which many believed

to the Lord.