The Creation of a “Pious” Image of King Vačʽagan II (r. c. 485–523) of Caucasian Albania in the Tale of Vačʽagan (Early Sixth Century)

Abstract

The History of Albania is by the late tenth-century Armenian historian Movsēs Dasxurancʽi, (also known from historiography and manuscripts as “Kałankatuacʽi”) who was from Artsakh.1 This work is a compilation of numerous writings, both longer and shorter, which come from Artsakh. Since these works were copied in a very literal manner, they have served as the basis for a number of scientific contributions published over the last fifteen years on such texts as the Tale of Vačʽagan, the History of Catholicos Viro by Anonymous Kałankatuacʽi, the anonymous History of the Year 684, the Canons of Ałuēn, among others. The first of these works was composed at the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century by an eyewitness and has historically been given the title of the Tale of Vačʽagan (in Armenian “Վաչագանի վէպ” – “Vačʽagani Vēp”; in German Watschagans Erzählung; in French Conte de Vatchagan; and in Russian “Повесть о Вачагане”). Movsēs Dasxurancʽi copied the Tale into chapters XIV and XVI–XXIII of the first book of his History of Albania.2 The title of one of the chapters – “The life, conduct, and regulations of Ałuankʽ defined by King Vačʽagan and the discovery of the holy relics” (Dasx. 1.16, p. 42) – must have been the original title of the entire book which the tenth-century historian divided up into chapters by inventing new titles for them. As I have shown in previous publications,3 the Tale of Vačʽagan is a medieval panegyric text written in a classical style. That is, it is an apologetic hagiography that does not present a chronological arrangement of facts by year but instead describes the laudable deeds of its hero in a logical order. The author’s goal was not to depict a coherent history of Vačʽagan and his house but to present key challenges