THE STORIES OF LIVES: BIOGRAPHICAL TRADITION FROM “ROMAN” TO ARMENIAN LITERATURE

Abstract

The first touchstone that comes to mind when considering the tradition of biographical writing in ancient literature is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, although he was not the earliest example of this method. Much later, came the Vita Constantini, a panegyric written by the church historian Eusebius in honour of the Emperor Constantine, and Athanasius’ Vita Antonii. Moreover, further east, a patristic and encomiastic Armenian biographical tradition exists, albeit partly obscured in Armenian literature and overlooked by ancient authors. Surprisingly, existing literature has not dedicated sufficient attention to the transmission of literature between the East and West, despite the likelihood that the first written Armenian text was a biography. Therefore, this study will discuss the extent to which Armenian literature was influenced by its Roman predecessors in the biographical tradition, especially those who wrote in Greek, and how this tradition was shaped in Armenian literature.