A UNIQUE DOCUMENT OF THE CONSTANTINOPLE LIBRARY DATED TO 695 AD
In 695 the Greek to Armenian skillful translator Philon Tirakatsi returned to Armenia from Constantinople. He brought with him the Armenian translation of “The Ecclesiastical History” of Socrates Scholastocus and handed it to Catholicos Sahak Dzoraporetsi in Dvin. It had a colophon.
M.Ter-Movsesyan, I. Orbeli, R. Blаkе, N.Adontz, P.Mouradyan and R.Vardanyan paid attention to this colophon. M.Ter-Movsesyan was sure of the originality of the four system dating in the colophon and tried to correlate with each other. I. Orbeli considered the synchronism of dates as the most vulnerable point in this colophon. He suggested that there was denoted only а kind of original date the rest were developed later. R. Blаkе considered quite the possible existence of a chronology based on the Birth of Christ in the Christian Orient in the 7th century. And it had been proved by the studies of а cryptographic inscription from Eghvard, a colophon notion by Anania Shirakatsi and the colophon of the translation of Socrates Scholasticus’ work. It might be a colophon-like unique reference of an early medieval library file which was usual in Byzantium. It could be given out on the occasion of finishing the translation of the work of Socrates Scholastocus in the Constantinople library. Thus it may be supposed that, according to the accepted order, the library inspector gave Philo Tirakatsi a reference in Greek stating that he finished the translation of the book of Socrates Scholastocus in 695/6
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