Ghazar P'arpets'i's History of the Armenians and its Significance for dating the reign of Vakhtang Gorgasali

Abstract

The dating of the reign of Vakhtang Gorgasali is one of the problematic issues in historiography. Armenian chronicler Ghazar P’arpec’i has the most important information about the reign of Vakhtang Gorgasali, according to which “Vakhtang killed the impious bdeshx Vazgen in the twenty-fifth year of king Peroz”. Differences of opinion are caused by the date from which the author calculated Peroz's reign and, accordingly, when the Vakhtang’s rebellion began. Since Peroz actually became king in 459, some scholars date the rebellion to 483 or 484. But since the rebellion lasted for more than 2 years and then Peroz died in 484, the dating of the beginning of the rebellion in 483 or 484 is unacceptable.