Note 33 — Chapter XVIII · ANI, AND THE ARMENIAN KINGDOM OF THE MIDDLE AGES

I have taken the dates of the deaths of these two kings from Matthew of Edessa, who is precise upon the point (see chs. liii. and lvi.). Chamchean (vol. ii. p. 122) places the death of John Sembat in 1039, and makes him predecease his brother Ashot IV. Brosset and Saint-Martin adopt the date 1039, but refuse the next fence, over which the nimble compiler sails with ease, that of the later death of Ashot IV. Perhaps there is an error in the English translation of Chamchean. One ends by getting tired of playing with dates. Happily there is an inscription at Ani which, if rightly translated by the editor of Aristakes (op. cit. ch. x. note), establishes the fact that John Sembat was alive in 1041. ↑