Stepanos Asoghik

The first two books summarise the history of the world—with particular reference to Armenia—using the Bible, Eusebius of Caesarea, Movses Khorenatsi and others as sources.

[1] Stepan Malkhasyants believed that Asoghik studied at the Bagratid capital of Ani in his youth and served there for many years as a dpir (a lower rank in the Armenian Church), although Vardan Vardanyan writes that there is insufficient evidence to support this claim.

[2] He appears to have started out in a monastic community before going to live with an ascetic named Eremia (Jeremiah) near the hermitage of Teghenik in the canton of Nig in the foothills of Mount Aragats.

At some point, probably while writing his history, he visited the monastery of Khladzor in the district of Derjan (around modern-day Tercan, Turkey) and conducted research there.

[3] Stepanos's epithet Asoghik has been interpreted as 'little speaker' (asogh 'speaker' with the diminutive suffix -ik) or 'singer', in the sense of a church singer.

The second book is six chapters long and extends from the time of Tiridates III to the restoration of the establishment of the Bagratid kingdom of Armenia in 884.

The author names the sources that he used: the Old Testament, Josephus, Eusebius, Socrates Scholasticus, and nearly all of the Armenian historians which preceded him.

One half of the third book of the Universal History is the confession of faith of the Armenian Church, written by the order of Catholicos Khachik I and addressed to the Orthodox Metropolitan of Sebasteia.