The Nicene Age · AD 313–400

Vramshapuh

king of Armenia AD 389 – 414 (the dates are given variously; d. 414/417) · Arsacid king of Armenia · Patron of the alphabet · Armenia

The Nicene Age

Who Vramshapuh was

The Christian Arsacid king under whom Armenia acquired an alphabet, and whose throne-name was Persian.

He succeeded his brother **Khosrov IV** in 389 as the Sasanian client king of the eastern, larger part of a kingdom that Rome and Persia had partitioned two years earlier — and took a regnal name compounded from *Bahram* and *Shapur*, in compliment to the shah who had installed him. **A Christian king of a divided country ruling under a Persian name** is the setting of the alphabet, not a detail beside it.

Koriun's account gives him the decisive part in the search for letters: it is the king who reports the discovery of **Daniel the Syrian's** script, dispatches **Vahrij** to the priest Habel to obtain it, receives it in the fifth year of his reign, and — when the Danielian letters prove inadequate — backs **Mashtots** and the catholicos **Sahak** in the work that produced the thirty-six letters of about 405. He then ordered the new script taught throughout the kingdom.

⚠ **His reign dates are disputed** — 389 or 401 at the start, 414, 415 or 417 at the end — and the archive prints the range. ⚠ And he is known almost entirely through the Armenian historians who wrote after him, with Koriun the earliest.

Common questions

When did Vramshapuh live?

Vramshapuh is dated king of Armenia AD 389 – 414 (the dates are given variously; d. 414/417) in the archive, which places Vramshapuh in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400).

Which early sources mention Vramshapuh?

Vramshapuh is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Agathangelos and Koriun, disciple of Mashtots. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Vramshapuh from?

The archive associates Vramshapuh with Armenia.

Who were Vramshapuh’s contemporaries?

The archive links Vramshapuh to 3 other figures, including Mesrop Mashtots, Sahak I the Great and King Tiridates III of Armenia. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Primary-source mentions (2)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Agathangelos, The History of the Armenians

c. AD 400
[The institution he was born into: **a kingdom Christian by royal act since Tiridates III**, whose church still read its scriptures in Greek and Syriac. **Vramshapuh is the king at whom that arrangement ended** — the archive links the text for the setting and states that Agathangelos does not describe him.]
Agathangelos · The History of the Armenians · source text

*The History of the Armenians* — held in this library. ⚠ Fifth-century, of earlier events; used here for the Christian monarchy Vramshapuh inherited, not for his reign.

Koriun, The Life of Mashtots

c. AD 443
[The king acts at every turn of the story: **he reports Daniel the Syrian's letters, sends Vahrij to fetch them, receives them in the fifth year of his reign, gives Mashtots and Sahak children to test them on, and orders the finished alphabet taught through the kingdom.** ⚠ Koriun praises; the archive records the king's part as the source gives it and notes that no contemporary document confirms it.]
Koriun, disciple of Mashtots · Vark‘ Mashtots‘i

**Not held in this library.** Classical Armenian; the standard English (A. Terian, 2022) is in copyright, so nothing is quoted and the excerpt is an editorial summary. ⚠ Written after 440 by a pupil of Mashtots, in the encomium form.

Connected in the archive

People

Named alongside Vramshapuh in the sources

This figure is placed with Vramshapuh by the record — in a council roll, a martyr-act, a letter or a history — without Vramshapuh naming them in return.

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The one place the sources put Vramshapuh.

  1. 1Armeniaprovince only

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