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CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF ARMENIA 275
whence they obtained their Arsacid dynasty. It followed that
the princes and nobility had always Parthian sympathies, and
neither the Sasanids, nor Rome, nor Byzantium could ever
win their sympathy. Naturally this left its stamp on the
architecture. The square building with a dome may have
developed from the heathen temples of an earlier date (cf.
p. 214). One relic indicating a connection with these would
seem to be the previously mentioned plinth with high steps
surrounding the outside walls of the Armenian churches
(cf. pp. 78 and 145), and see also the illustrations on pp. 208,
213, which almost certainly correspond to the high plinths
with flights of steps that led up to the old places of sacrifice
and temples. There is no parallel construction in the churches
to the south (Syria) or to the west (Asia Minor), or in those
of Europe.
The central dome of the Armenians is unquestionably
Eastern, and probably came originally from Persia.
When the development of ecclesiastical architecture set in
in the countries of the West—apparently several centuries
later—it drew much of its inspiration from the East—not
only from Byzantium, but more directly from Western Asia :
Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Georgia ; and this Eastern
influence was doubtless received largely from Syrian and
Armenian immigrants. In the Romanesque architecture
there are numerous peculiarities which were used at a very
early date in the East, apparently earlier than in Europe. The
heavy piers in addition to columns, the arched frieze, and the
Romanesque (cubical) capital ; false arcades and tall, slender,
false columns outside the church ; the trumpet-shaped porch,
with arches and pilasters behind each other leading inwards,
which is so characteristic of mediæval art in Europe—all these
features are found at a very early date in Armenia. The
decorative use of light and dark stone in stripes and layers
may have been borrowed by the Armenians from the Khal
dians ; afterwards it was largely used in Italy, especially at
Genoa and Florence. Barrel vaulting, which replaced the
wooden roof of the basilica, came from Mesopotamia, while
the dome above a square structure became the most striking
feature of Armenian and Georgian architecture. This con
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