Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - X. Chapters in the history of Armenia
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ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
270
Constantinople and Morea, and then went, in 171 5, to Venice,
where he was allowed to settle on the lagoon-island San
Lazaro. Here he built a stately monastery. The monks
had gone over to the Roman Church as early as 171 2, but this
did not prevent them from collaborating with their Armenian
kinsfolk. They set up a printing-press of their own, and
established another monastery with a printing-press in Vienna
in 1 81 1, after håving it for some time in Trieste (after 1773).
Mekhitar and his brethren carried on remarkably compre
hensive activities, printing and publishing in the Armenian
language all kinds of books and other works, original and in
translations. This gave rise to a renaissance of Armenian
civilization, thought, and self-consciousness ; developed the
modem literature of the country ; and raised the standard
of popular culture, not least by providing good transla
tions of Western European literature and science. Mekhitar
Manuk certainly did wonders in arousing his down-trodden
countrymen.
The Armenians and Civilization in Other Lands.
It has been the tragedy of the Armenian people that
although they have invariably shown the most distinguished
ability when in foreign service, they could never administer
their own country successfully for any iength of time. In
Byzantium many of the leading men, and often, strange to
say, the most capable administrators and generals, were
Armenians, like the Emperor Justinian’s famous general
Nerses—who conquered Italy for him, but was afterwards
burnt alive—and Johannes Kurkuas (920-942), the victorious
commander-in-chief against the Arabs. At various times able
emperors of Armenian extraction ruled over the Byzantine
empire in troublous days, upholding and consolidating its
diminished power ; among them may be mentioned the
emperors Mauricius, Heraclius (whose father was Armenian),
Bardanes (Philippicus), Artavasdes, Leo V, Basil I, Romanus,
Lakapenus, Johannes Tzimiskes, Basil II (the Bulgar Butcher),
and others. A number of empresses also came from Armenia.
In this wav, therefore, the Armenians exerted a decisive and
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