ABSTRACT
Armenian dignitaries moved to Byzantium again after the second partition of Armenia in 591, but the Arab conquest provoked a mass exodus. There is no need here to mention the many Armenian emperors and military personnel, the three Armenian patriarchs of Constantinople, two saints of the Orthodox Church, and many men of letters. This phenomenon is well-known, but I draw attention to it in order to show that it is not futile to follow through the same phenomenon in the Byzantine epic, most of whose episodes take place in a more or less Armenian environment. The first to have written on this was the distinguished Armenian historian and literary scholar, Nicholas Adontz. Subsequent research has vindicated his opinions.
