After returning from Amida in 493, Vahan Mamikonian asked his friend to write a new history of Armenia, starting from where historian Faustus of Byzantium left off; that is, with the reign of king Arsaces II (Arshak II).
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Accusing him of heresy, he was forced out of the monastery in 490, taking up residence in the city of Amida in Byzantium.
The earliest mention of the term Matenadaran, which means "repository of manuscripts" in Armenian, was recorded in the writings of the fifth century A.D. historian Ghazar Parpetsi, who noted the existence of a repository at the Etchmiadzin Cathedral, where Greek and Armenian language texts were kept.