Stepanos Darontsi

(also Asoghik). Armenian historian of the second half of the tenth and the early 11th century.

Stepanos Darontsi was the author of A Universal History, a work commissioned by Sargis, catholikos of Armenia from 992 to 1019. The work tells the history of the Armenians and other peoples from mythical times to 1004. It consists of three parts: the first ends with the Christianization of the Armenians in the early fourth century; the second ends with the coronation of Ashot I in the late ninth century; and the third, which is the most original and valuable, deals with the tenth century. Stepanos Darontsi advocated strong royal authority and the unification of Armenia. His work contains extensive and valuable material on the history of Armenia and of its neighboring peoples, as well as information about Russo-Byzantine and Byzantine-Bulgarian relations.