Dwin

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DWIN

Dwin was an Armenian city south of modern Erivan and north of ancient Artaxata, of great importance from 428 to 894. Dwin, or Dvin, was built by King Chosroes II (331–339), who transferred his residence there from Artaxata for its purer air. In the 5th century the city was surrounded with a wall, and from 465 to 931 the Armenian patriarchs had a residence there. After the fall of the Arsacid dynasty, Dwin became the capital of Armenia, and both the Persian (marzban) and Arab (osdigan) governors resided there until the 10th century. Vardan Mamikonian (d. 451) built a church at Dwin in honor of Gregory the Illuminator with materials from the temple of Ormuzd; it was renovated in the 6th century. Catholicos Nerses III, called the Constructor, rebuilt the church of St. Sergius and erected a patriarchal residence that was eventually pillaged by the Arabs and destroyed in an earthquake. The 8th–century Arab ruler Abdul–Aziz, after sacking the city, enlarged its walls and rebuilt it. During the reign of the Bagratuni, Ani prospered and Dwin lost its political importance; it was destroyed by two earthquakes (862 and 894). What was left of the city was razed by the Tartars in the 10th century.

Dwin was the scene of several important synods. In 506 Catholicos Babgen I (502–510) condemned the teaching of Nestorius, and the heretics Acacius, Barsauma, and Babaï. In 554–555 Nerses II (548–557) officially repudiated the Council of chalcedon (451)], whose acts were interpreted in a Nestorian sense. In c. 592 Moses II (574–604) forbade his bishops to communicate with the Chalcedonians of the Byzantine Church; and in 607–608 the Armenian bishops met in synod at Dwin to select a successor to Moses II. While they anathematized the Council of Chalcedon, they hesitated to elect a new catholicos since a pro-Chalcedonian, Armenian catholicos was resident in the Byzantine province of Armenia. However, the Persian ruler forced the issue, and they selected Abraham I (607–615). In 648–649, Nerses III (641–661) called a synod to discuss reunion with the Byzantines as proposed by Emperor Constans II, but fear of Arab reprisal prevented the 17 bishops present from accepting the offer.

Bibliography: l. m. alishan, Ararat (Venice 1890) 404–414, in Armenian. l. s. kogyan, The Armenian Church (Beirut 1961) 216–218, 249–251, in Armenian. v. haroutiunian, The Buildings at Dwin from the 5th to the 7th Centuries (Erivan 1950), in Armenian. h. hÜbschmann, Die alt-armenischen Ortsnamen (Strasbourg 1904); Indogermanische Forschungen 16 (1904) 197–490. a. grillmeier and h. bacht, Das Konzil von Chalkedon: Geschichte und Gegenwart, 3 v. (Würzburg 1951–54) 2:364–368. v. inglisian, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 3:531.