Mesrop Mashtots creates the Armenian alphabet
A script made for the Bible, still in use 1,600 years on
Around 405 the monk Mesrop Mashtots, backed by King Vramshapuh and Catholicos Sahak, devised a 36-letter alphabet. Until then Armenians wrote in Greek and Syriac. His students first translated the Bible, and the 5th century became the “golden age” of Armenian literature. The alphabet is still used, almost unchanged, today.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 5th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 395 Division of the Roman Empire — 10 years earlier
- 410 Sack of Rome by the Visigoths — 5 years later
Asia
- c. 427 Founding of Nalanda — 22 years later
Alive at the time
- Augustine of Hippo (aged 51)
- Hypatia (aged 45)