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Unlike in the cases of Palmyrene or Hatrene Aramaic, there survives in Syriac an extremely rich historiographical tradition. One of the oldest and most important texts is the already mentioned Chronicle of Edessa, a sixth-century historiographical compilation covering the period from 133 BCE to 540 CE, which is made up of more than a hundred annalistic entries, some of which are likely based on the archival records of the kingdom of Edessa (ed. and Latin translation in Guidi 1903; English translation in Cowper 1864). One of the most elaborate of these entries is a vivid narrative of a destructive flood that hit Edessa in 201 CE; the text reports the reactions and the response of the king, Abgar VIII (176–211), the noblemen associated with him, the administrative personnel of Edessa, and its surveyors and architects on the occasion of this tragic event. Among the buildings destroyed by the flood, the Chronicle mentions a “church of the Christians”: the text therefore implies the existence of a Christian church, presumably a house church of the sort known from Dura-Europos, and of a Christian community at Edessa at this time.