BASEN. — A major district of the province of Ararat, in Armenia, divided into Upper and Lower B.
It was one of the dioceses whose first bishop was St. Gregory the Illuminator himself; for B. this was Eudalio. The see of B. is historically one of the earliest in Armenia.
BIBL.: L. Ingigian, Topografia dell'Armenia antica, Venice 1822, pp. 380–87; L. Alisan, Descrizore dell'Ararat, there 1890, pp. 15–26; S. Eprikian, Dizionario topograf. dell'Armenia, there 1902, p. 383. Serafino Akelian