Volume 24

2017

Publication date: 15.01.2018

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Edward Dąbrowa

Issue content

Sguardi incrociati greco-scitici

Paolo Ognibene

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 11 - 29

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.019.7501

Over time, the Greek world repeatedly changed its opinion of the Scythians. Originally the Greeks regarded them as a just and egalitarian society, whereas later they focused instead on their cruel and ferocious character, before finally stressing their invincibility. Similarly, the attitude of the Scythians towards the Greek world changed over time. This article examines the misunderstandings between two very different types of societies, as well as considering the Scythian vision of the Achaemenid world, albeit through Greek mediation.

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War and Peace in Achaemenid Imperial Ideology

Christopher Tuplin

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 31 - 54

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.020.7502

Military activity played a determinative role in the history of the Achaemenid empire. This chapter considers some ideological dimensions of this fact. It does so through a separate examination of Persian and Greek representations of the role of war and warriors in the imperial setting. The place of war in the elite Persian psyche does remain rather elusive, but the Persian and Greek data-sets, radically different in content and character, are not far apart in their depiction of an ideological environment in which military values played a larger role than is sometimes acknowledged but were less fundamental than one might have expected. What is sometimes called the pax Achaemenica is certainly an artificial construct, but nothing compels us to replace it with the vision of a truly militarist society.

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The King’s speech. La retorica dei re persiani fra Eschilo, Erodoto e Tucidide

Francesca Gazzano

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 55 - 73

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.021.7503

This paper aims at collecting and investigating, from a rhetorical point of view, the speeches of the Achaemenid kings (from Cyrus to Xerxes) mentioned in Greek sources, with a special focus on Herodotus’ Histories. The many and heterogeneous discourses which this historian attributes to the different Persian kings (dialogues, private conversations, messages, letters and simple speech acts) are analysed and compared, and the research seems to point to some recurrent – and probably well-devised – patterns. The paper also takes into account the poetic speeches of Darius and Xerxes in Aeschylus’ Persians, and the scant evidence (a letter from Xerxes to Pausanias) transmitted by Thucydides.

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Peucesta, tra lealismo macedone e modello persiano

Federicomaria Muccioli

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 75 - 91

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.022.7504

The paper aims to provide an overview of the career and figure of Peucestas, close friend of Alexander the Great and satrap of Persis from 326/5 until the final struggle against Antigonus the One-Eyed. Special attention is devoted to the ceremony of Persepolis (317 or 316 BCE) in the more general context of Persian patterns and Greco-Macedonian rituals and ceremonies.

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Potere e territorio. Gli Achemenidi nei Geographikà di Strabone

Omar Coloru

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 93 - 105

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.023.7505

Although posterity knew Strabo only as the “Geographer,” he nonetheless conceived the Geographikà as a complement to his Historikà hypomnemata, a continuation of the Histories of Polybius. Throughout his geographical work, it is possible to find many references concerning the history of the Greek world, and not only. In this framework, the Achaemenid Empire is present in the form of anecdotes on historical, ethnographic as well as linguistic aspects of the Persian world. Particular attention is devoted to those kings who played a prominent role in the confrontation between the Greeks and the barbarians (i.e. Cyrus II, Darius I, Xerxes and Darius III), while the other monarchs are nothing more than shadows. From the analysis of the passages on the Achaemenids, it is possible to argue that, in Strabo’s eyes, the Persians did not have an exclusively negative image when compared to the Parthians, and special emphasis is placed on their capability in shaping and modifying the geographical space through their technical knowledge.

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Corbulo versus Vologases: A Game of Chess for Armenia

Leonardo Gregoratti

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 107 - 121

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.024.7506

The available books of Tacitus’ Annales constitute the most important source of information concerning the long war between Rome and the Great King for supremacy in Armenia. Leaving in the background the stereotypical way in which the Arsacids are often portrayed, his characterisation of the protagonists, both Roman and Parthian, reflects Tacitus’ opinions about Rome’ political past and present. The representations the Roman author provides of the various leaders, Corbulo, Paetus, Vologases and Tiridates, seem to marginalise the distinction between Roman and Parthians, in order to distinguish between those who are familiar with the rules of psychological warfare and experts in the tricks of the war game and those who are tragically not.

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Plutarch and the Persians

Eran Almagor

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 123 - 170

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.025.7507

This paper deals with the image of Persia and the Persians in the works of Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. 45–c. 120 AD), in both his Moralia and Lives. It explores this theme under several headings: Plutarch as: (a) a Greek Imperial author, (b) an author dealing with historical subjects, (c) a biographer, (d) a moralist, and (e) a philosopher and an essayist concerned with religious themes.

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Tacitus on the Parthians

Edward Dąbrowa

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 171 - 189

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.026.7508

Tacitus is the only Roman historian who devoted his works to such an extent to Rome’s eastern neighbor – the Parthian Empire. Scholars have researched the problem of Tacitus’ attitude towards the Parthians on many occasions. It seems that what is the most important question is not Tacitus’ opinion, but the perspective from which he looked at this topic combined with the source he used when describing the Parthians and their history. Another interesting question is also how deep Tacitus’ knowledge was of the past of the Parthian Empire and the history of Roman-Parthian relations. The aim of this paper is to verify what Tacitus wrote about the Parthians throughout his works. Without taking into account all this evidence, it is not possible to propose a proper evaluation or balanced observations concerning his presentation of the Roman-Parthian relations and internal history, society and customs of the Arsacid state in the first century CE.

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Mitrei del Vicino Oriente: una facies orientale del culto misterico di Mithra

Tommaso Gnoli

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 191 - 212

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.027.7509

An Oriental facies of the cult of Mithras is testified in the Roman East from the first century onward. This article proposes evidence and discusses crucial and peculiar characteristics and idiosyncrasies in the known mithraea from the Roman Near East, against the generally accepted theory stating that the cult of Mithras in the East, and particularly in Syria, shared the same features as those known of Mithraism in the West.

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L’Armenia di Ammiano Marcellino

Giusto Traina

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 213 - 221

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.028.7510

Ammianus’ extant books offer unusually rich material on the events concerning the kingdom of Greater Armenia. This paper presents a general survey of Ammianus’ information and use of Armenian history in order to justify his own political judgements. Some final considerations are drawn on the inter-textual relations of the Historiae with the model work represented by Tacitus’ Annales.

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Persianao, mago e guerriero. Note sulla caratterizzazione di Mani e dei manichei nelle fonti greco-latine del IV secolo

Andrea Piras

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 223 - 235

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.029.7511

The perception of cultural otherness in Late Antiquity and within the Christian or pagan milieu shows a very interesting case of condemnation, about which these two sides of the Roman society were in agreement. The prophet Mani was in fact the target of a shared feeling of disapproval towards an alien faith strongly characterised by its “Persian” provenance. Greek and Latin authors, starting with the Neo-Platonic Alexander of Lycopolis, emphasised the links between Mani and the Persian Empire, where he lived, under the patronage of the king of kings Šābuhr I. The polemic against Mani and his dualistic doctrine, labelled as “heretical”, was strengthened by means of added epithets such as “Persian”, “Magician” and “Warlord”, drawing upon a well-established repository of bias and stereotyped formulae belonging to the Roman and Hellenistic culture.

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Iranica nella Disputatio de Christo in Persia

Antonio Panaino

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 237 - 252

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.030.7512

This article insists on the importance of a very complex and intriguing Byzantine Greek text, usually denominated Narratio de rebus Persicis, De Gestis in Perside, or Disputatio de Christo in Persia, which contains a large amount of extremely interesting material enabling a better comprehension of the image of Iran in Western Late Antiquity from the point of view of the contemporary Christian perception. Among the main aims of this book, full of compositional strata of different origins and times (e.g. the very important and archaic prophesy of Jesus’ birth through the voice of a star appeared to Cyrus the Great in a temple), one was certainly to criticise the extremely polemical attitude of opposing Christian Churches and communities in the East, particularly in the milieu of the Sasanian Empire. In fact, the great framework of the present work is occasionally offered by a theological debate, lasting for days, which should have been taken at the court of a fictitious Persian king, named Ἀρρινάτος. This study offers new arguments supporting the presence in such a frequently forgotten Greek source of some clear references to the kingdoms of Kawād I and Xusraw I, with particular reference to anti-Mazdakite polemics. Furthermore, the final part of the article proposes an Iranological evaluation of the resonance produced by the name of the Persian protagonist of the whole book, the wise Aphroditianus (Ἀφροδιτιανός).

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Pratiche economiche e monetali nei documenti pahlavi del Tabaristān (VIII sec.)

Andrea Gariboldi

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 253 - 262

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.031.7513

The recent publication of an archive of Pahlavi documents of post-Sasanian Tabaristān, probably coming from one village, permits some reflections on the economic and monetary practices in a peripheral area of the ex-Sasanian empire. The juridical and economic data emerging from such documents are very important in order to reconstruct concrete occasions of money use, considering that primary sources on ancient coins in Iran are unfortunately scarce.

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Rolf Strootman, Miguel John Versluys (eds.), Persianism in Antiquity (Oriens et Occidens, Bd. 25), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2017, ill. b/w, pp. 557. ISBN 978-3-515-11382-3 (Edward Dąbrowa)

Edward Dąbrowa

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 265 - 268

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.032.7514

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V. Pothou, A. Powell (eds.) Das antike Sparta, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2017, 320 pp. ISBN 978-3-515-11371-7 (Wojciech Duszyński)

Wojciech Duszyński

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 269 - 272

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.033.7515

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H. Kopp, Das Meer als Versprechen. Bedeutung und Funktion von Seeherrschaft bei Thukydides, (Thoukydieia – 1), Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, S. 303. ISBN 978-3-525-25324-3

Jakub Kuciak

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 273 - 275

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.034.7516

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Kenneth Atkinson, A History of the Hasmonean State. Josephus and Beyond (Jewish and Christian Texts, vol. 23), Bloomsbury T & T Clark, London – Oxford – New York – New Delhi – Sydney 2016, pp. 210. ISBN 978-0-56766-902-5

Edward Dąbrowa

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 277 - 278

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.035.7517

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Michaela Konrad, Emesa zwischen Klientelreich und Provinz. Identitätswandel einer lokalen Fürstendynastie im Spiegel der archäologischen Quellen (Orient-Archäologie – 34), Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rhaden/Wesft. 2014, pp. 108, ill. b/w + tab. 7 ISBN 978-389646-664-8; ISSN 1434-162X

Edward Dąbrowa

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 279 - 280

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.036.7518

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Christoph Michels, Peter Franz Mittag (eds), Jenseits des Narrativs. Antoninus Pius in den nicht-literarischen Quellen, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2017, ill. b/w, pp. 336 ISBN 978-3-515-11650-3

Edward Dąbrowa

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 281 - 283

https://doi.org/ 10.4467/20800909EL.17.037.7519

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Ernst Baltrusch, Hans Kopp, Christian Wendt (eds.), Seemacht, Seeherrschaft und die Antike, (Historia Einzelschriften – 244), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 348. ISBN 978-3-515-11431-8

Edward Dąbrowa

ELECTRUM, Volume 24, 2017, pp. 285 - 287

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.17.038.7520

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Słowa kluczowe: Greeks, Scythians, mutual relations, War, peace, heartland and periphery, religion, violence, demographic limitations, Herodotus, Great King, Persia, speeches, rhetoric, letters, Greek historiography, Peucestas, Eumenes, Alexander the Great, Hellenism, Ruler-cult, Hellenicity, intercultural changes, Achaemenid Empire, Persia, Strabo, landmark, ancient geography, Parthians, Vologases, Tacitus, Paetus, terror, Armenian Wars, Nero, Corbulo, Plutarch, Persia/Persians, Second Sophistic, Aristides, Themistocles, Agesilaus, Lysander, Artaxerxes, Alexander the Great, Zoroastrianism, Magoi, Tacitus, history of Parthia, Roman-Parthian relations, Mithras, Syria, tauroctony, oriental cults, Iranian religion, Ammianus Marcellinus, Greater Armenia, Late Roman history, Latin literature, heretic, Persian, magician, warlord, Mithraism, histrionic behaviours, prejudices, stereotypes, Late Antique Roman mentalities, Narratio de rebus Persicis, De Gestis in Perside, Disputatio de Christo in Persia, anti-Mazdakite polemics, Aphroditianus, Kawād I, Xusraw I, Persia, Tabaristān, Pahlavi documents, economy, drachms

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2017