Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity: Neighbours and Rivals

365 Pages·2007·4.23 MB·English

by  Beate Dignas

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ROME AND PERSIA IN LATE ANTIQUITY
The foundation of the Sasanian Empire in ad 224 established a
formidablenewpowerontheRomanEmpire’sEasternfrontier,and
relations over the next four centuries proved turbulent. This book
providesachronologicalnarrativeoftheirrelationship,supportedby
a substantial collection of translated sources illustrating important
themes and structural patterns. The political goals of the two sides,
their military confrontations and their diplomatic solutions are dis-
cussed, as well as the common interests between the two powers.
SpecialattentionisgiventothesituationofArabiaandArmenia,to
economic aspects, the protection of the frontiers, the religious life
in both empires and the channels of communication between East
andWest.Initswidechronologicalscope,thestudyexplorestherole
playedbytheSasaniansinthehistoryoftheancientNearEast.The
bookwillproveinvaluableforstudentsandnon-specialistsinterested
inlateantiquityandearlyByzantium,anditwillbeequallyusefulfor
specialistsonthesesubjects.
beate dignasisFellowandTutorinAncientHistoryatSomerville
College,Oxford.HerrecentpublicationsincludeEconomyoftheSacred
in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor (2002) and she has edited a
forthcomingbookPractitionersoftheDivine:GreekPriestsandReligious
OfficialsfromHomertoHeliodorus.
engelbert winter is Professor of Ancient History at the Uni-
versity of Mu¨nster. He has participated in numerous field surveys
andexcavationsinTurkeyandpublishedmanybooksandarticleson
Roman–PersianrelationsandthehistoryandcultureofAsiaMinor.

ROME AND PERSIA IN
LATE ANTIQUITY
Neighbours and Rivals
BEATE DIGNAS AND ENGELBERT WINTER
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 2007
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without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2007
ISBN-13 978-0-511-34248-6 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-10 0-511-34248-9 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-84925-8 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-84925-X hardback
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Contents
Listoffigures pageviii
Listofmaps ix
Preface xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction:WestandEast,friendandfoe,counterpartand
mirrorimage... 1
part i narrative
1 RomeandIrantothebeginningofthethirdcenturyad 9
2 RomeandtheSasanianEmpire:Achronologicalsurvey 18
2.1 Thethirdcentury:TheoriginsofSasanianinterestsintheWest 18
2.2 Thefourthcentury:TheconflictescalatesunderSˇa¯pu¯rII(309–379) 32
2.3 Thefifthcentury:De´tenteattheRomanEasternfrontier 34
2.4 Thesixthcentury:TheSasaniansrenewtheirexpansionistpolicyin
theWest 37
2.5 Theseventhcentury:MightanddeclineofSasanianpower 44
part ii sources and contexts
1 Politicalgoals 53
1 TerritorialclaimsoftheSasaniansagainstRome 53
2 SuccessiontoAchaemenidruleasprogrammaticforeignpolicy 56
2 Warfare 63
3 Sasanianarmamentandtactics 63
3 Militaryconfrontations 70
3.1 Thethirdcentury:OriginsofSasanianinterestsintheWest 71
4 EarliestRoman–Sasanianconfrontations(230–233) 71
v
vi Contents
5 Sˇa¯pu¯rI(240–272)atwarwithRome 77
6 GaleriusdefeatsNarse¯intheyear298 84
3.2 Thefourthcentury:TheconflictescalatesunderSˇa¯pu¯rII(309–379) 88
7 FightingduringthereignofConstantiusII(337–361) 88
8 Julian’sPersianWar(363) 90
3.3 Thefifthcentury:De´tenteattheRomanEasternfrontier 94
9 Arcadius(383–408)andYazdgardI(399–420) 94
10 PersianconfrontationswiththeHephthalites 97
11 TheSasanianmonarchylosesandregainspower 98
3.4 Thesixthcentury:TheSasaniansrenewtheirexpansionistpolicyin
theWest 100
12 ThefirstSasanian–ByzantineWar(502–532) 100
13 ThesecondSasanian–ByzantineWar(540–562) 106
14 ThethirdSasanian–ByzantineWar(572–591)andthePersian
expansionintoSouthArabia 109
3.5 Theseventhcentury:MightanddeclineofSasanianpower 115
15 TheadvanceofXusro¯IIParve¯z(602–628) 115
4 Thediplomaticsolutions 119
16 Thepeacetreatyof244betweenPhiliptheArabandSˇa¯pu¯rI 119
17 Thepeacetreatyof298betweenDiocletianandNarse¯ 122
18 Thepeacetreatyof363betweenJovianandSˇa¯pu¯rII 131
19 Thepeacetreatyof422betweenTheodosiusIIandBahra¯mVGo¯r 135
20 Thepeacetreatyof562betweenJustinianandXusro¯IAno¯ˇsarva¯n 138
21 Thepeacetreatyof628betweenHeracliusandKava¯dhIISˇe¯ro¯e¯ 148
5 Arabiabetweenthegreatpowers 152
22 Hatra 152
23 Palmyra 155
24 TheArabprinceImru’ulqaisbetweenRomansandSasanians 163
25 ‘Proxypolicy’:LahmidsandGassa¯nids 169
6 Sharedinterests:Continuingconflicts 173
26 Armenia 173
27 Protectionofthefrontier 188
28 Economyandtrade 195
7 Religion:ChristianityandZoroastrianism 210
29 ReligionandkingshipintheSasanianEmpire 210
30 TheSasaniankingsaspatronsofZoroastrianism 213
31 FromDiocletiantoConstantine:ReligiouschangeintheWestand
theconsequencesforRoman–Sasanianrelations 216
32 ThesituationofthePersianChristiansduringthereignofYazdgardI
(399–420) 221
33 Religionandpoliticsduringthesixthandseventhcenturies 225
Contents vii
8 EmperorandKingofkings 232
34 Conceptsof‘legitimaterule’andthe‘familyofkings’ 232
9 ExchangeofinformationbetweenWestandEast 242
35 Diplomacyandespionage 245
36 Deportations:Enforcedresettlementsofprisoners 254
37 Mutualculturalinterest 263
Appendix1 ListsofSasaniankingsandRomanemperors 266
Appendix2 Chronologicaltable 268
Appendix3 Glossary 273
Bibliography 282
Indexofsources 326
Indexoftranslatedsources 332
Indexofnames 335
Indexofplacenames 339
Generalindex 343
Figures
1 TheAchaemenidrocktombsatNaqˇs-¯ıRustamandthe
Ka(cid:2)ba-iZarduˇst page58
2 ThethreelanguagesoftheSˇa¯pu¯rInscription(SˇKZ) 59
3 EquestrianstatueofXusro¯ IIatTaq-iBustan 67
4 SketchoftherelieffromTaq-iBustan 69
5 CoinofSeverusAlexander,reverse,233 76
6 TriumphalreliefofSˇa¯pu¯rIatB¯ıˇsa¯pu¯r 78
7 ParisCameo 81
8 IllustrationoftheSˇahna¯marepresentingthevictoryof
Sˇa¯pu¯rIagainstValerian–MiniaturesoftheBerlin
manuscript,1605 83
9 ThecaptureofValerian.HansHolbein,Basle,1521 85
10 MedallionofGalerius,298 87
11 TheArchofGaleriusinThessaloniki.Detailfromthe
North-East 88
12 RockreliefofArdaˇs¯ırIIinTaq-iBustan 93
13–14 Da¯ra.Citywallandwatch-tower 102
15 TextilefragmentfromAntinoe¨inEgypt 114
16 CoinofPhiliptheArab,244 121
17 Rock-reliefatNaqˇs-iRustamrepresentingtheinvestiture
ofArdaˇs¯ırI 235
18 ThegreathallofthepalaceinB¯ıˇsa¯pu¯r 257
viii