Table Of ContentHELLENISM IN THE
EAST
The interaction of Greek and non-Greek
civilizations from Syria to Central Asia
after Alexander
edited by
Amelie Kuhrt and Susan Sherwin-White
Duck worth
First published in 1987 by
Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.
The Old Piano Factory
43 Gloucester Crescent, London NW1
© 1987 by Amelie Kuhrt and Susan Sherwin-White
All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN 0 7156 2125 4
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hellenism in the East: the interaction of
Greek and non-Greek civilizations from
Syria to Central Asia after Alexander.
1. Hellenism 2. Middle East--
Antiquities 3. Middle East--
Civilization -- Greek influence
I. Kuhrt, Amelie 11. Sherwin-White,
Susan
939'.4 DS56
ISBN 0-7156-2125-4
Typeset by Input Typesetting Ltd.
and printed in Great Britain by
Unwin Brothers Limited, Old Woking
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Contents r'JAlf'l
List of plates vi
List of figures vii
Preface IX
List of contributors xiii
1. Seleucid Babylonia: a case study for the installation and 1
development of Greek rule
Susan Sherwin-White
2. Berossus' Babyloniaka and Seleucid Rule in Babylonia 32
Amelie Kuhrt
3. The Babylonian City 57
R. J. van der Spek
4. The Arab-Persian Gulf under the Seleucids 75
Jean-Fram;ois Salles
5. The Problem of Hellenistic Syria 110
Fergus Millar
6. Greek and non-Greek Interaction in the Art and Architecture 134/
J
of the Hellenistic East
Malcolm Colledge
Abbreviations 163
Bibliography 166
Index 185
Plates
(between pp. 144 and 145)
I. Reconstruction of the interior of the 'Square Hall', (Old) Nisa,
Turkmenistan, as rebuilt in the mid-Parthian period
11. Khurha sanctuary, west Iran
Ill. Bronze figurine of horseman in cap, west Iran (?)
IV. Bronze figurine of the goddess Fortuna/lsis, Laodicea (Nihavand,
west Iran)
V. Marble portrait head, probably of an eastern king (Euthydemus
I?)
VI. Ai Khanum, gymnasium: limestone bearded head from a cloaked
'herm'
VII. Marble figurine from (Old) Nisa 'Treasury'
VIII. Female (divine?) figure in clay and stucco on wooden frame from
wall niche, (Old) Nisa 'Square Hall'
IX. Limestone statue of a female figure beside a pillar from the
'indented' temple, Ai Khanum
X. Rock relief of Heracles reclining, Bisitun
XI. Rock relief depicting a Parthian king (Mithridates II?) before
four dignitaries (to the left), all in profile view, Bisitun
XII. Three ivory carved drinking horns with figured decoration from
(Old) Nisa 'Treasury'
XIII. Limestone relief of Antiochus I of Commagene shaking hands
on equal terms with the god Heracles, from Arsamea
Nymphaeus (Eski Kahta), Commagene, south Turkey
XIV. Bronze statue of a chieftain, perhaps a Parthian vassal, from
Shami shrine, west Iran
Figures
Map of the Seleucid empire xiv-xv
1. Archaeological sites in the Gulf area 77
2. Monetary findings in the Gulf area
(a) Seleucid coinage in the Gulf area 93
(b) Seleucid coinage in Failaka: Seleucia-Tigris and Susa
mints 93
(c) Arab coinage inside and outside the Gulf area 94
(d) Monetary findings in Susa 95
3. Tentative map of the Gulf area under the Seleucid monarchy 101
4. Plan of Dura Europus 141
5. Ai Khanum, plan of indented temple, phase IV 143
6. Plans of dwellings which incorporated a central room, corri
dors and court from Babish Mulla, Chorasmia, USSR, Heca-
tompylus (Shahr-i Qumis) and Ai Khanum 147
7. Nippur, Babylonia: plan of the 'palace' 148
8. Architectural orders of west Iranian sanctuaries 149
9. Taxila, Pakistan: plan of Sirkap mound with grid-plan
streets 151
10. Khaltchayan, north Bactria: 'reception hall', plan and facade 160
11. Taxila: plan of the 'J andial' temple 160
12. Khaltchayan: reconstruction of three wall-compositions of 161
the 'reception hall'
Preface
The worldwide hegemony of Orientalism and all it stands for can now be
challenged, if we can benefit properly from the general twentieth-century
rise to political and historical awareness of so many of the earth's peoples.
(Said 1978, 328)
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries archaeological exca
vation has revealed vast quantities of material relating to the different
areas and civilisations of the peoples of the Near and Middle East.
Yet this rich source of evidence has invariably been treated from a
Europocentric perspective, and interdisciplinary co-operation between
historians, Assyriologists and archaeologists has been almost totally
absent. The narrowness of approach resulting from these failures in
historical method characterises especially studies of the Near and
Middle East after Alexander's conquest. The articles collected in this
book represent an acknowledgement of the need to redress the balance
by seeking the collaboration of scholars from a variety of fields
concerned with different aspects of the Seleucid empire. Traditional
approaches to the study of the hellenistic East after Alexander have
been mainly hellenocentric and have selected as of prime importance
the establishment and spread of Greek culture. Two recent contri
butions exemplify this bias: F. Walbank's The Hellenistic World
(London 1981), and Cambridge Ancient History VII/1 (new edition:
chs. 3, 5 and 11) in both of which the Near Eastern background, local
traditions and cultures are grossly neglected. This is a serious lack
which stems from the overriding significance attached to the classical
tradition in which most scholars of the ancient world have been
educated. One of the results of this is that where there is no clear
Greek evidence a political, social and cultural vacuum is assumed.
Another distorting factor has been the preoccupations of Roman
historians who have tended (not unnaturally) to concentrate almost
exclusively on those regions of the Seleucid empire which by the first
century BC had become part of the Roman empire. This approach has
led them to place a disproportionate empha:::~is on the importance of,
for example, the role of Syria in the Seleucid empire as a whole, totally
ignoring the central importance of the vast territories controlled by
the Seleucids east of the Euphrates. A further methodological weak-
Preface
X
ness has been the almost total failure of historians of this period to
recognise the fundamental importance of the traditions and insti
tutions of the Achaemenid empire for understanding the system of
Macedonian rule in the East. This is the direct result of the traditional
separation of disciplines whereby the Middle East before Alexander
is usually studied exclusively by Assyriologists and Iranists and not
deemed to fall within the scope of Graeco-Roman historians.
One important result of the development of Assyriology has been
the publication of many more hellenistic period cuneiform texts and
a growing interest in late Babylonian history. The new availability of
this comparatively rich documentation has now made it possible to
study Seleucid history and institutions in this particular area of the
Seleucid empire on the basis of local sources instead of seeing them
'"\ ~mainly through Greek and Roman eyes. The first three articles are 7
thus devoted to different aspects of Babylonia and its culture under\
the Seleucids, which can now be recognised as the region of central
importance for their empire (Sherwin-White; Kuhrt; van der Spek).
This fact is also well reflected in Salles' article demonstrating the
strong Seleucid presence and strategic and economic interest in the
Gulf on the model of the Achaemenids. The impact of Greek rule in
Syria is subjected to sceptical scrutiny by Millar, whose merit is to
caution against exaggerating the influence and presence of Greeks
and Macedonians in this area. However, his careful examination of a
scattered body of material is susceptible to a more positive interpret
ation than he himself allows and the strength of Seleucid imperial
rule there cannot be denied. A conspectus of Greek and non-Greek art
and architecture of the Near and Middle East is presented by Colledge,
who is one of the few archaeologists to emphasise the importance of
early Greek contacts with the cultures of the East before Alexander,
during the Achaemenid empire, and traces the subsequent develop
ment of Greek and existing non-Greek art forms and the gradual
emergence of a new art combining Greek and non-Greek (primarily
Iranian and Mesopotamian) features.
The results of these contributions suggest that there is an urgent
need for Graeco-Roman historians to perceive correctly the geo
political limitations of their particular sources (cf. Sherwin-White) and
refrain from equating them with historical reality. What is required is
a shifting of their focus to the Middle East if progress in understanding
the Seleucid empire is to be made. Antidotes to the prevailing view
are to be more aware of the existence and significance of what may
appear to them to be tiny pieces of contemporary archaeological
evidence from places such as eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Central
Asia and North India and to realise the importance of trying to inte
grate this material into their accounts of Seleucid imperialism. This
would be a fruitful method for fundamentally re-evaluating the
Preface XI
dynamics of the Seleucid empire in a way that has been singularly
lacking in past treatments and has been profitably applied in the
following chapters.
Another new' direction for research suggested by this volume (Sher
win-White; Salles; Colledge) is the application of this methodology
to a serious re-analysis of the Parthian and Mauryan empires. The
Mauryan empire has been so disregarded by Graeco-Roman historians
as to be virtually invisible, in spite of the major work ofRomila Thapar
(see, for example, Thapar 1966 and 1981) and Fussman 1982, as well
as the now significant archaeological remains. Despite some re-evalu
ation of Parthian imperialism by Soviet scholars, the prevailing view
remains that of, for example, E. J. Keall (in Young and Levine (eds.),
Mountains and Lowlands, Malibu 1977) by which the Parthians are
characterised (or rather caricatured) as 'the political clowns of the
millennium' (p. 81). And this of a people who successfully ruled an
empire stretching from the Euphrates to Central Asia for about four
hundred years and whom Strabo ranked with the Romans as the most
powerful people of his time.
A further aspect clearly illustrated by most of the contributions
(Sherwin-White; Kuhrt; van der Spek; Salles; Colledge) is the huge
importance of the Achaemenid empire and its legacy and influence on
the formulation and development of the Seleucid empire. This has
been illuminated by much recent work on the Persians (cf. particularly
Sherwin-White and Kuhrt) but has as yet to make an appreciable
impact on standard views of the Achaemenids (cf., for example, Cook
1983).
An urgent need for furthering and implementing these studies is a
full and critical analysis of Megasthenes' work on India in the manner
achieved for Berossus by Burstein 1978 and Kuhrt (this volume) and
for Hecataeus of Abdera by Murray 1970. It is, after all, one of the
very few partially preserved examples of hellenistic historiography
concerned with a non-Greek kingdom seen through the eyes of a Greek
in Seleucid imperial service.
This volume represents a beginning to what we hope will lead to
further fruitful collaboration between Assyriologists, archaeologists
and ancient historians. The articles collected here originated in papers
given in the seminar series The Seleucid Empire: Sources and Prob
lems, organised by the editors and held in Autumn 1984 at the Insti
tute of Classical Studies, London University. We are grateful to the
Director, Professor John Barron, and the staff of the Institute for their
support and help. We would like to thank Professor Fergus Millar for
first suggesting that we should co-operate on this stimulating subject.
We express our gratitude to the British Academy which, by awarding
a visiting fellowship to Jean-Fran«;ois Salles, made possible his partici
pation in the seminar. Thanks should also be given to the Institute
xii Preface
for Jewish Studies for facilitating Bert van der Spek's visit and thus
his contribution to the seminar. Finally we must thank warmly, for
the help that we have received in preparing the articles for publi
cation, Sarah Oliver, Department of Classics, Royal Holloway and
Bedford New College, and Katie Edwards, Department of History,
University College.
A.K.
S.S.-W.
Con tri bu tors
Malcolm Colledge, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Westfield
College, University of London
Amelie Kuhrt, Lecturer in the History of the Ancient Near East,
University College, University of London
Fergus Millar, Camden Professor of Ancient History, University of
Oxford
Jean-Fran~;ois Salles, Maison de !'Orient Mediterranee, CNRS,
University of Lyons and Director of the French excavations on
Failaka, Kuwait
Susan Sherwin-White, formerly Lecturer in Ancient History, Royal
Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London
Bert van der Spek, Lecturer in Ancient History, Vrije Universiteit,
Amsterdam
