The Arsacids and their State, in: R. Rollinger et al., Altertum und Gegenwart. 125 Jahre Alte Geschichte in Innsbruck. Vortraege der Ringvorlesung Innsbruck 2010, Innsbruck 2012 , 21-52
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Related papers
The End of the Parthian Arsacid Empire
The End of Empires, Universal-und kulturhistorische Studien, 2022
I would like to thank my dear colleagues Michael Gehler and Robert Rollinger for organizing a stimulating conference on the End of Empires in a most hospitable setting in Hildesheim. My gratitute also to Jake Nabel for having commented on an earlier version of this contribution.
Electrum
Scholars dealing with the history of ancient Iran are aware that our knowledge of the first two Iranian empires-the Achaemenids and Arsacids-comes mostly from Greek or Roman sources. It is also thanks to their works that these scholars have better tools for understanding and interpreting the data contained in the few epigraphical documents and numismatic evidence (as well as that furnished by archaeological excavations) that come from these two empires and concern their histories. However, these works also cause a number of problems that are sometimes difficult to overcome, since their authors generally describe the political, social and religious realities of the Iranian world from the perspective of concepts and phenomena from the Greek or Roman world. The reason for this might be the fact that many of these authors knew of the matters and events in question from other sources, or deliberately employed concepts that their readers could understand. Many years ago, Robert Rollinger and Josef Weisehöfer launched a series of conferences aiming for a comprehensive analysis and interpretation of the data on the history of Achaemenid Iran contained in the works of ancient authors. One of the last such conferences took place between 27 and 30 June 2012 at Kiel University, with two separate parts. The first examined the works of Megasthenes and the image of India in the works of other ancient authors, while the second focused on issues concerning the form, content and date of the works of Apollodorus of Artemita and Isidore of Charax on the Arsacid state. As a result of the major thematic differences between the two parts of the conference, the papers presented at them were published in separate publications: the first in 2016, 1 followed in 2017 by the second, Parthika: Greek and Roman Authors' Views of the Arsacid Empire / Griechisch-römische Bilder der Arsakidenreiches. The title of this volume suggests that it contains not only texts addressing the works of Apollodorus of Artemita and Isidore of Charax, but also those of other ancient authors writing about the history of the Parthians. And this is indeed the case, since the book is composed of two distinctly separate parts. The first, titled "Überlegungen zu Appolodoros von Artemita und Isidoros von Charax" (pp. 3-220), comprises eight texts. The first
The Arsacids of Rome and Parthia's "Iranian Revival" in the First Century CE
Nabel, Jake. 2020.“The Arsacids of Rome and Parthia’s ‘Iranian Revival’ in the First Century CE.” In Kai Ruffing, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Sebastian Fink, and Robert Rollinger (eds), Societies at War: Proceedings of the 10th Symposium of the Melammu Project held in Kassel September 26-28 2016 and Proceedings of the 8th Symposium of the Melammu Project held in Kiel November 11-15 2014, 475–94. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Publisher's website: https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/societies-at-war
THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE ARSACIDS' DESCENT FROM THE ACHAEMENIDS: MYTH OR REALITY
BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OF ORIENTAL STUDIES, (VOLUME I (35), ISSUE 2), 2021
In the 40s of the last century, J. Wolski proposed a thesis, still dominant in historiography, arguing that the story of Arrian which reached us thanks to his work "Parthica" that the Arsacid dynasty, the founder of Parthian state, descended from the Achaemenids, has a fictional origin. According to J. Wolski, J. Neusner and their followers, it is an "ideological fiction", a "literary forgery", which appeared in the period between the second half of II century BC and the beginning of the I century AD and was recorded in written form by Arrian. However, the conclusion, based on the limited and often one-sided data by Strabo and Justin, is defective and does not meet the current requirements of the study of the problem. Оnly a comprehensive examination of the evidence provided by written sources in the field of the Parthian numismatics, epigraphy, archaeology, onomastics and other branches of science can give a complete answer to the issue. In this case, it becomes obvious that the "Arrianian" legend about the genealogical connection between the Arsacids and the Achaemenids is not just a literary fiction, but has a real historical basis.
Studia Iranica, 2019
When the Parthians rebelled against the Seleucid Empire in the middle third century BCE, seizing a large section of northeastern Iran, they inherited the challenging responsibility of monitoring the extensive frontier between the Iranian plateau and the Central Asian steppe. Although initially able to maintain working relations with various tribal confederations in the region, with the final collapse of the Bactrian kingdom in the 1305 BCE, the ever-widening eastern frontier of the Parthian state became increasingly unstable, and in the 1205 BCE nomadic warriors devastated the vulnerable eastern territories of the Parthian state, temporarily eliminating Parthian control of the Iranian plateau. This article is a consideration of the failures of the Parthians to meet and overcome the obstacles they faced along their eastern frontier in the 120s BCE and a reevaluation of the causes and consequences of the events. It concludes that western distractions and the mismanagement of eastern affairs by the Arsacids turned a minor dispute into one of the most costly and difficult struggles in Parthian history.
The Beginning of the Parthian Empire (English)
When Arsaces was chosen as the head of the Parni tribe in 247 BC, no one could even imagine that this event would have a lasting effect on the history of Iran and the world. This article is about the sequence of events which led to the revolt and establishment of the independent state of Parthia. Note: With regards to Andragoras please refer to my recent article "On Andragoras and Sophytes, A Historical and Numismatic Analysis (English)"