Plutarch and the Persica

350 Pages·2018·4.33 MB·English

by  Eran Almagor

Plutarch and the Persica
EDINBURGH STUDIES IN ANCIENT PERSIA
Dealing with key aspects of the ancient Persian world from the Achaemenids to
the Sasanians: its history, reception, art, archaeology, religion, literary tradition
(including oral transmissions), and philology, this series provides an important
synergy of the latest scholarly ideas about this formative ancient world
civilization.
SERIES EDITOR
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Cardiff University
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Touraj Daryaee, Andrew Erskine, Thomas Harrison, Irene Madreiter, Keith
Rutter, Jan Stronk TITLES AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES
Courts and Elites in the Hellenistic Empires: The Near East After the
Achaemenids, c. 330 to 30 BCE
By Rolf Strootman Greek Perspectives on the Achaemenid Empire: Persia
through the Looking Glass
By Janett Morgan Semiramis’ Legacy: The History of Persia According to
Diodorus of Sicily
By Jan P. Stronk ReOrienting the Sasanians: East Iran in Late Antiquity
By Khodadad Rezakhani Sasanian Persia: Between Rome and the Steppes of
Eurasia
Edited by Eberhard W. Sauer Plutarch and the Persica
By Eran Almagor
FORTHCOMING TITLES
The Bactrian Mirage: Iranian and Greek Interaction in Western Central Asia
By Michael Iliakis Scholasticism in Late Antique Iran: The Pahlavi Version of
the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti
By Arash Zeini
Visit the Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia website at
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/esap
Plutarch and the Persica
Eran Almagor
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books
and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge
scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For
more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Eran Almagor, 2018
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road
12(2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 3718 9
The right of Eran Almagor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI
No. 2498).
Contents
Preface
Series Editor’s Preface
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Ctesias (a)
3. Ctesias (b)
4. Deinon (a)
5. Deinon (b)
6. Heracleides
7. Conclusions
Appendix I: Two Notes on the Cypriot War
Appendix II: Plutarch, the Persica and the Regum et Imperatorum
Apophthegmata
Bibliography
Index
Preface
In more ways than one, the production of this book has been encouraged by
many friends and scholars. Above all, I would like to express my profound and
heartfelt thanks to Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, the editor of this series, for his
comments, his kind assistance and for guiding my approach to Edinburgh
University Press. I am also grateful for the helpful suggestions and useful
feedback received during fruitful discussions over the years on various forms of
some of the ideas presented here. Special thanks go to Fred Brenk, Edward
Daąbrowa, Ken Dowden, Joseph Geiger, Thomas Harrison, Amelie Kuhrt, John
Marincola, Christopher Pelling, Tim Rood, Jacek Rzepka, Donald Russell,
Nicholas Sekunda, Joseph Skinner, Rex Stem, Rolf Strootman, Christopher
Tuplin, Luc Van der Stockt, Tim Whitmarsh and Alexei Zadorojnyi. I am also
indebted to the many colleagues and friends who heard presentations of my
methodology on various occasions and responded with inspiring remarks and
observations.
As the distant origins of this book lie in my PhD dissertation (‘Plutarch’s
Artaxerxes: Historical and Literary Commentary’, the Hebrew University), I
would also like to convey my deepest and continuous gratitude and appreciation
to my supervisors, Deborah Gera and Doron Mendels, for their help and support,
for reviewing that version and for their valuable comments on it. The errors that
remain in this version are, of course, entirely my own. I am deeply grateful to
Carol Macdonald for her aid and encouragement during the stages of
composition and preparation of the text, and to Camilla Rockwood and James
Dale. I would like to thank Nili for helping me put ideas into comprehensible
and communicative phrases, and Hilly for her patience and loving care – and for
being there.
Series Editor’s Preface
Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia focuses on the world of ancient Persia (pre-
Islamic Iran) and its reception. Academic interest with and fascination in ancient
Persia have burgeoned in recent decades, and research on Persian history and
culture is now routinely filtered into studies of the Greek and Roman worlds;
Biblical scholarship too is now more keenly aware of Persian-period history than
ever before; while, most importantly, the study of the history, cultures,
languages and societies of ancient Iran is now a well-established discipline in its
own right.
Persia was, after all, at the centre of ancient world civilizations. This series
explores that centrality throughout several successive ‘Persian empires’: the
Achaemenid dynasty (founded c. 550 BCE) saw Persia rise to its highest level of
political and cultural influence, as the Great Kings of Iran fought for, and
maintained, an empire which stretched from India to Libya and from Macedonia
to Ethiopia. The art and architecture of the period both reflect the diversity of the
empire and proclaim a single centrally constructed theme: a harmonious world
order brought about by a benevolent and beneficent king. Following the
conquests of Alexander the Great, the Persian Empire fragmented but
maintained some of its infrastructures and ideologies in the new kingdoms
established by Alexander’s successors, in particular the Seleucid dynasts who
occupied the territories of western Iran, Mesopotamia, the Levant and Asia
Minor. But even as Greek influence extended into the former territories of the
Achaemenid realm, at the heart of Iran a family of nobles, the Parthian dynasty,
rose to threaten the growing imperial power of Rome. Finally, the mighty
Sasanian dynasty ruled Iran and much of the Middle East from the third century
CE onwards, proving to be a powerful foe to Late Imperial Rome and Byzantium.
The rise of Islam, a new religion in Arabia, brought a sudden end to the Sasanian
dynasty in the mid-600s CE.
These successive Persian dynasties left their record in the historical, linguistic
and archaeological materials of the ancient world, and Edinburgh Studies in
Ancient Persia has been conceived to give scholars working in these fields the
opportunity to publish original research and explore new methodologies in
interpreting the antique past of Iran. This series will see scholars working with
bona fide Persian and other Near Eastern materials, giving access to Iranian self-
perceptions and the internal workings of Persian society, placed alongside
scholars assessing the perceptions of the Persianate world from the outside
(predominantly through Greek and Roman authors and artefacts). The series will
also explore the reception of ancient Persia (in historiography, the arts and
politics) in subsequent periods, both within and outwith Iran itself.
Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia represents something of a watershed in
better appreciation and understanding not only of the rich and complex cultural
heritage of Persia, but also of the lasting significance of the Achaemenids,
Parthians and Sasanians and the impact that their remarkable civilisations have
had on wider Persian, Middle Eastern and world history. Written by established
and up-and-coming specialists in the field, this series provides an important
synergy of the latest scholarly ideas about this formative ancient world
civilisation.
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones