Sasanian Persia: Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia

338 Pages·2017·9.2 MB·English

by  Eberhard Sauer

EDINBURGH STUDIES S
aSanian
IN ANCIENT PERSIA
Series Editor: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones S P
A erSia
S
‘Nothing has changed our understanding of Greek culture more than
A
the uncovering in the past thirty years of its debt to the East. In this
N
wide-ranging, amply illustrated and thought-provoking book, Morgan
I
offers a longue durée view of Greek engagement with Persia through elite A
use of cultural imports.’ N
Margaret C. Miller, University of Sydney

P
‘The Greek response to Achaemenid Iran is sometimes seen as a special
E
case within the wider story of interaction between the Greek and non- R
Greek worlds. Janett Morgan insists that this is not so, and her claim is S
one to which students of Greek cultural history will have to pay serious I
A
attention.’
Christopher Tuplin, University of Liverpool
E
In the aftermath of the Greco-Persian Wars, Greek communities d
i
produced a variety of images of the Achaemenids and their Empire in t
E Between Rome and the
texts and on vases and architecture. These perspectives have traditionally d

been explained as responses to victory in wars. b
y
Steppes of Eurasia

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However, Janett Morgan shows that these responses fit into wider
b
patterns of Greek engagements with the east and reflect dialogues
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of elite identity rather than hubristic celebration. Through a study r
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of ancient texts and material evidence from the archaic and classical
a
periods, she investigates the historical, political and social factors that r
inspired and manipulated different identities for Persia, and the Persians d

within different Greek communities. W
.
Janett Morgan is Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway,
S
University of London. a
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Cover image: Relief sculpture possibly representing a eunuch courtier; Palace of Darius, Persepolis, E
Iran © Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones r
Cover design: Barrie Tullett
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ISBN 978-1-4744-0029-9 ditEd by
E W. S
bErhard auEr
edinburghuniversitypress.com

Sasanian Persia
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 civilisation.
series editor
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Cardiff University
editorial advisory board
Touraj Daryaee
Andrew Erskine
Thomas Harrison
Irene Huber
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
forthcoming titles
The Bactrian Mirage: Iranian and Greek Interaction in
Western Central Asia
By Michael Iliakis
Plutarch and the Persica
By Eran Almagor
Visit the Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia website at
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/esap
Sasanian Persia
Between Rome and the Steppes
of Eurasia
Edited by Eberhard W. Sauer
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© editorial matter and organisation
Eberhard W. Sauer, 2017
© the chapters their several authors, 2017
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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ISBN 978 1 4744 0101 2 (hardback)
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The right of Eberhard W. Sauer to be identified
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Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements xv
Notes on Contributors xvii
Series Editor’s Preface xx
1 Introduction 1
Eberhard W. Sauer
Part I Surplus Production, Urban Growth
and the Environment
2 Sasanian Cities: Archaeological Perspectives on the Urban
Economy and Built Environment of an Empire 21
St John Simpson
3 Palaeoecological Insights into Agri-Horti-Cultural and
Pastoral Practices Before, During and After the Sasanian
Empire 51
Lyudmila Shumilovskikh, Morteza Djamali, Valérie
Andrieu-Ponel, Philippe Ponel, Jacques-Louis de Beaulieu,
Abdolmajid Naderi-Beni and Eberhard W. Sauer
4 Animal Exploitation and Subsistence on the Borders of
the Sasanian Empire: From the Gorgan Wall (Iran) to the
Gates of the Alans (Georgia) 74
Marjan Mashkour, Roya Khazaeli, Homa Fathi,
Sarieh Amiri, Delphine Decruyenaere, Azadeh Mohaseb,
Hossein Davoudi, Shiva Sheikhi and Eberhard W. Sauer
vi Sasanian Persia
Part II Frontiers and Frontier Landscapes
5 The Northern and Western Borderlands of the Sasanian
Empire: Contextualising the Roman/Byzantine and
Sasanian Frontier 99
Dan Lawrence and Tony J. Wilkinson
6 Connectivity on a Sasanian Frontier: Route Systems in
the Gorgan Plain of North-East Iran 126
Kristen Hopper
7 The Sasanian Empire and the East: A Summary of the
Evidence and its Implications for Rome 151
Warwick Ball
Part III Contested Territories and
Cultural Contacts Between Persia
and Rome
8 Minority Religions in the Sasanian Empire: Suppression,
Integration and Relations with Rome 181
Lee E. Patterson
9 A Contested Jurisdiction: Armenia in Late Antiquity 199
Tim Greenwood
10 Cultural Contacts Between Rome and Persia at the Time
of Ardashir I (c. ad 224–40) 221
Pierfrancesco Callieri
Part IV Imperial Power Balance and
International Relations
11 Innovation and Stagnation: Military Infrastructure and
the Shifting Balance of Power Between Rome and Persia 241
Eberhard W. Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh,
Konstantin Pitskhelauri and Hamid Omrani Rekavandi
12 The Arabian Frontier: A Keystone of the Sasanian
Empire 268
Craig Morley
13 The India Trade in Late Antiquity 284
James Howard-Johnston
Index 305
List of Illustrations
COVER IMAGES
The Sasanian Empire’s relations with its neighbours as portrayed on
Sasanian rock reliefs (from top to bottom):
● Relief at Naqsh-e Rostam (VI): victorious King Shapur I (c. ad
240–72) and his vanquished Roman enemies, emperors Philip I
(ad 244–9) and Valerian (ad 253–60), taken prisoner of war in
ad 260, the former kneeling, the latter standing.
● Relief at Bishapur (VI) of disputed date, but often attributed
to Shapur II (ad 309–79): Iranians with booty from an eastern
campaign, including an elephant with a mahout.
● Relief at Darabgird: King Shapur I (c. ad 240–72), triumphing
over defeated Roman enemies. It features probably the same
emperors as Naqsh-e Rostam above, as well as the corpse of
Gordian III (ad 238–44) under the hoofs of the king’s horse.
● Relief at Bishapur (IV): Bahram II (ad 276–93) receives a del-
egation of nomads with dromedaries, perhaps from Arabia or
possibly from Sagestan (southern Afghanistan).
The precise chronology of the reliefs and the identification of the
figures shown, notably the kneeling and standing Roman emperors,
has been the subject of much academic debate, which there is no space
to summarise and discuss here. See recently Callieri 2014: 129–61
with sources, notably Herrmann 1980, 1981, 1983 and 1989 and
Trümpelmann 1975. See also Weber 2009: 605–9 and the stimulat-
ing work by Overlaet 2009, even if the editor does not follow the
proposed identification of the standing emperor in the Darabgird,
Bishapur (II) and (III) reliefs as Uranius Antoninus, in the light of
the broad similarity of the scene with that on the Naqsh-e Rostam
relief and the lack of evidence that the enigmatic usurper suffered
vii
viii Sasanian Persia
defeat at the hands of Shapur I or ceded Emesa’s holy black stone
to the king. This is not to deny the importance of Overlaet’s work.
Indeed, the proposed interpretation of a heavy oval object featuring
twice on the Bishapur (III) relief as a baitylos (sacred stone) taken
as war booty is attractive, even if it need not have been the one
from Emesa. Evidently, however, each relief depicts a sequence of
events: the death of Gordian III/submission of Philip I in ad 244 and
the encounter with/capture of a third emperor, probably Valerian in
ad 260. As these two events are clearly not contemporary, there is
no reason why the postulated capture of a baitylos, whether taken in
ad 253 or on another campaign, could not feature on reliefs carved
(or re-carved) in the ad 260s.
References
Callieri, P. (2014), Architecture et représentations dans l’Iran Sassanide,
Studia Iranica, Cahier 50, Paris: Association pour l’Avancement des Études
Iraniennes.
Herrmann, G. (1980), Iranische Felsreliefs E: The Sasanian Rock Reliefs at
Bishapur, 1, Iranische Denkmäler, 9, Berlin: Reimer.
Herrmann, G. (1981), Iranische Felsreliefs F: The Sasanian Rock Reliefs
at Bishapur, 2, Iranische Denkmäler, 10, Berlin: Reimer.
Herrmann, G. (1983), Iranische Felsreliefs G: The Sasanian Rock Reliefs at
Bishapur, 3, Iranische Denkmäler, 11, Berlin: Reimer.
Herrmann, G. (1989), ‘The Sasanian Rock Reliefs at Naqsh-i Rustam’, in
G.  Herrmann and D. N. MacKenzie, Iranische Felsreliefs I, Iranische
Denkmäler, 13, Berlin: Reimer, pp. 9–33.
Overlaet, B. (2009), ‘A Roman Emperor at Bishapur and Darabgird: Uranius
Antoninus and the Black Stone of Emesa’, Iranica Antiqua, 44, pp. 461–530.
Trümpelmann, L. (1975), Iranische Felsreliefs B: Das Sasanidische Felsrelief von
Dārāb, Iranische Denkmäler, 6, Berlin: Reimer.
Weber, U. (2009), ‘Wahrām II., König der Könige von Ērān und Anērān’, Iranica
Antiqua, 44, pp. 559–643.
TEXT IMAGES
Fig. 2.1 Map showing the approximate extent of the Sasanian
Empire and some of the principal sites (drawing:
P. Goodhead). 23
Fig. 2.2 Aerial view of Ardashir Khurrah (from Google
Earth, 2013). 24
Fig. 2.3 Schematic map showing major Sasanian sites in
the Ctesiphon conurbation, including the location and
reconstructed extent of Ctesiphon, Veh Ardashir, Aspanabr