ABSTRACTS

ARTICLES

Edward Lipiński (Brussels, Belgium)

PHOENICIANS AT HUELVA

Keywords: Huelva, Riotinto, ‘incense’ altars, Phoenician graffiti, cupellation, Tavira, Phoenician ostracon, Tartessian

Abstract

Phoenician presence and activity in the area of Huelva, in the south-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, is attested since the 9th/8th centuries B.C. not only by imported pottery, but also by Phoenician graffiti and ostraca. Judging from palaeography, the oldest inscriptions go back at least to the 8th century B.C. Even a Phoenician altar from that period was found at Riotinto, 50 km north of Huelva. The famous copper mines of this site and of nearby places have attracted the Phoenicians who were extracting silver by cupellation from the amounts of local gossan or argentiferous jarosite. Huelva was the port of shipment of the ores from the Sierra Morena, brought by the Tinto River from the mining area to the harbour.

Sabine Müller (Marburg, Germany)

HISTORISCHE RÜCKPROJEKTIONEN: AMPHIPOLIS, ATHEN, PHILIPP II. UND SEINE PROGONOI

Keywords: Amphipolis, Attic Orators, Philip II, Alexander I, Persian Wars

Abstract

Athens lost her apoikia Amphipolis as early as 424/23 BC during the Peloponnesian War. Due to its geostrategic and economic importance, the Athenians did not cease to try to win it back. Even after the Macedonians conquered Amphipolis under Philip II in 357 BC and the Athenians were forced to accept this by the Peace of Philokrates in 346 BC, Amphipolis kept being an important theme in Athenian political discourses. Demosthenes and Aischines used Amphipolis in different ways as a symbol of collective identity. Their references to Amphipolis provide us with imagery of the contemporary political debate. Also, the contemporary references to Alexander I’s conquest of the region of the future Amphipolis reflect Athenian ideas and arguments.

Pat Wheatley (Dunedin, New Zealand)

A FLORUIT OF POLIORCETICS: THE SIEGE OF RHODES, 305/04 BC

Keywords: Rhodes, Demetrius Poliorcetes, Diadochi, Diodorus, siege engines, sea battles

Abstract

The year-long siege of Rhodes in 305 BC by Demetrius Poliorcetes, during which siege machinery of a phenomenal scale was deployed, was a standout event in the period of the Diadochi, but it has never received a dedicated treatment in English. This essay therefore aims to provide an analytical survey of the campaign, and offers fresh insights into matters of motive, topography, tactics, chronology, and historiography. I also seek to supply a more balanced perspective on the trope of Antigonid ‘failure’ at Rhodes, which has persisted since the time of Plutarch.

Oleg L. Gabelko (Moscow, Russian Federation)

ANTIGONOS “MONOPHTHALMOS”: SOME PARTICULARS IN THE INTERPRETATION OF THE NICKNAME

Keywords: Antigonos I, diadochs, Theocritos of Chios, Philip II, nicknames, propaganda

Abstract

The article is concerned with the analyses of the unofficial epithets of Antigonos I, who is known first of all as Monophthalmos – the One-Eyed (Hieronym. F. 34 = Ps.-Luc. Macrob. 11, 13; Polyb. V.67.7). According to the author’s point of view, Antigonos initially was surnamed Ἑτερόφθαλμος after heavy injury deprived him of the eye during the siege of Perinthos in 340 BC. But after the improper story with the organizing by king (at some moment after 306 BC) of the murder of his enemy, philosopher Theocritos of Chios, who named Antigonos with scoffing alias ‘The Cyclops’ (Plut. Mor. 11b; 633c; Ael. Var. Hist. XII. 43; cf. Macrob. Sat. VII. 3. 12), he received new nickname Μονόφθαλμος, which, unlike of semantically neutral Ἑτερόφθαλμος, is connected in many sources namely with the Cyclopes and was applied to no one-eyed historical persons for the exception of Antigonos I.

Yuri Kuzmin (Samara, Russian Federation)

MASTER OR SERVANT? A RELIEF FROM THE KASTA HILL AREA AND ITS MILITARY ICONOGRAPHY

Keywords: Macedonia, Amphipolis, Kasta Hill, tomb, relief, cavalry shield, helmet

Abstract

The results of the excavations of the “Macedonian” type tomb under the Kasta Hill near Amphipolis were presented at the 29th AEMTh conference (March 2016, Thessaloniki). Among the objects discussed in this presentation was a relief depicting a “warrior”. According to the archaeological team led by K. Peristeri, the relief was part of the decoration of the Kasta Hill monumental complex that functioned as a cenotaph or heroon of Hephaestion. A. Corso,

a member of Peristeri’s team, suggested that this relief should be dated to the last quarter of the fourth century BC, and that it shows Alexander the Great at the head of Hephaestion’s funeral procession. However, the cavalry shield and helmet of the male figure indicate that the relief should be dated to a much later period. First, in the time of Alexander and at least in the early Diadochi period, the Macedonian cavalry did not use shields at all. The relief shows a round flat cavalry shield with a spina which started spreading across the Balkan region and the Hellenistic East not earlier than in the 270s BC. Second, the helmet in the relief (a variant of the κῶνος) shares many analogies in art and in artefacts from Macedonia, as well as other parts of the Hellenistic world, which do not date earlier than the end of the third century BC. Moreover, it is questionable whether in fact the relief under review was even part of the Kasta Hill complex, despite the location at which it was found. Quite possibly, it comes from a funeral monument of a Macedonian aristocrat who served in the cavalry and was a contemporary of the last Antigonid kings, Philip V (221–179 BC) or Perseus (179–168 BC). In the region of Kasta Hill and Amphipolis a few other “Macedonian” tombs have been discovered, and our relief might well have originated from a lost monument that once stood on a tumulus above one of them. The preserved fragment of the relief most probably does not represent the deceased, whose own representation appears to be lost, but a servant. Numerous parallels to such composition are found in votive and funerary monuments from Macedonia and abroad.

Marek Jan Olbrycht (Rzeszów, Poland)

THE SACRAL KINGSHIP OF THE EARLY ARSACIDS I. FIRE CULT AND KINGLY GLORY

Keywords: Arsacids, kingship, fire cult, Divine Glory, Mithra, monarchic ideology

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate and identify the nature of the sacral kingship of the rulers of Parthia in the early Arsacid period. The divinization of the rulers was a concept somewhere between monarchical ideology and religious worship; therefore, it must be examined in light of the religious practices of the Parthians and neighboring peoples, as well as the political tendencies of the given period. The Arsacid concept of kingship was shaped in the early phase of the growth of Parthia, when the seeds of the main tendencies, later to be developed, were sown in the country’s cultural, political, and religious development. The Parthian dynasty pursued a multi-layered monarchical ideology that invoked several different political and cultural traditions. In Iran, the royal fire was associated with the kingly Glory/Charisma called khvarenah (Parthian farn-). The royal fire cult was closely connected to Arsacid sacral kingship and this tradition was inherited from Achaemenid Iran. The well-known Arsacid monopoly of power in Iran was based on a religious sanction which turned out to be extremely enduring.

Jeffrey D. Lerner (Winston-Salem, USA)

THE EMERGENCE OF WAKHAN FORTRESSES IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

Keywords: Greek-Baktria, Kaahka, Kushans, Sogdiana, Tajikistan, Western Pamir Mountains, Yamchun, Zhang Qian

Abstract

The Wakhan Highway situated along the Pianj on the upper reaches of the Amudaria, was one the main roads that ran through the western Pamir until the Arab conquest. It stands out for the cultural and historical role it played as a crucial link in the transasiatic route allowing travelers to pass through western China in the north and Afghanistan and India in the south. A series of fortresses line the bank of the northern bank of the Pianj in modern Tajikistan. The region long populated by Saka tribes may have been part of the twelfth satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Fortresses, like Kaakhka I and Yamchun I, dating back to the Greek-Baktrian Period served as bulwarks against nomadic tribes migrating southward. While the region remained part of the Greek-Baktrian kingdom either by conquest or by alliance, most of these castles appear to have been renovated or constructed by the Kushans, but not against the possible encroachment of the nomadic Sakai, but against a more powerful foe, the Han Chinese.

Giuseppe Petrantoni (Rome, Italy)

AN EPIGRAPHIC NOTE ON THE NABATAEAN TEXT OF A BILINGUAL (GREEK-NABATAEAN) INSCRIPTION FROM

ĠŪR AL-ṢĀFĪ

Keywords: Nabataean, Ġūr al-Ṣāfī, bilingual inscription, Aramaic, Greek, epigraphy, Zoora

Abstract

During the excavation at al-Naq‘ Byzantine cemetery (begun in 1996) of Ġūr al-Ṣāfī (Jordan), a bilingual Greek-Nabataean inscription was discovered. It was published in 2008 by Y.E. Meimaris who offers only a simple translation of the Nabataean text, in addition to the transcription and the translation of the Greek lines. The purpose of this article is to provide a transcription of the Nabataean lines in order to analyse their content and to pay specific attention to onomastics inasmuch two individuals of the inscription are differently two-named in Greek and in Nabataean. In particular, the name ’šm‘yn – Ἱσμεήλη seems to be new in the Nabataean epigraphy since it is not attested in the latter and also in other cognate varieties of Aramaic.

Nikolaus L. Overtoom (Springfield, USA)

THE RIVALRY OF ROME AND PARTHIA IN THE SOURCES FROM THE AUGUSTAN AGE TO LATE ANTIQUITY

Keywords: Rome, Parthia, Sassanid Persia, Augustus, Late Antiquity, International Relations

Abstract

This article examines the longstanding rivalry of Rome and Parthia, which began as an unintended consequence of Crassus’ decisive defeat at Carrhae in

53 BCE. It synthesizes the accounts and opinions of numerous Graeco-Roman writers from the Augustan Age to late antiquity in order to help illustrate the new and interconnected post-Carrhae world and its legacy. The rivalry of the Romans and Parthians became a primary focus of their foreign policies and drastically expanded their perceptions of the world in which they interacted. Even after the fall of the Parthians to the rebellious Sassanid Persians in the 220s CE, the Romans continued to find their three-century-long rivalry with the Parthians of interest and relevant to the changing world of late antiquity.

Tomasz Polański (Kielce, Poland)

DID GREGORY OF NAZIANZ WRITE THE EPIGRAMS ON ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES’ SANCTUARY OF NEMRUD DAĞ

OR NOT (AP 8, 176–254)?

A COMMENTARY ON L. ROBERT’S NOTE IN THE BULLETIN ÉPIGRAPHIQUE VI, 1968–1970, NO 619

Keywords: Palatine Anthology, Gregory of Nazianz, Nemrud Dağ, Kommagene, burial architecture

Abstract

L. Robert suggested that the cycle of epigrams from Book VIII (176–256) of the Palatine Anthology was a lamentation on the destruction of the hierothesion of Nemrud Dağ. The execration epigrams of AP 8, 176–254 are not by Gregory of Nazianz. They belong to the Pagan tradition of the Greek epigrammatic poetry. The collection does not focus on one grave monument, but refers to different burial structures, different settings and in some cases to burial sites, what can be shown through the analysis of the ecphrastic verses in the collection. None of the execration epigrams points to a specified location, which may be suggestive of Kommagene, the Euphrates, and the Taurus Mountains. Some of them are suggestive of a magnificent sanctuary located high up in the mountains (177, 178, 209, 230, 236). There are formal and structural parallels between the execration epigrams AP 8, 176–254 and the royal inscriptions of Kommagene.

Martin Schottky (Pretzfeld, Germany)

VORARBEITEN ZU EINER KÖNIGSLISTE KAUKASISCH-IBERIENS. 5. IM SCHATTEN SCHAPURS II.

Keywords: Caucasian history, Georgia (Caucasus), Iberia (Caucasus), Roman Eastern Frontier, Sasanians

Abstract

Prolegomena to a King List of Caucasian Iberia 5. In Shapur II’s Shadow

During the seventy years of the reign of the Persian king Shapur II (A.D. 309–379), we know of several generations of Iberian royals. One such Iberian royal was Meribanes, who in 361 emperor Constantius II tried to prevent from establishing an alliance with Persia. In scholarship, he is commonly identified with (St.) Mirian (Iranian, Mihran), the first Christian king of Iberia and founder of the so-called Chosroid dynasty. The Chosroids were a branch of the Mihranid princely family, one of the great aristocratic houses of Iran and distant relatives of the Sasanians. Although Meribanes and Mirian were supposedly contemporaries, Mirian is now regarded as a mere figure of legend and not history. In the late 360s, Meribanes’ successor Sauromaces became embroiled in an attempted coup to overthrow him by his cousin, the pro-Persian Aspacures. The result was that Aspacures, who is not to be confused with „Varaz-Bakur“ or „Aspa(u)rukh,“ agreed to a partition of the kingdom along the river Cyrus. The agreement, however, only lasted for several years, when in c. 377/8 the aged Shapur II decided to conquer the whole of Iberia for Aspacures. In the course of Shapur’s campaign, Sauromaces probably perished and his cousin ascended the throne to rule reunited Iberia under Persian overlordship. Aspacures had a son called Ultra („beyond“), according to Ammianus Marcellinus, but in all likelihood his name was closer to *Peranius. He lived as a hostage at the Persian court and may have succeeded his father some years later.