Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europa

held in Ravenna, 6-11 October 2003

Vol. IAncient & Middle Iranian Studies

Edited by Antonio PANAINO & Andrea PIRAS

MIMESIS

MILANO 2006

SOCIETAS IRANOLOGICA EUROPAISTITUTO ITALIANO PER LAFRICA E LORIENTE

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM UNIVERSIT DI BOLOGNA, SEDE DI RAVENNA

II

2006 by Universit di Bologna &

Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente

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Table of Contents

III

Table of Contents

Antonio C.D. PANAINO & Andrea PIRAS (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)Preface ........................................................................................................................ ...........................VII

Antonio C.D. PANAINO (President of the Societas Iranologica Europa, 2000-2003)Opening Speech to the Fifth Conference of Iranian Studies ................................................................ IX

Gherardo GNOLI (President of the Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente)Twenty Years On ................................................................................................................ ................. XIII

Romano PRODI (President of the European Commission)Message to the Organisers and Participants at the 5th European Conference of Iranian Studies .. XV

Bahram QASSEMI (Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran)Address to the Organisers and Participants..................................................................................... XVII

ANCIENT IRANIAN STUDIES

Hassan AKBARI (Tehran University)Morteza HESSARI (Hamburg University)

Die Felsgravierungen aus der iranisch-Aserbaidschan Provinz Ardabil.............................................. 3Kersey H. ANTIA (Chicago, Illinois)

Were the Achaemenians Zoroastrian? How do we Resolve this Question?A Zoroastrian Viewpoint ........................................................................................................ ............... 13

Gian Pietro BASELLO (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna & LOrientale University, Naples)Old Persian in Elamite: The Spellings of Month-names ....................................................................... 19

Franois DE BLOIS (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)Lunisolar Calendars of Ancient Iran ............................................................................................ ......... 39

Alberto CANTERA (Universitt Salamanca)Was ist av. dta- vdauua-? ................................................................................................................. 53

Serena DEMARIA (Martin-Luther-Universitt, Halle, Wittemberg)Der koptische Kambyses Roman ................................................................................................... ......... 65

Bruno GENITO (LOrientale University, Naples)From the Scythians to the Achaemenids: A Nomadic Alternative ...................................................... 75

Gherardo GNOLI (La Sapienza University, Rome)The Seleucid Era and the Date of Zoroaster ..................................................................................... .. 101

Mohammad T. IMANPOUR (Ferdowsi University of Mashhad)The Function of Persepolis:Was Norooz celebrated at Persepolis during the Achaemenid period? ............................................ 115

Vladimir IVANOV (Moscow State University)To the Origin of Avestan Pronunciation ......................................................................................... .... 123

Marco LORETI (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)Some Remarks on the Bas-reliefs dated to the Reigns of Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III ............ 131

Enrico MORANO (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)And then there were none.Agatha Christie, Peanos Axioms and the Druj Nasus Action in the Widwdd ............................. 145

Kamal Aldin NIKNAMI (University of Tehran)Mahnaz SHARIFI (University of Tehran)

Reconstruction of the Zagros Subsistence and Living Patterns during the Middle to UpperPalaeolithic: A Reappraisal.................................................................................................... .............. 151

Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europa , vol. I (Milano 2006)Edited by A. PANAINO & A. PIRASISBN 88-8483-465-2

Table of Contents

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Keigo NODA (Chubu University, Kasugai, Japan)Old Persian Active and Passive................................................................................................. ........... 159

Antonio C.D. PANAINO (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)References to the Term Yat and Other Mazdean Elements in the Syriac and Greek Martyrologiawith a Short Excursus on the Semantic Value of the Greek Verb ....................................... 167

Chiara RIMINUCCI (Universit de Bologne, sige de Ravenne)Les daiva dans linscription de Xerxs (XPh) : entits trangres ou anciennes divinitsiraniennes?.................................................................................................................... ........................ 183

Rdiger SCHMITT (Laboe)Zu den altpersischen Monatsnamen und ihren elamischen Wiedergaben ....................................... 201

Martin SCHWARTZ (University of California, Berkeley)On Haoma, and its Liturgy in the Gathas ........................................................................................ ... 215

Philippe SWENNEN (Universit de Lige)Rflexions relatives ldition du Hordad Yat de lAvesta .............................................................. 225

Xavier TREMBLAY (Tournai, Belgique)Le pseudo-gthiqueNotes de lecture avestiques II ................................................................................................. ............. 233

Michiel DE VAAN (Leiden)The Instrumental Plural of u-stems in Young Avestan ..................................................................... 283

Massimo VIDALE (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)Technology and Decoration of Jaz I Painted Buff Ware Potsas observed at Site M-999 (Murghab Delta, Turkmenistan) .............................................................. 293

MIDDLE IRANIAN STUDIES

Irina A. ARZHANTSEVA (Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)Olga N. INEVATKINA (State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow)

Iranian People depicted in Afrasiab Wall Painting (7th century AD) ................................................ 307Guitty AZARPAY (University of California, Berkeley)

Sealed Pahlavi Manuscripts at Berkeley: Physical Characteristics .................................................. 319Marco BAIS (Ca Foscari University, Venice & Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome)

The Political Control over the Eastern Subcaucasian Coast: The Mazkutk ................................... 323David BUYANER (Jerusalem)

Some Etymological and Lexicological Observations on the Pahlavi Text Styin Sh Rzg .......... 333Pierfrancesco CALLIERI (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)

Water in the Art and Architecture of the Sasanians.......................................................................... 339Martha L. CARTER (American Numismatic Society)

Kanikas Bactrian Pantheon in the Rabatak Inscription: The Numismatic Evidence .................... 351Iris COLDITZ (Institut fr Iranistik, Berlin)

On the Zoroastrian Terminology in Manis buhragnAdditional Notes ............................................................................................................... .................... 359

Matteo COMPARETI (Ca Foscari University, Venice)The Representation of Foreign Merchants in the Praidhi Scenes at Bzklik ............................... 365

Salvatore COSENTINO (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)Some Examples of Social Assimilation between Sasanians and Romans (4th-6th Century AD)...... 379

Touraj DARYAEE (California State University, Fullerton)Sasanians and their Ancestors .................................................................................................. .......... 387

Massimiliano DAVID (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)La fine dei mitrei ostiensiIndizi ed evidenze ............................................................................................................. .................... 395

Abolqasem ESMAILPOUR (Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran)New Light on an Iranian Approach to Manichaeism based on Persian Classical Textsfrom 10th to 11th A.D. .......................................................................................................................... ... 399

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Andrea GARIBOLDI (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)The Role of Gold and Silver in the Sasanian Economy....................................................................... 415

Badri GHARIB (Tehran)Present and Past Perfect Transitive in Sogdianand its Comparative Similarities with some New Iranian Dialects .................................................. 437

Philippe GIGNOUX (EPHE, Paris)Rika GYSELEN (C.N.R.S., Paris)

La relation des sceaux leur possesseurdaprs les documents conomiques de la collection de Berkeley ..................................................... 445

Thamar E. GINDIN (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)How to Say No in Early Judaeo Persian ........................................................................................ ... 451

Tommaso GNOLI (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)C. Iulius Mygdonius: un Parto a Ravenna ........................................................................................ .. 461

Seiro HARUTA (Tokai University, Hiratsuka, Japan)Elymaean and Parthian Inscriptions from Khzestn: A Survey...................................................... 471

Bodil HJERRILD (Valby, Denmark)Succession and Kinship in the Late Sasanian Era.............................................................................. 479

Irene HUBER (Leopold-Franzens-Universitt, Innsbruck)Udo HARTMANN (Humboldt-Universitt, Berlin)

Denn ihrem Diktat vermochte der Knig nicht zu widersprechen ...Die Position der Frauen am Hof der Arsakiden .................................................................................. 485

Pallan ICHAPORIA (Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, USA)The Gths in the Pahlavi Tradition of Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods, exemplifiedby Yasna 30.3 and the Pahlavi Text of the Ahunavait Gth as given in the Dnkard Book IX .... 519

Christelle JULLIEN (C.N.R.S. Monde Iranien, Paris)Kakar la sublime et sa singulire prminence sur le sige patriarcal de Sleucie-Ctsiphon . 543

Florence JULLIEN (A.T.E.R. Collge de France, Paris)Un exemple de relecture des origines dans lglise syro-orientale : Thocrite et lvch deahrgard ....................................................................................................................... ........................ 553

Claudia LEURINI (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)A New Manichaean Fragment Dedicated to Amm, Apostle of Mani? .............................................. 561

Kinga MACIUSZAK (Jagiellonian University, Krakw)The Horned Goat versus Demoniac TreeSome Remarks on Symbolic Meaning of the Pahlavi Text Draxt srg ........................................ 567

Maria MACUCH (Institut fr Iranistik, Freie Universitt, Berlin)The Function of Temporary Marriage in the Context of Sasanian Family Law ............................... 585

Milena MANINI (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)Pietro Patrizio ed il solenne cerimoniale daccoglienza riservato allambasciatore illustre deiPersiani (De Caer. I, 89-90) ................................................................................................... ............... 599

Jafar MEHR KIAN (Iranian Cultural Heritage & Tourism Organization)The Tisiyun Elymaean Relief of Mehrnn, Plain of Susan, Izeh/Mlamir (Khuzestan) .................. 611

Federicomaria MUCCIOLI (Universit di Bologna)Antioco IV salvatore dellAsia (OGIS 253) e la campagna orientale del 165-164 a.C. ................... 619

Paolo OGNIBENE (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)Alani, As e larcontato di Azia ................................................................................................ ............. 635

Laura PASQUINI (Universit di Bologna, sede di Ravenna)Influenze dellarte sasanide nellOccidente mediterraneo: alcuni episodi decorativi ..................... 645

Andrea PIRAS (University of Bologna, branch of Ravenna)The Aramaic Heritage in one Expression of the Sasanian Inscription of Paikuli ............................ 661

Enrico G. RAFFAELLI (Universit La Sapienza, Roma)Il testo avestico Sh-rzag e la sua versione mediopersiana ............................................................. 669

Nikolaus SCHINDEL (Wien)The Sasanian Eastern Wars in the 5th Century: The Numismatic Evidence ..................................... 675

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Dan D.Y. SHAPIRA (Open University, Raanannah & Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel)Mandaean and quasi-Mandaean Prototypes of some Expressionsin the Greek Cologne Mani Codex: Stray Aramaicists Notes ............................................................. 691

Nicholas SIMS-WILLIAMS (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)Bactrian Letters from the Sasanian and Hephthalite Periods ........................................................... 701

Werner SUNDERMANN (Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin)A Fragment of the Buddhist Kcanasra Legend in Sogdian and its Manuscript ......................... 715

Mihaela TIMU (Centre dhistoire des religions, Universit de Bucarest)Sur le vocabulaire du destin chez les zoroastriensAutour du pehlevi baxt ......................................................................................................... ............... 725

Gabriella ULUHOGIAN (Universit di Bologna)Occhi armeni sulla corte di Persia............................................................................................. .......... 747

Zohre ZARSHENAS (Tehran)Sogdian wtw ........................................................................................................................... ............ 757

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Touraj DARYAEE California State University, Fullerton

Sasanians and their Ancestors

here is now a renewed interest in the perception of the Sasanians in regard to theirancestors. E. Yarshater in his 1971 article questioned the idea that whether theSasanians ever knew of the Achaemenids, and if they remembered anyone it was

the Parthians.1 Th. Nldeke had voiced this idea almost a century ago, and to my knowledgethe only ancient historian of the Mediterranean world which went along with Nldeke andagainst the common view that the Sasanians knew the Achaemenids was Th. Mommsen.2

Since Yarshaters article the tide began to turn and many scholars accepted the notion thatthe Sasanians did not remember the Achaemenids and perhaps when the Sasanians wereblessing their ancestors, they may have been referring to the Kayanids.3 Still, fewscholars such as J. Wiesehfer4 and G. Gnoli,5 are of the opinion that the Sasanians via theArsacids would have been aware of the Achaemenids.

I had also suggested that indeed the Sasanians should have known about the Achaeme-nids, after all the Jews and Christians living in the rnahr, and the Romans knew aboutthe Achaemenids. If this is the case, how could we suggest Sasanian ignorance of the Achae-menids? To my mind the matter would be that the Sasanians did not forget, but must haveignored the Achaemenids purposefully to construct a sacred history which connected themnot to the Achaemenids, but to the Kayanids. This meant a construction of the past whichwas sacred and removed from the Greco-Roman historiographical tradition.6 A similar pat-tern may be seen with development of Christian Roman historiography, where Christianitybecame a focal point and a background to the history of the late Roman Empire.7 As historywas tied to the court, the history that was propped up was the work of state and con-structed by the court.8 No matter how literate this Persian society became and how sophis-ticated the chancery and the dwn became, it was the court apparatus which constructed

1 E. Yarshater, Were the Sasanian Heirs to the Achaemenids?, La Persia nel Medioevo, (Rome, 1971),p. 519.2 Th. Nldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, (Leiden, 1879), p. 3; Th.Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire, (New York, 1885 / reprint 1996), vol. ii, p. 3.3 M. Road, Persepolitan Echoes in Sasanian Architecture: Did the Sasanians attempt to re-create theAchaemenid empire?, in V.S. Curtis & al. (eds.), Art and Archaeology of Ancient Persia, New Light on theParthian and Sasanian Empires, (London & New York, 1998), p. 6.4 J. Wiesehfer, Iranische Ansprche an Rom auf ehemals achaimenidische Territorien, Archo-logische Mitteilungen aus Iran 19 (1986), pp. 177-185; and also his important article Ardar, Ency-clopdia Iranica II (1986), pp. 371-376.5 G. Gnoli, The Idea of Iran, An Essay on its Origin, (Rome, 1989), p. 119.6 T. Daryaee, Memory and History: The Construction of the Past in Late Antique Persia, Nme-yeIrn-e Bstn, The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies, 1.2 (2001-2002), pp. 12-13.7 Daryaee, Memory and History, p. 10; also see T. Daryaee, National History or Keyanid History:The Nature of Sasanid Zoroastrian Historiography, Iranian Studies, 28/3-4 (1995), pp. 129-141.8 O. Klma, Wie ah die persische Geschicts Schreibung in der vorslamischen Periode aus?, ArchivOrientln, 36, (1968), pp. 213-232; also his Beitrage zur Geschichte des Mazdakismus, (Prauge, 1977),chapter 4.

T

Proceedings of the 5th Conference of the Societas Iranologica Europa , vol. I (Milano 2006)Edited by A. PANAINO & A. PIRASISBN 88-8483-465-2

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history for its own end and disseminated it via the religious apparatus. There are similarpatterns in Medieval Europe, where in Italy and Francia, while they had become highlysophisticated literate cultures, especially in matters of record keeping and legal andpractical purposes, that did not effect historiography.9 This means that in Persia, no matterhow aware the Persian scribes were of the history that presented itself to the Jews andChristians (Bible), and the Romans (Greco-Roman Histories), the historigraphical traditionof rn was left untouched by that knowledge. It is possible that the hr-Tqs under thedirection of the hrbeds would have been a useful medium in disseminating this type ofsacred history and tradition among the Zoroastrian Persian population.

Sh. Shahbazi on the other hand suggested that the early Sasanian kings knew about theAchaemenids and it was only later in the fifth century CE that a reorientation towards theKayanids took place.10 One of the problems which E. Kettenhofen has pointed out, as well asZ. Rubin, and followed by Ph. Huyse is that the Roman sources which suggest that theSasanians knew about the Achaemenids and their territorial ambitions, were really propa-ganda and must be understood in the framework of Roman imperial ideology.11

The question that, however, arises is that whether at all the Sasanians made such state-ments in regard to their territorial ambitions to the Romans? I am hesitant of the idea thatthe Sasanian Persians never made any actual territorial claims to the Romans.12 After allArdaxr I as well as his son, buhr I fought the Romans and had to make their territorialaspirations based on some tradition. It is based on this view that I would like to discuss theissue and try to look at the matter in another way. I would like to clarify what it meantwhen the Sasanians made such statements that they were bent on the conquest of the Asiaas it belonged to their ancestors, and how the Romans mistook this to mean that theSasanians were aspiring to Achaemenid territorial integrity. That is how else could weunderstand the statement made about the Sasanians by Herodian (VI.2.2) that the Persiansbelieved that the entire mainland facing Europe contained by the Aegean Sea and thePropontis Gulf belonged to them. Furthermore there is the statement by Herodian(LXXX.4) which mentions that Ardaxr I believed that all this was his rightful inheritancefrom his forefathers. We can indeed make sense of these statements in another way, aswell as buhrs claims (Ammianus Marcellinus XVII.5) that his forefathers empirereached as far as the river Strymon and the boundaries of Macedonia.

9 P.J. Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance, Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium, PrincetonUniversity Press, (New Jersey, 1994), p. 26.10 Sh. Shahbazi, Early Sasanians Claim to Achaemenid Heritage, Nme-ye Irn-e Bstn, TheInternational Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies, 1/1 (2001), p. 69. I agree to Shahbazis assessment andhad voiced similar opinions in my review of The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Persia: New light on theParthian and Sasanian empires, in Iranian Studies, 33/1-2 (2000), p. 240.11 E. Kettenhofen, Die Einforderung des Achmenidenerbes Durch Ardar: Eine InterpretatioRomana, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica, 15 (1984), p. 190; and his Einige berlegungen zursasanidischen Politik gegenber Rom in 3. Jh. N. Chr., in E. Dabrowa (ed.), The Roman and ByzantineArmy in the East, (Cracow, 1994), pp. 99-108; also his Die Einforderung der achaimenidischenTerritorien durch die Ssniden-eine Bilanz, Festschrift Iradj Khalifeh-Soltani zum 65. Geburtstag /Ydnme-ye Iradj Khalifeh-Soltani, (Aachen, 2002), pp. 49-75; Z. Rubin, Civil-War Propaganda andHistoriography, Collection Latomus, (173, Bruxelles), 1980, p. 216; Ph. Huyse, La Revendication deTerritoires achmnides par les sassanides: un ralit historique?, in Ph. Huyse, Iran: Questions etconnaissance, vol. I: La Priode ancienne, (Paris, 2002), pp. 111-117.12 In support of such an idea see. Z. Rubin, The Roman Empire in the Res Gestae Divi Saporis theMediterranean World in Ssnian Propaganda, Electrum, Ancient Iran and the Mediterranean World, 2(1998), pp. 177-186.

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I believe modern scholars are so entrenched in the Classical historiographical traditionthat they have not looked at another possibility in explaining Sasanian Persian territorialambitions which was different from that of the Achaemenids territory. The Zoroastriantexts describe another kind of territorial view and division which is important for under-standing the Sasanian view of the world in late antiquity. In the Middle Persian texts wecome across this story which is not present in the surviving portion of the Avesta. This isthe well-known epic tradition, which is the division of the world by king Frdn amonghis sons. This act of Frdn is seen as not a sin in the Middle Persian and the Persian epicliterature, but it has the effect of plunging the world into war. This deed of Frdn isthat he divided his realm (the world) between his three sons, Salm, T, and raj. raj isgiven the best land, i.e., rn, while the other two receive the lesser desired lands. Conse-quently the following event takes place (Abdh ud Shagh Sstn 5-6):

az frazandn frdn salm k kiwar hrm ud t k turkestn pad xwadyh dt raj rndahibed bd u be zad

From the offsprings of Frdn, Salm who ruled over the land of Rome and T who ruledover the land of Turkestn (Asia = China), they killed raj who was the lord of the land ofrn.13

The hnme of Ferdows provides the epic narrative of this tripartition, where Salm andT are discussed in the following manner (Khaleghi-Motlagh edition I.270-280):

When he (Frdn) revealed his secret planHe divided the world into three partsOne (considered of) Rome and the Western Clime, the other the Turkish realm and ChinaThe third was (made up of) the land of heroes and IranHe first looked into Salms affairAnd found Rome and the Western Climes fit for himHe ordered Salm to choose an army(Salm did so) and left for the Western Climes(once there) he sat upon the royal throneand was called the Lord of the Western Climeshe then granted the land of Tran to (his other son) Trand made him the Lord of the Turks and of China

13 The Middle Persian text, Abdh ud Shagh Sstn, passages 5-6 in The Pahlavi Texts, ed. D.J.M.Jamasp-Asana, (Bombay, 1913), translated into Persian by T. Daryaee, egafty va Barjesteg-yeSstn, Matn be zabn-e Pahlav, Iranshenasi, 8/3 (1996), pp. 534-542.

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He assigned Trn army (of his own)And he left with his hostTr came (to Trn) and sat upon the royal throne,(and) began to rule (literally: girded himself for the job) generouslythe nobles scattered jewels upon him (as a sign of submission)and all of the magnates proclaimed him the King of Trn

Of course following these events king Frdn bypasses the two sons and chooses raj asking of rn. Another Persian epic, the Knme gives further elucidation, not on the actionof the brothers but on the geographical concepts of rn, Trn, and Rm: (Matini editionKnme 8682-8690):

After 181 years elapsedthe firmament brought forth chaos againFereydun (Frdn) of good fortune had three sonsWhom he loved dearlyHe divided the earth into three parts for them(and) made their faces glow with (the joy of) kingshipRome was given to the brave Salm Together with the whole realm of North AfricaTransoxiana, Turkish climes, and ChinaWere allotted to the brave TrIran came to be given to Iraj in the course of that divisionBecause he was worthy of the Iranian throne(the area) from Oxus to the Sea of Pars (i.e., The Persian Gulf)Including Kufah is considered part of IranAlso all of AzerbaijanIs considered part of Iran by everyone (literally: by those who are sober or drunk)

Here we see that the limits of rn which is given to raj, is from Oxus to the PersianGulf. More interesting is that Kfa is mentioned which exists as part of rn in theahrestnh rnahr which tends suggests a common source or knowledge about thisview of rnahr.14 Our texts specifically states that Salm was given rm / hrm Rome,thus indicating the western kingdom. Another Middle Persian text, the Bundahin indicatessarm deh ast hrm The land of Sarm / Salm is Rome.15 This region, i.e., sarm deh is madeequivalent to Avestan sairinm dahiiunm in Yat XIII. It appears then that hrm has re-

14 T. Daryaee, hrestnh rnahr, A Middle Persian Text on History, Epic and Geography, (Costa Mesa,2002).15 C. Cereti, Zand Wahman Yasn, A Zoroastrian Apocalypse, IsMEO, (Rome, 1996), 6.3, p. 198commentary.

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placed sairima- of the Avesta in the Middle Persian texts, and hence the equation. Thisregion which was identified with Anatolia and remained as Rm in the Islamic period,hence the Seljuk kingdom was known as the kingdom of the Seljuks of Rm.

What appears to have taken place in the Sasanian period is that the religious traditionand the epic tradition created the background to the realities and politics for late antiquePersia. It is no wonder that the Romans could not understand the way in which thePersians dealt with them in international arena and at times made no sense to them. Thiswas because Sasanians saw a constructed relation in the past between them and theirneighbors, the Romans and the Turks as found in their sacred / epic tradition and eluci-dated in the Middle Persian texts. This meant that while the Roman emperors called theirPersian counterparts fratri meo my brother, in certain correspondences,16 for the Persiansthis gesture was not seen to be a sign of mutual respect which existed at the time, that isthe idea of kings as brothers. In fact if we take the Persian conception of the past intoconsideration, the Sasanian hn hs saw the Roman Imperators as their brothers in thesense that they were literally related to them. That is the Romans were the descendants ofSalm who had ruled (Middle Persian) hrm (Persian) rm, i.e., Rome, but in antiquity, werethe sons of Frdn.

It is only in this context that such claim by the Sasanians to the territory they mentionin Dio Cassius and Herodian that make sense. That is the imposition of epic / sacred historyonto the geo-political realities of late antiquity (Herodian VI.2.2):

Believing that the entire mainland facing Europe contained by the Aegean Sea and thePropontis Gulf (the whole of what is called Asia) belonged to him by ancestral right, hewas intending to recover it for the Persian empire.17

I do believe that the Classical historians are echoing Sasanian propaganda in the con-text of Roman understanding of the past events. That means the territory that is beingclaimed by the Persians in these passages is not the Achaemenid territory, but the myth-ical tripartition of the world by the hero, Frdn. That means that when buhr I in hisinscription mentions his ancestors (hnagn),18 he is not claiming relations to the Achae-menids,19 but rather to the distant past, before the Achaemenids. Before finding evidencefrom the Persian sources, we should look at Herodian as to the claim of Ardaxr (HerodianLXXX.4):

,

16 Ammianus Marcellinus, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MCML, XVII.5.3; also see Procopius,History of the Wars, (Cambridge, MCMLXI), I.xi.9 for Kawd and Justinians relations; TheophylactSimocatta, iv.11.11 for Xusr II and Maurice.17 Herodian, (Cambridge, 1970), VI.2.2.18 KZ nykn w hsynkn / , M. Back, Die Sassanidischen Staatsinschriften,(Leiden, 1978), Parthian 16; Greek 35, p. 326.19 Gnoli, The Idea of Iran, p. 119ff; and his important article Linscription de buhr la Kabe-yeZardot et la propaganda sassanide, in P. Bernard & al. (eds.) Historie et cultes de lAsie Centraleprislamique, (Paris 1991), pp. 57-63.

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He accordingly became a source of fear to us; for he was encamped with a large army soas to threaten not only Mesopotamia but also Syria, and he boasted that he would winback everything that the ancient Persians had once held, as far as the Grecian Sea,claiming that all this was his rightful inheritance from his forefathers.

The idea of the relatedness of the Sasanian Persians to the Romans is echoed in thehnme. The hnme of Ferdows is the versified version of the Sasanian royal chronicle,the Xwady-nmag Book of Kings.20 When in the late sixth century Xusr II (590-628 CE)was facing trouble from his general Wahrm bn, his father, king Hormizd IV advised himto go to the Roman emperor to seek help. This for this advice is as follows (Moscow edition,Vol. IX.629-632):

If you desire to leave your land and home, Then swiftly go from here to Rome, When youre gone tell Caesar one by one The words of this remedy-seeking manIn that place there is religion and will, He is well equipped with weapons and troops, The descendants of Frdn [in that land] also are your kinsmen,When your affairs are in difficulty they will be with you

This piece of literary evidence is very important, because it tells us that the Persian kingdid not see the Roman emperor as his brother merely because it was an honorary title,rather there was a historical precedence at work. This is the reference to Frdn, i.e.,(Middle Persian) Frdn who had divided the world between his sons, who each had in-herited a third of Frdns realm. This means that the Sasanian kings were seeing thecurrent events in the framework of a history which had been sacralized through theZoroastrian tradition. This history had it that in the ancient times the world was united bya primordial king, Jamd (Yima of the Avestan tradition), whose grandson was Frdn.Frdn, however, had divided the world into three parts and given each of his sons aregions. Since raj was given rn (the realm of the Sasanians), the other two brothers,Salm who was given Rome and T who was given Trn had become jealous and hadmurdered rij and committed fratricide. With this fratricide, the war of the empires hadbegun and carried on. The rest of the epic history was about the wars between theseempires and how the Persians tried to ward off their neighbors aggressions. Thus the threekings who were brothers, became enemies, and thus their descendants were both brothersand foes. The Sasanians were not only trying to ward off the Romans, but also unite theworld as in the time of Frdn. It is in this light that we can understand Persian policies

20 On the date and circumstances in which the hnme came about, see Sh. Shahbazi, On theXvady-nmag in Sh. Shahbazi & al. (eds.) Papers in Honour of Professor Ehsan Yarshater, (Leiden, 1990),pp. 208-229.

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towards the Romans, and why buhr II in the fourth century calls the Roman emperor hisbrother, and why Xusr II laid siege to Constantinople in the seventh century.

Rather when the Sasanian king, buhr II, in the fourth century CE replied and called theRoman emperor my brother, he was conscious of the sacred history of his culture. It issaid that Xusr I had placed three empty thrones at the palace of Ctesiphon, one for eachof the Chinese, the Turkic, and the Roman rulers.21 The centrality and superiority of thePersian king above others has also been captured in an alleged poem discovered by Shafi-Kadkan, attributed to the time of Xusr II (590-628 CE), found in the work on IbnKhurddbeh from the first half of the ninth century CE. The poem composed by Barbed,the famous minstrel of the Sasanian king describes the three kings of late antiquity in sucha fashion:

The Caesar is like unto the moon and the Khgn to the sun,My lord is like unto the cloud all-powerful,At will he veils the moon and at will sun.22

To my mind this was part of the Sasanian tradition which demonstrated the Persian viewof the world of late antiquity. It was also symbolic of the fact that all of these kings had tocome together and be under the rule of the rnahr.23 This means that the Sasanianconception of the world and its history was essentially different from that of what Greco-Roman historians represented. It shows that the Sasanian Persians recognized the Romansas not only their foes, but also as their brothers. According to the sacred history, ever sincethe division of the world into three kingdoms, the Romans had become their foes. Historyhas always been about the conceptual world view of a people and how they thought abouttheir past. This past was, however, different for the different people in late antiquity,according to how they viewed their past and their ancestors. Thus the Persian religiousworld-view in this period contributed to the way in which the Sasanians conducted theirpolitical relations and their foreign policy regarding their neighbors. By understandingboth the Roman and the Persian world-view, we can better explain the realities of lateantiquity and how different people perceived each other and motives for their actionagainst one another.

I would like to thank Professor G. Gnoli for his insightful comments during the conference and Dr.M. Omidsalar in matters relating to Persian epic.

21 P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, W.W. Norton & Company, (New York, 1971), p. 160.22 G. Lazard, The Rise of the New Persian Language, in R.N. Frye (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran,4, (Cambridge, 1975), p. 605.23 The inclusion of the Chinese was of political necessity.