The Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian RelationsA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. At the beginning of the common era, the two major imperial powers of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East were Rome and Parthia. In this book, Jake Nabel analyzes Roman-Parthian interstate politics by focusing on a group of princes from the Arsacid family—the ruling dynasty of Parthia—who were sent to live at the Roman court. Although Roman authors called these figures “hostages” and scholars have studied them as such, Nabel draws on Iranian and Armenian sources to argue that the Parthians would have seen them as the emperor’s foster-children. These divergent perspectives allowed each empire to perceive itself as superior to the other, since the two sides interpreted the exchange of royal children through conflicting cultural frameworks. Moving beyond the paradigm of great powers in conflict, The Arsacids of Rome advances a new vision of interstate relations with misunderstanding at its center. |
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Abdagaš Abgar accessed August 19 acculturation Achaemenid Ardawān aristocratic Armenian Arsacid children Arsacid dynasts Arsacid dynasty Arsacid king Arsacid remission Arsacid return Arsacids of Rome attested Augustus Baiae Brill Caligula Cambridge University Press Cass century C.E. client kings cliental cliental fosterage context court cultural Dąbrowa Dārāw discussion Eastern edited elites Encyclopedia Iranica evidence Ferdowsi figure foreign fosterage fosterage arrangements fosterer Frahād Greco-Roman Greek Hellenistic historiography History hostageship imperial inscription interdynastic kinship interstate Iran Iranian Josephus Julio-Claudian Kassite late antique literary literature marriage Middle Persian Mihrdād Nero Olbrycht Oxford University Press Parthian empire Parthian nobility passage political pragmatic misunderstanding pre-Islamic Iran princes reign relationship Roman emperor Roman sources Roman-Parthian relations Routledge royal children rulers ruling families Sasanian scholars Sēnak Shahnameh Shayegan Studies Sūrēn and Kārin Tacitus Tacitus and Josephus Tacitus's Tiberius tion Tirdād tradition trans translation Vonones Vonones's Walgaš Wiesehöfer World Zoroastrian καὶ