Characene

The present paper intend to explore the way the new kingdoms born from the dissolution of the Greco-Macedonian powers east of the Tigris employed coinage in order to promote kingship ideology based on kinship and family relationships. At the same time, it will try to show the interplay as well as the differences between Greco-Macedonian and local cultures in using family as a propaganda tool.

Research into bitumen‐lined ‘torpedo jars’, widely distributed throughout the Gulf and the Indian Ocean between the third and ninth centuries CE, has developed considerably in recent years, shedding new light on maritime trade connections during the Sasanian and early Islamic periods. Based on pottery finds from Failaka (Kuwait) and Thaj (Saudi Arabia), recently studied by the author, this article draws attention to an earlier type of bitumen‐lined jar characterised by an ovoid profile and a greenish fabric, including vegetal temper. These ovoid jars, presumably of Mesopotamian origin, are commonly found on ‘Classical’/pre‐Sasanian sites located along the Gulf’s shores, and their specific fabric has also been identified recently in Oman and southern India. They provide evidence for the existence of extensive Mesopotamian trade, probably in wine, with the Gulf region and more broadly with the Indian Ocean during the late Seleucid and Characenian periods.

This paper surveys ancient texts in search of geographical and ethnographical information on Adiabene in the Seleucid and Parthian Periods. Adiabene originated as a relatively small province between the Lykos and Kapros rivers, perhaps including the Arrapachitis region. In the early Seleucid period, Adiabene was politically dependent on the mighty province of Babylonia. At some point in its Parthian history (between the mid-1st century BCE and the mid-1st century CE) Adiabene started to expand its territory northwest. From then on, it included Ashur and Nineveh, and extended along the eastern bank of the Tigris river to include Gordyene. Adiabene’s influence is also recorded on the western bank of the Tigris. In the first half of the 1st century CE (incorporation between 37-40/41 CE) Nisibis belonged to Adiabene. Its influence on the western bank of the Tigris is also attested for the whole 2nd century CE. As for Adiabene’s cultural profile, it featured a great deal of diversity, since it consisted of co-existing Iranian and Greek and Semitic elements.

The Arsakid Empire between the Mediterranean World and Innerasia. Remarks on the political strategy of the Arsakids from Vologases I till the accession of Vologases III (AD 50-147)

Das Arsakidenreich zwischen der mediterranen Welt und Innerasien. Bemerkungen zur politischen Strategie der Arsakiden von Vologases I. bis zum Herrschaftsantritt des Vologases III. (50-147 n. Chr.), in: E. Dąbrowa (ed.), Ancient Iran and the Mediterranean World. Studies in Ancient History. Proceedings of an International Conference in Honour of Professor Józef Wolski, Held at the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, in September 1996, (Electrum Vol. 2), Kraków, Jagiellonian University Press, 1998, 113-159. (in German)

From Erich Kettenhoffen’s review:
Mit den 37 Druckseiten übertrifft Olbrycht den entsprechenden Abschnitt in Wolskis Monographie (S. 163-184) fast um das Doppelte; sein Beitrag kann mit gutem Recht als ein unser heutiges Wissen dokumentierender Uberblick über die parthische Politik in ihrem Gesamtzusammenhang von ,Westpolitik' und ,Ostpolitik' in der Zeit von 50 bis 150 n.Chr. gelten.


From
Erich Kettenhoffen: Review of: Electrum 2 (Ancient Iran and the Mediterranean World. Proceedings ofinternational conference in honour of Professor Józef Wolski held at the JagiellonianUniversity, Cracow, in September 1996), in: Die Welt des Orients, Bd. 30 (1999), pp. 230-231 (full review: 227-232):
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25683746

ANABASIS
Studia Classica et Orientalia

2 (2011)



REVIEWED BY
Prof. Jacek Rzepka (Warsaw University)



EDITOR
Marek Jan Olbrycht
email: [email protected]

EDITORIAL BOARD
Daryoush Akbarzadeh (Iran, National Museum, Tehran)
Agustí Alemany (Spain, Autonomous University of Barcelona)
Touraj Daryaee (USA, Irvine University, California)
Jangar Ilyasov (Uzbekistan, Academy of Sciences of the Republic Uzbekistan)
Ryszard Kulesza (Poland, University of Warsaw)
Jeffrey D. Lerner (USA, Wake Forest University)
Sabine Müller (Germany, University of Kiel)
Ruslan Muradov (Turkmenistan, National Department for Protection, Research and Restoration, Ashgabad)
Valery P. Nikonorov (Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sankt-Petersburg)
Tomasz Polański (Poland, Jan Kochanowski University)
Karolina Rakowiecka (Poland, Jagiellonian University)
Eduard V. Rtveladze (Uzbekistan, Academy of Sciences of the Republic Uzbekistan)
Martin Schottky (Germany)


ISSN 2082-8993




CONTENTS

Malcolm Davies, Sabine Müller
Deioces the Mede - Rhetoric and Reality in Herodotus 1.99

Ryszard Kulesza
Marathon and Thermopylae in the mémoire collective

Sabine Müller
Onesikritos und das Achaimenidenreich

Marek Jan Olbrycht
First Iranian military units in the army of Alexander the Great

Franca Landucci Gattinoni
Diodorus 18. 39.1-7 and Antipatros’s Settlement at Triparadeisos

Jeffrey D. Lerner
A Reappraisal of the Economic Inscriptions and Coin Finds from Aï Khanoum

Eduard V. Rtveladze
Parthians in the Oxus Valley. Struggle for the Great Indian Road

Michał Marciak
Seleucid-Parthian Adiabene in the Light of Ancient Geographical and Ethnographical Texts

Leonardo Gregoratti
A Parthian port on the Persian Gulf: Characene and its trade

Martin Schottky
Sanatruk von Armenien

Tomasz Polański
A Collection of Orientalist Paintings in the Imperial Private Gallery  in Naples

Massimiliano Vitiello
The “Light, Lamps, and Eyes” of the Persian Empire and the Gothic Kingdom in Justinian’s Time: A Note on Peter the Patrician and Cassiodorus


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