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The Seleukid Empire Between Orientalism and Hellenocentrism: Writing the History of Iran in the Third and Second Centuries BCE* ∗

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The Seleukid Empire Between Orientalism and Hellenocentrism: Writing the History of Iran in the Third and Second Centuries BCE* ∗ Nāme-ye Irān-e Bāstān 11/1-2 (2011-12): 17-35 The Seleukid Empire between Orientalism and Hellenocentrism: Writing the History of Iran in the Third and * Second Centuries BCE ∗ Rolf Strootman University of Utrecht Wedged between the Achaemenid and Parthian periods in Iranian history, there is the so-called Hellenistic Age, in which the lands of Greater Iran were part of the political organization known as the Seleukid Empire. For two centuries the Seleukid Empire (312-64 BCE) was the largest of the three Macedonian empires that had emerged after the death of Alexander the Great. It was created by, and later named after, Seleukos I Nikator (‘the Victorious’) from his satrapy of Babylonia, incorporating and transforming the infrastructure of the preceding Achaemenid Empire. It was an archetypal ∗ * This article is based on a paper given at the Center for Persian Studies at the University of California, Irvine, on May 25, 2011; I am grateful to Professor Touraj Daryaee for kindly inviting me to UC Irvine. A different version of the present argument was presented on May 23 at the Asia Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles, where I stayed as a visiting professor for the Spring Semester of 2011; I would like to thank Claudia Rapp and Nile Green of UCLA for arranging the talk and their helpful comments during and after the discussion. All dates are BCE. Name-00 ﻧﻤﻮﻧﺔ دوم ﺻﻔﺤﻪ 20 2012/ 10/11 18 Rolf Strootman imperial polity: a huge, composite hegemonial system characterized by wide ethnic, cultural, religious and political diversity – like most premodern imperial organizations, the empire can be best described as a centralized network of power relations rather than a rigidly structured ‘state’. The Seleukid Empire was in essence a military organization exacting tribute. Kingship was charismatic and intensely martial. Imperial ideology was universalistic, the self-presentation of the Seleukid monarch a continuation and elaboration of the age-old Near Eastern notion of a Great King. The empire in its heyday stretched from the Pamir Mountains to the Aegean Sea, reaching its greatest extent around 200 under Antiochos III the Great. From c. 150 the empire declined due to internal dynastic conflicts, as a result of which the empire was unable to halt Parthian expansion on the Iranian plateau. In 64 the Seleukid dynasty, by then reduced to a small kingdom in northern Syria, disappeared from history virtually unnoticed when Pompey took the royal title away from the last Seleukids and turned Syria into a Roman provincia. Perhaps surprisingly, the Seleukid period has not yet acquired a place of its own in the longue durée of the Middle East. This is notably the case with narratives of Iranian history.1 Among the succession of empires characterizing Middle East history since the Neo-Assyrians, the Seleukid Empire is one of the least known and remains relatively understudied, particularly in comparison to the preceding Achaemenid Empire.2 In the autumn of 2005, the British Museum in London held an exhibition dedicated to the Achaemenid Empire that was called Forgotten Empire. A curious title. After all, the Achaemenid Empire is, apart from Rome, the least forgotten empire of the Ancient World. This in terms of both popular 1. See e.g. the cursory treatments in J. Wiesehöfer, Das antike Persien, Düsseldorf and Zürich, 1993, and M. Brosius, The Persians: An Introduction, London and New York, 2006. 2. In past historiography, the empire has been relegated to a place of secondary importance in Middle East history by various, often rhetorical, means, e.g. by calling it a ‘kingdom’ in opposition to the Achaemenid ‘Empire’ and describing it as a national state of sorts (‘Syria’); by treating the Seleukids as alien intruders who left no lasting impression on the region; by down-dating the beginning of Parthian supremacy on the Iranian plateau; and, more recently, by arguing that the empire was basically a continuation of the Achaemenid Empire. I will return to these viewpoints later. The Seleukid Empire between ... 19 interest and scholarly attention.3 The Macedonian Empire of the Seleukids has a better claim to the proud epithet ‘forgotten’ would perhaps be more befitting. There are only two textbooks to give a comprehensive overview of the empire’s history. They both date to before the First World War.4 Other scholarly books devoted to the Seleukids will hardly fill one shelf in the hypothetical library that wishes to bring them all together. There are exceptions to this lack of interest. Seleukid Babylonia has enjoyed a notable increase in scholarly attention over the past two decades.5 Royal inscriptions in Greek cities in Asia Minor and the events described in the first two book of Maccabees have never failed to attract the attention of scholars. In the historiography of Iran, however, the Seleukid period remains a virtual black hole, with the exception, to some extent, of the Seleukid provinces of Persis (Fārs) and Susiana (Khūzestān), where finds dating to the Hellenistic period have been recovered as a kind of by-product of excavations conducted at 3. Especially in the past three decades there has been a considerable expansion of interest in Achaemenid history and culture, and the bibliography is accordingly vast; for an excellent (though critical) appraisal of recent developments see T. Harrison, Writing Ancient Persia, Bristol, 2011. Even beyond the field of Ancient History, the Achaemenid Empire stands out, and has always stood out, as a model empire – the Achaemenids are rarely absent from volumes offering a diachronic approach to imperialism in world history, while the Seleukids, like the Parthians and Sassanians, usually are; cf. e.g. S. E. Alcock et al. edd., Empires: Perspectives From Archaeology and History, Cambridge, 2001; A. J. S. Spawforth ed., The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies, Cambridge, 2007; F. Hurlet ed., Les Empires: Antiquité et Moyen Âge. Analyse Comparée, Rennes, 2008; I. Morris and W. Scheidel edd., The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium, Oxford, 2009. The same is true of books on empire written for a general audience, e.g. most recently A. Chua, Day of Empire, New York, 2009. 4. E. R. Bevan, The House of Seleucus, London, 1902; A. Bouché-Leclercq, Histoire des Séleucides (232-64 avant J.-C.), Paris, 1913-14. 5. See i.a. R. J. van der Spek, “The Babylonian city,” in A. Kuhrt and S. M. Sherwin- White edd., Hellenism in the East, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1987, pp. 57-74; S. M. Sherwin-White, “Seleucid Babylonia: A case study for the installation and development of Greek rule,” in Kuhrt & Sherwin-White 1987: 1-31; S. B. Downey, Mesopotamian Religious Architecture: Alexander Through the Parthians, Princeton, 1988; F. Joannès, The Age of Empires: Mesopotamia in the First Millennium BC, Edinburgh, 2000; T. Boiy, Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon, Leuven, 2004; M. J. H. Linssen, The Cults of Uruk and Babylon. The Temple Ritual Texts as Evidence for Hellenistic Cult Practice, Leiden, 2004. 20 Rolf Strootman such sites as Persepolis, Pasargadai and Susa.6 Because of the relative abundance of numismatic evidence, several scholars, most of all Josef Wiesehöfer, were able to study the (chronology of the) Fratarakā rulers of Hellenistic Persis.7 But although it has been established that the Fratarakā (‘governors’ or ‘commanders’) with few exceptions were vassal rulers of the Seleukids and later Arsakids rather than fully autonomous would-be successors of the Achaemenids, the question how Fārs was integrated in the Seleukid imperial framework has not yet been addressed. Only recently has it become more clear that indirect rule through local rulers, instead of being evidence of the Seleukids’ disappearance was typical of the Seleukid Empire’s hegemonial system outside the urbanized core of the Fertile Crescent, notably in the century between the reigns of Antiochos II and the final collapse of the empire in Iran after the death of Antiochos IV (i.e. between c. 250-150). But generally speaking, remains from the Seleukid period in Iran have rarely been the focus of excavations by archaeologist, who instead have concentrated on Achaemenid and earlier levels. In archaeology there is the additional problem that usually only Greek-style remains are associated with the Seleukids: remains from the Seleukid period that modern archaeologists classify as Iranian in style have been disconnected from the Seleukids by conceptualizing them as the products of a Persian Revival. The problem is, that the Seleukid Empire has always been considered a ‘western’, Greek empire and therefore a Fremdkörper in the history of the 6. Cf. J.-F. Salles, “The Arab-Persian Gulf under the Seleucids,” in Kuhrt & Sherwin- White 1987: 75-109; D. T. Potts, The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. Volume 2: From Alexander the Great to the Coming of Islam, New York, 1990; E. Dabrowa, “Les Séleucides et l'Élimaïde,” Parthica 6, 2004, pp. 107-15; D. Stronach ed. Pasargadae: A report on the excavations conducted by the British institute of Persian Studies from 1961 to 1963 (Oxford 1978). 7. J. Wiesehöfer, Die “Dunklen Jahrhunderte” der Persis: Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und Kultur von Fars in frühhellenistischer Zeit (330–140 v. Chr.), München, 1994; id., “Fars under the Seleucids and the Parthians,” in V. S. Curtis et al. edd., The Idea of Iran. Volume 2: The Age of the Parthians, London, 2007, pp. 37-49; an updated version of the latter article appeared as “Frataraka rule in Seleucid Persis: A new appraisal,” in A. Erskine and L. Llewellyn-Jones edd., Creating a Hellenistic World, Swansea and Oxford, 2011, pp. 107-22. The Seleukid Empire between ... 21 Middle East. This is quite remarkable. It is not uncommon for Oriental empires to be created by conquerors coming from the fringes of the Middle East: The Parthian Empire (created by Iranians from Inner Asia), The Ummayad Empire (Arabs from the steppe fringes and the southern peninsula), The Seljuk and Ottoman Empires (Turks from Inner Asia), the Il-Khanate (Mongols).
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