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Plutarch on the End of the Persian Empire1

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Plutarch on the End of the Persian Empire1 GRAECO-LATINA BRUNENSIA 16, 2011, 2 ERAN ALMAGOR (BEN GURION UNIVERSITY) PLUTARCH ON THE END OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE1 This paper focuses on two aspects of the moral, issues pertaining to the end of the Persian Empire as found in Plutarch’s works. One is the character of the monarchs who brought about the decline of the political framework – in particular Artaxerxes II (in his biography) and Artaxerxes III (in De Iside et Osiride); the other is the character of the social envi- ronment in which they acted, the ‘national’ character of Persia, as it were, and how it is portrayed by Plutarch as producing its own demise when encountering Alexander (in the biography of the latter). It might also be said that Plutarch’s depiction of Achaemenid Persia insinuates an attitude towards contemporary Rome. Key Words: Plutarch; Persia; Artaxerxes II Mnemon; Alexander the Great; Artaxerxes III Ochus; Succesion of Empires; Achaemenid Empire. A reader seeking the historical, political, institutional, social or military reasons for the fall of the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the pages of the works of the Greek author and biographer Plutarch, might be disappointed.2 It is not just the often quoted passage at the beginning of the biography of Alexander (1.2), with the claim of the narrator to write a biography and not history, which discloses a method remote from what we would deem historical research.3 It is also the frequent use of sophisticated symbolism, 1 Earlier versions of this paper were presented to audiences at Edinburgh and Brno, and I am thankful for all the comments that helped me improve it. I am grateful to Prof. C. Pelling for reading an earlier draft. All translations in the notes are from the LCL edition, unless stated otherwise. 2 Cf. BINDER, C. 2008. Plutarchs Vita des Artaxerxes. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 12–16; STRONK, J. P. 2010. Ctesias’ Persian History. Part I: Introduction, Text, and Translation. Düsseldorf, 93. 3 οὔτε γὰρ ἱστορίας γράφομεν, ἀλλὰ βίους. See DUFF, T. 1999. Plutarch’s Lives: Exploring Virtue and vice. Oxford, 14–22; PELLING, C. 2002. Plutarch and History. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 259–260. In fact, the genre in which 4 ERAN ALMAGOR (BEN GURION UNIVERSITY) the employment of intricate narrative structures, the layers of significance lurking in the Lives, the allusions, the ironies and the allegories that ap- pear to necessitate a literary treatment and a literary interpretation from the reader of the biographies.4 Yet, Plutarch is certainly not a mere writer of fiction. The imagery he uses supports historical observations that cannot be divulged otherwise. Furthermore, even though he is at times not absolutely true to his sources (as can be judged by the extant ones), Plutarch does ar- rive at a greater truth than that conveyed by other texts.5 It would seem that the interest of Plutarch in the Achaemenid kingdom was first and foremost part of the nostalgic fascination of his age with the Greek heroic past.6 Like other contemporary second century AD Greek authors and orators, Plutarch’s attention was drawn to Persia and to the time when Hellenic identity was moulded in response to the eastern threat.7 One should also bear in mind the possibility that the growing appeal of the East of old following the preparations to the Parthian campaign of Trajan (114–117 AD) may well have influenced the biographer.8 Yet, regardless Plutarch writes is hard to pinpoint. In other places his work is presented as history; cf. Cim. 2.5; Demost. 2.1; Aem. Paul. 1.1; Thes. 1.2; Tib.-Gai. Gracch. 1.1. 4 See C. PELLING (2002: 171–195, 365–386). 5 See C. PELLING (2002: 143–170). 6 See BOWIE, E. L. 1970. “The Greeks and their Past in the Second Sophistic.” Past and Present 46: 3–41 [7, 14, 27]; SWAIN, S. 1996. Hellenism and Empire. Oxford, 95–96; WHITMARSH, T. 2005. The Second Sophistic. Oxford, 68 n.43; cf. Philostratus, VS 519–520, 541, 595. For Plutarch’s interest in Persia see HOOD, D. C. 1967. Plutarch and the Persians. Diss. University of Southern California; PELLING, C. 2007. „De malignitate Plutarchi: Plutarch, Herodotus, and the Persian Wars.“ In BRIDGES, E. – HALL, E. – RHODES, P. J. [EDS.] Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars: Antiquity to the Third Millennium. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 145–164. 7 ����������������������������������������In addition, Plutarch’s interest in the ��������������������������������������������oroastrian religion, whose tenet of two op- posite principles at work in the universe was very close to his own brand of dualism (see De Iside et Osiride 369a–371c, De anim. proc. 1026b, Cf. also Proc. An. 1026b) may also have played a part. DILLON, J. 1977. The Middle Platonists. London, 191, is convinced that such Persian influence and knowledge about Persian religion came to Plutarch primarily from his teacher. This fact may also have prompted him to turn his attention to Persian civilization. On Plutarch’s understanding of �oroastrian religion, see DE JONG A. 1997. Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature. Leiden, 157–204. 8 On Roman appropriation of fifth century images of the Persian Wars see ROSIVACH, V.J. 1984. “The Romans‘ View of the Persians.“ Classical World, 78, 1–8; SPAW- FORTH, A. 1994. “Symbol of Unity? The Persian-Wars Tradition in the Roman Em- pire.“ In HORNBLOWER, S. [ED.] Greek Historiography. Oxford University Press, 1994, 233–247, especially 237–243; HARDIE, P. 1997. “Fifth-Century Athenian and Augustan Images of the Barbarian Other.“ Classics Ireland, 4, 46–56. Cf. ISAAC, PLUTARCH ON THE END OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 5 of specific political circumstances, a role was surely played by the general interest of men of letters in the theme of the succession of empires, from the Ancient Near Eastern kingdoms to Rome.9 Furthermore, while it may appear inappropriate or even too narrow an attitude in the eyes of historians today, Plutarch seems to have been par- ticularly interested in the demise of the Achaemenid kingdom as part of his treatment of virtue and vice and of his concern to trace the successes and failures of rulers and states to their moral excellence or failing, respective- ly.10 What is of importance to Plutarch in his descriptions is to explore the ability or inability of his heroes to let the rational part of their soul guide B. 2004, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton University Press, 375–380. Cf. Arrian’s Parthica (FGrH 156, F 30–53). The inspiration of Trajan’s expedition may be analogous to the influence of the campaigns of Verus (162–166 AD). See an anonymous treatise (FGrH 203), the attraction of anecdotes from the Great King’s court (e.g., in Polyaenus, who also planned to write on Parthian wars: Strat. 8. praef.), and the reference to Xenophon’s march (e.g., Lucian, Quom. hist. conscrib., dealing with historians of the Parthian wars, cites Anabasis 1.1.1 at 24). There are echoes of Greek action against ‘Asia’ in the Roman Lives (Cf. Plut. Comp. Arist.-Cat. Mai. 2.3; Comp. Crass-.Nic. 4.4). There may be a sardonic variation of this identification in Mark Antony’s comparison of his failed venture in the east with that of the Ten Thousand and in his admiration of Xenophon’s army (Ant. 45.12). Note that ironically, Plutarch begins the Parthian sequence in the biography by having Mark Antony equate himself with the Persian king Artaxerxes I (Ant. 37.1). Cf. PELLING, C. 1988. Plutarch: Life of Antony. Cambridge, 221–222. 9 The idea of a series of world empires (which would later assume the form of translatio imperii; See LE GOFF, J. 1964. La civilisation de l’Occident médiéval. Paris, Chapter VI) can already be seen in Herodotus (1,95; 1,130) and Ctesias (FGrH 688, F 1 and 5) as a model with three items (Assyria-Media-Persia). A scheme of four empires appears in the OT book of Daniel (2:1–40; cf. 7:2–3), variously interpreted, and one of five successive kingdoms is found in authors from the Roman period (e.g., Polyb. 38.22.1–3; Vell. Pat. 1.6.6 [Aemilius Sura]; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.2.1–4; cf. Tac. Hist. 5.8; Appian, Praef. 9). See MENDELS, D. 1981. „The Five Empires. A Note on a Pro- pagandistic Topos.“ American Journal of Philology, 102, 330—37; ALONSO NÚÑEZ, J.M. 1983. „Die Abfolge der Weltreiche bei Polybios und Dionysios von Halikarnas- sos.“ Historia, 32, 411–426; IDEM. „Appian and the World Empires.“ Athenaeum, 62, 640–644; KATHERINE CLARKE, 1999. Between Geography and History: Hellenistic Constructions of the Roman World. Oxford University Press, 15–16, 226–228. This idea had subversive connotations and was used by groups opposed to the Imperial rule: SWAIN, J. S. 1940. „The Theory of the Four Monarchies: Opposition History Under the Roman Empire.“ Classical Philology, 35, 1–21; MOMIGLIANO, A. 1987. On Pagans, Jews and Christians. Middletown> Wesleyan University Press, CT, 31–57. See WIESEHÖFER, J. 2003. „ The Medes and the idea of the succession of empires in antiquity.“ In LANFRANCHI, G. B. – ROAF, M. – ROLLINGER, R. [EDS.] Continuity of Empire (?) Assyria, Media, Persia. Padova, 2003, 391–396. 10 For this approach see T. DUFF (1999: 135–141, 162, 189, 205, 245, 263). 6 ERAN ALMAGOR (BEN GURION UNIVERSITY) emotions and not let them get out of control. In his view, a bad character is formed by the habitual choice of the psyche to act in a certain manner which follows an excessive passion, or, in other words, in the incapability of the soul to find the right ‘mean’ between extremes.11 The moral concern of Plutarch was to provide his readers with a model of a person’s soul worth following and imitating.12 When applied to the great deeds and events of the past, this view spells an ethical reading of history, in which the moral lessons are the only significant interpretation that really matters.13 Plutarch’s reason for the fall of the Persian Empire is, thus, phrased in ethical terms.
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