Alexander Histories and Iranian Reflections Studies in Persian Cultural History
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Alexander Histories and Iranian Reflections Studies in Persian Cultural History Editors Charles Melville Cambridge University Gabrielle van den Berg Leiden University Sunil Sharma Boston University VOLUME 3 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/spch Alexander Histories and Iranian Reflections Remnants of Propaganda and Resistance By Parivash Jamzadeh LEIDEn • BOSTON 2012 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jamzadeh, Parivash. Alexander histories and Iranian reflections : remnants of propaganda and resistance / by Parivash Jamzadeh. p. cm. — (Studies in Persian cultural history, ISSN 2210-3554 ; v. 3) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-90-04-21746-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-21752-2 (e-book) 1. Iran— History—Macedonian Conquest, 334–325 B.C.—Propaganda. 2. Iran—History—Macedonian Conquest, 334–325 B.C.—Religious aspects. 3. Iran—History—Macedonian Conquest, 334–325 B.C.—Historiography. 4. Greece—History—Macedonian Expansion, 359–323 B.C.—Campaigns— Iran. 5. Alexander, the Great, 356–323 B.C.—Travel—Iran. 6. Darius I, King of Persia, 548–485 B.C. I. Title. DF234.37.J36 2012 935’.7062—dc23 2012014205 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.nl/brill-typeface. ISSN 2210-3554 ISBN 978 90 04 21746 1 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 21752 2 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents: Dr. Shahjahan Jamzadeh & Homayun Khosravi-Jamzadeh CONTENTS Acknowledgments .......................................................................................... ix Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 I The Plight of the Achaemenid Royal Women ........................... 7 1. According to Ancestral Custom ............................................... 7 2. Alexander and Darius’ Mother ................................................. 20 3. Alexander and Darius’ Wife ...................................................... 30 4. Alexander and the Granddaughter of Ochus ....................... 36 5. Episodes in Cyropaedia ............................................................... 38 II Darius’ Letters to Alexander and the Responses: Ideology of Conquest in Retrospect ..................................................................... 41 III The Campaign for Persia in Iranian & Zoroastrian Lights ..... 51 1. Alexander’s Advances and Tribulations ................................ 51 2. Mutilated Greek Captives’ Story .............................................. 61 3. Persepolis’ Final Fate and the Sources’ Arguments ........... 64 IV Darius’ Last Days & Counter-Propagandas ................................. 71 V Bessus’ Fate ........................................................................................... 91 VI Alexander’s Persian Attire ................................................................ 99 VII Reflections from Darius I’s Rhetoric ............................................. 105 1. Alexander as a Mock-Divinity .................................................. 105 2. The Incident of Cyrus’ Tomb .................................................... 110 3. The King and the Ideology of Truth ....................................... 114 4. Bessus’ Punishment ...................................................................... 117 5. Darius I’s World Order ................................................................ 118 VIII Zoroastrian Echoes in Alexander Histories ................................ 121 1. Zoroastrian References in the Story of Clitus ...................... 121 2. The Boar Motif and its Zoroastrian Relevance .................... 125 viii contents 3. The Sogdian Campaign and its Zoroastrian Features ........ 127 4. Iranian and Zoroastrian Features of Hephaestion’s Funeral .............................................................................................. 131 IX Iranian Echoes in Mutiny’s Accounts .......................................... 139 X Alexander’s Final Days and Iranian Reflections ....................... 147 XI Alexander’s Entombment and Iranian Echoes .......................... 151 XII The Plight of Alexander’s Family ................................................... 163 XIII Reverence for the Fravashī of Alexander ..................................... 169 XIV Testimony of Zoroastrian Sources ................................................. 173 XV Concluding Remarks .......................................................................... 177 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 185 Index ............................................................................................................... 191 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study has been possible thanks to access to the rich collections at the library of Western Washington University, as an independent scholar. Other material was provided by the Bellingham Public Library’s inter- library loans and the efforts of its librarian, Fay Fenske. I am grateful to Prof. Phillip Harding of the University of British Colum- bia for kindly responding to my questions and clarifying difficulties speci- fied in the text. Although the responsibility for conclusions and mistakes is mine. I thank Prof. David Stronach for a copy of his paper, noted in the text. Gratitude is also due to Brill, its reviewers and editors for their atten- tion to my work. INTRODUCTION Alexander was a Macedonian who conquered the Achaemenid empire and sought legitimacy as its king. Although his campaigns had started under the slogan of punishing Xerxes’ descendants for his invasion of Greece, gradually the focus shifted to displays of sensitivity towards the Iranian cultural norms, even at the expense of alienating his close Greek and Macedonian allies at some point. This expedient policy may be due to the difficulties encountered, especially in facing other more legitimate contenders. Those contenders include not only Darius III himself, whose accounts are recorded in the same Alexander Histories and elsewhere and reveal him to be a worthy opponent, but also other Achaemenids, whom Plutarch refers to as “the constant succession of petty kings and their repeated treachery”.1 The consequence is the realization of the need for a propaganda endeavour. The traces of this effort—besides Alexander’s overt actions towards ‘Iranization’, clearly recorded in the sources—survive in the histories cer- tain instances revealing direct translations from Iranian originals, while at the same time the residues of a counter-propaganda effort are also seen in the histories, again manifesting Iranian hands. These two lines run through the accounts as echoes of stories or epi- sodes with distinct Iranian cultural and religious colourings intended for an Iranian audience.2 However, it is important to note that the mentioned counter-propaganda surviving in the midst of the Alexander Histories is independent of the later Zoroastrian literature, in which Alexander is clearly cast as a villain. Interestingly in certain instances a conflation of the accounts of the two kings, Darius and Alexander, is encountered, affecting even the Zoroastrian literature, in a case. Reaching out to Iranian cultural imports in order to estab- lish legitimate power is not limited to mere outward propaganda. Alexander is, in fact, seen to undergo transformations and adopt Iranian norms and 1 Plutarch, Moralia 327 c, 341 F, trans. F.C. Babbitt, Vol. IV, Cambridge, 1962, pp. 387, 469. 2 For mention of Alexander’s Iranian allies see The History of al-Tabari, Vol. IV, trans. M. Perlmann, New York, 1987, p. 88 (694). 2 introduction customs. While under the rule of his successors Iran gradually experienced Hellenism, for Alexander himself the process seems reversed. This study claims that even evidence of profound religious reverence can be gleaned from the histories. The histories mention participation of the Magi in certain ceremonies. At the same time there is record of their mistreatment by Alexander in relation to the desecration of Cyrus’ tomb. Alexander’s recourse to religious ceremonies, motifs and claim of Zoroastrian deities’ support would have required the Magi’s co-operation, albeit neither whole heartedly nor by all, hence perhaps the resentment seen in the later Zoroastrian literature, although the different political cli- mate of later periods would also have provided other factors for demon- izing Alexander as the historical founder of Hellenism in Iran. Alexander commenced his campaign in 334 BC at the age