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History and Historiography in the Early Parthian Diaries

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History and Historiography in the Early Parthian Diaries Chapter 9 History and Historiography in the Early Parthian Diaries Johannes Haubold The Astronomical Diaries from Babylon are an astonishing feat of historical record-keeping. Over a period of more than half a millennium, their authors chronicled events in and around Mesopotamia seemingly unperturbed by the rise and fall of successive world empires. To the modern reader of these texts, the overwhelming impression is one of timeless stability: there is little sense that individual authors responded to specific historical circumstances; or that they developed historical interests, or a historiographical style, of their own. However, there were periods in the long history of the Diaries when politi- cal developments did leave an imprint on the authors’ approach. This chapter puts the spotlight on one such period: the twenty years or so from the Par- thian conquest of Mesopotamia in the late 140s bce to the consolidation of Parthian rule in the 120s. I ask how the authors of the early Parthian Diaries, as I shall call them, responded to this time of crisis and upheaval. How did they select, arrange, and shape historical data into historical narrative? What did they think mattered in human affairs, given their predominant interest in the movements of celestial bodies? These are some of the questions that I wish to address in this chapter. 1 Babylon on the Brink Life was uncertain in late second-century Babylonia. After the death of An- tiochus iv in 164 bce, strife within the royal family increasingly affected what until then had been one of the Seleucid empire’s most stable provinces.1 Ex- ternal powers took advantage of the situation. A newly buoyant Elam/Elymais 1 Boiy (2004: 137–166) discusses the history of Babylon under the Seleucids. On pp. 162–166 he considers the turbulent aftermath of Antiochus iv’s reign. For Babylonia under the Seleucids see also Kuhrt and Sherwin-White (1993: 149–160), Clancier (2007) and (2011), Clancier and Monerie (2014). Pirngruber (2017) charts the (overall relatively benign) development of the Babylonian economy under Seleucid rule. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���9 | doi:�0.��63/9789004397767_0�� <UN> 270 Haubold invaded in 145 bce. The Parthians arrived in 141 bce.2 For modern historians, the Parthian takeover marks the beginning of a new era, but it is unclear how much of a caesura it was felt to be among contemporary observers. The Se- leucids made repeated attempts to regain control,3 and Elamite invasions continued.4 Matters were further complicated by the rise of the kingdom of Characene or Mesene to the south of Babylon, which meant the city became caught up in a four-way struggle for power in the region.5 This situation must have felt particularly threatening in Babylon, where diplomacy on the margins of empire was not part of the inherited cultural repertoire. Babylonian intellec- tuals had long been used to living at the heart of a vast imperial structure and their Macedonian masters had broadly confirmed this view: Alexander held court in Babylon during the last months of his life, and Seleucus I used the city as his original power base. With the foundation of Seleucia on the Tigris the region was given a new āl šarrūti, “city of kingship”, but as Seleucia’s close neighbour and indigenous metropolis Babylon was still the spiritual home of kingship in Asia, and one of the empire’s central hubs.6 All this changed after the rise of Elymais/Elam in the East, the emergence of Characene/Mesene in the South, and the Parthian takeover in the north. Now Babylon became an outpost on the edge of empire, where trouble was constant and the imperial centre seemed a long way away. This chapter argues that the Astronomical Diaries responded to that geo-political shift. As a result of exter- nal attack and inner turmoil, a cultural and political unease descended on the priestly circles of Babylon that I would argue informs the way they recorded history. In fact, change had been afoot for some time before the Parthians ar- rived in Babylon. Reinhard Pirngruber has observed that the ratio of historical to non-historical text included in the Diaries increased after the death of An- tiochus iv, i.e. roughly at the start of adart volume iii.7 Christopher Tuplin reminds us that we must treat any attempt to quantify this phenomenon with caution, given the fragmentary state of the evidence.8 But he agrees that grosso modo Pirngruber is right: between the middle Seleucid period of adart vol- ume ii and the late Seleucid and Parthian periods of volume iii the historical 2 Boiy (2004: 166–192); for the Parthian period in Mesopotamia see also Grajetzki (2011). 3 Boiy (2004: 171–174). 4 Boiy (2004: 167–168). 5 On Characene/Mesene see Schuol (2000), with sources and further literature. 6 The classical sources paint a bleak picture of Babylon after the foundation of Seleucia; see Strabo 16.1.5; Pausanias 1.16.3; Pliny, NH 6.122. Boiy (2004: 135–136) shows that this is inaccu- rate: the city did not suffer a catastrophic decline. 7 Pirngruber (2013). 8 Tuplin, this volume pp. 82–83. <UN>.
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