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Kingship in Hellenistic Bactria Gillian Catherine Ramsey B.A., University

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Kingship in Hellenistic Bactria Gillian Catherine Ramsey B.A., University Kingship in Hellenistic Bactria Gillian Catherine Ramsey B.A., University of Regina, 2003 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies O Gillian Catherine Ramsey, 2005 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, with the permission of the author. Supervisors: Dr. Gordon S. Shrimpton Dr. Gregory D. Rowe Abstract This study examines the history of Hellenistic Bactrian kingship and the means by which kings acquired, legitimated, and maintained their authority. The history of this kingship covers the period from Alexander the Great's conquest of Bactria (330-327 BC) to the reign of the last Hellenistic king c. 140 BC during which a number of different dynasties had control. The acquisition of kingship largely followed Alexander's example and conformed to a pattern of imperialistic conquest. Legitimation was closely tied to conquest, as the possession of territory "spear-won" by a triumphant conqueror conferred the opportunity to claim kingship. The extent to which a ruler matched the heroic precendents set by legendary kings of Asia played a large part in identifying men worthy of kingship. The maintenance of kingship was achieved through propaganda, city foundations, and other identifiers of the king's ideological status and through careful control of the royal administration. iii Table of Contents Title Page 1 .. Abstract 11 Table of Contents iii Acknowledgments iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 - Sources 8 Ancient Sources 8 Modem Sources 11 ArchaeologicaI Evidence 14 Numismatics 21 Chapter 2 - Chronology of Bactria's Hellenistic Period 26 Alexander in Bactria 26 Post-Alexander Consolidations of Power 3 3 The Seleucid Era 36 The Diodotids 41 An Independent Bactria 48 Chapter 3 -The Ideological Basis for Kingship 57 Influences of Imperialism 58 Legendary History and Eastern Conquest 66 Case Study 1: Imperialistic Kingship and Marriage 73 Case Study 2: Kingship on Coins 79 Chapter 4 - Kingship and Ruling Power 86 City Foundations 87 Economic Administration 100 Conclusion 110 Conclusion 113 Bibliography 120 Appendix 1 - Map of Bactria 130 Appendix 2 - Timeline 131 Acknowledgments I owe many thanks to my supervisors Gordon Shrimpton and Greg Rowe. They gave me the freedom to pursue my chosen research topic, and as it took shape their guidance was enthusiastic, their questions were probing, and their suggestions indispensible for the balance and thoughtfulness they gave to my understanding of the topic and related issues. Throughout the entire project their support and encouragement have been invaluable. My thanks go to the other members of my defense committee, Andrew Rippin and Timothy Haskett, whose questions were stimulating and gave me much food for thought and who took the time to contribute many helpful editorial remarks. Thank you also to Sarah Beam, the chair of the committee, and all the committee members who made my defense a very congenial and positive experience. I thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the University of Victoria, whose generous scholarships made it possible for me to work on this thesis without financial worry. Thank you to Susan, the department secretary, who has helped me with paperwork and been a friendly face in the office. Thank you to my fellow graduate students: Liz, Tina, Brian, Richard, Jillian, and Milo. You were excellent listening ears and sources of encouragement and fun. Thank you also to my family, who taught me to think deeply and adventurously about life and the ways people live and think, and to have faith that the answers are available to be sought and found. Introduction Hellenistic kingship in Bactria began when Alexander the Great made his entrance into the central Asian country in 330 BC. Bactria had previous experience with kings under two centuries of Achaemenid rule and during the unknown years of its own prehistory, but the coming of Alexander ushered in a period when the rulers of Bactria followed a style of kingship which originated from Hellenic culture around the Mediterranean far to the west. The Hellenistic period in Bactria lasted for as long as the Hellenistic kings - the top representatives of the political qualities characterizing this post-Classical culture - held sway. The kings fall into three groups: Alexander himself and the non-royal officials who ruled in his name after his death, Seleucus I and the early Seleucids, and the succession of independent kings from Diodotus I to Heliocles. In total, these men's reigns (there were no queens) lasted about nineteen decades from 330 to c. 140 BC. The character of the kings and the nature of their kingship remained quite consistent through the years of the Bactrian kingdom, despite several dynastic changes. The primary model for the acquisition and exercise of ruling power was Macedonian style imperialism inherited from Alexander, and the method for legitimation was an appeal to the Hellenistic mentality using legendary and mythological motifs far older. The Achaemenid empire had its place as the source for certain administrative styles and structures, in particular the satrapy, but the Bactrian royal administration was inherited from Seleucus I and influenced by the Ptolemaic system and later, when Bactria was independent, by the western Seleucid empire. This study identifies three major themes to the history of the Bactrian kingship, shaped in large part by the sources presently available. The first theme is the historical narrative. It survives today in a fragmentary form divided between several authors, and, though quite episodic in nature, the events it does cover show that the kings were of literary and historical interest as successors to Alexander's kingship. The literary texts together with numismatic evidence are the basis for the second theme: the king's character as a ruler with divine and heroic connections, a participant in imperial supremacy exclusive to the most worthy, and an emulator of the greatest heroic achievements. The third theme - the king's ruling power - draws upon textual and physical sources and highlights the methods by which the Hellenistic kings maintained their control of Bactria and carried out the practical measures which would strengthen the construct of their character. This study will adhere closely to the historical account of the Bactrian kings as it appears in the different textual sources and from the chronology provided by numismatic evidence, thus the resulting conclusions on the nature of Bactrian kingship will be contained mostly within the political and economic sphere. There are undoubtedly relationships between kingship and the cultural and religious situation in Hellenistic Bactria, but access to these topics is necessarily from a broader selection of source materials and their attendant methods of interpretation, such as art history and ethnography. The social history of Bactria in which one would find such discussions simply does not yet exist, though with more investigations into different areas of this history, such as kingship, the possibility that such a project will go forward is promising. At certain points cultural issues do connect to the narrative of kingship presented, as political and economic matters in Hellenistic Bactria embraced a variety of ideological concerns. The Hellenistic field - in which era the Greek world is typically understood as undergoing geographical and cultural expansion - encourages study of regions, like Bactria, which are rather distant from the Mediterranean. Undertaking this study may seem risky due to a heightened potential for leaving the realm of Classical history altogether and falling prey to the label of "Orientalism", much as Alexander the Great upon discovering things in Asia of great interest to himself was accused of turning barbarian.' As a type of antidote to this, the question of Hellenism is often invoked, with its main concern being the extent to which Hellenic culture was transmitted to and established among non-Greeks. In assuming that Greek interactions with Asia can be resolved to an account of cultural conquest, Hellenism seeks to simplify what seems a confusing period when the meeting of west and east showed different results depending on location, gender, ethnicity, and class.2 Orientalism and Hellenism are really two sides of the same coin, each limiting historical study to either an eastern or western perspective and reducing cultural exchange to a one-way flow.3 Even though the Greeks may have bequeathed to us a fear of barbarizing, they themselves never limited their interests to the Mediterranean. As study of Bactria's Hellenistic period shows, Greek perceptions of Asia played a large part in shaping the institution of kingship in Bactria and in determining the types of information available about it. A history of this kingship is thus never far removed from the western mentality and fits squarely within the Hellenistic milieu. 1 See Chapter 3, p. 76. * Susan E. Alcock, "Breaking up the Hellenistic world: survey and society," in Classical Greece: ancient histories and modern archaeologies,Ian Moms, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 171-175. 3 For an example of this, see Chapter 1, pp. 12-13, for the description of Tarn and Narain's works. Bactria was indeed a distant land but by no means isolated; it was the main juncture for trade routes from Siberia, western China, India, and
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