The Arsacids of Rome: Royal Hostages and Roman-Parthian Relations in the First Century Ce
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THE ARSACIDS OF ROME: ROYAL HOSTAGES AND ROMAN-PARTHIAN RELATIONS IN THE FIRST CENTURY CE A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Jacob Theodore Nabel August 2017 © 2017 by Jacob Theodore Nabel THE ARSACIDS OF ROME: ROYAL HOSTAGES AND ROMAN-PARTHIAN RELATIONS IN THE FIRST CENTURY CE Jacob Theodore Nabel, Ph.D. Cornell University 2017 This is a study of Julio-Claudian Rome’s relations with Parthia, one of the great empires of ancient Iran and an imperial rival of the Principate. In contrast to previous scholarship that treats Rome and Parthia as monoliths clashing in war or coexisting through diplomacy, “The Arsacids of Rome” shows how their relationship changed through interconnection at the highest levels of imperial power. Its approach centers on a group of people whose careers spanned both empires: the Parthian hostages who lived in the city of Rome. These men and women were members of the Arsacid family, Parthia’s ruling dynasty. Shipped abroad by the reigning Arsacid monarch, they lived for extended periods in the city of Rome before returning to their native land. Through their influence, it is argued, internal and external affairs in both empires were linked together. Hostages enmeshed and entangled the interests of kings, emperors, aristocrats, and governors on both sides of the Euphrates, creating coalitions and constellations of power across the political boundary that divided Parthian territory from Rome. Their careers show how Rome and Parthia confronted one another not as two solitudes, but as two porous and permeable entities that were interconnected even in the realm of high politics. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Jake Nabel earned a BA in Philosophy and Classics from Bard College in 2007 and completed the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010. His research focuses on the relationship between the Greco- Roman Mediterranean and the empires of ancient Persia. He has published and forthcoming work on Roman-Parthian relations, Latin poetry, Seleucid history, and the reception of Alexander the Great in ancient Iranian traditions. In 2017/18, Jake will be a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, where he will join a group of scholars working on the theme “The Classical World in Context: Persia.” iv For my parents and my grandmother v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For the past several years, I have had the supreme privilege not only to study the ancient world, but to do so under the guidance of advisers and colleagues who helped me do better work than I could ever have done alone. I’m happy to have a chance to thank them here. At Cornell, I was lucky to count a brilliant group of PhDs as my peers, colleagues, and commilites, especially Dave Blome, Mike Esposito, Perri Gerard- Little, Katie Jarriel, Katie Kearns, Sam Kurland, Jeff Leon, Samantha Sanft, Tim Sorg, and Conner Wiktorowicz. It’s difficult to express my intellectual and personal debt to their friendship. In all of them I found inspiration in matters both academic and not. Cornell faculty in the Departments of Classics, History, Near Eastern Studies, and Government have also helped my academic development in a range of fields from classical philology to international relations theory. I’d especially like to acknowledge Fred Ahl, Annetta Alexandridis, Caitlín Barrett, Charles Brittain, Michael Fontaine, Peter Katzenstein, Athena Kirk, Jonathan Kirshner, Nathan Pilkington, Hunter Rawlings, Courtney Roby, Jeffrey Rusten, Robert Travers, and Michael Weiss. The Cornell Library was home for many years, and I owe much to the incredible breadth of its collections and the outstanding management of its staff. Along with Cornell’s Society for the Humanities, the Library’s Digital Humanities Collective supported my creation and maintenance of parthiansources.com, an online collection of Parthian texts that underpinned much of my dissertation research. I’m particularly grateful to Mickey Casad, Virginia Cole, and Susette Newberry for their generous help and encouragement. My proficiency as a researcher of ancient Iran benefitted immensely from my semester in residence at Christian–Albrechts–Universität in Kiel, Germany, where I enjoyed many fruitful discussions with scholars in the Institut für Klassische vi Altertumskunde. Above all I must thank Josef Wiesehöfer, an ancient historian whose achievements in the study of pre-Islamic Iran are matched only by his warmth, generosity, and collegiality. My gratitude also to Andreas Luther, Rüdiger Schmitt, Sabine Müller, Milinda Hoo, Raphaël Weyland, Eltje Böttcher, and Marie Oellig for many productive conversations in Kiel; to Gunnar Dumke and Stefan Pfeiffer for inviting me to present my dissertation research at Martin–Luther–Universität in Halle; and to Vesta Curtis and Helen Wang for allowing me to study the Parthian coin collections in the British Museum. In 2013 I drove from Ithaca to the ASOR Annual Meeting in Baltimore and fortuitously caught the panel on Roman-Parthian relations headed by Jason Schlude and Benjamin Rubin. Jason and Ben very kindly invited me to present on the panel the following year, and the papers would eventually come to fruition as an edited volume. I am indebted to them for the opportunity. Thanks are also due to the other members of the panel, especially Matthew Canepa and M. Rahim Shayegan, who have generously offered their thoughts on my work. At every stage of the writing process my dissertation committee has led me in the right direction, even (perhaps especially) when I couldn’t see the way forward. I owe Lori Khatchadourian deep gratitude for many years of guidance – most of all for helping me address the limitations of Greco-Roman sources for the writing of Iranian history, but also for inviting me to join Project ArAGATS and introducing me to the practice of Near Eastern archaeology. Sturt Manning’s wide knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East vastly improved the project, as did his suggestions for readings in comparative history and ancient interstate relations. Éric Rebillard has read every page with a care and critical rigor that saved me from countless missteps; I am profoundly grateful for the closeness of his readings and the depth of his consideration, as well as his scholarly acumen and intellectual precision. vii My greatest debt is to my adviser, Barry Strauss, whose support has been invaluable throughout every stage of my graduate education. Barry’s books drew me to the study of antiquity many years ago, and his scholarship continues to furnish a banner example of ancient history that speaks to other disciplines, wider audiences, and big ideas. As with so many other aspects of my academic career, this study profited immensely from his patient guidance and trenchant criticism. As privileged as I’ve been to lead a life of study these past few years, I’ve been even luckier to spend them with Jennifer Carrington – a fellow student of the ancient world, but also my partner in everything, and the best heart and mind I know. Her faith in me, and her love, has meant the world. This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Bill and Susan Nabel, and to the memory of my grandmother, Krystyna Nabel. I can never hope to repay the years of encouragement, devotion, and support that my family has given me; but I hope at least that here and elsewhere in my scholarship I’ve done good work, and made them proud. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Evidence 25 Chapter 2: Backgrounds East and West 46 Chapter 3: Arsacid Hostages and Parthian Politics, 30 BCE–51 CE 78 Chapter 4: Hostage Historiography 124 Chapter 5: The Reign of Vologaeses 154 Chapter 6: Arsacid Hostages in Augustan Rome 190 Chapter 7: The Arsacids of Rome under the Later Julio-Claudians 228 Conclusion: The End of Arsacid Hostageship 264 Bibliography 270 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Drachm of Vonones I 102 Figure 2: Tetradrachm of Tiridates I 157 Figure 3: Drachm of Vologaeses I 161 Figure 4: Denarius of Augustus with recovered standards 195 Figure 5: Denarius of Augustus with kneeling Parthian 203 Figure 6: “Kneeling Oriental” statue 203 Figure 7: Primaporta Augustus with detail of breastplate 208 Figure 8: Denarius of Augustus with Parthian arch 210 Figure 9: “Eastern child” from the Ara Pacis 222 Figure 10: Sestertius of Nero with Parthian arch 256 Figure 11: Relief fragment with bearded Parthian 257 x 1 INTRODUCTION At the dawn of the first century CE, the ancient Mediterranean and Near East were dominated by the two great powers of Rome and Parthia. Both states were empires – vast in extent, diverse in population, and practiced at political and military methods of coercion. Both were headed by autocrats with extensive reserves of military manpower at their disposal. And both had a long history of conquest and annexation – a history that had brought their borders steadily closer together as the territories of the Hellenistic kingdoms were divided between them. This international environment represented a new status quo. The acceptance of another empire of comparable size, strength, and stability was an unprecedented concession for both Rome and Parthia, a departure from the decisive military reckoning that both powers had sought against their enemies in earlier periods. The arrangement was not only novel but also durable, lasting until the end of the Parthian empire in 224 CE and setting the stage for Rome’s subsequent relations with the Sasanians. Though dynasties changed and conditions on the peripheries shifted, the divide between the Roman Mediterranean and the Iranian-dominated Near East would be a crucial dynamic in the ancient world for over six centuries, a steady geo- political condition from the end of the Hellenistic period to the Arab conquest.