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SRPOR Nno KRRTIR oi.uchicago.edu THIRD C€mURY iRnn SRPOR nno KRRTIR BV nfSRIIil SPRCrSGLlOG PPCPARCD f)f)D DISTP1BUT6D AT THC ORI€11TflL inSTITUTC liniVCRSITV Of CHICAGO CHICAGO 1955 oi.uchicago.edu FOREWORD oi.uchicago.edu ©lis publication presents the final comprehensive work of this writer on the great inscriptions of Sapor I and of his and his successors' ecclesiastical prince Kartlr, as found or photographed by the Oriental Institute Persepolis Expedition tinder the direction of Erich F. Schmidt. The steps leading up to it are uneven. This is especially true of first steps. It is due in part to the writer's inex­ perience, which will be seen to decrease as the work goes along. It seemed to the writer important that sources so valuable should be put at the disposal of many — shall we say the world of scholarship? — as soon as possible, even though imperfectly. That was one cause of early unevenness. Another was the writer's lack of information in the early part of his work. He was aware of this and sought by diligent inquiry to fill in his gaps. Some of this information was available from the beginning (Classical Philology XXXVII [191+2] 21+5 f.) in the writer's immediate neighborhood$ it was not made available to him. Without it he set out with what speed he could muster on the course of publication. He has never seen the originals. Even the accumulating copies came to his hands slowly after work on them by others. This much for the record- With this, publication took shape as followso My own work proceeds from AJSL LIII (1937) 126-10* and ZDMG XCI (1937) 652-72 to AJSL LVII (191+0) 197-228, 330^07 31+1-1+30 and LVIII (I9i+l) 169-76. W. B. Henning came in with his valuable identi­ fication and just a little over-ingenious interpretation in BSOS IX (1937-39) 823-1+9- Then, following upon each other after a brief interval, came A. T. 01m- stead in Classical Philology XXXVII (191+2) 21+1-62, 398-1+20 (which came to me indirectly much later) and Michael I. Rostovtzeff in Berytus VIII (191+3-1+1+) 17- 60, with A. R. Bellinger on coins of Dura ibid.pp. 61-71. Following Rostov­ tzeff there came to my hands Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli's article "Res Gestae divi Saporis® in La Parola del Passato II (Napoli, -191+7) 209-39 and, finally, Wilhelm Ensslin, Sb. Bay. Akd. W., Philos. -hist. Kl», 191+7, no. 5, 115 pp. Ensslin (p. 91* n» 2) quotes another article by PugLiese Carratelli (La Parola del Passato II 356-62), which I have not seen. Ensslin5s work is particularly important for a new, better, more certain dating based on the study of Martin J. Higgins, The Catholic University of America Byzantine Studies I (Washington, D. Co, 1939)" It is hoped that herewith is presented a publication useful to many, though not satisfactory to all. Through the Oriental Institute these great historical sources, greater than the Monumentum Ancyranum of Augustus and not far behind the great Bxsitun inscription of Darius I, may at last receive due recognition. iii oi.uchicago.edu CORRIGENDA AND ADDENDA Page U, line 21 Read "on the other hand" for "of". line 27 Read "is" for "was". Page 5, line 22 Read "Shahpuhr"' for "he". line 28 Read "its" for "it". line 30 Read "Shahpuhr" for "him". Page 6, line 28 Read "Cappadocia" for "Cappadocis". Page llj, line 19 Read "Turistan^ for "Turastin"._ line 20 Read "Khindustan" for "Khindastan"'. Page 19, line 10 Read "Artakhshatr" for "Atakhatr". line 17 Read wYodmartn for "Yodmrart". Page 23, line 8 Read "... Hormizd-Ardashir (of Shahpuhr)". Page 25, line 1 Begin new paragraph after "Marquart". Page 33, line 1U After "Parthian" inserts "Of course, the naming of the> scribe's father of the same name as himself may be a • mere error in MP". Page 85, line 56 Add footnotes "The local, not chronological, division and arrangement of the places sacked in the three campaigns of this second war with Rome speaks for lists, perhaps dictated from memory, other than annalistic, which latter would be the usual form of Persian official records". Page 95, line 3 Read "his" for "this™. Page 109, line 1|2 Delete comma after "271". Page 111, line 9 Read "Valerian" for "him". oi.uchicago.edu TABLE OF CONTMTS LIST OF PLATES SHAHPUHR KZ (Kaabah of Zoroaster) Introduction Transliteration (Parthian) Transliteration (Middle Persian) Translation Notes KARTlR KZ Introduction Transliterati on Translation Notes KARTlR NRu (Naqsh-i-Rustam) Correspondence of lines with Kartxr KZ KARTlR NRj (Naqsh-i-Rajab) Introduction Transliteration Translation Notes INSCRIPTION IN BOOK-PAHLAVT ON A COLUMN FRAGMENT Transliterati on Translation Notes THE GREEK OF SAPOR KZ AND ROMAN HISTORY MVOI oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu LIST OF PLATES Shahpuhr KZ. Handcopy of Parthian Shahpuhr KZ. Handcopy of Middle Persian Handcopy of the Greek of Sapor KZ Handcopy of Kartlr KZ A. Handcopy of Kartlr NRj B. Handcopy of inscription in Book-Pahlavi on column fragment Shahpuhr KZ. Parthian. Original. Scale, 1:5 Shahpuhr KZ. Middle Persian. Original. Scale, 1:5 Sapor KZ. Greek. Original. Scale, 1:5 Sapor KZ. Greek. Replica. Scale, 1:5 Kartlr KZ. Original. Scale, 1:5 Kartlr KZ. Replica. Scale, 1:5 Kartlr NRu. Original. Scale, 1:10 Kartlr NRj. Original. Scale, 1:5 AL. Column Fragment with inscription in Book-Pahlavi. Scale, 1 B. Inscription. Scale, 1:;5 C. Replica of rubberoid squeeze of inscription. Scale, 1:5 vii oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu SHAHPUHR KZ INTRODUCTION In the second and third quarters of the third century of the Christian or com­ mon era the power, prosperity, and orderly rule of the Roman Empire sank to a low ebbtide, in some ways the lowest in its existence before its final dissolution* On this sector of Roman history there exists a considerable bulk of historical writing in Greek and Latin, perforce used as source material by modern historians., But though of late eked out by coins and similar material, large spots and important phases of this period remain uncertain, obscure, subject to much guesswork. Perhaps the great gap, lost out of Malalas at precisely this point, may without too much forcing be called typical, symptomatic. Such loss and disorder are especially apparent in the regions of the Roman Empire east of the Mediterranean, say Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia. On this eas­ tern frontier at' this time a new power and movement were rising from the ashes of Rome's old rival, the Parthian empire. The lack of good western history writing here is aggravated by the fact that Oriental history likewise, as preserved in Syr- iac, Arabic, etc., flows along muddily, turgidly for these times and places. And again in the chronicles or stories of the rise of Sasanian Persia, as they have come down to us, for the history of the first six or seven Sasanian kings it is not so much the quantity as the historic quality of the writing that is deficient. It is this situation which gives the discoveries of the Oriental Institute on the walls of the Kaabah of Zoroaster, combined and collated with the related mater­ ial on the rock wall opposite the Kaabah and on the rocks of Naqsh-i-Rajab and Sar Meshhed, their high importance. Here we have what are after all wholly and absol­ utely contemporary statements. They are written in lapidary style and from personal angles easy to recognize. Every account is written from some angle, often by no means so easy to fix as in this case. For their stone settings these accounts are surprisingly extensive. They are worth publishing well and in extenso. This pub­ lication furnishes remarkably excellent photographs of the originals on the Kaabah of Zoroaster (KZ), on Naqsh-i-Rustam, opposite the Kaabah, and on Naqsh-i-Rajab near by. Photographs of a plaster cast made from a wonderful rubberoid squeeze of the Greek of Sapor KZ are added3 similar photographs of Shahpuhr's Parthian were published with the preliminary edition of Shahpuhr KZ in AJSL LVII, no„ i± (Oct. I9J4O), an edition, with some emendations already made, in spite of some errors not unnatural in a first attempt, full enough and good enough to deserve the des­ ignation editio princeps. Much of the matter there published need not re-encumber as notes this fuller and more definitive edition. This volume, after a brief foreword, will bring an introductory statement for each of the inscriptions published; a handcopy by this writer from photographs; a transliteration which attempts faithfully to reproduce the symbols of the original Parthian and Middle Persian in symbols derived from the Latin-English alphabet; a translation; a section under the caption "Notes", which may be supplemented by the reader from editio princeps, of which as little as possible is repeated here. For the Greek of Shahpuhr-Sapor a transliteration in full was published in editio princeps, which may be consulted by those who wish or need it. The latest reading of the Greek which the aging eyes of this writer can furnish from the photographs in his possession, with no check from the original, is published with the essay, "The Greek of Sapor KZ and Roman History", at the end of this volume. Usage in transcribing major names like Shahpuhr-Sapor should to this writ­ er's mind remain flexible, keeping the reader's mind alert for variations. William L. Langer in his edition of Encyclopedia of World History uses at one point "Shapur (Sapor)".
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