Rolf Strootman
Utrecht University, History and Art History, Faculty Member
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Universiteit Leiden, History, Alumnus add
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Ancient Near East, Middle East History, Alexander the Great, Iranian History, History of Imperialism, Central Asia (History), and 200 moreCourts and Elites (History), Seleucid Empire, Empires, Hellenistic Monarchy, Diadochs, Ottoman History, Iranian Studies, Hellenistic History, Byzantine History, Achaemenid History, Achaemenid Persia, Assyrian Empire, Orientalism in art, Roman Near East, History of Istanbul, Archaeology of the Hellenistic East, Achaemenian Empire, Hellenistic Military History, Court history, War of the Spanish Succession, Antigonid Empire, Ptolemaic Empire, Great Northern War, Silk Road Studies, Silk Road, Eurasian Nomads, Xiongnu archaelogy, Hsiung-nu History, Hellenistic Bactria, Bactria (Archaeology), Ai Khanum (Ai Khanoum) (Archaeology), Anthropology of space, Seleucid kingdom, Parthian Empire, History and Art History, Celtic Studies, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Seleucid coins, Imperialism, Hellenistic Babylonia, Hellenistic Judaism, Identity (Culture), Hellenistic Palaces, Ottoman Thessaloniki, THESSALONIKI, Eurasia, Cultural Studies, Cultural Heritage, Visibility, Black Sea Region Archaeology, Spatial archaeology, Cultural Landscapes, Ritual Space, Chorasmia, Sogdiana, Bactria, Parthia, History of Iran, Royal Cult in the Hellenistic Period, Urartu, Constantinople, Archaeology of Central Asia, Hellenistic warfare, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Fantasy Literature, Gothic Literature, Romanticism, Lord Byron, German Romanticism, Folktales, Collective Identities, Folk legends, Mythology, Comparative mythology, Mythology And Folklore, Folk and Fairy Tales, Brothers Grimm, Classical Mythology, Celtic Mythology, William Butler Yeats, Vampire Literature, Vampires in folklore, Vampires in Film and Literature, Horror Literature, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Han Dynasty, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Post-Colonialism, Postcolonial Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Globalization and Transnationalism, Theories Of The Other/Postcolonialism, The Other in Western literature, The Monstrous and Otherness, Monsters and the Monstrous, Cultural History Of Ghosts, Empire, Colonization studies, Ethnicity & Colonization, Dura Europos, Palmyra, Syria, Ritual Feasting, Archaeology of Ritual, Southwestern United States (Archaeology in North America), Landscape Archaeology, Material Culture Studies, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Sacred Space, Torture, Sacred Art, Violence, War and violence, Violence (Anthropology), Central Asia, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Mongolian and Central Asian Studies, History of the Mongol Empire, Seljuks (Islamic History), Ottoman Studies, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500) Comparative empire, Ottoman Balkans, Universalism, IR Theory, Civil War, Genocide Studies, Insurgency analysis, Irregular Warfare, Siege Warfare, Greek and Roman siege warfare, Arabian Nights, 1001 Nights, Fantastic Literature, Robert E. Howard Studies, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, History of Ancient Macedonia, Antigonids, Philip V of Macedonia, Pontic Kingdom, Mithradates, Mithridates, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Socotra Island, Socotra, Soqotra, Ancient Textiles, Procopius, Mutilation, City Gates, Rider Haggard, Imperial Adventure Fiction, Ritual theory and practice (Archaeology), Rock Art (Archaeology), Archaeology of Religion, Apotropaic Objects, Apotropaic Practices, Liminal Space, Ancient borders and borderlands (Archaeology), Parthian/Arsacid history, Parthian Archaeology, Iran Archaeology, Ancient Parthian Numismatics, Iranian Archaeology, Indian Ocean World, Indian Ocean Trade, Indian Ocean Archaeology, Kushans, Kushan history, Commagene, Maritime Empires, Early China, Early Chinese History, Mali Empire, Ethiopian History, Exoticism, Global medieval history, Ottoman Imperial Court, State Formation, Mass Violence, Paramilitary groups, Paramilitaries, Neo-Babylonian period, Mesopotamian City, J. R. R. Tolkien, King Mithridates VI Eupator Dionysus of Pontus, Greco-Bactrian History, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Global History, World History, Inclusive Classics, Cavalry, Ancient Warfare, Ancient Weapons and Warfare, The Classical Tradition, Classical Greece, Roman imperialism, Jörg Rupke, Global Antiquity, and Hellenistic Sicily edit
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Rolf Strootman teaches World History and Ancient History at the University of Utrecht. He is currently the chair of A... moreRolf Strootman teaches World History and Ancient History at the University of Utrecht. He is currently the chair of Ancient History and Classical Civilizations at Utrecht
His main field of research is the correlation between imperialism and premodern globalization during the Persian and Hellenistic periods (ca. 550 BCE-50 CE). His research interests further include religious interactions, the image of the "Orient" in Western culture, the cultural history of warfare, the Silk Road, and the reception of the Ancient World in modern popular culture (especially cinema and fantasy fiction).
Keywords: Global Antiquity, Ancient Globalization, Imperialism and Colonialism, Court Studies, Ancient Persia, Ancient Macedonia, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Hellenistic World, Seleucids, Ptolemies, Antigonids, Parthians, Silk Road edit
Rolf Strootman, ‘The Seleukid Empire’, in: R. Mairs ed., The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World. Routledge Worlds (London and New York: Routledge, 2021) 11–37. An analysis of the significance of Central Asia for the Seleucid Empire,... more
Rolf Strootman, ‘The Seleukid Empire’, in: R. Mairs ed., The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World. Routledge Worlds (London and New York: Routledge, 2021) 11–37.
An analysis of the significance of Central Asia for the Seleucid Empire, as well as the geopolitical importance of Central Asia in the Hellenistic period from the perspective of world history. The importance of Central Asia as a hub of Eurasian connectivity and a source of military manpower, war horses and elephants for the Seleukids (and previously the Achaemenids and Argeads) is stressed. The chapter also gives an overview of the archaeology of the main Seleukid sites in Margiana, Arachosia, Baktria, and Sogdia.
An analysis of the significance of Central Asia for the Seleucid Empire, as well as the geopolitical importance of Central Asia in the Hellenistic period from the perspective of world history. The importance of Central Asia as a hub of Eurasian connectivity and a source of military manpower, war horses and elephants for the Seleukids (and previously the Achaemenids and Argeads) is stressed. The chapter also gives an overview of the archaeology of the main Seleukid sites in Margiana, Arachosia, Baktria, and Sogdia.
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Hellenistic History, Central Asia (History), Alexander the Great, Bactria (Archaeology), and 13 moreHellenistic Bactria, Central Asian History (Area Studies), History of Afghanistan, Central Asia, Seleucid Empire, Ancient Warfare, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Bactria, Hellenism, Indo-Greeks, Ancient Afghanistan, Greco-Bactrian History, Antiochos III, Ancient Globalization, and Global Antiquity
R. Strootman, ‘The Ptolemaic sea empire’, in: R. Strootman, F. van den Eijnde, and R. van Wijk eds., Empires of the Sea: Maritime Power Networks in World History (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019) 113–152. This article argues that the... more
R. Strootman, ‘The Ptolemaic sea empire’, in: R. Strootman, F. van den Eijnde, and R. van Wijk eds., Empires of the Sea: Maritime Power Networks in World History (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019) 113–152.
This article argues that the Ptolemies in the third century BCE ran a vast, hegemonic empire whose maritime lines of communication united the eastern Mediterranean, and stretched into the Aegean, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and even the Indian Ocean. It was, in other words, an empire -- not a country ("Egypt") with "overseas possessions" and a ruling dynasty. Rather, the dynasty, and not the land, was the principal ideological focus of the Ptolemaic polity.
This empire, though military in nature, is defined more by its networks and personal relations rather than by territorial conquest per se. Universalistic imperial ideology and a cosmopolitan elite culture aimed at integrating the different cultural and linguistic elite groups within the Ptolemaic sphere of influence. Ptolemaic Alexandria was the empire's principal hub. The city was located, not "in" Egypt, but at the very heart of the Ptolemaic network empire, of which the Nile Valley was one of several constituents (albeit the most important one).
The article therefore also takes issue with the popular image of the Ptolemaic monarchy as "double-faced", i.e. Greek and Egyptian. Instead the multi-ethnic and multicultural nature is stressed of this empire, whose claims to hegemony included Greece, Karia, Lykia. Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Judea, Nabataea, Egypt, Libya, Nubia, and Ethiopia.
This article argues that the Ptolemies in the third century BCE ran a vast, hegemonic empire whose maritime lines of communication united the eastern Mediterranean, and stretched into the Aegean, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and even the Indian Ocean. It was, in other words, an empire -- not a country ("Egypt") with "overseas possessions" and a ruling dynasty. Rather, the dynasty, and not the land, was the principal ideological focus of the Ptolemaic polity.
This empire, though military in nature, is defined more by its networks and personal relations rather than by territorial conquest per se. Universalistic imperial ideology and a cosmopolitan elite culture aimed at integrating the different cultural and linguistic elite groups within the Ptolemaic sphere of influence. Ptolemaic Alexandria was the empire's principal hub. The city was located, not "in" Egypt, but at the very heart of the Ptolemaic network empire, of which the Nile Valley was one of several constituents (albeit the most important one).
The article therefore also takes issue with the popular image of the Ptolemaic monarchy as "double-faced", i.e. Greek and Egyptian. Instead the multi-ethnic and multicultural nature is stressed of this empire, whose claims to hegemony included Greece, Karia, Lykia. Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Judea, Nabataea, Egypt, Libya, Nubia, and Ethiopia.
Research Interests:
I argue that the Hellenistic empires were not the proto-modern, pseudo-European bounded states of earlier scholarship but that they were empires that cultivated universalistic ideologies no less than the Assyrian and Achaemenid empires... more
I argue that the Hellenistic empires were not the proto-modern, pseudo-European bounded states of earlier scholarship but that they were empires that cultivated universalistic ideologies no less than the Assyrian and Achaemenid empires had done before them. Expanding an argument put forward in a 2010 article about the empire of Cleopatra, I propose that universalistic ideology had the very practical aim of integrating multi-ethnic, multicultural elites under a single ideological umbrella, and (especially in the Seleukid Empire) to tie together a variety of vassal kingdoms and other autonomous subsidiary states. The Hellenistic empires in their turn transmitted universalistic imperial ideology to the Arsakid Empire and -- in a "Hellenized" form -- to the Roman Empire as well.
Research Interests:
Hellenistic History, Ideology, Cosmopolitanism, Ancient Near East, Alexander the Great, and 9 moreHellenism, Seleucid Empire, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Imperialism, Universalism, Ptolemaic Empire, The Diadochoi (The Successors of Alexander III the Great), Imperial Ideology, and Universal Empire
My earliest attempt to understand the Hellenistic ‘interlude’ in the history of Iran as Iranian history. The article discusses the Seleukid Empire's impact on Iran, and the Iranian impact on the Seleukid Empire.
Research Interests:
Strootman, R., ‘A kingship ritual in Baktria: Antiochos III and the reorganization of Seleukid Central Asia’, in: G. Lindström ed., Ritual Matters: Archaeology and Religion in Hellenistic Central Asia. Studia Hercynia 12 (Prague:... more
Strootman, R., ‘A kingship ritual in Baktria: Antiochos III and the reorganization of Seleukid Central Asia’, in: G. Lindström ed., Ritual Matters: Archaeology and Religion in Hellenistic Central Asia. Studia Hercynia 12 (Prague: Univerzita Karlova, 2023) 88–97.
The article contextualizes Polybios' account of the ritual reception of Demetrios, the son of Euthydemos of Baktria, at the court of the Seleukid emperor, Antiochos III, outside of Baktra. In 206 BCE, after a long and inconclusive war, Antiochos III gave the title of king to the rebellious ruler Euthydemos. Euthydemos thereby gained legitimacy through imperial recognition of his royal status in return for his acceptance of Seleukid suzerainty and incidental military support. Creating a friendly satellite kingdom in Central Asia was more useful for the empire than reestablishing direct control. The alliance was sealed with a dynastic marriage. Baktria and Sogdia were thus reintegrated into the Seleukid imperial networks of connectivity and exchange, especially after Antiochos III reopened the ancient sea routes between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia.
The article contextualizes Polybios' account of the ritual reception of Demetrios, the son of Euthydemos of Baktria, at the court of the Seleukid emperor, Antiochos III, outside of Baktra. In 206 BCE, after a long and inconclusive war, Antiochos III gave the title of king to the rebellious ruler Euthydemos. Euthydemos thereby gained legitimacy through imperial recognition of his royal status in return for his acceptance of Seleukid suzerainty and incidental military support. Creating a friendly satellite kingdom in Central Asia was more useful for the empire than reestablishing direct control. The alliance was sealed with a dynastic marriage. Baktria and Sogdia were thus reintegrated into the Seleukid imperial networks of connectivity and exchange, especially after Antiochos III reopened the ancient sea routes between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia.
Research Interests:
R. Strootman, ‘Ritual mutilation and the construction of treason: The execution of Molon and Achaios by Antiochos III’, in: A. Coşkun and R. Wenghofer eds., Seleukid Ideology: Creation, Reception and Response. Seleukid Perspectives 1... more
R. Strootman, ‘Ritual mutilation and the construction of treason: The execution of Molon and Achaios by Antiochos III’, in: A. Coşkun and R. Wenghofer eds., Seleukid Ideology: Creation, Reception and Response. Seleukid Perspectives 1 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2023) 108–121.
In ancient monarchies, rebel leaders were not merely executed when caught; they typically were also often ‘dehumanized’ by the mutilation of their bodies and the denial of proper burial. The Seleukid Empire was no exception. When the rebel king Achaios was delivered into the hands of the imperial sovereign, Antiochos III, the Royal Council decided “that his extremities should be cut off, his head severed from his body and sewn up in the skin of an ass, and his body impaled” (Polybios 8.21.3). What was the purpose of inflicting such severe retribution, particularly on (alleged) traitors?
Believing that the wide attestation of the theatrical dismemberment of significant enemies is based on historical fact (rather than Orientalistic invention), I argue that it was not so much a punishment inflicted upon traitors, but a performative act by which treason, or rebellion, was constructed as a category of social conduct. Ritual mutilation and the denial of burial was a means to deny legitimacy to the executed ‘rebel’ by making their bodies resemble the graveness of their crime. In sum, the regime of the victor was made legitimate through the ritual deconstruction of the legitimacy of the rivals.
In ancient monarchies, rebel leaders were not merely executed when caught; they typically were also often ‘dehumanized’ by the mutilation of their bodies and the denial of proper burial. The Seleukid Empire was no exception. When the rebel king Achaios was delivered into the hands of the imperial sovereign, Antiochos III, the Royal Council decided “that his extremities should be cut off, his head severed from his body and sewn up in the skin of an ass, and his body impaled” (Polybios 8.21.3). What was the purpose of inflicting such severe retribution, particularly on (alleged) traitors?
Believing that the wide attestation of the theatrical dismemberment of significant enemies is based on historical fact (rather than Orientalistic invention), I argue that it was not so much a punishment inflicted upon traitors, but a performative act by which treason, or rebellion, was constructed as a category of social conduct. Ritual mutilation and the denial of burial was a means to deny legitimacy to the executed ‘rebel’ by making their bodies resemble the graveness of their crime. In sum, the regime of the victor was made legitimate through the ritual deconstruction of the legitimacy of the rivals.
Research Interests:
Strootman, R., ‘“The glory of Alexander and Philip made spoil by Roman arms”: The triumph of Aemilius Paullus in 167 BCE’, in: I. J. F. de Jong and M. J. Versluys eds., Reading Greek and Hellenistic-Roman Spolia: Objects, Appropriation... more
Strootman, R., ‘“The glory of Alexander and Philip made spoil by Roman arms”: The triumph of Aemilius Paullus in 167 BCE’, in: I. J. F. de Jong and M. J. Versluys eds., Reading Greek and Hellenistic-Roman Spolia: Objects, Appropriation and Cultural Change. Euhormos 5 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2023) 189–214.
This is part of a broader research project (within the Dutch national Anchoring Innovation program) studying the agency of objects by focusing on things entering the Roman "objectscape" as war booty in the Hellenistic poeriod. The entire book is available in open access at the website of Brill Publishers, at https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004682702.
This is part of a broader research project (within the Dutch national Anchoring Innovation program) studying the agency of objects by focusing on things entering the Roman "objectscape" as war booty in the Hellenistic poeriod. The entire book is available in open access at the website of Brill Publishers, at https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004682702.
Research Interests:
Rolf Strootman, ‘Warrior queens of the Hellenistic world’, in: L. Dirven, M. Icks, and S. Remijsen eds., The Public Lives of Ancient Women (500 BCE-650 CE). Mnemosyne Supplements 468 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2023) 18–45.
Research Interests:
Rolf Strootman, ‘Cosmopolitan empire in Arrian’s Anabasis: Achaemenid, Hellenistic, or Roman?’, in: J. Degen and R. Rollinger eds., The World of Alexander in Perspective: Contextualizing Arrian. Classica et Orientalia 26 (Wiesbaden:... more
Rolf Strootman, ‘Cosmopolitan empire in Arrian’s Anabasis: Achaemenid, Hellenistic, or Roman?’, in: J. Degen and R. Rollinger eds., The World of Alexander in Perspective: Contextualizing Arrian. Classica et Orientalia 26 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2023) 381–400.
Research Interests:
Rolf Strootman, ‘The entanglement of cities and empires in the Hellenistic Aegean’, in: M. Domingo-Gygax and A. Zuiderhoek eds., Benefactors and the Polis: Origins and Development of the Public Gift in the Greek Cities. From the Homeric... more
Rolf Strootman, ‘The entanglement of cities and empires in the Hellenistic Aegean’, in: M. Domingo-Gygax and A. Zuiderhoek eds., Benefactors and the Polis: Origins and Development of the Public Gift in the Greek Cities. From the Homeric World to Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021) 137–178.
This article departs from the premise that with few exceptions premodern Eurasian empires were not states. I approach empires instead as dynamic and intersecting networks of interaction aimed at research extraction, and as essentially negotiated enterprises (though partly based on coercion). I argue that Hellenistic cities and empires were mutually dependent, rather than strictly opposed. The article's key point are:
1. Hellenistic empires relied on cities for resources, manpower, and support in inter-imperial conflicts. Protection of cities and their autonomy became an important part of imperial ideology.
2. There was no clear dichotomy between civic and imperial elites. Imperial court officials and generals often came from Aegean cities and maintained ties to their home poleis while also representing imperial interests. These individuals could "code switch" between civic and imperial identities.
3. Relationships between cities and empires were framed in the language of philia (ritualized friendship) which created real obligations. Cities pledged loyalty and support to empires in exchange for protection of autonomy and privileges.
4. Royal benefactions to cities were mostly immaterial (privileges, tax exemptions, etc.) rather than lavish gifts. This suggests kings had limited funds and needed to tap into city resources.
5. Sanctuaries could serve as "contact zones" between cities and empires, providing space for elite interaction and negotiation under divine supervision. Religious patronage was an important imperial strategy.
In sum, cities and empires were interdependent and entangled at multiple levels in the Hellenistic period. Their relationship involved complex negotiation and reciprocal exchange, not outright domination by empires.
This article departs from the premise that with few exceptions premodern Eurasian empires were not states. I approach empires instead as dynamic and intersecting networks of interaction aimed at research extraction, and as essentially negotiated enterprises (though partly based on coercion). I argue that Hellenistic cities and empires were mutually dependent, rather than strictly opposed. The article's key point are:
1. Hellenistic empires relied on cities for resources, manpower, and support in inter-imperial conflicts. Protection of cities and their autonomy became an important part of imperial ideology.
2. There was no clear dichotomy between civic and imperial elites. Imperial court officials and generals often came from Aegean cities and maintained ties to their home poleis while also representing imperial interests. These individuals could "code switch" between civic and imperial identities.
3. Relationships between cities and empires were framed in the language of philia (ritualized friendship) which created real obligations. Cities pledged loyalty and support to empires in exchange for protection of autonomy and privileges.
4. Royal benefactions to cities were mostly immaterial (privileges, tax exemptions, etc.) rather than lavish gifts. This suggests kings had limited funds and needed to tap into city resources.
5. Sanctuaries could serve as "contact zones" between cities and empires, providing space for elite interaction and negotiation under divine supervision. Religious patronage was an important imperial strategy.
In sum, cities and empires were interdependent and entangled at multiple levels in the Hellenistic period. Their relationship involved complex negotiation and reciprocal exchange, not outright domination by empires.
Research Interests:
Rolf Strootman, ‘The introduction of Hellenic cults in Seleukid Syria: Colonial appropriation and transcultural exchange in the creation of an imperial landscape’. Paper given at the Eighth Celtic Conference in Classics, Edinburgh, 25-28... more
Rolf Strootman, ‘The introduction of Hellenic cults in Seleukid Syria: Colonial appropriation and transcultural exchange in the creation of an imperial landscape’. Paper given at the Eighth Celtic Conference in Classics, Edinburgh, 25-28 June 2014. Published in H. Bru, A. Dumitru, and N. Sekunda eds., Colonial Geopolitics and Local Cultures in the Hellenistic and Roman East (3rd Century B.C.–3rd century A.D.) (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2021) 73–91.
Summary: Seleucid city foundations were ritualized as acts of creation. These original foundational acts were continuously celebrated as important civic festivals which kept the foundation mythology alive. By presenting imperial city foundations as final acts in a cosmogonic process of creation, the establishment of the Seleucid Empire by Seleucus I was presented as a new beginning of time, an eschatological image also emanating from the introduction of the Seleukid Era by Antiochos I. In contrast to a popular modern cliché, there is no evidence that Alexander the Great figured in Seleukid ideology of the third century BCE: both Alexander and the Achaemenids where denied a role as predecessors and models.
Populations in these dynastic foundations never developed an exclusive relationship with a specific ‘mother city’. The focus for communal identity instead was the dynasty, together with the principal civic cults on the akropoleis of the cities – Thundering Zeus at Seleukeia and Zeus Keraunios at Antioch. These cults can be identified as based upon pre-existing local (Syrian) cults adjusted to the new ‘multi-cultural’ context of colonization by means of religious translation. Yet they were presented as very ancient Greek cults that had been rediscovered. Myths of shared ancestry came into being in which typical transcultural mediators such as Perseus and Herakles played leading roles; these tales connected the cities to Greece but most of all to the globalizing Hellenistic koinē that the Seleukids claimed to lead.
The notion of rediscovery and the ideology of a return created a sense of belonging for migrants coming from the Aegean; but most of all it facilitated the creation of a coherent Hellenic identity for the ethnically mixed communities of Antioch and Seleucia, which included many ‘Syrians’ too. Thus, the process of transcultural translation of deities and cults enabled the co-existence of varied migrant groups and local populations.
Summary: Seleucid city foundations were ritualized as acts of creation. These original foundational acts were continuously celebrated as important civic festivals which kept the foundation mythology alive. By presenting imperial city foundations as final acts in a cosmogonic process of creation, the establishment of the Seleucid Empire by Seleucus I was presented as a new beginning of time, an eschatological image also emanating from the introduction of the Seleukid Era by Antiochos I. In contrast to a popular modern cliché, there is no evidence that Alexander the Great figured in Seleukid ideology of the third century BCE: both Alexander and the Achaemenids where denied a role as predecessors and models.
Populations in these dynastic foundations never developed an exclusive relationship with a specific ‘mother city’. The focus for communal identity instead was the dynasty, together with the principal civic cults on the akropoleis of the cities – Thundering Zeus at Seleukeia and Zeus Keraunios at Antioch. These cults can be identified as based upon pre-existing local (Syrian) cults adjusted to the new ‘multi-cultural’ context of colonization by means of religious translation. Yet they were presented as very ancient Greek cults that had been rediscovered. Myths of shared ancestry came into being in which typical transcultural mediators such as Perseus and Herakles played leading roles; these tales connected the cities to Greece but most of all to the globalizing Hellenistic koinē that the Seleukids claimed to lead.
The notion of rediscovery and the ideology of a return created a sense of belonging for migrants coming from the Aegean; but most of all it facilitated the creation of a coherent Hellenic identity for the ethnically mixed communities of Antioch and Seleucia, which included many ‘Syrians’ too. Thus, the process of transcultural translation of deities and cults enabled the co-existence of varied migrant groups and local populations.
Research Interests:
Mythology, Hellenistic History, Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Cultural Identity, Acculturation, and 13 moreSeleucid Empire, Identity, Colonization, Greek sanctuaries, Ancient Near Eastern Religions, Hellenistic Religion, Sanctuaries, Ancient Antioch, Greek Foundation Myths, Greek Polis, Polis Religion, Hellenicity, and Seleucid Syria
Rolf Strootman, ‘Orontid kingship in its Hellenistic context: The Seleucid connections of Antiochos I of Commagene’, in: M. Blömer, S. Riedel, M. J. Versluys, and E. Winter eds., Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods: Commagene in its... more
Rolf Strootman, ‘Orontid kingship in its Hellenistic context: The Seleucid connections of Antiochos I of Commagene’, in: M. Blömer, S. Riedel, M. J. Versluys, and E. Winter eds., Common Dwelling Place of all the Gods: Commagene in its Local, Regional and Global Hellenistic Context. Oriens et Occidens 34 (Stuttgart : Franz Steiner Verlag, 2021) 295–317.
The dynastic representation created by Antiochos I of Kommagene continues to puzzle historians and archaeologist. Its meaning usually is considered either in the light of the Achaemenid past that Antiochos so emphatically refers to on Nemrut Dağı, or from the perspective of Roman history. In the first case, Antiochos is seen as an "eastern" monarch and his royal and religious imagery is accordingly decoded as ancient Persian traditions in Greek disguise. In the second case, Antiochos is seen as a client king whose main political aim was to position his small kingdom in a world dominated by Rome.
But for an alleged client king, Antiochos referred remarkably little to Rome in his self-presentation. Moreover, in the mid-1st century BCE, Roman dominance in the Near East was not a foregone conclusion: when Antiochos succeeded to the throne of Commagene the greatest power in the Near East was the Armenian Empire of Tigranes the Great; after Tigranes’ fall, the Parthian Empire successfully challenged Roman supremacy in the region. Moreover, for a local ruler, Antiochos made remarkably grand political statements: he adopted the imperial title of Great King, claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great and a successor to both the Seleucid and the Achaemenid empires.
This contribution aims to understand Antiochos’ kingship from neither the Persian past nor the Roman future. Instead, it considers Antiochos' monarchy in its contemporary late-Hellenistic context. It shows that Antiochus' royal representation overwhelmingly refers to the Seleucids (and only rarely to the Achaemenids). It argues that the alleged idiosyncratic imagery and rhetoric found on Nemrud Dağ and elsewhere in Commagene can be understood as part of a wider movement among local rulers in the Near East in response to Seleucid collapse.
The dynastic representation created by Antiochos I of Kommagene continues to puzzle historians and archaeologist. Its meaning usually is considered either in the light of the Achaemenid past that Antiochos so emphatically refers to on Nemrut Dağı, or from the perspective of Roman history. In the first case, Antiochos is seen as an "eastern" monarch and his royal and religious imagery is accordingly decoded as ancient Persian traditions in Greek disguise. In the second case, Antiochos is seen as a client king whose main political aim was to position his small kingdom in a world dominated by Rome.
But for an alleged client king, Antiochos referred remarkably little to Rome in his self-presentation. Moreover, in the mid-1st century BCE, Roman dominance in the Near East was not a foregone conclusion: when Antiochos succeeded to the throne of Commagene the greatest power in the Near East was the Armenian Empire of Tigranes the Great; after Tigranes’ fall, the Parthian Empire successfully challenged Roman supremacy in the region. Moreover, for a local ruler, Antiochos made remarkably grand political statements: he adopted the imperial title of Great King, claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great and a successor to both the Seleucid and the Achaemenid empires.
This contribution aims to understand Antiochos’ kingship from neither the Persian past nor the Roman future. Instead, it considers Antiochos' monarchy in its contemporary late-Hellenistic context. It shows that Antiochus' royal representation overwhelmingly refers to the Seleucids (and only rarely to the Achaemenids). It argues that the alleged idiosyncratic imagery and rhetoric found on Nemrud Dağ and elsewhere in Commagene can be understood as part of a wider movement among local rulers in the Near East in response to Seleucid collapse.
Research Interests:
R. Strootman and C. G. Williamson, ‘Creating a royal landscape: Hekatomnid use of urban and rural sacred sites in fourth-century Karia’, in: S. Caneva ed., The Materiality of Hellenistic Ruler Cults. Kernos Supplément 34 (Liège: Presses... more
R. Strootman and C. G. Williamson, ‘Creating a royal landscape: Hekatomnid use of urban and rural sacred sites in fourth-century Karia’, in: S. Caneva ed., The Materiality of Hellenistic Ruler Cults. Kernos Supplément 34 (Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège, 2020) 105–124.
This article studies how the Hekatomnids of Karia exploited the landscape and used architecture to create performative spaces for the social rituals of the court and the ‘theater of kingship’. Such rituals were instrumental in creating elite allegiance and cohesion. Their building activities focusing on ancestral tombs generated social memory while their patronage of sanctuaries created ‘authority of place’ through local gods. While Labraunda was instrumental in integrating territory into the system of Hekatomnid dominion, Halikarnassos functioned as a ‘magnet’ to attract representatives of local elites to the imperial center. The Hekatomnids thus provided a multifaceted template for the way that Hellenistic kings integrated territory and negotiated their power vis-à-vis local populations.
“Rolf Strootman and Christina Williamson’s chapter is actually pre-Hellenistic in focus, offering an examination of the Hecatomnid use of sacred sites in the construction of a ‘royal landscape’ in Achaemenid Caria. They argue that it was proto-Hellenistic in some respects, with a wide influence on Hellenistic royal architecture, yet also that the Hecatomnid building programme was additionally rooted in Achaemenid and Ionian models. Alongside functional and practical issues, how construction and landscape were used in royal and dynastic projections is a key focus of the chapter, as is involvement with imperial networks. This is a valuable study of the importance of place in the performance and negotiation of royal power, and it is helpful particularly for framing the dialogue between ‘local’ and ‘imperial’: in this respect, it will be an important read for historians of the Hellenistic empires. There are also some really excellent colour images in this chapter too.” John Holton in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.12.27.
This article studies how the Hekatomnids of Karia exploited the landscape and used architecture to create performative spaces for the social rituals of the court and the ‘theater of kingship’. Such rituals were instrumental in creating elite allegiance and cohesion. Their building activities focusing on ancestral tombs generated social memory while their patronage of sanctuaries created ‘authority of place’ through local gods. While Labraunda was instrumental in integrating territory into the system of Hekatomnid dominion, Halikarnassos functioned as a ‘magnet’ to attract representatives of local elites to the imperial center. The Hekatomnids thus provided a multifaceted template for the way that Hellenistic kings integrated territory and negotiated their power vis-à-vis local populations.
“Rolf Strootman and Christina Williamson’s chapter is actually pre-Hellenistic in focus, offering an examination of the Hecatomnid use of sacred sites in the construction of a ‘royal landscape’ in Achaemenid Caria. They argue that it was proto-Hellenistic in some respects, with a wide influence on Hellenistic royal architecture, yet also that the Hecatomnid building programme was additionally rooted in Achaemenid and Ionian models. Alongside functional and practical issues, how construction and landscape were used in royal and dynastic projections is a key focus of the chapter, as is involvement with imperial networks. This is a valuable study of the importance of place in the performance and negotiation of royal power, and it is helpful particularly for framing the dialogue between ‘local’ and ‘imperial’: in this respect, it will be an important read for historians of the Hellenistic empires. There are also some really excellent colour images in this chapter too.” John Holton in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2022.12.27.
Research Interests:
Ancient Religion, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Ancient Caria, Greek sanctuaries, Hellenistic Kingship, and 9 moreSacred Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Hellenistic Ruler Cult, Sacred Space, Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire, Ritual landscapes, Hecatomnids, Mausollus, and Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
Rolf Strootman, 'The Great Kings of Asia: Imperial titles in the Seleukid and post-Seleukid Middle East’, in R. Oetjen ed., New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics. Studies in Honor of Getzel M. Cohen. Beiträge... more
Rolf Strootman, 'The Great Kings of Asia: Imperial titles in the Seleukid and post-Seleukid Middle East’, in R. Oetjen ed., New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics. Studies in Honor of Getzel M. Cohen. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 355 (Berlin: De Gruyter 2019) 123–157.
Research Interests:
R. Strootman, ‘Hellenism and Persianism in Iran: Culture and empire after Alexander the Great’, Dabir 7 (2020) 201–227. The article studies cultural developments in Hellenistic-period Iran by looking at “Hellenistic” and... more
R. Strootman, ‘Hellenism and Persianism in Iran: Culture and empire after Alexander the Great’, Dabir 7 (2020) 201–227.
The article studies cultural developments in Hellenistic-period Iran by looking at “Hellenistic” and “Persianistic” trends. It is shown that it is impossible to draw a line between “Greek” and “Iranian” culture. The prevalent notion of an antagonism between Greco-Macedonian and Iranian elites in the Hellenistic world, viz., the Seleukid Empire, is criticized.
The evidence for Hellenistic or Persianistic style in (Greater) Iran is invariably connected with imperial ideas and dynastic identities, not with ethnic groups per se. Though the top layer of philoi at the Seleukid imperial court may originally have been recruited mainly among Aegean civic elites, local rulers and military leaders in the Upper Satrapies were for a large part local Iranians, who interacted with their peers through a system of interconnected dynastic courts. In religion, eastern deities could be given the iconography of Greek gods and Greek names—but this does not imply that a syncretism of cults also took place.
Cultures are always in flux and changes occur most strongly when geopolitical circumstances change, especially when empires break down or are created. Despite the overall trans-Eurasian connectivity that came into being during the Persian and Hellenistic periods—forerunner of what Jack Goody called the remarkable “relative cultural unity” of later Silk Road societies—it is most of all the astounding variety and richness of local cultures in the globalizing so-called “Hellenistic World” that remains a wonderful and intriguing phenomenon.
The article studies cultural developments in Hellenistic-period Iran by looking at “Hellenistic” and “Persianistic” trends. It is shown that it is impossible to draw a line between “Greek” and “Iranian” culture. The prevalent notion of an antagonism between Greco-Macedonian and Iranian elites in the Hellenistic world, viz., the Seleukid Empire, is criticized.
The evidence for Hellenistic or Persianistic style in (Greater) Iran is invariably connected with imperial ideas and dynastic identities, not with ethnic groups per se. Though the top layer of philoi at the Seleukid imperial court may originally have been recruited mainly among Aegean civic elites, local rulers and military leaders in the Upper Satrapies were for a large part local Iranians, who interacted with their peers through a system of interconnected dynastic courts. In religion, eastern deities could be given the iconography of Greek gods and Greek names—but this does not imply that a syncretism of cults also took place.
Cultures are always in flux and changes occur most strongly when geopolitical circumstances change, especially when empires break down or are created. Despite the overall trans-Eurasian connectivity that came into being during the Persian and Hellenistic periods—forerunner of what Jack Goody called the remarkable “relative cultural unity” of later Silk Road societies—it is most of all the astounding variety and richness of local cultures in the globalizing so-called “Hellenistic World” that remains a wonderful and intriguing phenomenon.
Research Interests:
R. Strootman, ‘Antiochos IV and Rome: The festival at Daphne (Syria), the Treaty of Apameia and the revival of Seleukid expansionism in the West’, in: A. Coşkun and D. Engels eds., Rome and the Seleukid East: Select Papers From Seleukid... more
R. Strootman, ‘Antiochos IV and Rome: The festival at Daphne (Syria), the Treaty of Apameia and the revival of Seleukid expansionism in the West’, in: A. Coşkun and D. Engels eds., Rome and the Seleukid East: Select Papers From Seleukid Study Day V, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 21–23 Aug. 2015 (Brussels: Éditions Latomus, 2018).
The Treaty of Apameia was only a temporary setback for the Seleukid Empire. Antiochos IV Epiphanes (r. 175–164 BCE) aimed at reestablishing Seleukid hegemony in the Aegean, including Greece. He had a realistic assessment of Roman military strength, but he had no reason to consider his own empire secondary to that of the Romans. He introduced an elite unit of 5,000 Roman-style ‘legionaries’ into his army in order to be better prepared for a new military confrontation with Rome. As his propaganda at the Daphne Festival shows, Antiochos IV wished to be seen as the unequaled ruler of a universal empire, just as all Seleukid and Achaemenid emperors before him had done. The Daphne Festival showed the vast extent of Seleukid imperial space, and its huge miitary resources. The military nature and aggressive, expansionist ideology of Seleukid kingship left him no other choice than to be aggressive and expansionist. Of course, the reestablishment of wavering Seleukid hegemony in the Upper Satrapies (Iran and Central Asia)—the military powerhouse of the empire—to him was more important than a renewed confrontation with Rome.
The idea of Roman supremacy before c. 150 BCE is a creation from hindsight, first, and most famously, fabricated by Polybios. Roman influence in the Near East before that date in fact was negligible; Near Eastern sources show no awareness of the existence of a powerful Roman Empire at all. Polybios’ notion of “symploke”, often seen as the first formulation of a theory of globalization, presents a biased and very limited vision, as it does not take into account Mesopotamia, Iran, Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean world—regions that were integral parts of the “Hellenistic World” of cultural, political and economic interactions. Modern historians may debate the question whether the Mediterranean really was the core of the Ancient World, as Polybios posits, or rather its western periphery. Antiochos IV, the ‘King of Asia’ at any rate did not subscribe to Polybios’ view of the world.
The Treaty of Apameia was only a temporary setback for the Seleukid Empire. Antiochos IV Epiphanes (r. 175–164 BCE) aimed at reestablishing Seleukid hegemony in the Aegean, including Greece. He had a realistic assessment of Roman military strength, but he had no reason to consider his own empire secondary to that of the Romans. He introduced an elite unit of 5,000 Roman-style ‘legionaries’ into his army in order to be better prepared for a new military confrontation with Rome. As his propaganda at the Daphne Festival shows, Antiochos IV wished to be seen as the unequaled ruler of a universal empire, just as all Seleukid and Achaemenid emperors before him had done. The Daphne Festival showed the vast extent of Seleukid imperial space, and its huge miitary resources. The military nature and aggressive, expansionist ideology of Seleukid kingship left him no other choice than to be aggressive and expansionist. Of course, the reestablishment of wavering Seleukid hegemony in the Upper Satrapies (Iran and Central Asia)—the military powerhouse of the empire—to him was more important than a renewed confrontation with Rome.
The idea of Roman supremacy before c. 150 BCE is a creation from hindsight, first, and most famously, fabricated by Polybios. Roman influence in the Near East before that date in fact was negligible; Near Eastern sources show no awareness of the existence of a powerful Roman Empire at all. Polybios’ notion of “symploke”, often seen as the first formulation of a theory of globalization, presents a biased and very limited vision, as it does not take into account Mesopotamia, Iran, Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean world—regions that were integral parts of the “Hellenistic World” of cultural, political and economic interactions. Modern historians may debate the question whether the Mediterranean really was the core of the Ancient World, as Polybios posits, or rather its western periphery. Antiochos IV, the ‘King of Asia’ at any rate did not subscribe to Polybios’ view of the world.
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Roman History, Hellenistic History, Roman Republic, Polybius, and 15 moreSeleucid Empire, Roman Near East, Roman imperialism, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Imperialism, Hellenistic Greece, Parades and Processions, Hellenistic Religion, Hellenistic warfare, Euergetism, Seleucid Army, Roman Expansionism, Polybios, Roman Imperialism, Greek Hisoriography, Polybius, and Antiochus IV Epiphanes
This essay explores whether a meaningful separate category of maritime empires can be established by looking at the commonalities between a variety of such empires until c. 1800, as well as characteristic differences from land-based... more
This essay explores whether a meaningful separate category of maritime empires can be established by looking at the commonalities between a variety of such empires until c. 1800, as well as characteristic differences from land-based empires. It forms the introduction to an edited volume in which we asked the contributors to ask similar questions about specific maritime network ‘states’.
Research Interests:
Maritime History, Naval Warfare, Naval History, World History, Indian Ocean History, and 13 moreGlobal History, History of the Mediterranean, History of Imperialism, Empire, Imperialism, Ancient naval warfare, Comparative study of empires and imperial borderlands, Sea Power, Empire Studies, Colonialism and Imperialism, Maritime Empires, Carthaginian Empire, and Naval Empires
This article offers an exploration of the "Traveling Court" model of imperial integration from the perspective of Hellenistic kings' travels in mainland Greece. By personally attending local and regional festivals, and participating in... more
This article offers an exploration of the "Traveling Court" model of imperial integration from the perspective of Hellenistic kings' travels in mainland Greece. By personally attending local and regional festivals, and participating in the cults of the poleis, Hellenistic rulers increased their visibility and created opportunities for negotiations with local elites; pan-Hellenic festivals offered them opportunities to simultaneously address representatives of many different poleis. Conversely, the organization of so-called great events of the court (here in particular the marriage rites of Antiochos III and an Euboian elite woman at Chalkis) drew local power holders to the court.
Research Interests:
Hellenistic History, Urban History, Ancient Greek Religion, Seleucid Empire, Court Culture, and 15 moreAncient Greece (History), Ancient Greece, Imperialism, Greek sanctuaries, Hellenistic Greece, Ritual Feasting, Antigonid Empire, Hellenistic Athens, Philip V of Macedonia, Ancient Athens, Ancient City, Antiochus III, Ancient Macedonian History, Greek Polis, and Demetrios Poliorketes
R. Strootman, ‘The coming of the Parthians: Crisis and resilience in Seleukid Iran in the reign of Seleukos II’, in: K. Erickson ed., The Seleukid Empire, 281–222 BC: War Within the Family (Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2018)... more
R. Strootman, ‘The coming of the Parthians: Crisis and resilience in Seleukid Iran in the reign of Seleukos II’, in: K. Erickson ed., The Seleukid Empire, 281–222 BC: War Within the Family (Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2018) 129–150.
I have noticed that this article is often interpreted as an argument against Parthian independence under Arsakes I and his immediate successors. That is not what I believe. I argue that in the later third century BCE, the Arsakid dynasty did become an independent polity but that it remained loosely integrated into a wider Seleukid imperial koine. I also argue that it is wrong to think of the Arsakid kingdom (or any ancient kingdom) as a sovereign territorial state comparable to the modern nation state, and that not every kingdom is also an empire. The Hellenistic ‘state’ system was hierarchical; it did not resemble the Westphalian chess board model. In other words, I argue not against Parthian independence but against the prevailing opinion among contemporary scholars that Parthian independence made the Arsakid royal dynasty the internationally recognized equal of the Seleukid imperial dynasty, and that Parthian independence immediately and irreversibly terminated Seleukid claims to imperial hegemony in the Upper Satrapies (Iran and Central Asia). There is evidence for an ongoing Seleukid presence in the Upper Satrapies until 148 BCE, while Arsakid coinage shows that an Arsakid empire was not established until after that date, when Mithradates I ‘the Great’, conquered western Iran and Babylonia, and appropriated Seleukid imperial titulature and imagery. I assume that during the decades preceding Mithradates’ conquest of Babylonia, Arsakids and Seleukids competed for hegemony in Iran: because premodern Eurasian empires usually are not bounded territorial ‘states’ but dynamic network polities aimed at accessing manpower and resources, it is perfectly possible that two (or more) empires simultaneously maintain networks of allegiance within the same region, in this case Iran. History rarely follows a clear-cut, unidirectional trajectory, and imperial histories in particular can be quite messy.
I have noticed that this article is often interpreted as an argument against Parthian independence under Arsakes I and his immediate successors. That is not what I believe. I argue that in the later third century BCE, the Arsakid dynasty did become an independent polity but that it remained loosely integrated into a wider Seleukid imperial koine. I also argue that it is wrong to think of the Arsakid kingdom (or any ancient kingdom) as a sovereign territorial state comparable to the modern nation state, and that not every kingdom is also an empire. The Hellenistic ‘state’ system was hierarchical; it did not resemble the Westphalian chess board model. In other words, I argue not against Parthian independence but against the prevailing opinion among contemporary scholars that Parthian independence made the Arsakid royal dynasty the internationally recognized equal of the Seleukid imperial dynasty, and that Parthian independence immediately and irreversibly terminated Seleukid claims to imperial hegemony in the Upper Satrapies (Iran and Central Asia). There is evidence for an ongoing Seleukid presence in the Upper Satrapies until 148 BCE, while Arsakid coinage shows that an Arsakid empire was not established until after that date, when Mithradates I ‘the Great’, conquered western Iran and Babylonia, and appropriated Seleukid imperial titulature and imagery. I assume that during the decades preceding Mithradates’ conquest of Babylonia, Arsakids and Seleukids competed for hegemony in Iran: because premodern Eurasian empires usually are not bounded territorial ‘states’ but dynamic network polities aimed at accessing manpower and resources, it is perfectly possible that two (or more) empires simultaneously maintain networks of allegiance within the same region, in this case Iran. History rarely follows a clear-cut, unidirectional trajectory, and imperial histories in particular can be quite messy.
Research Interests:
R. Strootman, ‘Imperial Persianism: Seleukids, Arsakids, Fratarakā’, in: R. Strootman and M. J. Versluys eds., Persianism in Antiquity. Oriens et Occidens 25 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017) 169–192.
Research Interests:
Hellenistic History, Iranian Studies, Iranian History, Hellenistic Bactria, Persian Culture, and 12 moreSeleucid Empire, Parthia, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Parthians, Hellenistic Kingship, Parthian history (early Arsakids), Arsacid and Sasanian Iran, Seleukid Empire, Arsacids, Hellenistic Central Asia, and Fratarakā
R. Strootman and M. J. Versluys, ‘From culture to concept: The reception and appropriation of Persia in Antiquity’, in: id. eds., Persianism in Antiquity. Oriens et Occidens 25 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017) 7–30.
Research Interests:
Cultural History, Reception Studies, Identity (Culture), History of Iran, Iranian Art History, and 19 moreAchaemenid Persia, Iranian History, Ancient Persia, Imagology, Classical Reception Studies, Roman Empire, Hellenism, Cultural Exchange, Persian Culture, Achaemenid History, Reception of Antiquity, Orientalism, Achaemenian Empire, Hellenistic world, Cultural appropriation, Colonialism and Imperialism, Persianism, Premodern Globalization, and Globalization in History
R. Strootman, ‘Eunuchs, renegades and concubines: The “paradox of power” and the promotion of favorites in the Hellenistic empires’, in: A. Erskine, L. Llewellyn-Jones, and S. Wallace eds., The Hellenistic Court: Monarchic Power and Elite... more
R. Strootman, ‘Eunuchs, renegades and concubines: The “paradox of power” and the promotion of favorites in the Hellenistic empires’, in: A. Erskine, L. Llewellyn-Jones, and S. Wallace eds., The Hellenistic Court: Monarchic Power and Elite Society From Alexander to Cleopatra (Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 2017) 121–142.
Research Interests:
Hellenistic History, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Monarchy, Seleucid Empire, Court Culture, and 15 moreMonarchy, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Hellenistic Kingship, Eunuchs, Ptolemaic Empire, Antigonid Empire, Philip V of Macedonia, Court Studies, Antiochus III, Philip V, Antigonid Dynasty, Empire Studies, Hellenistic Royal Women, Antiochus the Great, and Royal Favorites
From the conquests of Seleukos Nikator, Seleukid rulers presented themselves as heirs to the age-old Near Eastern ideal of universal monarchy. But since their power had started to decline in the 2nd century BC, new claims to 'Great... more
From the conquests of Seleukos Nikator, Seleukid rulers presented themselves as heirs to the age-old Near Eastern ideal of universal monarchy. But since their power had started to decline in the 2nd century BC, new claims to 'Great Kingship' were made by the Parthian Arsakids, the Mithradatids of Pontos, the Ptolemies, and conspicuously by Antiochos I of Kommagene, whose house had been bound to the imperial centre by ties of intermarriage and kinship. The same Antiochos famously displayed his royal ancestors in the sanctuary on Nemrut Dağı. While such dynastic expressions are predominantly viewed as fictitious Persian revivalism, it will be argued that the idea of universal monarchy had always been pivotal to Seleukid rule and that with the demise of the Seleukid patriline new claims to empire were based on matrilineal descent. This was possible due to the importance of Seleukid women as transmitters of inheritance and royalty.
Research Interests:
Ancient History, Achaemenid Persia, Seleucid Empire, Roman Near East, Commagene, and 11 moreHellenistic Kingship, Hellenistic Ruler Cult, Nemrud Dağ, Hellenistic world, Nemrud Dağ, Kommagene, Kommagene, Nemrut Dağ, tumulus, Kommagene, Hellenistic Queens, Nemrut Dagi, Hellenistic Royal Women, and Persianism
This paper examines how Golden Age imagery in Alexandrian court poetry is connected to the Ptolemaic ideology of kingship and empire. The paper first reviews the use of the motif of a Golden Age in court poetry -- especially the image of... more
This paper examines how Golden Age imagery in Alexandrian court poetry is connected to the Ptolemaic ideology of kingship and empire. The paper first reviews the use of the motif of a Golden Age in court poetry -- especially the image of the king as a creator of peace, order, and abundance -- and then relates these poetical images to a wider context of Ptolemaic monarchical and imperial representation. The paper also highlights the Ptolemaic influence of Golden Age imagery on Augustan imperial propaganda (e.g. in Virgil's Aeneid and on the Ara Pacis).
Research Interests:
Hellenistic Literature, Hellenistic History, Empires, Callimachus, Aeneid, and 13 morePtolemaic Egyptian History, Hellenistic Monarchy, Augustus, Imperialism, Universalism, Theocritus, Ptolemaic Empire, ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE, Ptolemy II, Virgil's Aeneid, Imperial Ideology, Anchoring Innovation, and Ptolemy II Philadelphos
This paper aims to give an alternative to the perceived idea that the political ambitions of Seleucus, Ptolemy and other Diadochs were limited as compared to those of Antigonus and Demetrius, and that they and their successors maintained... more
This paper aims to give an alternative to the perceived idea that the political ambitions of Seleucus, Ptolemy and other Diadochs were limited as compared to those of Antigonus and Demetrius, and that they and their successors maintained some kind of balance of power. By examining the aspirations of the Diadochs in the context of the Near Eastern tradition of empire, and the ways in which imperial competition functioned in the early Hellenistic period, it is argued that the Diadochs had no other option than to claim world hegemony.
Research Interests:
Hellenistic History, Colonialism, Empires, History of Imperialism, Hellenistic Monarchy, and 16 moreSeleucid Empire, Empire, Diadochoi, Imperialism, Ptolemy I, Universalism, Ptolemaic Empire, Diadochs, The Diadochian Wars (The Wars of the Successors), Demetrios Poliorketes, The Diadochs, Seleukos I, Antigonos I Monophthalmos, Seleukos I Nikator, Ptolemy I Soter, and Demetrios I Poliorketes
In the heart of Istanbul, on the site of the former hippodrome, stand the remains of the Serpent Column, one of the most ancient and most enigmatic monuments in the city: a three-headed snake made of bronze to which various sacral and... more
In the heart of Istanbul, on the site of the former hippodrome, stand the remains of the Serpent Column, one of the most ancient and most enigmatic monuments in the city: a three-headed snake made of bronze to which various sacral and magical properties have been attributed in the past by pagans, Christians, Muslims and Jews. Originally set up as a votive offering in Greece’s most sacred site, Delphi, the column commemorated the Greek triumph in the Second Graeco-Persian War (480–479 BCE). This powerful icon of victory, couched in pagan principles of cosmology, was brought to Constantinople in the fourth century CE to become an emblem of the universal rule of the Christian Roman emperor. In late Byzantine and Ottoman times, the Serpent Column was seen as an apotropaic talisman safeguarding Constantinople from poisonous snakes. In this paper it is argued that the column retained its status as a powerful sacred object for so many centuries because in Constantinople it came to be associated with the Brazen Serpent lifted up in the desert by Moses (Numbers 21:4–9), which in turn was believed to prefigure the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (John 3:14–15).
Research Interests:
I argue that the Seleukid rulers were not the ‘chameleon kings’ of the older literature, who passively adapted their monarchy to supposed local "traditions"; I argue instead that the Seleukids actively negotiated with local elites, and... more
I argue that the Seleukid rulers were not the ‘chameleon kings’ of the older literature, who passively adapted their monarchy to supposed local "traditions"; I argue instead that the Seleukids actively negotiated with local elites, and that local customs changed as a result of this, even as these were still presented as ‘traditional’.
Conventional scholarship holds that in the third century BCE, the Seleukid dynasty controlled the various populations of their empire by respecting indigenous ‘traditions’. This paper takes issue with the alleged passivity of the Seleukids and the conceptualization of 'Near Eastern' culture as coherent, static and traditionalist. I focus on the famous Antiochos Cylinder from Borsippa, a document that is often foregrounded as evidence for the early Seleukids’ willingness to adopt the role of ‘traditional’ Babylonian kings. Using globalization theory and Richard White's notion of Middle Ground, I argue instead that the indigenous monarchy outlined by the Cylinder is in fact the innovative result of negotiations between a 'global' imperial elite and a local priestly elite, who cooperated to their mutual benefit. The Cylinder thus reflects neither a top-down imposition of imperial ideology on so-called ‘subalterns’, nor the bottom-up instruction by native experts on how to be a good Babylonian king. The Cylinder instead offers us a unique insight into the dynamics of internal power changes that took place in Babylonian cities after the Macedonian conquest, when priestly families in alliance with the imperial dynasty were able to reassert the supremacy of the central sanctuaries, and hence of their own political dominance.
Conventional scholarship holds that in the third century BCE, the Seleukid dynasty controlled the various populations of their empire by respecting indigenous ‘traditions’. This paper takes issue with the alleged passivity of the Seleukids and the conceptualization of 'Near Eastern' culture as coherent, static and traditionalist. I focus on the famous Antiochos Cylinder from Borsippa, a document that is often foregrounded as evidence for the early Seleukids’ willingness to adopt the role of ‘traditional’ Babylonian kings. Using globalization theory and Richard White's notion of Middle Ground, I argue instead that the indigenous monarchy outlined by the Cylinder is in fact the innovative result of negotiations between a 'global' imperial elite and a local priestly elite, who cooperated to their mutual benefit. The Cylinder thus reflects neither a top-down imposition of imperial ideology on so-called ‘subalterns’, nor the bottom-up instruction by native experts on how to be a good Babylonian king. The Cylinder instead offers us a unique insight into the dynamics of internal power changes that took place in Babylonian cities after the Macedonian conquest, when priestly families in alliance with the imperial dynasty were able to reassert the supremacy of the central sanctuaries, and hence of their own political dominance.
Research Interests:
Assyriology, Hellenistic History, Cultural Encounters, Ancient Religion, Mesopotamian Religions, and 14 moreAncient Mesopotamian Religions, Babylon, Seleucid Empire, Empire, Hellenistic Babylonia, Imperialism, Hellenistic world, Borsippa, Seleucid Babylonia, Antiochos I, Colonialism and Imperialism, Middle Ground Theory, Antiochus I Soter, and Hellenistic Religions
Overview of the function and development of royal courts in the Hellenistic kingdoms. The article describes the court as a social system, and analyzes its meaning as an instrument of imperial rule and locus for the redistribution of power... more
Overview of the function and development of royal courts in the Hellenistic kingdoms. The article describes the court as a social system, and analyzes its meaning as an instrument of imperial rule and locus for the redistribution of power and resources.
Research Interests:
Early Modern History, Hellenistic History, Colonialism, Nobility, Ptolemaic Egyptian History, and 14 moreHellenistic Monarchy, Seleucid Empire, Empire, Court history, Court Culture, Hellenistic Kingdoms, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Aristocracy, Seleucid kingdom, Imperialism, Elites, Hellenistic Kingship, Ptolemaic Empire, and Antigonid Empire
I argue that the Seleukid Empire transformed from a system of direct control through appointed governors, mostly Macedonians, into a system of indirect rule through independent vassal rulers, mostly Iranians. The central idea is, that the... more
I argue that the Seleukid Empire transformed from a system of direct control through appointed governors, mostly Macedonians, into a system of indirect rule through independent vassal rulers, mostly Iranians. The central idea is, that the original elites to whom imperial rulers delegate power and give land, eventually become independent from the central power, and may even turn against it; this compels imperial rulers to look for new allies, often beyond the established court circles.
The conflicts accompanying the accession of Antiochus III reveal that Hellenistic kings were not automatically in control of their own court societies. Even though Antiochus initially succeeded in rearranging the social composition of his court, he later ruled primarily through favorites who were outsiders within the society of philoi: Macedonians, defectors from rival courts, refugees from the Greek mainland, a Carthaginian outlaw, and a queen. Despite his military successes, Antiochus moreover was forced to acknowledge the rising power of autochthonous aristocracies and the progressively independent position of governors, especially in Central Asia. The king reacted by expanding an already ongoing process of indirect rule through local dynasts and thereby managed to keep the Seleucid Empire together and even expand its borders. The vassal kings were fitted into the imperial superstructure through dynastic marriages and the cohesive facilities of the court, which they or their envoys visited on specific festive and ceremonial occasions. The new arrangements found expression in Antiochus' use of the title Great King.
The conflicts accompanying the accession of Antiochus III reveal that Hellenistic kings were not automatically in control of their own court societies. Even though Antiochus initially succeeded in rearranging the social composition of his court, he later ruled primarily through favorites who were outsiders within the society of philoi: Macedonians, defectors from rival courts, refugees from the Greek mainland, a Carthaginian outlaw, and a queen. Despite his military successes, Antiochus moreover was forced to acknowledge the rising power of autochthonous aristocracies and the progressively independent position of governors, especially in Central Asia. The king reacted by expanding an already ongoing process of indirect rule through local dynasts and thereby managed to keep the Seleucid Empire together and even expand its borders. The vassal kings were fitted into the imperial superstructure through dynastic marriages and the cohesive facilities of the court, which they or their envoys visited on specific festive and ceremonial occasions. The new arrangements found expression in Antiochus' use of the title Great King.
Research Interests:
In the Hellenistig period kingdoms were as dependent on cities as cities were on them. Rather than coerce cities into submission at all cost, rulers preferred to seek peaceful co-operation with urban oligarchies.Working from Charles... more
In the Hellenistig period kingdoms were as dependent on cities as cities were on them. Rather than coerce cities into submission at all cost, rulers preferred to seek peaceful co-operation with urban oligarchies.Working from Charles Tilly's model of the interaction of states and cities, it is shown how the process of negotiation through the philoi system gave cities direct influence in the imperial center. Because they became "Reichsunmittelbar" the relative autonomy of cities could actually increase.
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This paper examines the organization, numbers and tactics of the Thessalian cavalry unit in the army of Alexander the Great. It is argued that already Philip II recognized the importance of Thessaly as a recruiting ground for heavy... more
This paper examines the organization, numbers and tactics of the Thessalian cavalry unit in the army of Alexander the Great. It is argued that already Philip II recognized the importance of Thessaly as a recruiting ground for heavy (noble) cavalry with regard to his planned invasion of Asia, and that it was partly for this reason that Philip closely integrated Thessaly in the Argead imperial system, cultivating personal relations with the Thessalian noble families also as a counterweight to the power of the traditional Macedonian nobility, the hetairoi (Companions). Alexander inherited these arrangements. The Thessalians on their part joined Alexander’s expedition more enthusiastically than other Greeks because of these pre-existing bonds with the Macedonian royal family and because the promise of honor and booty agreed with the heroic mentality of the Thessalian aristocracy.
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This paper, written for a volume dedicated to client kingdoms in the Roman Near East, focuses on the Hellenistic background of the Roman system of client kingdoms. It is argued that the Roman system was essentially an adaptation of the... more
This paper, written for a volume dedicated to client kingdoms in the Roman Near East, focuses on the Hellenistic background of the Roman system of client kingdoms. It is argued that the Roman system was essentially an adaptation of the complex of subsidiary kingdoms that had existed in (and had survived) the later Seleukid Empire. During the Seleukid centuries, the Middle East saw the emergence of autonomous client kings and other polities under Seleukid hegemony. The Hellenistic patchwork of kingdoms was held together by the charisma and military prestige of the Seleukid ‘Great King’, a status that implied the right to appoint lesser kings and went back to the millennia-old Near Eastern tradition of universal rulership and ontological ideal of world unity. As the rightful, matrilineal heir to the vanished Seleukid dynasty, Kleopatra VII and her son Caesarion possessed the necessary prestige to claim overlordship over the vassal states in the post-Seleukid Middle East, and to rival the Parthian kings’ claim to have acquired the title of Great King / King of Kings by right of victory over the Seleukids. Through Caesar’s and Antony’s paternity of Kleopatra’s children, Hellenistic monarchy could thus be brought into the (republican) Roman orbit.
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Hellenistic History, Empires, Ptolemaic Egyptian History, History of Imperialism, Roman Empire, and 15 moreHellenistic Monarchy, Roman Near East, Roman imperialism, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Universalism, Antony and Cleopatra, Kleopatra VII, Ptolemaic Empire, Cleopatra VII, Seleukid Empire, Mark Antony, Roman Near-East, Imperial Ideology, and Universal Empire
Discussion of the patronage of poetry at Hellenistic courts, focusing on competition among the courtiers.
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"This article examines Greek and Macedonian political propaganda connected with the Celtic invasions of Greece and Asia Minor in the third century BCE. Because in the Greek world-view of the Hellenistic Age the Celts were seen as the... more
"This article examines Greek and Macedonian political propaganda connected with the Celtic invasions of Greece and Asia Minor in the third century BCE. Because in the Greek world-view of the Hellenistic Age the Celts were seen as the ultimate subhuman, barbaric ‘others’, the Greco-Celtic wars stimulated the development of panhellenic sentiments and became a pivotal point of reference in Hellenistic royal self-presentation. Hellenistic kings presented their, usually easily-won, victories over Celtic forces as the triumph of Civilization over Chaos. Thus they were able to ‘prove’ that they were in actuality the divine Saviours (soteres) they pretended to be in their propaganda. The article traces the development of this imagery from the saving of Delphi by the Aetolians in 279 BCE, through the propaganda of Antigonus Gonatas, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Antiochus Soter, and Ptolemy Philadelphus, to the Attalids of Pergamon, whose Great Altar and related victory monuments formed the apogee of ‘Celtic propaganda’.
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Celtic Studies, Hellenistic History, Celtic History, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Hellenistic Monarchy, and 11 moreSeleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Empire, Antigonid Empire, Attalos I, Antiochos I, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Imperial Ideology, Antiochos I Soter, Pyrrhos of Epeiros, Antigonos II Gonatas, and Attalos I Soter
Now in paperback: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-courts-and-elites-in-the-hellenistic-empires.html. During the Hellenistic Period (c. 330-30 BCE), Alexander the Great and his successors reshaped their Persian and... more
Now in paperback: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-courts-and-elites-in-the-hellenistic-empires.html.
During the Hellenistic Period (c. 330-30 BCE), Alexander the Great and his successors reshaped their Persian and Greco-Macedonian legacies to create a new kind of rulership that was neither ‘western’ nor ‘eastern’ and would profoundly influence the later development of court culture and monarchy in both the Roman West and Iranian East. Courts and Elites in the Hellenistic Empires approaches the Argead, Seleucid, Ptolemaic, and Antigonid empires not as territorial states but as network polities based on personal relations converging at the respective dynastic courts. Drawing on the socio-political models of Norbert Elias and Charles Tilly, and covering topics such as palace architecture, royal women, court factions, and monarchical ritual, the book shows how the Hellenistic courts were instrumental in the integration of local elites in the empires, and the (re)distribution of power, wealth, and status. It analyses the competition among courtiers for royal favor and the, not always successful, attempts of the Hellenistic rulers to use these struggles to their own advantage.
During the Hellenistic Period (c. 330-30 BCE), Alexander the Great and his successors reshaped their Persian and Greco-Macedonian legacies to create a new kind of rulership that was neither ‘western’ nor ‘eastern’ and would profoundly influence the later development of court culture and monarchy in both the Roman West and Iranian East. Courts and Elites in the Hellenistic Empires approaches the Argead, Seleucid, Ptolemaic, and Antigonid empires not as territorial states but as network polities based on personal relations converging at the respective dynastic courts. Drawing on the socio-political models of Norbert Elias and Charles Tilly, and covering topics such as palace architecture, royal women, court factions, and monarchical ritual, the book shows how the Hellenistic courts were instrumental in the integration of local elites in the empires, and the (re)distribution of power, wealth, and status. It analyses the competition among courtiers for royal favor and the, not always successful, attempts of the Hellenistic rulers to use these struggles to their own advantage.
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Hellenistic History, Empires, Alexander the Great, Courts and Elites (History), Seleucid Empire, and 17 moreCourt Culture, Graeco-Roman Alexandria, History of Ancient Macedonia, Imperialism, Hellenistic Kingship, Kleopatra VII, Ptolemaic Empire, Antigonid Empire, Cleopatra VII, Seleukid Empire, Rituals of Royalty, Antiochos I Soter, Antiochos III the Great, Seleukos I Nikator, Ptolemy I Soter, Ptolemy II Philadelphos, and Antiochos IV Epiphanes
In the third century BCE, the Ptolemaic imperial court at Alexandria was the unchallenged center of culture and learning of the Hellenistic world. Backed by the vast wealth and prestige of the Ptolemies, the city of Alexandria became the... more
In the third century BCE, the Ptolemaic imperial court at Alexandria was the unchallenged center of culture and learning of the Hellenistic world. Backed by the vast wealth and prestige of the Ptolemies, the city of Alexandria became the symbolic capital of the world (pun intended). Third-century Alexandria was the main hub of a global imperial network stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Black Sea. Many poets, philosophers, inventors, geographers, and other men of letters migrated to that center to enjoy the generous patronage of the Ptolemies and to acquire prestige by being associated with the royal city.
The Hellenistic Age was a period of intensified globalization, and it was through the royal court that writers and scientists were able to gain access to the extensive elite networks that connected communities throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Literary authors contributed to the growth of interconnectivity by creating a common ‘Hellenistic’ imperial culture and language, as well as through the expression of imperial themes in their work. Most notable among the latter was the idea that the civilized world was, or ought to be, a single peaceful oikoumene, of which Alexandria was the glorious, magnetic heart.
The Hellenistic Age was a period of intensified globalization, and it was through the royal court that writers and scientists were able to gain access to the extensive elite networks that connected communities throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Literary authors contributed to the growth of interconnectivity by creating a common ‘Hellenistic’ imperial culture and language, as well as through the expression of imperial themes in their work. Most notable among the latter was the idea that the civilized world was, or ought to be, a single peaceful oikoumene, of which Alexandria was the glorious, magnetic heart.
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Cultural History, Hellenistic Literature, Hellenistic History, Ptolemaic Egyptian History, Courts and Elites (History), and 14 moreHellenism, Hellenistic Monarchy, Empire, Court Culture, Ptolemaic Period, Hellenistic poetry, Ptolemaic Egypt, Imperialism, Ptolemaic queens, Hellenistic Kingship, Ptolemaic Empire, Alexandria, Hellenistic world, and Ptolemaic Alexandria
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Gekroonde Goden. Hellenistisch Koningschap van Alexander tot Kleopatra ("Gods enthroned: Hellenistic Kingship From Alexander to Kleopatra"), is a source-based effort to explain to a general audience why Hellenistic History is so... more
Gekroonde Goden. Hellenistisch Koningschap van Alexander tot Kleopatra ("Gods enthroned: Hellenistic Kingship From Alexander to Kleopatra"), is a source-based effort to explain to a general audience why Hellenistic History is so fascinating, employing with only little restraint the Hellenistic World's heavy weapons of popularization – Alexander, Isis, Big Warships, Strong Women, Apocalyptic Literature, Ruler Worship, Brother-Sister Marriage, Kleopatra – while cheerfully questioning many conventional conceptions about the age and complicating processes of cultural change and exchange. [In Dutch]
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Empires of the Sea brings together studies of maritime empires from the Bronze Age to the Eighteenth Century. The volume aims to establish maritime empires as a category for the (comparative) study of premodern empires, and from a partly... more
Empires of the Sea brings together studies of maritime empires from the Bronze Age to the Eighteenth Century. The volume aims to establish maritime empires as a category for the (comparative) study of premodern empires, and from a partly ‘non-western’ perspective. The book includes contributions on Mycenaean sea power, Classical Athens, the ancient Thebans, Ptolemaic Egypt, The Genoese Empire, power networks of the Vikings, the medieval Danish Empire, the Baltic empire of Ancien Régime Sweden, the early modern Indian Ocean, the Melaka Empire, the (non-European aspects of the) Portuguese Empire and Dutch East India Company, and the Pirates of Caribbean.
There were some striking recurring themes and conclusions in the volume's different contributions. First the phenomenon of overlapping imperial spheres, which may be thought of as typical for maritime empires, and in addition the subsequent interimperial competition that was an important incentive for intra-imperial developments (Borschberg, Kirk, Lane, Mörke, Singh, Strootman, van Wijk). Three contributions pointed out the existence of unofficial “shadow networks” utilizing the same networks as the “official”, imperial ones (Antunes, Lane, Raben). The complex interweaving of economic, political and social motivations in the process of empire was emphasized by five contributors (Antunes, Borschberg, Heebøll-Holm, Kelder, Raben). Then there was the notion of multipolarity, as opposed to the conventional center-periphery model (Antunes, Singh, Strootman). And finally, an important point that merits more research especially in the field of ancient empire studies: the phenomenon of the commissioned “freelance” entrepreneur who invests in an imperial project for personal profit (Antunes, Heebøll-Holm, Strootman, Van den Eijnde).
There were some striking recurring themes and conclusions in the volume's different contributions. First the phenomenon of overlapping imperial spheres, which may be thought of as typical for maritime empires, and in addition the subsequent interimperial competition that was an important incentive for intra-imperial developments (Borschberg, Kirk, Lane, Mörke, Singh, Strootman, van Wijk). Three contributions pointed out the existence of unofficial “shadow networks” utilizing the same networks as the “official”, imperial ones (Antunes, Lane, Raben). The complex interweaving of economic, political and social motivations in the process of empire was emphasized by five contributors (Antunes, Borschberg, Heebøll-Holm, Kelder, Raben). Then there was the notion of multipolarity, as opposed to the conventional center-periphery model (Antunes, Singh, Strootman). And finally, an important point that merits more research especially in the field of ancient empire studies: the phenomenon of the commissioned “freelance” entrepreneur who invests in an imperial project for personal profit (Antunes, Heebøll-Holm, Strootman, Van den Eijnde).
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The socio-political and cultural memory of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire played a very important role in Antiquity and later ages. This book is the first to systematically chart these multiform ideas and associations over time and to... more
The socio-political and cultural memory of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire played a very important role in Antiquity and later ages. This book is the first to systematically chart these multiform ideas and associations over time and to define them in relation to one another, as Persianism. Hellenistic kings, Parthian monarchs, Romans and Sasanians: they all made a lot of meaning through the evolving concept of "Persia", as the twenty-one papers in this rich volume illustrate at length. Persianism underlies the notion of an East-West dichotomy that still pervades modern political rhetoric. In Antiquity and beyond, however, it also functioned in rather different ways, sometimes even as an alternative to Hellenism.
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Ancient History, Cultural History, Near Eastern Studies, Cultural Heritage, Hellenistic History, and 30 moreIranian Archaeology, Iranian Studies, Identity (Culture), History of Iran, World History, Cultural Identity, Achaemenid Persia, Iranian History, Ancient Near East, Sasanian History, Classical Reception Studies, Central Asia, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Persian Culture, Seleucid Empire, Turco-Iranian World, Qajar Persia, Achaemenid History, Reception of Antiquity, Middle East, Achaemenid archaeology, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Achaemenian Empire, Sasanian Empire, Achaemenid Art, Sasanian Archaeology, Persian Empire, Sasanian Rock Reliefs, and Persianism
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Middle East History, Hellenistic History, Colonialism, Ancient Near East, Seleucid Empire, and 10 moreEmpire, Ancient Near Eastern History, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Seleucid kingdom, Imperialism, Seleukid Empire, Hellenistic Iran, Antiochos I Soter, Antiochos III the Great, and Seleukos I Nikator
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Hellenistic History, History of Imperialism, Babylon, Seleucid Empire, Mesopotamian history, and 11 moreHellenistic Babylonia, Imperialism, Hellenistic Kingship, Seleukid Empire, Imperial Ideology, Antiochos I Soter, Seleukos I Nikator, Antiochus I Soter, Time Reckoning, Seleucus Nicator, and Imperial Time
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Rolf Strootman, ‘Strijd om Jeruzalem: de tijd van de Hasmoneeën, ca. 170-37 v.Chr.’, in: J. van den Bent and T. Hart eds., Jeruzalem, Jeroesjalajiem, Al-Quds: De heilige stad door de eeuwen heen. Zenobiareeks 7 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2020)... more
Rolf Strootman, ‘Strijd om Jeruzalem: de tijd van de Hasmoneeën, ca. 170-37 v.Chr.’, in: J. van den Bent and T. Hart eds., Jeruzalem, Jeroesjalajiem, Al-Quds: De heilige stad door de eeuwen heen. Zenobiareeks 7 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2020) 79–95.
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R. Strootman, ‘Antiochus IV Epiphanes: moordenaar, monster, malloot’, Hermeneus. Themanummer "foute heersers" 91.5 (2019) 196–200.
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R. Strootman, ‘De Slangenzuil op het Paardenplein’, in: F. Gerritsen and H. van der Heijden eds., Standplaats Istanbul. Lange lijnen in de cultuurgeschiedenis van Turkije (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Jurgen Maas, 2018) 21–29.
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R. Strootman, ‘De Perzische invasies van Lampas’, in: R. van den Berg, H. Koning, S. Luger, R. Risselada eds., Lampas revisited. Een halve eeuw klassieke vernieuwing. Lampas 50.3 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2017) 343–355.
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This article aims to understand the far-stretching imperial claims—"from the Hellespont to India"—made by Cleopatra VII at the "Donations of Alexandria" ceremony in 34 BCE, and her title Queen of Kings. It is argued that as the rightful,... more
This article aims to understand the far-stretching imperial claims—"from the Hellespont to India"—made by Cleopatra VII at the "Donations of Alexandria" ceremony in 34 BCE, and her title Queen of Kings. It is argued that as the rightful, matrilineal heir to the vanished Seleucid dynasty, Cleopatra VII and her son Caesarion possessed the necessary prestige to claim overlordship over the entire Middle East to give coherence to the Roman system of client states and rival the Parthian ruler’s claim to be the rightful King of Kings. Through Caesar’s and Mark Antony’s paternity of Cleopatra’s children, Hellenistic monarchy could thus be brought into the (republican) Roman orbit.
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This paper (in Dutch) places Alexander's universalism in the context of the tradition of universal empire that was current in the Ancient Near East. It is argued that Alexander's pothos, especially his urge to reach the edges of the earth... more
This paper (in Dutch) places Alexander's universalism in the context of the tradition of universal empire that was current in the Ancient Near East. It is argued that Alexander's pothos, especially his urge to reach the edges of the earth and "to go where no man has gone before", was a Greco-Macedonian rendering of a rather genuine, and age-old, ideology of empire: the claim to world unity in a single, peaceful empire protected by a single benevolent emperor. Tarn may have been right after all when he postulated that Alexander aimed at creating a "Unity of Mankind", as this was indeed a central notion in the contemporaneous Macedonian ideology and propaganda of empire.
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Summary: Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now counts as one of the best (anti-) war movies ever made, The aim of this article is to show how Classical mythology is employed in this film to represent and understand America’s Vietnam... more
Summary: Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now counts as one of the best (anti-) war movies ever made, The aim of this article is to show how Classical mythology is employed in this film to represent and understand America’s Vietnam War experience. Not only does Apocalypse Now contain various references to the Odyssey, the storyline itself is structured as a myth. In our article, we show how Coppola and his screenwriter John Milius used Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero With a Thousand Faces and James Frazer’s The Golden Bough to give their film a powerful mythological foundation. These mythological references add depth to the movie and are used to manipulate the audience's expectations. Thus the artistic accomplishment of Apocalypse Now demonstrates the enduring power of myth.
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Mythology, Film Studies, Literature and cinema, Film Analysis, Conrad, Joseph, and 12 moreFilm History, Vietnam War, Cinema, Greek Myth, Myth And Ritual Studies, Liturgics, Classical Mythology, Joseph Conrad, James George Frazer, Greek mythology, Francis Ford Coppola, Heart of Darkness, and Apocalypse Now
This article reviews debates on the transmission of Classical culture to the Islamic civilizations of the Middle Ages, referring also to the papers published in this special edition of Lampas. Starting with a discussion of the startling... more
This article reviews debates on the transmission of Classical culture to the Islamic civilizations of the Middle Ages, referring also to the papers published in this special edition of Lampas. Starting with a discussion of the startling appearance of Polyphemus-like creatures in the Turkic epic Kitabı Dede Korkut and in the Arabian Nights, the author finally focuses on the question whether Greek scientific knowledge was transmitted to the West via the Islamic world, and whether the possible dissemination of Greek science through Arab agency may have been instrumental in the development of the Scientific Revolution in seventeenth-century Europe.
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When the Ottoman ruler Mehmed II captured Constantinople in 1453, this legitimized his assumption of the universalistic title Kayser-i Rum—Emperor of the Roman Empire. It was more than window-dressing to appease the Christian majority... more
When the Ottoman ruler Mehmed II captured Constantinople in 1453, this legitimized his assumption of the universalistic title Kayser-i Rum—Emperor of the Roman Empire. It was more than window-dressing to appease the Christian majority among his subjects. The Roman notion of the world as empire—a political unity under a single ruler and, since the 4th Century CE, a single god—was a powerful political ideal that was deeply ingrained in popular belief and had become associated with the possession of Constantinople, the Imperial City. Thus the capture of the ‘Red Apple’ enabled the Ottoman dynasty to assume imperial pretensions, in defiance of the Mamluk rulers of Egypt and the Holy Roman Emperor in the West. This in turn allowed Mehmed’s successors to appropriate also the equally universalistic titles of padishah (Great King) and khalifa (Caliph, ruler of Islam). To strengthen his claims to world dominion—as well as, perhaps, for personal reasons—Mehmed moreover chose Alexander the Great for a role model.
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This paper traces changes and continuities in the "imperial landscape" of Constantinople after the Ottoman conquest (1453). It is shown how Mehmet II adopted an adapted the Romano-Byzantine ideology of universal rulership by reviving the... more
This paper traces changes and continuities in the "imperial landscape" of Constantinople after the Ottoman conquest (1453). It is shown how Mehmet II adopted an adapted the Romano-Byzantine ideology of universal rulership by reviving the ritual and monumental forms which in the Byzantine past had expressed Constaninople's status as the symbolic center of the world.
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The aim of this paper is to complicate the common understanding of the Ottoman attack on Constantinople in 1453 as a "clash of civilizations".
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Paper (in Dutch) on the early Silk Road. The main argument is that the trans-Asian land routes between China and the Mediterranean, known collectively as Silk Road, came into existence not only because of economic factors but also as the... more
Paper (in Dutch) on the early Silk Road. The main argument is that the trans-Asian land routes between China and the Mediterranean, known collectively as Silk Road, came into existence not only because of economic factors but also as the result of the imperialistic policies of the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Han rulers.
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An introducion to the Seleucid Empire and its historiographical problems. Short description of the politicized discussion of the "western" versus "eastern" nature of that state. Aimed at the general reader and undergraduate students. [In... more
An introducion to the Seleucid Empire and its historiographical problems. Short description of the politicized discussion of the "western" versus "eastern" nature of that state. Aimed at the general reader and undergraduate students. [In Dutch]
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‘Alexandria: A Cosmopolis’ is the opening article of a special issue of Lampas devoted entirely to the city of Alexandria in Egypt. The article discusses the founding and early development of Alexandria as an imperial capital. A... more
‘Alexandria: A Cosmopolis’ is the opening article of a special issue of Lampas devoted entirely to the city of Alexandria in Egypt. The article discusses the founding and early development of Alexandria as an imperial capital. A Mediterranean rather than an Egyptian city, Alexandria was the epicenter of a maritime empire that claimed control over areas as far removed as the Horn of Africa and the Black Sea. The article traces how Ptolemy I Soter and Ptolemy II Philadelphos endeavored to create an imperial center by presenting Alexandria as the heart of civilization and as a symbolic microcosm where the entire earth was put on a stage through the collection of knowledge, art objects, and exotic animals and plants. Royal monuments and monarchical ritual conveyed an image of the Ptolemaic ruler as omnipotent, infinitely rich, and all-knowing. Royal protection of the arts and sciences meanwhile established the Ptolemies as patrons of specifically Greek culture, besting in this respect their principal rivals in the struggle for world hegemony in the third century BCE, the Seleucids.
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"Paper (in Dutch) on the position of artists, scholars, scientist and writers at the early Ptolemaic court, discussing the reasons why Hellenistic poets, artists and scientists needed kings and vice versa. Hellenistic poetry was not l... more
"Paper (in Dutch) on the position of artists, scholars, scientist and writers at the early Ptolemaic court, discussing the reasons why Hellenistic poets, artists and scientists needed kings and vice versa. Hellenistic poetry was not l 'art pour l 'art.
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This paper, titled "The infidels and the faithful: Religious violence and cultural change in the time of the Maccabaeans", explores how the religious extremism propagated by the Makkabeans was a reaction to the transformation of Judean... more
This paper, titled "The infidels and the faithful: Religious violence and cultural change in the time of the Maccabaeans", explores how the religious extremism propagated by the Makkabeans was a reaction to the transformation of Judean society in the Hellenistic period. [In Dutch]
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Written for a special edition of Leidschrift on "Cultural interaction in history", this article discusses the causes of the Maccabaean Revolt, arguing that Antiochus Epiphanes did not direct his persecutions against Judean religion since... more
Written for a special edition of Leidschrift on "Cultural interaction in history", this article discusses the causes of the Maccabaean Revolt, arguing that Antiochus Epiphanes did not direct his persecutions against Judean religion since he cooperated with the Temple clergy who represented "orthodox" Jewish religion at that time. I also hope to have shown once more how in history conflicts, as a rule, escalate. [In Dutch]
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This is a brief overview of modern historiographic approaches to Alexander the Great. Taking the orientalistic tendencies in Oliver Stone's movie "Alexander" as a starting point, the author traces the ever-shifting attitudes towards the... more
This is a brief overview of modern historiographic approaches to Alexander the Great. Taking the orientalistic tendencies in Oliver Stone's movie "Alexander" as a starting point, the author traces the ever-shifting attitudes towards the Macedonian king from J.G. Droysen to the present, and shows how historians' views of Alexander are often determined by the prevailing political opinions of their own times. [In Dutch]
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This review article offers a brief historiographic overview of the changing approaches to Hellenistic history and culture from Droysen to the present, and the use and abuse of the term "hellenism". The author criticizes both of the two... more
This review article offers a brief historiographic overview of the changing approaches to Hellenistic history and culture from Droysen to the present, and the use and abuse of the term "hellenism". The author criticizes both of the two schools that at present dominate the debate: the traditional approach that views Hellenistic history as essentially Greek history and favours the romantic view that in this period the polis declined; and the new approach that emphasizes the continuity of both polis-culture and Near Eastern traditions, but tends to minimalize Greek influence in the East. [In Dutch]
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Historians studying the Ancien Régime have long recognised the importance of the royal court for the historical and cultural development of early modern Europe, especially the development of absolutism and the genesis of the European... more
Historians studying the Ancien Régime have long recognised the importance of the royal court for the historical and cultural development of early modern Europe, especially the development of absolutism and the genesis of the European state system. Ancient historians, however, rarely see the court as a crucial aspect of monarchy or state formation. In this article it is argued that the study of court culture and political ritual in the Hellenistic age will yield new insights in the nature of Hellenistic kingship and the working of imperial politics in the Hellenistic kingdoms. Besides giving a brief overview of relatively well-known aspects of Hellenistic court culture – namely aulic titulature and the significance of filia and xenia (which have been studied by respectively Léon Mooren and Gabriel Herman) – the author discusses various much lesser known aspects of Hellenistic court life, such as gift exchange, the importance of honour and status, courtly etiquette, courtly behaviour, internal conflicts and the role of ‘favourites’. It is also argued, against the now prevailing view, that culture at the Ptolemaic and Seleucid courts was predominantly Greek, and deliberately so: pan-Hellenic high culture functioned as a means to construct internal coherence among the courtiers, and tied together the multifarious regional and local elites in the empires of the Ptolemies and Seleucids. [In Dutch]
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Until the twentieth century, there has been no period in history in which women were so powerful in monarchical states on so regular a basis as the Hellenistic period: Olympias, Arsinoe Philadelphus, Laodice, Cleopatra Thea, Cleopatra... more
Until the twentieth century, there has been no period in history in which women were so powerful in monarchical states on so regular a basis as the Hellenistic period: Olympias, Arsinoe Philadelphus, Laodice, Cleopatra Thea, Cleopatra VII, Dynamis, and many many more. This lavishly illustrated online article reviews several possible explanations for the preponderance of women in the Macedonian empires. The author concludes that Hellenistic queenship came into being mainly because of traditional inheritance practices of the Macedonians in combination with the purely coincidental absence of competent royal men after the death of Alexander -- and the abundance of highly intelligent and ambitious royal women. [In Dutch]
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Bibliography of Hellenistic-period Babylonia (in progress; last updated May 2021).
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Bibliography of the Books of the Maccabees and the Maccabean War (in progress; last updated May 2021).
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Hellenistic History, History of Iran, Central Asia (History), Empires, History of Elites, and 13 moreIranian History, Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Bactria, Ancient Persia, Central Asia, Courts and Elites (History), Persian Culture, Seleucid Empire, Parthian Empire, Imperialism, Parthians, Hellenistic world, and Persianism
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Achaemenid Persia, Alexander the Great, Courts and Elites (History), Persian Culture, Court Culture, and 21 moreAchaemenid History, History of Ancient Macedonia, Ancient Greece (History), Ancient Caria, Ancient Lycia, Achaemenian Empire, Imperialism, Lykia, Lycia, Philip II of Macedonia, Caria, Hellenistic Kingship, Asia Minor, Karia, Macedonian archaeology, Hellenistic world, Hekatomnids, Argead Macedonia, Hecatomnids, Hecatomnides, and Persianism
"Dynastic Visual Culture(s) in the Seleukid World": paper given at the workshop Art Under the Seleukid Empire, convened by Peter Stewart and Rachel Wood, Oxford 28-29 September 2023.
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Lecture given at the Departmental Seminar of the Department of History and Art History, Utrecht University, 7 December 2022.
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"Cleopatra's Languages: Royal Ritual and Imperial Ideology in Late Ptolemaic Egypt". Powerpoint of a lecture given at the Twelfth Melammu Workshop on "Autocratic Rule in Antiquity", Kraków, October 5, 2021. The now finished full text will... more
"Cleopatra's Languages: Royal Ritual and Imperial Ideology in Late Ptolemaic Egypt". Powerpoint of a lecture given at the Twelfth Melammu Workshop on "Autocratic Rule in Antiquity", Kraków, October 5, 2021. The now finished full text will be published in a volume of Melammu proceedings edited by Edward Dąbrowa.
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Powerpoint of the introductory lecture to the panel "Gates and Gateways in the Ancient World" organized at the 13th Celtic Conference in Classics, Lyon, 21 July, 2022.
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Powerpoint of a lecture given at the workshop "Gates and Gateways in the Ancient World", 13th Celtic Conference in Classics, Lyon, 21 July, 2022.
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The Lost Valley of Iskander: Robert E. Howard, Colonialism, and the Search for Alexander in Afghanistan. Paper presented at the Fourth Meeting of the Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network "Entangled Pasts and Presents: Temporal... more
The Lost Valley of Iskander: Robert E. Howard, Colonialism, and the Search for Alexander in Afghanistan. Paper presented at the Fourth Meeting of the Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network "Entangled Pasts and Presents: Temporal Interactions and Knowledge Production in the Study of Hellenistic Central Asia", University of Freiburg March 24, 2022.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the entanglement of popular culture and archaeology. From the early nineteenth century, the conceptualization of ancient Greek culture as “western” stimulated a profound interest in the alleged influence of Hellenism on Central Asia and India among European scholars. Archaeologists in British India looked for Greek influence on early Buddhist art while explorers ventured into Afghanistan in search of archaeological traces of Alexander’s campaign. The travel accounts they published inspired fictional accounts, most prominently Rudyard Kipling’s 1888 story “The man who would be king”.
The development of the “lost city” theme in Victorian literature—found also famously in Rider Haggard’s colonial fantasies King Solomon’s Mines (1885) and She (1887)—went hand in hand with sensational archaeological discoveries by actual treasure hunters such as Henri Layard, Heinrich Schliemann, and Aurel Stein. Central Africa and Central Asia were the main loci for such stories, which in the latter case were closely connected to the colonial myth of Central Asian remoteness. The idea that a substantial Hellenistic legacy was yet to be discovered in dangerous and isolated mountain lands of Central Asia became widespread in western popular culture. This in turn, I argue, influenced scholarly interest and encouraged attempts to travel through Central Asia “in the footsteps of Alexander”—until finally a forgotten "Greek" city was actually uncovered at the site of Ai Khanoum.
My paper explores the topic of Alexander’s presumed hidden legacy in Afghanistan by focusing on a lesser known but paradigmatic adaptation of the theme: “The lost valley of Iskander”, an adventure story by American pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) set against the background of the Great Game. My paper highlights the colonialist and even racist ideas underlying the modern western appropriation of the so-called Greco-Baktrian kingdoms and the western obsession with finding the traces of Alexander in Afghanistan.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the entanglement of popular culture and archaeology. From the early nineteenth century, the conceptualization of ancient Greek culture as “western” stimulated a profound interest in the alleged influence of Hellenism on Central Asia and India among European scholars. Archaeologists in British India looked for Greek influence on early Buddhist art while explorers ventured into Afghanistan in search of archaeological traces of Alexander’s campaign. The travel accounts they published inspired fictional accounts, most prominently Rudyard Kipling’s 1888 story “The man who would be king”.
The development of the “lost city” theme in Victorian literature—found also famously in Rider Haggard’s colonial fantasies King Solomon’s Mines (1885) and She (1887)—went hand in hand with sensational archaeological discoveries by actual treasure hunters such as Henri Layard, Heinrich Schliemann, and Aurel Stein. Central Africa and Central Asia were the main loci for such stories, which in the latter case were closely connected to the colonial myth of Central Asian remoteness. The idea that a substantial Hellenistic legacy was yet to be discovered in dangerous and isolated mountain lands of Central Asia became widespread in western popular culture. This in turn, I argue, influenced scholarly interest and encouraged attempts to travel through Central Asia “in the footsteps of Alexander”—until finally a forgotten "Greek" city was actually uncovered at the site of Ai Khanoum.
My paper explores the topic of Alexander’s presumed hidden legacy in Afghanistan by focusing on a lesser known but paradigmatic adaptation of the theme: “The lost valley of Iskander”, an adventure story by American pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) set against the background of the Great Game. My paper highlights the colonialist and even racist ideas underlying the modern western appropriation of the so-called Greco-Baktrian kingdoms and the western obsession with finding the traces of Alexander in Afghanistan.
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Lecture at the Celtic Conference in Classic, Coimbra, 26-29 June 2019 (abstract).
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Lecture given at the Institut für Alte Geschichte und Altorientalistik, Universität Innsbruck (13 November 2019). The Old Persian imperial titles Great King and King of Kings (xšâyaθiya vazraka and xšâyaθiya xšâyaθiyânâm) disappeared... more
Lecture given at the Institut für Alte Geschichte und Altorientalistik, Universität Innsbruck (13 November 2019).
The Old Persian imperial titles Great King and King of Kings (xšâyaθiya vazraka and xšâyaθiya xšâyaθiyânâm) disappeared after the Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BCE. But ca. 125 years later, the title Great King returned in a Greek version: basileus megas. That title was adopted around 205 BCE by the Seleukid emperor Antiochos III and several of his successors. Antiochos III moreover was given the title of Megas, ‘the Great’, even before Alexander of Macedon was awarded that epithet. The adoption of these titles marked a major shift in Seleukid Imperial politics, and can i.a. be associated with the increasing significance of Iranian elites in the empire.
In the mid-second BCE, the Parthian ruler Mithradates I (who is also known as ‘the Great’) adopted the title of basileus megas, too. He did so after his conquest of media and Mesopotamia. The adoption of this title coincided with the introduction of a fundamentally different iconography on Parthian royal coinage. Not long afterwards, another Parthian king, Mithradates II, switched to the title King of Kings (basileus basileōn) – yet another major break with the immediate imperial past.
In this lecture we will investigate what these tiles signified, and how they can be related to political change. We will also look into the question how far these titles referred to earlier imperial dynasties, especially the Achaemenids.
The Old Persian imperial titles Great King and King of Kings (xšâyaθiya vazraka and xšâyaθiya xšâyaθiyânâm) disappeared after the Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BCE. But ca. 125 years later, the title Great King returned in a Greek version: basileus megas. That title was adopted around 205 BCE by the Seleukid emperor Antiochos III and several of his successors. Antiochos III moreover was given the title of Megas, ‘the Great’, even before Alexander of Macedon was awarded that epithet. The adoption of these titles marked a major shift in Seleukid Imperial politics, and can i.a. be associated with the increasing significance of Iranian elites in the empire.
In the mid-second BCE, the Parthian ruler Mithradates I (who is also known as ‘the Great’) adopted the title of basileus megas, too. He did so after his conquest of media and Mesopotamia. The adoption of this title coincided with the introduction of a fundamentally different iconography on Parthian royal coinage. Not long afterwards, another Parthian king, Mithradates II, switched to the title King of Kings (basileus basileōn) – yet another major break with the immediate imperial past.
In this lecture we will investigate what these tiles signified, and how they can be related to political change. We will also look into the question how far these titles referred to earlier imperial dynasties, especially the Achaemenids.
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The Seleukid Empire is conventionally seen as the successor state of the Achaemenid Empire. But there is in fact nothing in the Seleukids’ self-presentation to suggest that they themselves thought so, too. On the contrary, in the third... more
The Seleukid Empire is conventionally seen as the successor state of the Achaemenid Empire. But there is in fact nothing in the Seleukids’ self-presentation to suggest that they themselves thought so, too. On the contrary, in the third century BCE, their attitude towards the Achaemenids—as well as Alexander, for that matter—was one of damnatio memoriae. Yet because of repeated intermarriage with (non-Achaemenid) Iranian dynasties and the large-scale recruitment of Iranian troops for the imperial armies, it can be said that the Seleukid Empire was to a large extent an Iranian polity. This was not lost on their enemies, the Ptolemies and subsequently the Romans, who in their propaganda presented the Seleukids as the "New Persians". Perhaps in reaction to this, the memory of Persian kingship attained a more positive slant in the context of the gradual "vassalization" of the Seleukid Near East. This is expressed e.g. by the Persianism of (former) Seleukid vassal dynasties such as the Arsakids of Parthia, the Fratarakā of Persis and the Orontids of Kommagene.
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Paper read at the panel “The Long Third Century BC”, 11th Celtic Conference in Classics, University of St Andrews, 11–14th July 2018.
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Panel at the 11th Celtic Conference in Classics.
University of St Andrews, 11-14th July 2018.
Organized by Eran Almagor, Timothy Howe & B. Antela-Bernárdez
University of St Andrews, 11-14th July 2018.
Organized by Eran Almagor, Timothy Howe & B. Antela-Bernárdez
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Lecture at the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World (UCLA), January 10, 2018.
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Abstract of a paper presented at the international conference "The Benefits of Office: Privilege and Loyalty in the Ancient Mediterranean", at the Free University of Amsterdam, May 30-31, 2017.
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Lecture given at the conference "Religious Interactions in the Hellenistic World", Oxford, March 18, 2017. In the Seleukid Empire, king and court interacted with local communities by protecting local and regional sanctuaries. Moreover,... more
Lecture given at the conference "Religious Interactions in the Hellenistic World", Oxford, March 18, 2017.
In the Seleukid Empire, king and court interacted with local communities by protecting local and regional sanctuaries. Moreover, the king and his itinerant court regularly visited cities. During such visits, the king personally participated in local cults, providing offerings and often performing the crucial act of sacrificing to a community’s principal deity. The religious sphere thus became a major contact zone for localized elites and the dynastic court: sanctuaries constituted ‘middle grounds’ where people could interact under the impartial supervision of a collectively recognized divine power, having accepted in advance certain ritualized modes of behavior.
Using globalization theory and a network approach to empire, this paper aims to investigate the impact of these local-imperial interactions on the development of religious cults and beliefs in the Near East, and on the wide distribution of certain deities and cult practices among the culturally diverse populations of the empire.
In the Seleukid Empire, king and court interacted with local communities by protecting local and regional sanctuaries. Moreover, the king and his itinerant court regularly visited cities. During such visits, the king personally participated in local cults, providing offerings and often performing the crucial act of sacrificing to a community’s principal deity. The religious sphere thus became a major contact zone for localized elites and the dynastic court: sanctuaries constituted ‘middle grounds’ where people could interact under the impartial supervision of a collectively recognized divine power, having accepted in advance certain ritualized modes of behavior.
Using globalization theory and a network approach to empire, this paper aims to investigate the impact of these local-imperial interactions on the development of religious cults and beliefs in the Near East, and on the wide distribution of certain deities and cult practices among the culturally diverse populations of the empire.
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Lecture from the BA course "Introduction to Ancient History", Utrecht University 2017.
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Lecture given at York University, Toronto, March 9, 2017.
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Before the European maritime powers attained global dominance after ca. 1750 CE, China and the Mediterranean where connected by land via an intricate system of connected cities. Although peoples, goods and ideas had moved around the world... more
Before the European maritime powers attained global dominance after ca. 1750 CE, China and the Mediterranean where connected by land via an intricate system of connected cities. Although peoples, goods and ideas had moved around the world since Prehistory, it was particularly during the second half of the First Millennium BCE that enduring connections and standardized modes of intercultural communication were first established: the networks that from the 19th-century became known as the Silk Road.
This period of enormously increased connectivity between east and west coincides with the emergence of the first world empires in central Eurasia. Between ca. 550 and 150 BCE, the Achaemenid and Seleukid dynasties united in a single hegemonial system the urbanized core of Eurasia’s “Lucky Latitudes”, facilitating direct economic and cultural exchanges from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. This lecture focuses on the question how these empires succeeded in integrating disparate societies over large geographical distances. Specifically we will look at the pivotal role of the mobile royal court with its ritualized modes of behavior for the creation of political and cultural cohesion.
This period of enormously increased connectivity between east and west coincides with the emergence of the first world empires in central Eurasia. Between ca. 550 and 150 BCE, the Achaemenid and Seleukid dynasties united in a single hegemonial system the urbanized core of Eurasia’s “Lucky Latitudes”, facilitating direct economic and cultural exchanges from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. This lecture focuses on the question how these empires succeeded in integrating disparate societies over large geographical distances. Specifically we will look at the pivotal role of the mobile royal court with its ritualized modes of behavior for the creation of political and cultural cohesion.
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Globalization, Silk Road, Silk Road Studies, Ancient Near East, Courts and Elites (History), and 11 moreBabylon, Seleucid Empire, Court history, Jerusalem, Imperialism, Achaemenid Empire, History of the Silk Road, Ancient Globalization, Origins of the Silk Road, Premodern Globalization, and Globalization in World History
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This paper takes as its point of departure the Roman elements in Antiochos IV’s procession at Daphne in c. 165 BC. It will revisit the alleged aim of rivaling the festival celebrated by Paullus at Amphipolis sometime before. I argue that... more
This paper takes as its point of departure the Roman elements in Antiochos IV’s procession at Daphne in c. 165 BC. It will revisit the alleged aim of rivaling the festival celebrated by Paullus at Amphipolis sometime before. I argue that Antiochos after his two Egyptian campaigns no longer was in awe of Rome, and that he was conducting (or preparing to conduct) a policy of imperial restoration aimed not only at Iran and Central Asia, but at Asia Minor and Greece as well. The aggressive dynamics of Seleukid imperialism, and the ferocious interstate competition that characterized the world of the Hellenistic dynasties, left no room for balances of power or voluntary admittance of secondary political status: Antiochos still had behind him the vast military and financial resources of Asia.
The Daphne Procession conveyed to an audience of ambassadors sent by the Aegean poleis a confident image of a most powerful, military successful and universalist empire capable of resuming its role as protector of Greek freedom. At the heart of the procession was the probable self-presentation of King Antiochos, Theos Epiphanes, as the New Dionysos—the victorious conqueror god who brings happiness to the West.
Taken together with the king's imperial activities in Asia Minor and mainland Greece, and his open disregard of the military clauses of the Treaty of Apameia, these ideological “messages” add up to the likelihood that Antiochos was aiming to restore Seleukid power in the Aegean region—the 5,000 Roman-style infantrymen marching at Daphne may have been incorporated into the Seleukid main army in consideration of a possible military confrontation with Rome.
The Daphne Procession conveyed to an audience of ambassadors sent by the Aegean poleis a confident image of a most powerful, military successful and universalist empire capable of resuming its role as protector of Greek freedom. At the heart of the procession was the probable self-presentation of King Antiochos, Theos Epiphanes, as the New Dionysos—the victorious conqueror god who brings happiness to the West.
Taken together with the king's imperial activities in Asia Minor and mainland Greece, and his open disregard of the military clauses of the Treaty of Apameia, these ideological “messages” add up to the likelihood that Antiochos was aiming to restore Seleukid power in the Aegean region—the 5,000 Roman-style infantrymen marching at Daphne may have been incorporated into the Seleukid main army in consideration of a possible military confrontation with Rome.
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The introduction of Hellenic cults in Seleucid Syria: Colonial appropriation and transcultural exchange. Rolf Strootman, University of Utrecht The Amuq Plain in what is now the Turkish province of Hatay once was a core region in the... more
The introduction of Hellenic cults in Seleucid Syria: Colonial appropriation and transcultural exchange.
Rolf Strootman, University of Utrecht
The Amuq Plain in what is now the Turkish province of Hatay once was a core region in the Seleuckid imperial system in the Near East. Strategically located at the crossroads of Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia and Syria, this was one of the areas where the Seleukid dynasty concentrated its colonizing efforts. The region was transformed into an ‘imperial landscape’ not only through settlements (notably Antioch-on-the-Orontes and Seleukeia-in-Pieria) and dynastic toponyms (Pieria, Seleukis), but also through the establishment of religious cults that linked this country to a Greek ‘motherland’ and was thus instrumental in the creation of a common identity for the newly established communities. However, the Amuq region was no empty land when Greek settlers first arrived there in the wake of the Macedonian conquest. Various sources suggest that indigenous cults already in place were adapted by the colonizers to chime in with the new ‘colonial’ topography. This in turn is suggestive of a process of transcultural interaction in the establishment of empire in the Amuq Plain region in the third Century BCE rather than a one-sided imposition of ‘Hellenism’.
Rolf Strootman, University of Utrecht
The Amuq Plain in what is now the Turkish province of Hatay once was a core region in the Seleuckid imperial system in the Near East. Strategically located at the crossroads of Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia and Syria, this was one of the areas where the Seleukid dynasty concentrated its colonizing efforts. The region was transformed into an ‘imperial landscape’ not only through settlements (notably Antioch-on-the-Orontes and Seleukeia-in-Pieria) and dynastic toponyms (Pieria, Seleukis), but also through the establishment of religious cults that linked this country to a Greek ‘motherland’ and was thus instrumental in the creation of a common identity for the newly established communities. However, the Amuq region was no empty land when Greek settlers first arrived there in the wake of the Macedonian conquest. Various sources suggest that indigenous cults already in place were adapted by the colonizers to chime in with the new ‘colonial’ topography. This in turn is suggestive of a process of transcultural interaction in the establishment of empire in the Amuq Plain region in the third Century BCE rather than a one-sided imposition of ‘Hellenism’.
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Nishapur, Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Kashgar, Dunhuang – de namen van de vele steden langs de Zijderoute spreken nog altijd tot de verbeelding. Maar wat was de Zijderoute eigenlijk? Een lezing over de oorsprong en de historische... more
Nishapur, Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Kashgar, Dunhuang – de namen van de vele steden langs de Zijderoute spreken nog altijd tot de verbeelding. Maar wat was de Zijderoute eigenlijk? Een lezing over de oorsprong en de historische betekenis van de lange trans-Aziatische landroute die in de oudheid en de middeleeuwen China met de Middellandse Zee verbond.
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From the conquests of Seleukos Nikator, Seleukid rulers could claim to be the imperial overlords of the Near East and Iran, as indeed there is there is ample evidence that in their monarchical representation they considered themselves... more
From the conquests of Seleukos Nikator, Seleukid rulers could claim to be the imperial overlords of the Near East and Iran, as indeed there is there is ample evidence that in their monarchical representation they considered themselves heirs to the age-old Near Eastern ideal of universal monarchy. But when the Seleukid dynasty began to lose power and charisma in the Second Century BCE, to finally disappear from the political scene virtually unnoticed in c. 64, a plethora of new claims to the ‘Great Kingship’ were made, i.a. by the Parthian Arsakids, the Mithradatids of Pontos, the Ptolemies, and, curiously, by Antiochos I of the small vassal kingdom of Kommagene, whose royal house had been bound to the imperial center, as Seleukid vassal dynasties often were, by means of dynastic marriage, viz. kinship ties. It is my contention that whereas the Arsakids claimed the title by right of victory, the various western Great Kings (and one Queen of Kings) did so by right of inheritance. In my paper I will use Antiochos’ presentation of his royal ancestors in the dynastic sanctuary on Nemrut Dağı as a guide to argue—contrary to the prevailing view that claims to the title of Great King in the First Century BCE were no more than a form of Persian revivalism—that (1) the ontological idea of universal monarchy had always been a pivotal element of Seleukid rule, (2) that with the demise of the Seleukids in the patriline new claims to the imperial title were made on the basis of matrilineal descent, and (3) that this was made possible by the extraordinarily important role that Seleukid royal women had in transmitting the inheritance and the royal title.
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"This paper further develops the hypothesis that was first put forward in my PhD thesis The Hellenistic Royal Courts (2007) pp. 309-313, that the festival celebrated by Antiochos IV Epiphanes at Daphne near Antioch somewhere in the 160s... more
"This paper further develops the hypothesis that was first put forward in my PhD thesis The Hellenistic Royal Courts (2007) pp. 309-313, that the festival celebrated by Antiochos IV Epiphanes at Daphne near Antioch somewhere in the 160s BCE was a New Year Festival. Basically, three things are argued:
1. There are several indications that the cult and sanctuary at Daphne had pre-Hellenistic roots. Specifically the festival celebrated by Antiochos IV may go back to a local Syrian new year celebration; for instance the fact that "all the gods" in the form of statues went in procession to Daphne to attend the festival points in this direction.
2. The strange behavior of the "mad king" Antiochos, who according to Polybios and Diodoros behaved in a distinctly un-kingly (!) fashion, becomes more intelligible when interpreted as a ritual of reversal, which in the Near East was traditionally performed by the king during new year celebrations.
3. A Hellenic feature that perhaps was added, was the fact that the king may have been impersonating Dionysos, the Hellenistic royal god "par excellence" who as the harbinger of an age of light and joy, and who was also connected with the New Year.
The argument is not so much based on a comparison with the Babylonian Akitu Festival but endeavors to adduce Syrian and other closer-by Levantine parallels. On the other hand, invention of tradition can not be excluded: it seems clear that King Antiochos transformed this local festival into an imperial festival, in which case influence from Babylonia becomes a possibility.
"
1. There are several indications that the cult and sanctuary at Daphne had pre-Hellenistic roots. Specifically the festival celebrated by Antiochos IV may go back to a local Syrian new year celebration; for instance the fact that "all the gods" in the form of statues went in procession to Daphne to attend the festival points in this direction.
2. The strange behavior of the "mad king" Antiochos, who according to Polybios and Diodoros behaved in a distinctly un-kingly (!) fashion, becomes more intelligible when interpreted as a ritual of reversal, which in the Near East was traditionally performed by the king during new year celebrations.
3. A Hellenic feature that perhaps was added, was the fact that the king may have been impersonating Dionysos, the Hellenistic royal god "par excellence" who as the harbinger of an age of light and joy, and who was also connected with the New Year.
The argument is not so much based on a comparison with the Babylonian Akitu Festival but endeavors to adduce Syrian and other closer-by Levantine parallels. On the other hand, invention of tradition can not be excluded: it seems clear that King Antiochos transformed this local festival into an imperial festival, in which case influence from Babylonia becomes a possibility.
"
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In the heart of Istanbul, on the site of the former Hippodrome, stand the remains of the Serpent Column, one of the most ancient and most enigmatic monuments in the city: three intertwined snakes (or one three-headed snake) made of... more
In the heart of Istanbul, on the site of the former Hippodrome, stand the remains of the Serpent Column, one of the most ancient and most enigmatic monuments in the city: three intertwined snakes (or one three-headed snake) made of bronze, their now lost heads raised watchfully towards the continents Europe, Asia and Africa. Set up as a votive offering in Greece’s most sacred site, Delphi, the column originally commemorated Greek triumph in the Second Persian War (480-479 BCE). This powerful icon of victory couched in pagan principles of cosmology was brought to Constantinople in the Fourth Century CE to become an emblem of the universal rule of the Christian Roman emperor. Various sacral and magical properties have been attributed to it through the ages by pagans, Christians, Muslims and Jews. The Serpent Column most of all became an apotropaic talisman safeguarding Constantinople from poisonous snakes and even epidemic disease. This paper will focus on the background of the latter tradition, and examine the possible association of the column with the Mosaic brazen serpent of Numbers 21:4-9 in both Jewish and Christian traditions.
It is still possible to register for the annual meeting of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of the Near East (NINO), Urecht, January 26, 2023. This year's theme is "Othering & Identity in the Ancient Near East", with live lectures... more
It is still possible to register for the annual meeting of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of the Near East (NINO), Urecht, January 26, 2023. This year's theme is "Othering & Identity in the Ancient Near East", with live lectures by Céline Deboursese, Ilan Peled, Milinda Hoo, Marike van Aerde, Lucinda Dirven, Korshi Dosoo, and Bert van der Spek.
To register and to view the program and speakers' abstracts, visit https://www.nino-leiden.nl/event/4th-nino-annual-meeting-othering-identity.
To register and to view the program and speakers' abstracts, visit https://www.nino-leiden.nl/event/4th-nino-annual-meeting-othering-identity.
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Original English version of R. Strootman, Regalità e vita di corte in età ellenistica’, in: M. Mari ed., L’età ellenistica. Società, politica, cultura (Rome: Carocci Editore, 2019) 133–144.
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Feasting and commensality formed the backbone of social life in the polis, the most characteristic and enduring form of political organization in the ancient Greek world. Exploring a wide array of commensal practices, Feasting and Polis... more
Feasting and commensality formed the backbone of social life in the polis, the most characteristic and enduring form of political organization in the ancient Greek world. Exploring a wide array of commensal practices, Feasting and Polis Institutions reveals how feasts defined the religious and political institutions of the Greek citizen-state.
Taking the reader from the Early Iron Age to the Imperial Period, this volume launches an essential inquiry into Greek power relations. Focusing on the myriad of patronage roles at the feast and making use of a wide variety of methodologies and primary sources, including archaeology, epigraphy and literature, Feasting and Polis Institutions argues that in ancient Greece political interaction could never be complete until it was consummated in a festive context.
Taking the reader from the Early Iron Age to the Imperial Period, this volume launches an essential inquiry into Greek power relations. Focusing on the myriad of patronage roles at the feast and making use of a wide variety of methodologies and primary sources, including archaeology, epigraphy and literature, Feasting and Polis Institutions argues that in ancient Greece political interaction could never be complete until it was consummated in a festive context.
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Modern ideas about European identity have profoundly informed the historiography of the Hellenistic World. Thus, the Seleukid Empire (c. 312/11-64/3) has been rendered a product of "Classical" civilization, an "Oriental" state, and of... more
Modern ideas about European identity have profoundly informed the historiography of the Hellenistic World. Thus, the Seleukid Empire (c. 312/11-64/3) has been rendered a product of "Classical" civilization, an "Oriental" state, and of course an empire "between East and West". In these simplifications, Greece is usually seen in opposition to a more or less amorphous (Near) East, where the latter has recently been presented as essentially static through the emphasis on the continuity and pureness of alleged indigenous culture during the Hellenistic period. The West by contrast is conceptualized as either more dynamic and more advanced than the East, or as intrusive, oppressive and colonialist.
This paper reviews the various ways in which a modernist East-West dichotomy has distorted historical interpretations of the Hellenistic world. The conventional equation of the Seleukid Empire with a European nation state by ascribing to it such modern features as official borders, average population density, a capital, an impersonal centralized administration, and so forth, is also discussed. As a new avenue of research, it is proposed to see ancient empires not as rigidly structured “states” but as dynamic, negotiated enterprises and flexible networks of personal relations centered on the dynasty and the court, and thereby to hook up with the Imperial Turn in World History.
Written in 2011; revised version 2012. Unpublished: peer reviewers' reactions to this paper were so hostile that I decided to see it as unpublishable in an academic journal (though times may now have changed in favor of a more nuanced view of culture and identity in the so-called Hellenistic World), as well as a more inclusive view of Classics and Ancient History, one in which the Near East, Iran, and Central Asia/India, as well as East Africa, are no longer viewed as peripheral to the Ancient World.
This paper reviews the various ways in which a modernist East-West dichotomy has distorted historical interpretations of the Hellenistic world. The conventional equation of the Seleukid Empire with a European nation state by ascribing to it such modern features as official borders, average population density, a capital, an impersonal centralized administration, and so forth, is also discussed. As a new avenue of research, it is proposed to see ancient empires not as rigidly structured “states” but as dynamic, negotiated enterprises and flexible networks of personal relations centered on the dynasty and the court, and thereby to hook up with the Imperial Turn in World History.
Written in 2011; revised version 2012. Unpublished: peer reviewers' reactions to this paper were so hostile that I decided to see it as unpublishable in an academic journal (though times may now have changed in favor of a more nuanced view of culture and identity in the so-called Hellenistic World), as well as a more inclusive view of Classics and Ancient History, one in which the Near East, Iran, and Central Asia/India, as well as East Africa, are no longer viewed as peripheral to the Ancient World.
Research Interests:
Hellenistic History, Historiography, Post-Colonialism, Hellenistic Historiography, Iranian History, and 15 moreAncient Near East, History of Historiography, Classical Reception Studies, Hellenism, Seleucid Empire, Empire, Orientalism, Seleucid kingdom, Imperialism, Europe, Seleucids, Hellenistic world, Seleukid Empire, Colonialism and Imperialism, and Inclusive Classics
R. Strootman, ‘The introduction of Hellenic cults in Seleukid Syria: Colonial appropriation and transcultural exchange in the creation of an imperial landscape’, forthcoming in: H. Bru and A. Dumitru eds., Colonial Geopolitics and Local... more
R. Strootman, ‘The introduction of Hellenic cults in Seleukid Syria: Colonial appropriation and transcultural exchange in the creation of an imperial landscape’, forthcoming in: H. Bru and A. Dumitru eds., Colonial Geopolitics and Local Cultures in the Hellenistic and Roman East (IIIrd Century B.C.–IIIrd century A.D.).
Research Interests:
R. Strootman, ‘The Great Kings of Asia: Universalistic titulature in the Seleukid and post-Seleukid East’, forthcoming in: R. Oetjen and F. X. Ryan eds., Seleukeia: Studies in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics in Honor of... more
R. Strootman, ‘The Great Kings of Asia: Universalistic titulature in the Seleukid and post-Seleukid East’, forthcoming in: R. Oetjen and F. X. Ryan eds., Seleukeia: Studies in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics in Honor of Getzel M. Cohen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019 [in press]).
Research Interests:
Paper presented at the 3rd Seleucid Study Day, Université de Bordeaux III, September 6, 2012.