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Parthian shot
(103 words)

[German version]

A hail of arrows fired backwards by mounted Parthian archers while pretending to flee (cf. Just. Epit. 41,2,7: “saepe etiam fugam simulant, ut incautiores adversum vulnera insequentes habeant” ("often, too, they pretend flight, that they may make their pursuers less careful of being wounded"). There are also depictions of the Parthian shot, for instance on Chinese reliefs from the Han period (206 BC to AD 220).

Bibliography

1 H. von Gall, Das Reiterkampfbild in der iranischen und iranisch beeinflußten Kunst parthischer und sas…

Cite this page
Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel), “Parthian shot”, in: Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 28 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e909160>
First published online: 2006
First print edition: 9789004122598, 20110510



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