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[German version] (Παρθία/ Parthía Plut. Antonius 55; Παρθυαία/ Parthyaía Pol. 5,44,4; Str. 11,9,1; Παρθυηνή/ Parthyēnḗ, distinct from the Parthian Empire Pol. 10,28,7; Str. 11,9,1; Ancient Persian Par θ ava-). Territory south east of the Caspian Sea, bonded to the west by Media, in the north west by Hyrcania, in the east by Margiana (by the Parthian territory of Apauarktikene/Apavortene) and Areia [1]. P.'s geography is dictated by two chains of mountains, the Kopet Dag to the north (along the modern frontier between Iran and Turkmenistan) and the Bīnālū…

[German version] (Τιρίβαζος/ Tiríbazos), Achaemenid satrap in Armenia, who rescued Artaxerxes [2] II at Cunaxa (in 401 BC) and allowed the Greek mercenaries free passage (Xen. Anab. 4,4,4 f.; 18; Plut. Artaxerxes 7 and 10; Diod. Sic. 14,27,7). As káranos (governor-general of the western satrapies) in Asia Minor (and probably also satrap in Sardeis), in 392 BC he referred Athenian and Spartan envoys to the great king, helped Antalcidas construct a fleet and captured Conon [1] (Xen. Hell. 4,8,12 ff.; Diod. Sic. 14,85,4). Temporari…

(Πνυταγόρας; Pnytagóras). [German version] [1] Greek politician from Cyprus Son of Evagoras [1] of Salamis in Cyprus. P. helped his father in the rebellion against the Persians and after the sea battle of  Citium (381 BC) defended Salamis (Isoc. or. 9,62; Diod. 15,4), which was under siege. Father and son are supposed to have had relations with the daughter of Nicocreon [1], and both were murdered by the eunuch Thrasydaeus  (Theop. FGrH 115 F 103,12; Aristot. Pol. 5,1311b 4ff.). Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography F.G. Maier, Cyprus and Phoenicia, in: CAH 6, 21994, 297-336. …

[German version] (Γῆλαι / Gēlai, Str. 11,5,1, cf. 11,7,1; 11,8,1; Γηλύς / Gēlýs, Steph. Byz. s.v. Γ.; Γηλοί / Gēloí, Dionys. Per. 1019 [GGM II, 167]). Median tribe of Scythian origins, first mentioned by Strabo (according to Theophanes of Mytilene), who inhabited the south-western shores of the Caspian Sea. Some ancient authors (Plin. HN 6,48; Ptol. 6,2,5) identified them with the  Cadusii. The tribe's name lives on in the region's (or rather the Sassanid province's) modern name of Gı̄lān (middle Persian Gēlān). Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography R. Gyselen, La géographie a…

[German version] (Μασίστιος; Masístios). According to Hdt. 7,79, son of Siromitres, a Persian cavalry commander killed at Plataeae in 479 BC (Hdt. 9,20-22; Plut. Aristides 14; Diod. Sic. 11,30,4). The Athenians dedicated the armour of the ‘Persian most highly regarded after Mardonius by king and people’ (Hdt. 9,24) to Athena Polias (Paus. 1,27,1). Persian Wars Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel)

(also Μεγάβυξος/ Megábyxos, Hdt. Μεγάβυζος/ Megábyzos < Old Persian Bagabuxša, Elamite Ba-ka-bu-uk-šá). [German version] [1] Distinguished Persian, conspirator against Gaumata Distinguished Persian, son of Dātūvahya (according to Hdt. 3,153 father of Zopyrus), He conspired with Darius [1] I against Gaumāta/Smerdis ([2. DB IV 85], Hdt. 3,70 passim). Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) [German version] [2] Son of Zopyrus, commander under Xerxes According to Hdt. son of Zopyrus (and hence grandson of M. [1]). Commander under Xerxes in his Greek campaign (Hdt. 7,82; 1…

[German version] ( Iṣṭaxr, modern Taxt-i Ṭāʾūs). Site of ancient ruins located in Persis (Fārs) on the road from Iṣfahān to Shīrāz, at  Naqš-e Rostam; having been populated since prehistoric times, a fire sanctuary for  Anāhitā - according to Arabic tradition - was subsequently located there (archaeological investigations cannot prove this); Sāsān, the eponym of the  Sassanid Dynasty, is supposed to have been its priest. Inscriptions, finds of coins, seal legends, and literary accounts clearly show th…

[German version] ('Old Šīrāz', modern Mādar-e Sulaimān), 7 km south-east of Šīrāz (Fars); essentially a late Sāssānid and early Islamic complex (5th-9th cents.). Three Achaemenid stone portals, which aroused great attention from travellers as early as the 19th cent., proved to be parts of the palace of Darius in Persepolis which had been brought to Q. to decorate much later buildings (they have since been returned to their original place). In the Achaemenid era, Q. is probably to be identified with th…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Hellenistic states | Hellenistic states (Φράασπα/ Phráaspa: Steph. Byz.; Φράατα/ Phráata: Plut. Antonius 38,2; Πράασπα/ Práaspa: Cass. Dio 49, 25,3; identical to Οὐέρα/ Ouéra = Vera: Str. 11,13,3). Probably a citadel in the city of Gaza(ka) in Media Atropatene (near modern Laylān on Lake Urmia?), Antony's [I 9] base in the Parthian campaign in 36 BC; not identical to Šīs. Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography 1 M. Schottky, Media Atropatene und Groß-Armenien in hellenistischer Zeit, 1989, Index s.v.

[German version] (Ὠρεῖται/ Ōreîtai, also Ὦροι/ Ôroi). Not an Indian ethnic group (cf. Arr. Ind. 21,8; 22,10; 25,2; incorrectly  Arr. Anab. 6,21,3) but probably an Iranian ethnic group with the centre at Rhambakeia (Arr. Anab. 6,21,5; probably close to modern Las Bela) in the modern Pakistani province of Baluchistan. According to Arr. Anab. 6,21,3, the O. lived fully autonomously before Alexander [4] the Great subjugated them in 325 BC and placed them under the control of the satrap Apollophanes. Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography P.H.L. Eggermont, Alexander's Campaigns in Si…

[German version] A place in the Iranian province of Īlām near the Iraqi border, named after Šīrīn (Shirin), the Christian wife of the Sassanid Ḫusrau II (Chosroes [6]; 591-628). In the Islamic period, Q. was an important town on the trading and pilgrimage route from Hamadān to Baghdad. On the eastern edge of the city a large fire sanctuary (?) (Çahār Tāq) is located, and north of it, on an 8 m high terrace, a palace complex attributed to Ḫusrau II (Imārat-e Ḫusrau), 370 × 190 m in size. The entire complex should be pictured as part of a park ( parádeisos ) in Antiquity. Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) B…

[German version] (Παραιτακηνή/ Paraitakēnḗ; inhabitants: Παρητακηνοί/ Par ētakēnoí, among others Hdt. 1,101 and Παραιτάκαι/ Paraitálai, Arr. Anab. 3,19,2). Mountainous area in western Iran, enclosed in the north and east by Media, Areia [1] and Carmania and in the south-west by Susiana. Str. describes the Paraitakēnoí as marauding mountain people (15,3,12). Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel)

[German version] (Καρδοῦχοι; Kardoûchoi). First mentioned by Xenophon (Xen. An. 3,5,15 and passim), a mountain people living in the northernmost foothills of the  Zagrus, the Καρδούχεια ὄρη (Diod. Sic. 14,27,4). Xenophon describes the C. as living in villages and cultivating the fields, growing wine and raising cattle, as well as doing craftwork. He particularly emphasizes their military significance as archers and catapult shooters. Whilst in the Greek reports it is mainly the (‘natural’) aggression of the…

[German version] A. The conception of childhood and attitude towards the child In antiquity, numerous terms for the child (in literature, legal language etc.) distinguish stages of childhood (βρέφος/ bréphos, παιδίον/ paidíon, παῖς/ paîs; Lat. infans, puer), stress the different significance of the child to each of its parents ( pais/ téknon) or the child's unfitness to be held guilty or responsible before the law ( infans, impuber); some of these terms possess a broad spectrum of meaning [6. 12-22]. In the dichotomy of childhood and adulthood as observed in both Greece an…

[German version] (Σισύγαμβις/ Sisýgambis, in Diodorus mostly Σισύγγαμβρις/ Sisýngambris). Daughter of Ostanes, a brother of Artaxerxes [2] II, sister and wife of Arsames [2] (Diod. Sic.17,5,5), as well as the mother of Darius [3] III. In 333 BC, after the battle of Issus she fell into the hands of Alexander [4] the Great (Arr. Anab. 2,11,9; Plut. Alexander 21; Curt. 3,11,24) and was treated with deference by him (cf. her rescue of the rebellious Uxians: Curt. 5,3,12 ff.). She stayed behind with Prince O…

[German version] (Ὑρκανία; Hyrkanía < old Persian varkāna-, ‘Wolf's Land’; middle Persian gurgān). Historically and geographically important region of Iran (inhabitants: Ὑρκάνιοι, Ὑρκανοί, Hyrcani) on the south-east corner of the Caspian Sea (Hecataeus FGrH 1 F 291: Ὑρκανίη θάλασσα); it is shielded in the south and south-east by the eastern wing of the Elburz mountains and opens up to the north-east to the Aralo-Caspian steppe. It was favoured climatically as well as naturally by the precipitation raining down on th…

[German version] Border territory of Media, opposite Parthyene east of the Caspian Gates (the modern territory of Dāmghān). Although it had already been lost for a period to the Seleucids before the eastern campaign ( anábasis) of  Antiochus [5] III, it did not finally fall to the Parthians (along with its central town of  Hecatompylus) until the 2nd cent. BC (cf. Str. 11,9,1). In the late Sassanid period the province ( šahr) Kōmiš, which incidentally was probably never a Christian diocese [1], separated the provinces of Gurgān and Ray. Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography 1 R. Gysel…

[German version] Fertile and densely settled area in Sogdiana, mentioned only in Curt. 8,2,14 as "bordering Scythia." The location and region are today identified with Erkurgan and its surrounding area near Karshi in the plain of the River Qashqadaryo in Uzbekistan. At the approach of Alexander [4]  the Great in the winter of 329/8 BC the inhabitants of X. expelled the Bactrians (Bactria) that had defected from the Macedonians and sought refuge in their land. Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography 1 F. Grenet, Zoroastre au Badakhshân, in: Studia Iranica 31, 2002, 193-214 2 C. Rapin, …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Xenophon | Alexander Large village (κώμη μεγάλη, probably modern Tall Gōmil near Ǧabal Maqlūb, 35 km north-east of Mosul) on the river Bumelos in northern Mesopotamia (Arr. Anab. 6,11,6), near which (cf. Arr. Anab. 3,8,7) the battle between  Alexander [4] the Great and  Darius [3] III took place on 1 October 331 (Arr. Anab. 3,11-15; Curt. 4,13,26-16; Plut. Alexander 31-33; Diod. Sic. 17,56-61; Iust. 11,14). After Alexander stalled a flanking manoe…

[German version] Region in north-western Iran, in Neo-Assyrian records referred to as KUR Ma-da-a-a. The borders of M. changed in the course of history and cannot be defined exactly in geographical terms; its political centre was Ecbatana. In historical times, the ethnolinguistic classification of M.'s predominant inhabitants was Iranian ( Medes). More or less neglected by classical Greek records, the geography of M. gained importance in the Western mind from the Alexandrian period. Polybius praised the stra…