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[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 bein…

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[German version] (Μαργιανή/ Margianḗ < Ancient Persian Marguš > New Persian Marv). Fertile eastern Iranian country through which the Murġāb flows (Ptol. 6,10,1; Plin. HN 6,16; Str. 2,1,14; 11,10,1; in the Avesta M. is regarded as one of the most beaut…

[German version] (Persian Nehāvand). City in Iran, south of the Alvand mountains in the Zagros range (Media). In this region (Tepe Giyan), which was already of importance in prehistoric times, the Seleucids founded the pólis L…

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[German version] ( Kūh-ī Xvāgah, Kūh-i Ḫvāǧah). Basalt mountain on an island in Lake Hāmūn in Drangiana/Iran. On its south-eastern slope is a site with ruins of impressive courtyards, gates, towers and rooms, at the earliest from the Parthian period but probably rather from the Sassanid and post-Sassanid period (Ġāga Šahr). Numerous rooms were richly decorated with stucco ornaments and above all with colourful frescos showing Graeco-Roman, Iranian and Indian stylistic elements and representing religi…

[German version] (Σατάσπης; Satáspēs). According to Hdt. 4,43 a maternal nephew of Darius [1] I, who was to be impaled for the violation of the daughter of Zopyrus. He was released upon the intercession of his mother, and as atonement he was given the task of circumnavigating Libya (Africa). He started from Egypt and left the Mediterranean through the 'Pillars of Heracles' (i.e. the Straits of Gibraltar), but turned back without having fulfilled his task; as a result Xerxes I had the originally imposed punishment carried out. Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography F. Colin, Le récit…

[German version] While women in archaic Greece usually nursed their own children, the use of wet-nurses became more common in the classical period. The τιθήνη/ tithḗnē or τίτθη/ títh ē (the nanny who did not nurse was referred to as τροφός/ trophós) was usually a slave (such as GVI 1729), although some free-born or freed women in Athens provided this service as well, usually ξέναι/ xénai. In the visual arts, wet-nurses played a primarily attributive role up into the 4th cent., but later one can observe an increased interest in them - that is, in their function, less as persons. In Rome, wet-nu…

[German version] I. Age thresholds The onset of pubertas, sexual maturity and the autonomy categorically connected to it (Fest. p. 250 s. v. …

[German version] (Ὀροντοβάτης/ Orontobátēs, Arrianus; ΡΟΟΝΤΟΠΑΤΟ, coins, HN 630). Younger brother of the Carian satrap Mausolus, Persian co-regent appointed by Darius [3] III and son-in-law of the Carian dynast Pixodarus. After the death of Pixodarus in 334 BC, O. defended Halicarnassus as satrap of Caria against Alexander [4] the Great, and ultimately the castle against Ptolemaeus. Following his flight in 333, O. commanded Persian troops at Gaugamela. Arr. Anab. 1,23; 2,5,7; 3,8,5; 11,5; Str. 14,2,17; Curt. 4,12,7. Wiesehöfer, Josef (Kiel) Bibliography Briant, Index s.v. O.  S. Ruzicka, Politics of a Persian Dynasty, 1992, 132-155.

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[German version] (Γορδυηνή/ Gordyēnḗ, Plut. Lucullus 21; 26; 29 and passim; Plut. Pompey 36; Ptol. 5,12,9; Str. 11,14,2; 14,8; 14,15; App. Mith. 105; Γορδυαία/ Gordyaía, Str. 16,1,8; 1,21; 2,5). Region on the border of Armenia, the Adiabene, and the Atropatene on the upper course of the Tigris, south of Lake Van, with the poleis Sareisa (modern Šārı̄š), Satalka, and Pinaka (modern Finek) (Str. 16,1,24). Strabo identifies the inhabitants of the region, the …

[German version] (or Zarangiana), as the name of the region around the lower course of the  Etymander (the modern Hilmand/Helmand Rūd) in the Iranian province of Sı̄stān, goes back to the original Iranian name Zranka, which also described the inhabitants of the region and which has a disputed etymology. It appears in the inscription of  Bı̄sutūn of Darius I (1,16) and in Greek and Latin derivations; the ‘Persian’ variants have an initial d-. According to Strabo, D. (in the Parthian period) adjoined Areia in the north and west, Carmania in the west, Gedrosia in the …

[German version] (Μασίστης; Masistēs). According to Hdt.7,82 son of Darius [1] I and Atossa [1], satrap of Bactria (Hdt. 9,113) and Persian commander-in-chief (Hdt. 7,82). After the cruel death of his wife, M. is said to have been killed by the king's troops in 479/8 BC, together with his sons, while on his way to Bactria bent on insurrection (Hdt. 9,107-113). The name M. probably derives from the Old Persian ma θ iišta- (Greek μέγιστος/ mégistos, ‘the greatest’). Iust. 2,10,1-11 and Plut. Mor. 173b-c; 488d-f recount how, in exchange for recognising his kingship, Xerxe…

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[German version] (Μαζαῖος; Mazaîos). Persian nobleman, highly respected at the Achaemenid court (Curt. 5,1,18; Plut. Alexander 39), father of Antibelus, Artiboles and Hydarnes. Under Artaxerxes [3] III, M. was satrap of Cilicia and Persian commander in the war against the rebellious Phoenicians (Diod.…

[German version] Rock wall situated north of Persepolis with reliefs from the Elamite and Sassanid periods ([3. 167 No.1-8], partly with inscriptions) as well as cliff to…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Achaemenids | Alexander (Πασαργάδαι/ Pasargádai, cf. Curt. 5,6,10: Pasargada). In the masculine form, name of the Persian tribe to whom the Achaemenids are said to have belonged (Hdt. 1,125), in the feminine form, the Greek name for the residence built by Cyrus [2] II (after his victory over Croesus c. 550 BC at the site of the victory over Astyages (Str. 15,3,8)?) in the Murġāb Plain (1900 m/N.N.), 30 km north-east of Persepolis (Elamite name form: Batraqataš). In the Achaemenid period, the chief monuments were sc…