Geographical definition
Sogdia or Sogdiana (O.P. Suguda, Av. Sughdha) was midway along the Zeravshan River, bordered on the northeast by the Massagetae, some ways to the west of Chorasmia and separated from Bactria in the south by the Oxus River. In terms of modern geography, it roughly occupied the confluences of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
History
The Sogdians appear to have arrived in their historical homeland in the early Iron Age; Macaranda - better known as Samarkand, and the most important city in the area - is believed to have been founded between 650 and 550 (the site had been occupied earlier). Unlike their immediate northerly neighbors, the Amyrgian Scythians and Massagetae, the Sogdians were settled farmers; they traded crops to the nomads in exchange for livestock.
Étienne de La Vaissière says that Cyrus conquered Sogdia around 540 and established Cyropolis, "the farthest extent of the Persian empire of the northeast." In the Behistun inscription Darius mentions Sogdia among the lands he ruled, but no mention is made of it rebelling.
Herodotus lists the Sogdians with the Parthians, Chorasmians and Arians as the 16th tax district, assessed at 300 talents yearly. At Persepolis, they are with and indistinguishable from the Chorasmians; the group brings an akinakes, hammers (I think), loop-shaped things and a horse. In Darius' Susa palace inscription, he states that the lapis lazuli and carnelian used therein came from Sogdia. The country did not, apparently, have its own satrap, but was governed from Bactria.
In 494 during the late stages of the Ionian Revolt, the Persians sacked the Apollonic oracle at Didyma in Ionia. There are claims that the Branchidae (the line of priests who tended the oracle) had medized. They are supposed to have either been deported to Sogdia at this time, or relocated there when Ionia was retaken by the Greeks (which would indicate their complicity in the temple's destruction) following the failure of Xerxes' invasion of mainland Greece.
In Herodotus VII the Sogdians serve in Xerxes' army as infantry under "Azanes son of Artaeus." He does not mention which if any battles they participated in.
Events in Sogdia are poorly-known for the rest of the fifth century. In Arrian's Anabasis III.8 Sogdians fight at Gaugamela under Bessus, who commanded the eastern cavalry. The satrap of Bactria, the man whom Alexander held responsible for Darius III's death, fled to Sogdia in the face of Alexander's campaign of revenge in 329. There, his courtiers Spitamenes and Datames surrendered him to Alexander's general Ptolemy after the Greek army managed to cross the Oxus.
In Sogdia, according to Quintus Curtius, Alexander encountered the town of the Branchidae, and had the entire population killed and their town destroyed for their ancestors' perfidy. There seems to be doubt about the veracity of this event. Alexander made Samarkand his regional base, and it was there in 328 that he killed Cleitus the Black.
The next significant incident that our ancient sources care to describe is the siege of the Sogdian Rock, a nearby fortress to which Bessus' companion Oxyartes of Bactria had sent his family in the spring of 327. The Macedonians scaled the fortress' walls with tent pegs at night, and the amazed garrison surrendered peacefully. It was here that Alexander met his first wife, Oxyartes' daughter Roxana.
The same year, Alexander appointed as the new satrap his general Philip. According to Diodorus, he retained this position at the 323 Partition of Babylon. The Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV, an imperial Roman document by the otherwise-unknown Marcus Junianius Justinus, lists a Scytheaus as the Sogdian satrap. At the Partition of Triparadisus two years later, Sogdia and Bactria were both given to Stasanor of Soli, which is corroborated by both Diodorus and Arrian.
In 305, the region fell to Seleucus Nicator, and remained part of his empire until the Greco-Bactrians declared their independence in the mid-third century. Traces of Hellenistic-period Greek architecture have been found at Samarkand. Invasions of nomads caused the collapse of Greek rule in Bactria and Sogdia in the mid-second century.
Sogdia's fortunes fluctuated until the latter half of the first millennium AD, when land reclamation and growing populations made it a dominant civilization in Central Asia. For a time, Sogdian was lingua franca on much of the Silk Road.
The country seems to have dwindled under the expansion of Turkic cultures from the east and Persian from the west. Today, Sogdia survives as the province of Sughd in Tajikistan. A descendant of its language is spoken there by the Yaghnobi, who may be considered modern-day Sogdians.
Language
Sogdian was an Eastern Iranian language, but its written corpus dates to the 1st millennium AD and as such its attested stage must have evolved considerably from the Achaemenid period.
Religion
According to de La Vaissière, the historical religion of Sogdia was "an unreformed version of Zoroastrianism, in which Ahuramazda would never achieve primacy... . The chief god appears to have been Nana, inherited from Babylon" (I cannot tell whether this references the Sumero-Akkadian love goddess Nanaya, also called Nanâ, or the Akkadian moon god Sin aka Nanna).
However, these references seem to date to some time after the Achaemenid dynasty. I would venture rather that in our period, religion in the Eastern Iranian cultural spheres was a mix of proto-Iranian polytheism and early Mazdaism.
Clothing
Sogdians are grouped with Chorasmians in Persian royal art and dress the same, in riding coats with bordered edges, loose trousers, low shoes and low-peaked tiaras. The delegation at the apadana may be viewed here at the bottom left. Interestingly, the hems of their trousers appear to be gathered, perhaps with drawstrings or blousing bands, and their shoes show no laces, unlike those of the Mede leading them.
Weapons
Herodotus holds that the Sogdians were equipped like the Bactrians, who had "reed bows" and short spears. Given the region they occupied, I think it likely that they used the gorytos. The Sogdian at Naqs-e Rostam wears an akinakes.
Showing posts with label reed bow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reed bow. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Peoples of the empire: The Parthians
After the Lydians come a long string of peoples whose histories and cultures in Achaemenid times are too poorly-documented to put together a good article. Skipping through more than a dozen such names finally brings us to the Parthians.
Geographical definition
Parthia (O.P. Parthava) lay on the southwest corner of the Caspian, west of Hyrcania, south of the Kopet Dag mountains that separate modern Iran and Turmenistan, and north of the deserts of central Iran.
History
Parthia may have been subject to the Medes and acknowledged Persian suzerainty after Cyrus conquered Media. The country first appears in the Behistun inscription, where its satrap is Darius the Great's father, Hystaspes. After Darius seized the throne, the Parthians joined Phraortes' revolt and besieged Hystaspes in the Parthian city of Vishpauzâtish, but he defeated them on March 8, 521 and again at Patigrabana on July 11.
With the Arians, Chorasmians and Sogdians, the Parthians made up the 16th tax district, paying 300 talents yearly. At times Parthia formed a joint satrapy with Hyrcania. At the Apadana, they are illustrated bringing bowls and a Bactrian camel. Parthians took part in the 480 invasion of Greece as infantry, marching with the Chorasmians under Artabazus son of Pharnaces. They are not mentioned at the major battles.
Parthia drops off the radar for a century and a half following Xerxes' invasion. We next hear of them at Gaugamela in 331, where together with the Hyrcanians, they fought as cavalry under the joint satrap Phrataphernes in the Persian left wing (commanded overall by Mazaeus). Phrataphernes remained with Darius on his final flight toward Parthia, but after the Persian king was murdered, Phrataphernes submitted peacefully to Alexander and thus retained his office.
Diodorus has Phratapernes still holding this office at the Partition of Babylon, but at Triparadiscus it was reassigned to Philip, formerly of Sogdiana. Philip was deposed and killed in 318 by Peithon, who made his brother Eudamus governor, but the following year the other eastern satraps expelled them and in 316 Seleucus gave Parthia to a satrap of his choosing, Stasander.
The Seleucids maintained nominal control over Parthia until 247, when a political crisis in Antioch motivated the satrap Andragoras to declare Parthia an independent state. Just nine years later, however, a tribe of Eastern Iranian nomads known as the Parni invaded from the north and conquered Parthia. This was the beginning of the Arsacid dynasty, which in the second century BC came to rule most of Greater Iran.
The Arsacids were deposed early in the third century AD by a resurgent Persia under the Sassanids. The Sassanids dissolved Parthia as an administrative unit and made it part of a larger province, Khorasan. While the Parthian language continued to be used (judging from bilingual inscriptions) early in the Sassanid period, the region seems to have become Persianized at least by the time of Ferdowsi in the 10th century. Today the area is divided among several Iranian provinces and is home mostly to native Persian-speakers with Kurds and Turkmens in the north.
By the Arsacid period, the name Parthava had been worn down into Pahlav or Pahlaw, which (as the adjective Pahlavi) survived as a designation of things originating in northeastern Iran.
Language
Parthian was a Western Iranian language and thus more closely related to Persian than Avestan or other Eastern languages, but belonged to the Northwestern sub-branch, whereas Persian belongs to the Southwestern. Parthian is attested in Pahlavi (a script derived from Aramaic) from the Arsacid and early Sassanid dynasties, and was probably different in the Achaemenid period, perhaps resembling Old Persian a little more.
Religion
I can find nothing on Parthian religion under the Achaemenids, but a reasonable guess would be something similar to the Persians, in a transitional state between ancient Iranian polytheism and early Mazdaism.
Clothing
Parthians in royal art wear pullover tunics, loose-fitting trousers and mid-calf pull-on boots. The Apadana delegation wear what look like tiaras that are very full and made of soft woven fabric, though they could instead be a complex kind of turban wrap. The one at Naqs-e Rostam wears a more standard cut of tiara.
Weapons
Herodotus has the Parthians armed like Bactrians, who carry "reed bows" and spears. I think you would be safe using trilobate bronze arrowheads, which were common in both western Iran and Scythia. In Arsacid times the Parthians were known for their cavalry, but they probably took heavy influence from the Arsacids' nomadic ancestors. The Parthian at Naqs-e Rostam wears a Medo-Persian akinakes. It is probable that the Parthian akinakes was more like the Scythian in style.
Geographical definition
Parthia (O.P. Parthava) lay on the southwest corner of the Caspian, west of Hyrcania, south of the Kopet Dag mountains that separate modern Iran and Turmenistan, and north of the deserts of central Iran.
History
Parthia may have been subject to the Medes and acknowledged Persian suzerainty after Cyrus conquered Media. The country first appears in the Behistun inscription, where its satrap is Darius the Great's father, Hystaspes. After Darius seized the throne, the Parthians joined Phraortes' revolt and besieged Hystaspes in the Parthian city of Vishpauzâtish, but he defeated them on March 8, 521 and again at Patigrabana on July 11.
With the Arians, Chorasmians and Sogdians, the Parthians made up the 16th tax district, paying 300 talents yearly. At times Parthia formed a joint satrapy with Hyrcania. At the Apadana, they are illustrated bringing bowls and a Bactrian camel. Parthians took part in the 480 invasion of Greece as infantry, marching with the Chorasmians under Artabazus son of Pharnaces. They are not mentioned at the major battles.
Parthia drops off the radar for a century and a half following Xerxes' invasion. We next hear of them at Gaugamela in 331, where together with the Hyrcanians, they fought as cavalry under the joint satrap Phrataphernes in the Persian left wing (commanded overall by Mazaeus). Phrataphernes remained with Darius on his final flight toward Parthia, but after the Persian king was murdered, Phrataphernes submitted peacefully to Alexander and thus retained his office.
Diodorus has Phratapernes still holding this office at the Partition of Babylon, but at Triparadiscus it was reassigned to Philip, formerly of Sogdiana. Philip was deposed and killed in 318 by Peithon, who made his brother Eudamus governor, but the following year the other eastern satraps expelled them and in 316 Seleucus gave Parthia to a satrap of his choosing, Stasander.
The Seleucids maintained nominal control over Parthia until 247, when a political crisis in Antioch motivated the satrap Andragoras to declare Parthia an independent state. Just nine years later, however, a tribe of Eastern Iranian nomads known as the Parni invaded from the north and conquered Parthia. This was the beginning of the Arsacid dynasty, which in the second century BC came to rule most of Greater Iran.
The Arsacids were deposed early in the third century AD by a resurgent Persia under the Sassanids. The Sassanids dissolved Parthia as an administrative unit and made it part of a larger province, Khorasan. While the Parthian language continued to be used (judging from bilingual inscriptions) early in the Sassanid period, the region seems to have become Persianized at least by the time of Ferdowsi in the 10th century. Today the area is divided among several Iranian provinces and is home mostly to native Persian-speakers with Kurds and Turkmens in the north.
By the Arsacid period, the name Parthava had been worn down into Pahlav or Pahlaw, which (as the adjective Pahlavi) survived as a designation of things originating in northeastern Iran.
Language
Parthian was a Western Iranian language and thus more closely related to Persian than Avestan or other Eastern languages, but belonged to the Northwestern sub-branch, whereas Persian belongs to the Southwestern. Parthian is attested in Pahlavi (a script derived from Aramaic) from the Arsacid and early Sassanid dynasties, and was probably different in the Achaemenid period, perhaps resembling Old Persian a little more.
Religion
I can find nothing on Parthian religion under the Achaemenids, but a reasonable guess would be something similar to the Persians, in a transitional state between ancient Iranian polytheism and early Mazdaism.
Clothing
Parthians in royal art wear pullover tunics, loose-fitting trousers and mid-calf pull-on boots. The Apadana delegation wear what look like tiaras that are very full and made of soft woven fabric, though they could instead be a complex kind of turban wrap. The one at Naqs-e Rostam wears a more standard cut of tiara.
Weapons
Herodotus has the Parthians armed like Bactrians, who carry "reed bows" and spears. I think you would be safe using trilobate bronze arrowheads, which were common in both western Iran and Scythia. In Arsacid times the Parthians were known for their cavalry, but they probably took heavy influence from the Arsacids' nomadic ancestors. The Parthian at Naqs-e Rostam wears a Medo-Persian akinakes. It is probable that the Parthian akinakes was more like the Scythian in style.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Peoples of the empire: The Indians
Geographical definition
Ancient India (Greek "land of the Indos") was regarded as beginning at the Indus Valley, which lies mostly in modern Pakistan. English Indus derives via Latin from Greek Indos, in turn from Old Persian Hinduš and ultimately Sanskrit Sindhu, meaning simply "river." Presumably it was regarded as the greatest river in the region. Most of the valley today forms Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces.
History
While the Indus Valley had been home to an urban Bronze Age civilization, the India of Classical times began to take shape in the late Vedic period (c. 1000 BC) as Indo-Aryan culture expanded over the Gangetic Plain.
The Achaemenid dynasty corresponds loosely to the Mahājanapada period in Indian tradition, when the north of the country was divided among competing mahā ("major") janapada ("tribal footholds"). Historians consider these traditions to reflect the transformation from Vedic semi-nomadic tribal culture to a settled, farming culture.
The western regions, where the Achaemenids held sway, are not generally counted among the Mahājanapadas. The Mahābhārata mentions several western kingdoms which are believed to have lain in the Indus Valley prior to Achaemenid times: Madra in the northeast, Kekeya, Sivi, and Sauvira in the southwest.
Into this situation, Darius the Great invaded in the late 500s BC. Because Gandhara is mentioned at Behistun, and Hinduš only in his later inscriptions, it is believed that he conquered southward into the subcontinent after 520 when the Behistun inscription was created. Herodotus says that Darius hired the Carian navigator Scylax of Caryanda to explore the region as a preparation for his invasion. The events that followed are unknown, but it appears that Darius was at least successful in establishing suzerainty. Lendering holds this to have occurred in 515.
Herodotus says that India formed the 20th, most populous and wealthiest satrapy in the empire, paying 360 talents of gold dust annually, equivalent to 4,680 talents of silver or nearly a third of the revenues collected from all satrapies. At the Persepolis apadana, Indians are shown bearing scales (perhaps containing gold dust), a horse and things that resemble double-headed wood axes. Darius states in his Susa inscription that India was the source for some of the ivory used in the palace's construction.
Though his testimony might lead to a presumption that such a rich land would be an important holding, the literary and archaeological records shows very little evidence of the Achaemenids' presence. Presumably imperial rule was remote, which implies a high degree of autonomy.
In describing events at the edge of the world known to the Greeks, Herodotus' narrative often becomes strange. He describes Indians who wear woven bulrushes for clothing, who kill and eat their sick, or others who eat only wild grain. In one famous passage (III.102) he speaks of ants the size of foxes, who gather gold dust which the Indians in the far north (possibly in modern Afghanistan) were wont to steal, entering the giant anthills furtively and riding away on camelback as soon as the ants smelled them and gave chase.
Hopefully he is more trustworthy on matters closer to home. He says that Indians fought in the 480 invasion of Greece both as infantry and cavalry under Pharnazathres son of Artabates. Mardonius selected the entire Indian contingent as part of his residual army. At Plataea he stationed them to face the Greeks of Hermione, Eretria, Styra and Chalcis.
Much like other eastern parts of the empire, India fades from Western history in the later fifth and fourth centuries. To what extent the Indus Valley remained in the empire's grasp is unclear. In the late fifth century the eastern Mahājanapada Maghadha under King Mahapadma Nanda began to conquer and consolidate northern India into the Nanda empire, and by the time of Alexander the Great, had advanced nearly to the edges of the Persian empire.
Indians fought at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331, bringing 15 elephants and a number of chariots, as well as cavalry, who are said to have broken through the Macedonian line late in the battle.
After the Persian empire fell, India became the last frontier of the Alexandrian empire. Conquering south through Gandhara in 326, he eventually came to the Hydaspes River (modern Jhelum), where Porus (Puru) of Paurava refused to acknowledge Alexander's overlordship. The two fought a bloody battle in May at the river wherein Porus' army was practically destroyed. Alexander wanted to keep marching and attack the Nanda empire, but the Macedonian army, now on the very edge of the world known to them, refused to go any farther.
Upon surrendering, Porus was appointed satrap of his former kingdom. He still held that position at the first partition of Alexander's empire after the conqueror's death in 323. However, in 317 the Macedonian commander in Taxila, Eudamus, murdered Porus and commandeered his war elephants against the great diadoch Antigonus. Eudamus lost and was executed, but Antigonus aroused the enmity of the other diadochi, leading to the Third War of the Diadochi. In the course of this conflict, the eastern part of the empire, including the Indus Valley, was taken by Seleucus.
In the meantime, an aspiring young kshatriya, Chandragupta Maurya, raised an army in the northwest and invaded the Nanda empire, seizing the throne of Magadha in 321. His new country, the Maurya empire, then began to invade the eastern Alexandrian satrapies. These attacks culminated in the Seleucid-Mauryan War of 305-303, at the end of which Seleucus ceded his easternmost territories to Chandragupta in exchange for peace so he could focus his attention on the ongoing diadochian conflict.
The ensuing history of the area is far too complex to cover here. The valley remained culturally and linguistically Indian, although gradually Islamicized, beginning with the invasion of the Ummayad caliphate in the eighth century AD. The area thereafter became the frontier of the South Asian and Middle Eastern-Islamic worlds under Iranian and Turco-Mongol dynasties like the Mughals, culminating in the partition of the subcontinent into and the formation of a new northwestern state, Pakistan, in 1947.
Language
In the northwest within the Persian sphere of influence the dominant Indian languages were various Middle Indo-Aryan languages, called the prakrits ("natural" or "usual," as contrasted with Sanskrit, "refined" or "composed"). These were not necessarily derived from Sanskrit, but sometimes from closely-related Old Indo-Aryan languages.
The prakrits differed from each other enough that Herodotus described the Indian nations as "none speaking the same language."
Religion
Indians in this period followed early Vedic religious traditions that were the precursors of modern Hinduism, though it must be understood that the relationship between ancient and modern Indian religion is very complicated. The Mahābharata holds that Vedic practices were less strictly adhered to in Madra; rites were less widely held, beef was eaten and the caste system was less rigid. I would speculate that the same was true in some other areas of the northwest.
Clothing
In Achaemenid royal art, Indian men are represented iconically in dhotis wrapped in a simple manner, closing in the front and slightly to one side, and belted, along with headbands and thong sandals like those of the Gandharans. The use of cotton is well-attested.
Weapons
Herodotus has the Indians entirely as archers, both infantry and cavalry. They carried "reed bows and iron-tipped reed arrows." Arrian claims that Indian bows were as tall as the archer and the arrows nearly three cubits (54 inches/137cm) long, and powerful enough to pierce any shield or armor, but I know of no reason to suppose that such equipment was identical to that used centuries earlier. The Indian at Naqš-e Rostam wears a long sword on a sling, with a mushroom-shaped pommel.
Ancient India (Greek "land of the Indos") was regarded as beginning at the Indus Valley, which lies mostly in modern Pakistan. English Indus derives via Latin from Greek Indos, in turn from Old Persian Hinduš and ultimately Sanskrit Sindhu, meaning simply "river." Presumably it was regarded as the greatest river in the region. Most of the valley today forms Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces.
History
While the Indus Valley had been home to an urban Bronze Age civilization, the India of Classical times began to take shape in the late Vedic period (c. 1000 BC) as Indo-Aryan culture expanded over the Gangetic Plain.
The Achaemenid dynasty corresponds loosely to the Mahājanapada period in Indian tradition, when the north of the country was divided among competing mahā ("major") janapada ("tribal footholds"). Historians consider these traditions to reflect the transformation from Vedic semi-nomadic tribal culture to a settled, farming culture.
The western regions, where the Achaemenids held sway, are not generally counted among the Mahājanapadas. The Mahābhārata mentions several western kingdoms which are believed to have lain in the Indus Valley prior to Achaemenid times: Madra in the northeast, Kekeya, Sivi, and Sauvira in the southwest.
Into this situation, Darius the Great invaded in the late 500s BC. Because Gandhara is mentioned at Behistun, and Hinduš only in his later inscriptions, it is believed that he conquered southward into the subcontinent after 520 when the Behistun inscription was created. Herodotus says that Darius hired the Carian navigator Scylax of Caryanda to explore the region as a preparation for his invasion. The events that followed are unknown, but it appears that Darius was at least successful in establishing suzerainty. Lendering holds this to have occurred in 515.
Herodotus says that India formed the 20th, most populous and wealthiest satrapy in the empire, paying 360 talents of gold dust annually, equivalent to 4,680 talents of silver or nearly a third of the revenues collected from all satrapies. At the Persepolis apadana, Indians are shown bearing scales (perhaps containing gold dust), a horse and things that resemble double-headed wood axes. Darius states in his Susa inscription that India was the source for some of the ivory used in the palace's construction.
Though his testimony might lead to a presumption that such a rich land would be an important holding, the literary and archaeological records shows very little evidence of the Achaemenids' presence. Presumably imperial rule was remote, which implies a high degree of autonomy.
In describing events at the edge of the world known to the Greeks, Herodotus' narrative often becomes strange. He describes Indians who wear woven bulrushes for clothing, who kill and eat their sick, or others who eat only wild grain. In one famous passage (III.102) he speaks of ants the size of foxes, who gather gold dust which the Indians in the far north (possibly in modern Afghanistan) were wont to steal, entering the giant anthills furtively and riding away on camelback as soon as the ants smelled them and gave chase.
Hopefully he is more trustworthy on matters closer to home. He says that Indians fought in the 480 invasion of Greece both as infantry and cavalry under Pharnazathres son of Artabates. Mardonius selected the entire Indian contingent as part of his residual army. At Plataea he stationed them to face the Greeks of Hermione, Eretria, Styra and Chalcis.
Much like other eastern parts of the empire, India fades from Western history in the later fifth and fourth centuries. To what extent the Indus Valley remained in the empire's grasp is unclear. In the late fifth century the eastern Mahājanapada Maghadha under King Mahapadma Nanda began to conquer and consolidate northern India into the Nanda empire, and by the time of Alexander the Great, had advanced nearly to the edges of the Persian empire.
Indians fought at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331, bringing 15 elephants and a number of chariots, as well as cavalry, who are said to have broken through the Macedonian line late in the battle.
After the Persian empire fell, India became the last frontier of the Alexandrian empire. Conquering south through Gandhara in 326, he eventually came to the Hydaspes River (modern Jhelum), where Porus (Puru) of Paurava refused to acknowledge Alexander's overlordship. The two fought a bloody battle in May at the river wherein Porus' army was practically destroyed. Alexander wanted to keep marching and attack the Nanda empire, but the Macedonian army, now on the very edge of the world known to them, refused to go any farther.
Upon surrendering, Porus was appointed satrap of his former kingdom. He still held that position at the first partition of Alexander's empire after the conqueror's death in 323. However, in 317 the Macedonian commander in Taxila, Eudamus, murdered Porus and commandeered his war elephants against the great diadoch Antigonus. Eudamus lost and was executed, but Antigonus aroused the enmity of the other diadochi, leading to the Third War of the Diadochi. In the course of this conflict, the eastern part of the empire, including the Indus Valley, was taken by Seleucus.
In the meantime, an aspiring young kshatriya, Chandragupta Maurya, raised an army in the northwest and invaded the Nanda empire, seizing the throne of Magadha in 321. His new country, the Maurya empire, then began to invade the eastern Alexandrian satrapies. These attacks culminated in the Seleucid-Mauryan War of 305-303, at the end of which Seleucus ceded his easternmost territories to Chandragupta in exchange for peace so he could focus his attention on the ongoing diadochian conflict.
The ensuing history of the area is far too complex to cover here. The valley remained culturally and linguistically Indian, although gradually Islamicized, beginning with the invasion of the Ummayad caliphate in the eighth century AD. The area thereafter became the frontier of the South Asian and Middle Eastern-Islamic worlds under Iranian and Turco-Mongol dynasties like the Mughals, culminating in the partition of the subcontinent into and the formation of a new northwestern state, Pakistan, in 1947.
Language
In the northwest within the Persian sphere of influence the dominant Indian languages were various Middle Indo-Aryan languages, called the prakrits ("natural" or "usual," as contrasted with Sanskrit, "refined" or "composed"). These were not necessarily derived from Sanskrit, but sometimes from closely-related Old Indo-Aryan languages.
The prakrits differed from each other enough that Herodotus described the Indian nations as "none speaking the same language."
Religion
Indians in this period followed early Vedic religious traditions that were the precursors of modern Hinduism, though it must be understood that the relationship between ancient and modern Indian religion is very complicated. The Mahābharata holds that Vedic practices were less strictly adhered to in Madra; rites were less widely held, beef was eaten and the caste system was less rigid. I would speculate that the same was true in some other areas of the northwest.
Clothing
In Achaemenid royal art, Indian men are represented iconically in dhotis wrapped in a simple manner, closing in the front and slightly to one side, and belted, along with headbands and thong sandals like those of the Gandharans. The use of cotton is well-attested.
Weapons
Herodotus has the Indians entirely as archers, both infantry and cavalry. They carried "reed bows and iron-tipped reed arrows." Arrian claims that Indian bows were as tall as the archer and the arrows nearly three cubits (54 inches/137cm) long, and powerful enough to pierce any shield or armor, but I know of no reason to suppose that such equipment was identical to that used centuries earlier. The Indian at Naqš-e Rostam wears a long sword on a sling, with a mushroom-shaped pommel.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Peoples of the empire: The Gandharans
Geographical definition
Gandhara (O.P. Gandâra) was located in the Peshawar and Kabul River valleys in modern Pakistan and Afghanistan, north of the Indus Valley, northeast of Arachosia and east of Bactria. It was regarded more as part of South Asia than of Greater Iran. The name is possibly related to Sanskrit gandha, meaning "perfume."
History
Gandhara grew out of Indo-Aryan settlements known as the Gandhara grave culture beginning around 1600 BC. Gandharis are mentioned in the Vedas, and in the Puranas they are said to be Druhyus who followed King Gandhara north of the Sapta Sindhu. The country enters the annals of the Persian empire in the Behistun inscrption. Darius did not conquer it, so he presumably inherited it from his predecessors, likely starting with Cyrus. In ancient times, its capital was at Pushkalavati, modern Charsadda in the Peshawar Valley of Pakistan.
Gandhara was among the eastern parts of the empire surveyed by Scylax of Caryanda, a Carian navigator sent by Darius in preparation for an invasion of the Indus Valley. Herodotus places Gandhara in the seventh and poorest tax district, with the Sattagydians, Dadicae and Aparitae, taxed 170 talents all told. At the Persepolis apadana, the Gandharans are shown together with the Sattagydians bringing a water buffalo in tribute. They also bring spears and a shield, either as tribute or because the delegation was unusually heavily-armed. In his Susa palace inscription, Darius says that he obtained yakâ wood (possibly teak) from Gandhara and Carmania.
Gandharans participated in Xerxes' invasion together with the Dadicae under the command of Artyphius, a son of Darius the Great's brother Artabanus. I have not found mention of them in the major battles. If they are grouped with the Indians then they may have took part in Plataea.
The history of Gandhara in the latter fifth and fourth centuries is largely unknown. The Achaemenids may have pulled out of the region by the time of Alexander the Great. When he arrived in 329, he found no Persian satraps, but instead a number of small states. He re-founded the old Achaemenid settlement Kapisa (near modern Bagram) as "Alexandria in the Caucasus." During 326, he and Hephaestion led armies along two routes, himself along the Kunar and Swat rivers and Hephaestion along the Kabul, conquering the Gandharan states one by one.
After Alexander, the country belonged for a time to Seleucus, but in 304 he handed it to Chandragupta Maurya, then a resident of Taxila and advisee of the famous Gandharan political scientist Chanakya. For about 120 years the country remained part of the Mauryan empire. Like other southwesterly parts of the Persian empire, it became a frontier between Indian and Hellenistic civilizations. In the ensuing centuries, a myriad of different powers took control, including (among others) Scythians, Parthians, Kushans, the Sassanid Persian empire and finally the Kabul Shahi, a dynasty of native or perhaps Kambojan origin.
In the early 11th century AD, the Kabul Shahi was laid waste by the Ghaznavids of Afghanistan. Historians generally consider this the end of Gandhara as well as that particular dynasty.
Religion
I can find nothing on Gandharan religion in our period. Gandhara was historically a center of Buddhism, but at this time Buddhism had only begun as a teaching and may not have even reached Gandhara. More likely, the Gandharans followed early Vedic traditions.
Language
Gāndhārī was an Indo-Aryan prakrit, attested first by several edicts of Ashoka written in the local language in the third century BC. Iranica Online's article has a section comparing the morphology of the recorded stages of Gāndhārī to Vedic Sanskrit which could give some idea of how the language might have looked during the Achaemenid period. It is possible that the Kharoṣṭhī script was already in development at that time. Kharoṣṭhī was used from at least the mid-third century BC until about the third century AD.
Gandhara played a noteworthy role in the development of Indian linguistic studies, as it was here, in the fourth century BC or earlier, that the famous Pushkalavati grammarian Pāṇini documented and codified Classical Sanskrit in his book the Aṣṭādhyāyī.
Clothing
At Naqs-e Rostam, the Gandharans and Sattagydians are dressed in only a knee-length, wraparound dhoti. The party at Persepolis are more heavily dressed in short-sleeved tunics which also appear to wrap around, as well as long cloaks whose upper corners are not pinned together but instead hang in front of both shoulders down to past the waist and end in small tassels or gathers. On their feet are flat-soled sandals with thongs around the heel, high on the instep and around several or all of the toes, as well as one connecting the toe and instep straps. Both representations wear belts or narrow sashes and flat headbands.
Weapons
Herodotus claims the Gandharans had the same equipment as the Bactrians ("reed bows and short spears"), while at Persepolis they and/or the Sattagydians are portrayed carrying only spears and a large, round double-gripped shield, and at Naqš-e Rostam the Gandharan wears a long sword of some kind. The spears of Persepolis are of a generic Achaemenid appearance (short with small points and round finials) and may not accurately reflect Gandharan styles. The shield superficially resembles an Argive shield, but this may mean nothing; apart from anything else, it has a fixed hand grip instead of an antilabe.
Gandhara (O.P. Gandâra) was located in the Peshawar and Kabul River valleys in modern Pakistan and Afghanistan, north of the Indus Valley, northeast of Arachosia and east of Bactria. It was regarded more as part of South Asia than of Greater Iran. The name is possibly related to Sanskrit gandha, meaning "perfume."
History
Gandhara grew out of Indo-Aryan settlements known as the Gandhara grave culture beginning around 1600 BC. Gandharis are mentioned in the Vedas, and in the Puranas they are said to be Druhyus who followed King Gandhara north of the Sapta Sindhu. The country enters the annals of the Persian empire in the Behistun inscrption. Darius did not conquer it, so he presumably inherited it from his predecessors, likely starting with Cyrus. In ancient times, its capital was at Pushkalavati, modern Charsadda in the Peshawar Valley of Pakistan.
Gandhara was among the eastern parts of the empire surveyed by Scylax of Caryanda, a Carian navigator sent by Darius in preparation for an invasion of the Indus Valley. Herodotus places Gandhara in the seventh and poorest tax district, with the Sattagydians, Dadicae and Aparitae, taxed 170 talents all told. At the Persepolis apadana, the Gandharans are shown together with the Sattagydians bringing a water buffalo in tribute. They also bring spears and a shield, either as tribute or because the delegation was unusually heavily-armed. In his Susa palace inscription, Darius says that he obtained yakâ wood (possibly teak) from Gandhara and Carmania.
Gandharans participated in Xerxes' invasion together with the Dadicae under the command of Artyphius, a son of Darius the Great's brother Artabanus. I have not found mention of them in the major battles. If they are grouped with the Indians then they may have took part in Plataea.
The history of Gandhara in the latter fifth and fourth centuries is largely unknown. The Achaemenids may have pulled out of the region by the time of Alexander the Great. When he arrived in 329, he found no Persian satraps, but instead a number of small states. He re-founded the old Achaemenid settlement Kapisa (near modern Bagram) as "Alexandria in the Caucasus." During 326, he and Hephaestion led armies along two routes, himself along the Kunar and Swat rivers and Hephaestion along the Kabul, conquering the Gandharan states one by one.
After Alexander, the country belonged for a time to Seleucus, but in 304 he handed it to Chandragupta Maurya, then a resident of Taxila and advisee of the famous Gandharan political scientist Chanakya. For about 120 years the country remained part of the Mauryan empire. Like other southwesterly parts of the Persian empire, it became a frontier between Indian and Hellenistic civilizations. In the ensuing centuries, a myriad of different powers took control, including (among others) Scythians, Parthians, Kushans, the Sassanid Persian empire and finally the Kabul Shahi, a dynasty of native or perhaps Kambojan origin.
In the early 11th century AD, the Kabul Shahi was laid waste by the Ghaznavids of Afghanistan. Historians generally consider this the end of Gandhara as well as that particular dynasty.
Religion
I can find nothing on Gandharan religion in our period. Gandhara was historically a center of Buddhism, but at this time Buddhism had only begun as a teaching and may not have even reached Gandhara. More likely, the Gandharans followed early Vedic traditions.
Language
Gāndhārī was an Indo-Aryan prakrit, attested first by several edicts of Ashoka written in the local language in the third century BC. Iranica Online's article has a section comparing the morphology of the recorded stages of Gāndhārī to Vedic Sanskrit which could give some idea of how the language might have looked during the Achaemenid period. It is possible that the Kharoṣṭhī script was already in development at that time. Kharoṣṭhī was used from at least the mid-third century BC until about the third century AD.
Gandhara played a noteworthy role in the development of Indian linguistic studies, as it was here, in the fourth century BC or earlier, that the famous Pushkalavati grammarian Pāṇini documented and codified Classical Sanskrit in his book the Aṣṭādhyāyī.
Clothing
At Naqs-e Rostam, the Gandharans and Sattagydians are dressed in only a knee-length, wraparound dhoti. The party at Persepolis are more heavily dressed in short-sleeved tunics which also appear to wrap around, as well as long cloaks whose upper corners are not pinned together but instead hang in front of both shoulders down to past the waist and end in small tassels or gathers. On their feet are flat-soled sandals with thongs around the heel, high on the instep and around several or all of the toes, as well as one connecting the toe and instep straps. Both representations wear belts or narrow sashes and flat headbands.
Weapons
Herodotus claims the Gandharans had the same equipment as the Bactrians ("reed bows and short spears"), while at Persepolis they and/or the Sattagydians are portrayed carrying only spears and a large, round double-gripped shield, and at Naqš-e Rostam the Gandharan wears a long sword of some kind. The spears of Persepolis are of a generic Achaemenid appearance (short with small points and round finials) and may not accurately reflect Gandharan styles. The shield superficially resembles an Argive shield, but this may mean nothing; apart from anything else, it has a fixed hand grip instead of an antilabe.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Peoples of the empire: The Chorasmians
I'm skipping the Caspians because too little is known about them, in my estimation, to put on an effective historical impression. They're not even attested in Old Persian, even though they are (in Western languages) the namesake of the Caspian Sea.
The next people on my list are the Chorasmians, the subjects of this week's installment.
Geographic definition
Chorasmia (O.P. Uvârazmiya, known in later periods as Khwarezm) lay far to the north and slightly east of Persia, just south of the Aral Sea in modern Uzbekistan, and watered by the Amu Darya, which flows north from the mountains of Afghanistan. Owing to this, Chorasmia was a fertile land, even more so in antiquity than today because the Amu Darya is believed to have carried more water then.
History
The country first appears in the Behistun inscription (520 BC) among Darius the Great's list of countries of which he was king. He does not mention it among the rebellious nations and it may have already been part of the empire when he ascended the throne. A fortress at the modern site of Kyuzeli-gyr was burned down in this period and may represent an incident during the Persian conquest. At this time, the historical Chorasmian culture was entering its formative "archaic" phase with the construction of large canals and mud-brick buildings and the use of pottery wheels.
Herodotus states that the Chorasmians were grouped with the Parthians, Sogdians and Arians as the sixteenth tax district of the empire, which paid a yearly tribute of 300 talents. For this reason, Jona Lendering suggests that Chorasmia was governed by the satrap of Parthia. They appear in his list of infantry units in Xerxes' invasion of Greece together with the Parthians under the command of Artabazus son of Pharnaces, later to become satrap of Phrygia.
After the defeat at Salamis, Artabazus escorted Xerxes back to Asia in 479, then killed the Thracian Bottiaeans who ruled Olynthus on suspicious of plotting revolt. He also besieged the rebellious city of Potidaea, but a large part of his army died when attempting to cross the exposed seabed just before what appears to have been a tsunami. The survivors rejoined Mardonius in Thessaly. Following the Battle of Plataea, Artabazus led the remaining Persian army home by way of Thessaly. I can find no word on whether his Chorasmian or Parthian troops took part in most of these deeds, though Dandamaev and Lukonin (Kul’tyra i èkonomika drevnego Irana) claim that they did not fight in the Battle of Plataea.
It appears that in the early 4th century, the Persians lost control over Chorasmia. While a Chorasmian still appears on the table of nations on Artaxerxes II's tomb, the grand Achaemenid palace at Kalaly-gur was left unfinished and seemingly abandoned in this period. No Chorasmians fought for Darius III against Alexander the Great, and though they supported the satrap Bessus during his bid for kingship, the country concluded an independent peace treaty with Alexander under a King Phrataphernes (or, per Arrian, Pharasmanes, whom Yuri Aleksandrovich Rapoport concludes was a son sent by Phrataphernes) in the winter of 328-27.
Chorasmia remained independent of the Seleucid and Arsacid dynasties. A native dynasty, the Afrighids, emerged in the 4th century and ruled as clients of the Sassanids and the Arab Ummayads, but it was under a series of rulers of Turkic mamluk origin that the Khwarezmian empire would come to rule all of Greater Iran by the turn of the 13th century, only to fall spectacularly after Shah Muhammed II provoked Genghis Khan to war. Predictably, Khwarezm thereafter ceased to exist as a distinct culture, though the name lingers, and today the region is a complex mixture of various Turkic peoples and Persians.
Language
Chorasmian was an Eastern Iranian language and thus related most closely to Avestan, Bactrian, Pashto and Sogdian. It is not attested from the Achaemenid period (and not all that well-attested after, though the Iranica has some analysis of its morphology as it stood during the Islamic period), but I surmise if we could see Achaemenid Avestan we would recognize it as bearing some resemblance to Avestan. During early Islamic period, it began to be overtaken by Persian and Turkic languages, and ceased to be spoken around the High Middle Ages.
Religion
Certain Zoroastrian traditions link Chorasmia with Airyanəm Vaējah, the homeland of Zarathuštra. The Bundahišn, a post-Sassanid compendium of Zoroastrian cosmology, states that the sacred fire of Yima (Jamshid) was located at Chorasmia. Legend identifies the kingdom of Vištâspa, Zarathuštra's patron in the Avesta, as either Chorasmia or Aria. While these much later traditions don't necessarily tell us anything reliable about the state of Chorasmian religion more than a thousand years earlier, it is likely that early forms of Mazdaism were at least as well-established in the Eastern Iranian cultural region where Zoroastrianism originated as it was in Persia by the Achaemenid period. Another clue is the lack of graves in the archaic period, which would fit with the Zoroastrian tradition of not burying corpses.
Clothing
Chorasmian male clothing is well-illustrated at Naqš-e Rostam and a bit less clearly but in general agreement at Persepolis as consisting of a slightly wrapped-around, belted coat with bordered edges, loose-fitting trousers, ankle shoes and a tiara or kidaris with a low peak.
It is identical to the clothing of the Scythians and Sogdians in Persian art, being a variant of the "cavalry costume" or equestrian clothing worn by most Iranian peoples, related to but markedly different from the "Median costume," and might be analogously termed "Scythian costume."
Weapons
Herodotus states that Chorasmian weapons were like those of the Bactrians, which raises the same issues in reconstruction with regards to the reed bows. Chorasmians at Persepolis and Naqš-e Rostam are equipped with an akinakes.
The next people on my list are the Chorasmians, the subjects of this week's installment.
Geographic definition
Chorasmia (O.P. Uvârazmiya, known in later periods as Khwarezm) lay far to the north and slightly east of Persia, just south of the Aral Sea in modern Uzbekistan, and watered by the Amu Darya, which flows north from the mountains of Afghanistan. Owing to this, Chorasmia was a fertile land, even more so in antiquity than today because the Amu Darya is believed to have carried more water then.
History
The country first appears in the Behistun inscription (520 BC) among Darius the Great's list of countries of which he was king. He does not mention it among the rebellious nations and it may have already been part of the empire when he ascended the throne. A fortress at the modern site of Kyuzeli-gyr was burned down in this period and may represent an incident during the Persian conquest. At this time, the historical Chorasmian culture was entering its formative "archaic" phase with the construction of large canals and mud-brick buildings and the use of pottery wheels.
Herodotus states that the Chorasmians were grouped with the Parthians, Sogdians and Arians as the sixteenth tax district of the empire, which paid a yearly tribute of 300 talents. For this reason, Jona Lendering suggests that Chorasmia was governed by the satrap of Parthia. They appear in his list of infantry units in Xerxes' invasion of Greece together with the Parthians under the command of Artabazus son of Pharnaces, later to become satrap of Phrygia.
After the defeat at Salamis, Artabazus escorted Xerxes back to Asia in 479, then killed the Thracian Bottiaeans who ruled Olynthus on suspicious of plotting revolt. He also besieged the rebellious city of Potidaea, but a large part of his army died when attempting to cross the exposed seabed just before what appears to have been a tsunami. The survivors rejoined Mardonius in Thessaly. Following the Battle of Plataea, Artabazus led the remaining Persian army home by way of Thessaly. I can find no word on whether his Chorasmian or Parthian troops took part in most of these deeds, though Dandamaev and Lukonin (Kul’tyra i èkonomika drevnego Irana) claim that they did not fight in the Battle of Plataea.
It appears that in the early 4th century, the Persians lost control over Chorasmia. While a Chorasmian still appears on the table of nations on Artaxerxes II's tomb, the grand Achaemenid palace at Kalaly-gur was left unfinished and seemingly abandoned in this period. No Chorasmians fought for Darius III against Alexander the Great, and though they supported the satrap Bessus during his bid for kingship, the country concluded an independent peace treaty with Alexander under a King Phrataphernes (or, per Arrian, Pharasmanes, whom Yuri Aleksandrovich Rapoport concludes was a son sent by Phrataphernes) in the winter of 328-27.
Chorasmia remained independent of the Seleucid and Arsacid dynasties. A native dynasty, the Afrighids, emerged in the 4th century and ruled as clients of the Sassanids and the Arab Ummayads, but it was under a series of rulers of Turkic mamluk origin that the Khwarezmian empire would come to rule all of Greater Iran by the turn of the 13th century, only to fall spectacularly after Shah Muhammed II provoked Genghis Khan to war. Predictably, Khwarezm thereafter ceased to exist as a distinct culture, though the name lingers, and today the region is a complex mixture of various Turkic peoples and Persians.
Language
Chorasmian was an Eastern Iranian language and thus related most closely to Avestan, Bactrian, Pashto and Sogdian. It is not attested from the Achaemenid period (and not all that well-attested after, though the Iranica has some analysis of its morphology as it stood during the Islamic period), but I surmise if we could see Achaemenid Avestan we would recognize it as bearing some resemblance to Avestan. During early Islamic period, it began to be overtaken by Persian and Turkic languages, and ceased to be spoken around the High Middle Ages.
Religion
Certain Zoroastrian traditions link Chorasmia with Airyanəm Vaējah, the homeland of Zarathuštra. The Bundahišn, a post-Sassanid compendium of Zoroastrian cosmology, states that the sacred fire of Yima (Jamshid) was located at Chorasmia. Legend identifies the kingdom of Vištâspa, Zarathuštra's patron in the Avesta, as either Chorasmia or Aria. While these much later traditions don't necessarily tell us anything reliable about the state of Chorasmian religion more than a thousand years earlier, it is likely that early forms of Mazdaism were at least as well-established in the Eastern Iranian cultural region where Zoroastrianism originated as it was in Persia by the Achaemenid period. Another clue is the lack of graves in the archaic period, which would fit with the Zoroastrian tradition of not burying corpses.
Clothing
Chorasmian male clothing is well-illustrated at Naqš-e Rostam and a bit less clearly but in general agreement at Persepolis as consisting of a slightly wrapped-around, belted coat with bordered edges, loose-fitting trousers, ankle shoes and a tiara or kidaris with a low peak.
It is identical to the clothing of the Scythians and Sogdians in Persian art, being a variant of the "cavalry costume" or equestrian clothing worn by most Iranian peoples, related to but markedly different from the "Median costume," and might be analogously termed "Scythian costume."
Weapons
Herodotus states that Chorasmian weapons were like those of the Bactrians, which raises the same issues in reconstruction with regards to the reed bows. Chorasmians at Persepolis and Naqš-e Rostam are equipped with an akinakes.
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