Ancient Iraq (64 page)

Chapter 25

1
. On these dates and their historical implications, see
R. A. PARKER
and
W. H. DUBBERSTEIN
,
Babylonian Chronology 626
B.C.
–A.D
.
75
, Providence, Rhode Island., 1956.

2
. For a discussion of the events leading to the ‘usurpation’ of Darius, see
A. T. OLMSTEAD
,
History of the Persian Empire
, Chicago, 1948, pp. 107 – 13.

3
.
F. H. WEISSBACH
,
Die Keilinschriften der Achaemeniden
, Leiden, 1911;
F. W. KONIG
,
Relief und inschrift des Koenigs Daraios I. am Felsen von Bagistan
, Leiden, 1938. Cf.
G. G. CAMERON
, ‘The Old Persian text of the Bisitun inscription’,
JCS
, V (1951), pp. 47 – 54.

4
. Behistun, § 50.

5
. On these two revolts:
TH. DE LIAGRE BÖHL
, ‘Die babylonischen Pratendenten zur Anfangzeit des Darius (Dareios), I’,
Bi. Or
., XXVI (1968), pp. 150 – 53.

6
.
R. A. PARKER
and
W. H. DUBBERSTEIN
, op. cit., p. 17;
HERODOTUS
, I, 183;
STRABO
, XVI, i, 5;
ARRIAN
,
Anabasis
, VII, xvii, 2;
DIODORUS
, II, ix, 4 ff.;
CTESIAS
,
Persica
, Epit. 52 – 3;
F. M. TH. DE LIAGRE BOHL
, ‘Die Babylonischen Pratendenten zur Zeit Xerxes‘,
Bi. Or
., XIX (1962), pp. 110 – 14.

7
.
SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY
and
P. R. S. MOOREY
,
Ur of the Chaldees
, London, 1982, p. 259;
UVB
, XII – XIII (1956), p. 17; pp. 28 – 31;
F. WETZEL, E. SCHMIDT
and
A. MALLWIST
;
Das Babylon der Spätzeit, (WVDOG
, 62), Berlin, 1957, pp. 25 – 7.

8
.
A. T. CLAY
,
Legal and Commercial Transactions dated in the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods
, Philadelphia, 1908;
A. TREMAYNE
Records from Erech, Time of Cyrus and Cambyses
, New Haven, 1925.

9
. This was a letter of introduction, written in Aramaic, given to a tradesman who returned from Babylonia to Egypt via Assyria:
D. OATES
,
Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq
, London, 1968, pp. 59 – 60.

10
.
XENOPHON
,
Anabasis
, II, 4 to III, 5;
D. OATES
, op. cit., pp. 60 – 61;
G. GOOSENS
, ‘L'Assyrie après l'empire‘,
Compte rendu de la IIIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale
, Leiden, 1854, p. 93.

11
.
A. T. OLMSTEAD
, op. cit., p. 293;
M. W. STOLPER
,
Management and Politics in Later Achaemenid Babylonia
, 2 vol., Ann Arbor, 1974.

12
.
HERODOTUS
, I, 192;
A. T. OLMSTEAD
, op. cit., p. 293.

13
.
A. T. OLMSTEAD
, op. cit., pp. 299 – 301.

14
.
G. CARDASCIA
,
Les Archives des Murashû
, Paris, 1951.

15
.
R. ZADOK
, ‘Iranians and individuals bearing Iranian names in Achaemenian Babylonia‘,
Israel Oriental Studies
, VII (1977), pp. 89 – 138.

16
. Often called, wrongly, the battle of Arbela (Erbil). The battle took place in the plain of Keramlais, 23 kilometres east of Nineveh. Cf.
SIR AUREL STEIN
,
Geographical Journal
, C (1942), p. 155.

17
.
ARRIAN
,
Anabasis
, III, xvi, 4; VII, xvii, 2;
STRABO
, XVI, i, 5.

18
. ‘Chronicle concerning the Diadochi‘,
ABC
, pp. 115 – 19.

19
.
A. J. SACHS
and
D. J. WISEMAN
, ‘A Babylonian King List of the hellenistic period‘,
Iraq
, XVI (1954), pp. 202 – 11.

20
. Discussion in
M. ROSTOVTZEFF
,
The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World
, Oxford, 1941, I, pp. 499 – 504.

21
. The term ‘Mesopotamia’ is taken here in its broader sense. During the Seleucid period, the country was divided into three satrapies: Mesopotamia in the north, Babylonia in the south and Parapotamia along the Euphrates.

22
. American excavations in 1927 – 32 and 1936 – 7. Italian, then Italian Iraqi excavations from 1964 to 1974, resumed in 1985. Preliminary results in
Mesopotamia
, I (1966) to VIII (1973 – 4), then XXI (1986). Summary of results by
A. INVERNIZZI
, ‘Ten years research in the al-Mada’ in area: Seleucia and Ctesiphon‘,
Sumer
, XXXII (1976), pp. 167 – 75.

23
. French excavations 1922 – 3; American excavations, 1928 – 39. Several Preliminary and Final Reports published. For a general account of the excavations,
M. ROSTOVTZFF
,
Dura-Europus and its Art
, Oxford, 1938.

24
.
A. T. CLAY
Legal Documents from Erech dated in the Seleucid Era
, New Haven, 1913;
O. KRÜCKMAN
,
Babylonische Rechts- und Verwal-tungsurkunden aus der Zeit Alexanders und die Diadochen
, Weimar, 1931. Also see:
G. K. SARKISIAN
in
VDI
, I (1955), pp. 136 – 70 and
Forschungen und Berichte
, XVI (1975), pp. 15 – 76.

25
. Nimrud:
D
. and
J. OATES
, ‘Nimrud, 1957: the Hellenistic Settlement’,
Iraq
, XX (1958), pp. 114 – 57. Seleucid graves at Mari:
A. PARROT
,
Syria
, XVI (1935), pp. 10 – 11; XXIX (1952), pp. 1867; XXXII (1955), pp. 189 – 90. Remains of a Greco-Oriental temple at Arslan-Tash,
F. THUREAU-DANGIN
,
Arslan-Tash
, Paris, 1931.

26
.
ANET
, p. 317.

27
.
F. WETZEL
et al
., op. cit., pp. 3 – 21. The theatre has recently been re-excavated and restored by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities. Cf.
Iraq
, XXXIV (1972), pp. 139 – 40.

28
.
PLINY
,
Naturalis historia
, VI, 122;
PAUSANIAS
,
Descriptio Graeciae
, I, xvi, 3.

29
.
R. NORTH
, ‘Status of the Warka Excavation’,
Orientalia
, XXVI (1957), pp. 206 – 7, 228 – 33, 327 – 41 (with bibliography).

30
.
M. RUTTEN
,
Contrats de l'Epoque séleucide conservés au Musée du Louvre
, Paris, 1935. On temple organization and functions, see:
G. J. P. McEWAN
,
Priest and Temple in Hellenistic Babylonia
, Wiesbaden, 1981.

31
.
W. RÖLLIG
, ‘Griechische Eigennamen in den Texten der Babylonische Spätzeit‘,
Orientalia
, XXIX (1960), pp. 376 – 91;
A. KUHRT
, ‘Assyrian and Babylonian traditions in classical authors: a critical synthesis‘, in
H. J. NISSEN
and
J. RENGER
(ed.),
Mesopotamien und seine Nachbarn
, Berlin, 1982, II, pp. 538 – 41.

32
. Latest English translation:
S. M. BURSTEIN
,
The Babyloniaca of Berossus, in Sources for the Ancient Near East
, I, 5, Malibu, Calif., 1978.

33
.
N. C. DEBEVOISE
,
A Political History of Parthia
, Chicago, 1938.

34
. German excavations, 1903 – 14 (
W. ANDRAE
,
Hatra
): Iraqi excavations since 1951. Preliminary reports in
Sumer
, VIII (1952) ff. For a general description of the site, see:
D. HOLMES-FREDERICQ
Hatra et ses Sculptures Parthes
, Leiden, 1963, and
W. I. AL-SALIHI
,
Hatra
(Historical Monuments of Iraq, 2), Baghdad, 1973.

35
.
H. LENZEN
,
Die Partherstadt Assur (WVDOG
, 57), Leipzig, 1933.

36
.
R. NORTH
Orientalia
, XXXVI (1957), pp. 241 – 3;
UVB
, XIV (1958), pp. 18 – 20; XVI (1960), pp. 13 – 21;
BaM
, VI (1960), pp. 104 – 14.

37
.
JOSEPHUS
,
Antiq. Jud
., XVIII, 310 – 79.

38
.
J. N. STRASSMAIER
, ‘Arsakideninschriften‘,
ZA
, III (1888), pp. 129 – 42.
TH. J. PINCHES
and
H. SAYCE
,
PSBA
(1902), pp. 108 ff.;
TH. J. PINCHES
,
The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records of Assyria and Babylonia
, London, 1902, pp. 481 – 6;
J. KOHLER
and
A. UNGNAD
, 100
ausgewahlte Rechtsurkunden der Spätzeit des babylonischen Schrifttums
, Leipzig, 1909;
A. J. SACHS
and
J. SCHAUM-BERGER
,
Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts
, Providence, Rhode Island, 1955.

39
.
A. J. SACHS
and
J. SCHAUMBERGER
, op. cit., No. 1201 (mentioned but not published).

40
.
DION CASSIUS
, LXXI, 2;
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS
, XXIII, vi, 34;
ZONARAS
, XI, 22, XII, 2.
L. DILLEMANN
, ‘Ammien Marcellin et les pays de l'Euphrate et du Tigre‘,
Syria
, XXXVIII (1961), pp. 86 – 158.

41
.
V. CHAPOT
,
La Frontière de l'Euphrate
, Paris, 1907;
A. POIDEBARD
,
La Trace de Rome dans le Desert de Syrie
, Paris, 1934;
D. OATES
,
Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq
, Oxford, 1968, pp. 67-117;
Id.
, ‘Ain Sinu‘, in
J. CURTIS
(ed.),
Fifty Years of Mesopotamian Discovery
, London, 1982, pp. 120 – 22.

42
. Ctesiphon was studied by German, then German and American archaeologists in 1931 – 2 and, more recently, by the Italians working in Seleucia (see note 22 above). On the Kish palace:
S. LANGDON
, ‘Excavations at Kish and Barghutiat’,
Iraq
, I (1934), pp. 113 – 22;
P. R. S. MOOREY
,
Kish Excavations 1923 – 1933
, Oxford, 1978, p. 180 ff.