Abstract: The silver drachms issued for the two competing Arsacid brothers Vologases VI and Artabanus V may be conveniently divided into two distinct groups. However, the ensuing political instability from the rivalry between the two sons of Vologases V was not without numismatic consequence. It has, in fact, left its marks on some very rare and important outputs from the turbulent period c. AD 208–224 of Parthian history. We have several « mule » or « hybrid » drachms that are struck from different obverse and reverse dies, each belonging to one of the two brother kings. These testify to the political confusion that persisted up until the fall of the Arsacid dynasty.

Key words: Vologases VI, Artabanus V, Arsacids, Parthian numismatics, Parthian history.

A la mort de Vologèses V, en 208, son fils aîné Vologèses VI monte sur le trône. Une partie de la noblesse lui préfère pourtant son frère Artaban V. Ces querelles de succession affaiblissent une fois de plus le royaume. Après plusieurs années de guerre civile Artaban finit par l'emporter, mais laisse malgré tout à Vologèses l'administration d'une partie des provinces orientales du royaume.

En 216, Caracalla spécule sur les divisions entre les successeurs de Vologèses V pour mener une offensive contre les Parthes. Après quelques mois de pillage sans gloire les Romains sont contraints de s'enfuir devant les forces regroupées des Parthes. Caracalla est assassiné et c'est Macrin qui est amené à signer une capitulation désastreuse pour Rome, après une terrible bataille.

Pourtant la cohésion fragile qui avait permis aux Parthes de vaincre les forces romaines se brise sitôt la guerre terminée. C'est d'autant plus dramatique qu'Artaban n'a pas pris la mesure de la rébellion qui se fomente contre l'autorité centrale parthe, depuis qu'en 208 Ardashir a placé son père Papak sur le trône de Perside. En 223 et 224 Ardashir franchit une nouvelle étape en s'emparant facilement de l'Elymaïde, de la Characène et de la Susiane, sans véritable réaction d'un pouvoir parthe exsangue.

Artaban V se décide enfin à réagir en avril 224, mais l'affrontement tourne à l'avantage d'Ardashir. Artaban est tué au combat à la bataille d'Hormizdgan. C'est la fin des Arsacides et l'avènement d'une nouvelle dynastie, les Sassanides.

Abstract: Scholars have generally claimed that Alexander the Great's extraordinary order that his army burn all of its non-essential personal possessions occurred in Hyrcania, on the eve of the Bactrian invasion. The evidence, however, shows that the event more likely happened at Bactra several years later, at the end of the Bactrian campaign.

Key words: Alexander the Great, Hyrcania, Bactria, India, logistics.

Alexander the Great spent more of his reign in Bactria and Sogdiana than in any other part of his vast empire, including Macedonia and Greece. Yet, many aspects of the king's long sojourn in Central Asia remain obscure due to the poor quality of the surviving narrative sources. All five of these accounts are late and derivative; one of them (Arrian) chooses at just this point to switch from a chronological to a thematic approach, and another (Diodorus) suffers a frustrating lacuna (Holt 2012, 165–172). In some cases, archaeological and documentary evidence can be marshaled to good effect (Naveh/Shaked 2012; Rtveladze 2002), but nagging problems still remain. One of these is the question of when, why, and where Alexander issued the extraordinary order for his entire army to burn its personal baggage. This was certainly a demoralizing loss of valuable loot that had been gathered along the triumphant march through Persia, some of it already carried for many miles only to be abandoned by royal decree. Departing from the opinion of most scholars, this paper argues that the event occurred at Bactra at the end of spring 327 BC in circumstances that signal a new experiment in Alexander's logistical thinking.

Historical sources give two versions of when and where the Macedonian army first destroyed its spoils of war. According to Curtius, the order was issued in Hyrcania soon after the death of Darius in 330 BC. Curtius situates the burning at the end of an infamous series of stories: Alexander rescues his beloved horse Bucephalus from the Mardi (6.5.11–21); Alexander receives as a gift the beloved eunuch Bagoas (6.5.22–23); Alexander meets and mates with the queen of the Amazons (6.5.24–32); Alexander begins to succumb to his passions under the corrupting influence of Persian luxury, which alienates his veteran soldiers (6.6.1–10); Alexander avoids mutiny with gifts and bonuses, then circumvents the men's dangerous idleness through an opportune war against the rebel Bessus (6.6.11–13).

Abstract: The present paper intends to explore the way in which the new kingdoms born from the dissolution of the Greco-Macedonian powers east of the Tigris employed coinage in order to promote kingship ideology based on kinship and family relationships. At the same time, it will try to show the interplay as well as the differences between Greco-Macedonian and local cultures in using family as a tool of propaganda.

Key words: kingship ideology, Seleucids, Bactria, India, Arsacids, Persis, Elymais, Characene, Sakas, Indo-Scythians, Kushans, Sasanians.

Coins and communication

Aside from being a financial instrument, coinage has always been an important means of spreading messages related to ideology from a central power towards subjects. This practice became all the more widespread from the Hellenistic period onwards, when the dynasties emerging from the disintegration of Alexander's empire had to claim their legitimacy to rule in the face of their opponents. Thus, coins were a suitable way of communicating basic concepts of kingship, legitimacy and even ethnic identity. This kind of communication operated at several levels: the most immediate was the use of a particular iconography, which included the portrait of the ruling king, images recalling the myths of foundation of the dynasty, military victories, gods or personification of virtues protecting the king and his family. At a regional level, iconography would refer to indigenous features and traditions such as local shrines and deities. A second level was represented by written communication, which was intended for all those people capable of reading the messages carved on one or both the faces of the coin. Apart from giving more technical details such as the location of the mint, the weight of the coin and the name of the magistrate charged with the task of supervising the mintage, coin legends provided information about the identity of the ruler, the royal titles he bore and, accordingly, the ideology of his kingship. Those who were able to understand both the non-written and the written messages of a coin could then access a small but effective compendium of the public image a sovereign wanted to show to his subjects (as well as to those living outside his kingdom).

Abstract: This essay discuses the significance of the unique gold coin of the Kushan king, Huviška. The legend on the coin reads Imšao which recalls the ancient Indo-Iranian mythic figure, Yima/Yama. It is contended that the reason for which Yima/Yama is portrayed on the coin with a bird on his hand is not the idea of Glory and his reign, but rather the paradaisical state according to the Wīdēwdād, where Yima/Yama ruled over the world. It is contended that Huviška aimed at presenting himself in this manner to his subjects who were familiar with the Avestan and mythic Indo-Iranian lore.

Key words: Imšao, Huviška, Kushan, Karšiptar, Yima, Yama.

In 1984 Robert Göbl, in his study of the coinage of the Kushan Empire, published a unique gold coin of king Huviška. In the same year, Frantz Grenet published a major article laying out the importance of this coin for king Huviška's religious ideology. This specific coin depicts a standing male figure wearing a sword around his waist and donning a tiara decorated with a ribbon. The figure also holds a spear in his left hand while a bird is shown sitting on his outstretched right hand. Although the legend on the coin is quite clear and readable, the coin and the study of the iconographic representations on it have proven to be quite challenging. In this article it is argued that the standing figure and the bird depicted on the reverse of the coin represents king Yima, the mythological Iranian ruler. We have also argued that the bird on his hand, unlike most cases, is not a falcon, but a lark or čakāvak.

In most of Huvishka's coinage, on the obverse, we have the bust of the king and the legend reads: Šaonanošao Oohški Košano “Of the King of Kings, Huviška the Kushan.” While the obverse of his coins do not pose a great challenge, the reverse of Huviška's coin make it's reading uclear. It is suggested that the reverse of most of Huviška's coins depict a deity, a hypothesis that is strengthened by the legend found next to the figures on the reverse. The legends read the names of Indo-Iranian deity such as: Farr, Mithra, Nana, Veš, or a Hellenistic deity, namely Heracles.

Abstract:In a key passage of the Syriac Book of the Laws of the Countries, Christians are described as residing among the Medes, Persians, Parthians, and Kushans. This statement has sometimes encouraged scholars to accept that Christianity had penetrated the Iranian plateau and central Asia by the early third century CE. But this testimony does not necessarily reflect the actual state of contemporary Christianity in such regions. Instead, it is based on a text that had been circulating in the eastern Mediterranean and upper Mesopotamia during the late second and early third centuries CE. This text, now lost, had ascribed the evangelization of such regions to the apostle Thomas.

Key words: Book of the Laws of the Countries, Eusebius, Clementine Recognitions, the apostle Thomas, central Asia, the Parthian empire, Christianity.

According to a certain passage from the Syriac Book of the Laws of the Countries, otherwise known as On Fate, contemporary Christians resided in the Iranian plateau and central Asia. Since the Syriac Book (as it is hereafter called) is intimately associated with the school of Bardaisan and is generally deemed to have been composed in its surviving form c. 225 CE, scholars have sometimes treated the passage as testimony for the movement of Christianity to these regions by the early third century. But whether the text is referring to the actual state of Christianity is in fact unclear, and the sources for the Book's information have yet to be thoroughly explored.

This article accordingly examines the nature of the source material informing how the key passage of the Syriac Book represents the state of Christianity in central Asia. As it maintains, the key passage does not reflect actual knowledge that Edessenes or Upper Mesopotamians possessed regarding Christian communities that dwelled in the region. Instead, it is based on the fiction of a text that had been circulating in the eastern Mediterranean and upper Mesopotamia during the late second and early third centuries CE: the lost Parthian Acts of Thomas. While eclipsed by the surviving Acts of Thomas, which celebrated the putative ministry of Judas Thomas in India, the tradition regarding Judas Thomas’ evangelization of Parthia clearly preceded it, and it generated the belief among contemporary Christians that coreligionists inhabited the Iranian plateau and central Asia.

Abstract: The article analyses the body of evidence related to the storage and administration of food in Parthian Nisa, according to the results of the recent excavations of the Italian Archaeological Expedition in Turkmenistan. A new corpus of clay sealings, khums (big jars) and ostraka came to light in the so-called SW Building, which, together with the previously known findings from the other buildings of Nisa, gave way to some speculations about the storage and administration practice within the Arsacid citadel. The spatial distribution of the khums gives information on the function of each building and their single rooms; the texts on the ostraka inform us on the nature and quantities of the food stored in the khums; the various ways the sealings were impressed on clay suggest some ideas on the number and roles of the officers involved in the administration of the storehouses, and perhaps on the nature of the goods stored as well. In general, the findings from the latest excavations provide fundamental information on the economic life of the citadel and of the Parthian society as well. Despite the lack of scholarly debate on such issues as related to the Parthian and Central Asian world, the authors try to interpret the evidence from the Nisa excavations, and give a preliminary reading of the data from the new and old excavations in the Arsacid citadel.

Key words: Parthian archaeology, Parthian economical history, Old Nisa, storage and administration practice, sealings.

Storehouses at Nisa (C. Lippolis)

Despite the rich archaeological evidence supporting the existence of storehouses, systematic record-keeping and storage practices in Old Nisa (Turkmenistan), to this day there has been no study on the architecture of Nisa's functional building complexes, nor on the storage and distribution practices employed within them. The attention of schol-ars has always been monopolised by the ceremonial buildings, even though the presence of extensive storehouses and storage areas is, in fact, a meaningful feature of the site.