How did the Persians view the Romans?

[Eleatic Guest]

Hello,

almost all sources about the political relationship and the military clashes of the Parthians and Sassanians with the Romans come to us from Graeco-Roman writers. In fact, I cannot think of a single Persian Plutarch, Marcellinus or Dio Cassius!

Did the Persians never develop a historical science as the Greeks did from Herodot and Thukydides onwards? I once read that the Arabians invaders of the Caliphate burnt at their conquest the imperial library with all kinds of documents. Was among these papers a Persian Livy? What a irreplacable loss!

Isnt it obvious that the almost exclusively reliance on Graeco-Roman sources leads to some irrecurable biases against the Persians (which paradoxically may lead some historians to develop an even greater counter-bias against the Romans 'to balance things out' in absence of a genuinely Persian view), or do modern historians think they can level out such an inbalance of the original sources by other means?

How did the Persians view the Romans? What do we know from first-hand Persian sources? How many Western historian are actually doing research in Iranian libraries?

[FAVENTIANVS]

They saw Emperor Valerian like this:

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images2/s ... lerian.jpg
http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/gaddis/H ... lerian.jpg

[Jona Lendering]

There is no such thing as Persian historiography in "our" sense of the word. If there was any, it is now lost, although echoes survive in the Avesta (the sacred book of Zoroastranism) and Shahname (the Epic of Kings by Firdausi). It is interesting that all westerners were called Romans, including, for example, Alexander the Great. This says something about the impression Rome made.

Still, there are inscriptions and texts like the Res Gestae Divae Saporis that deal with the Roman wars. Perhaps the most impressive source is the Sassanid rock art. With one possible exception, only victories over Roman emperors were considered to be important enough for rock reliefs. Here are some examples:

[url:399pgpjd]http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanid-reliefs.html[/url]

What do we know from first-hand Persian sources? How many Western historian are actually doing research in Iranian libraries?

Not too much. It is interesting to notice that the Cambridge History of Iran almost ignores the Parthians; the chapter on the subject is essentially an update of the scholarship of Bivar in the 1930's.

At the moment, Farhad Assar (Oxford) is preparing the first (!!) edition of Parthian sources - coins, cuneiform tablets, ostraca, et cetera. He has already prepared a family tree of the Arsacids and has now reconstructed the Parthian calendar. I will be writing an article about this man because it strikes me as remarkable that four centuries of Iranian history have been ignored and are now depending on one man's efforts. Cf. [url:399pgpjd]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Iranica-L/[/url]

[Eleatic Guest]

There is no such thing as Persian historiography in "our" sense of the word. If there was any, it is now lost,...

I feared as much. What role did the behaviour of the Arabs play or was there no Persian historiography in the first place?

With one possible exception, only victories over Roman emperors were considered to be important enough for rock reliefs. Here are some examples:

[url:1qrutdpo]http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/sassanids/sassanid-reliefs.html[/url]

That would have been a hell of a praise for the Roman war machine, but as it is your link provides lots of other relief subjects, too. :wink:

[Jona Lendering]

What role did the behavior of the Arabs play or was there no Persian historiography in the first place?

The Muslims (not necessarily Arabs) did destroy a large part of the Avesta, which contained historiographical traditions.

But I suppose that this can not have been very much. The Greeks developed history in our sense of the word because they started to look for other causes than the simple "the gods are doing this or that"; it belonged to the wider wave of philosophical and physical speculation/science that started in the sixth century BCE in the Ionian cities. I don't know the ultimate cause of that revolution, but I am sure that a similar wave did not reach the Persian Empire. The conditions for historiography appear to have been absent.

[S SEVERUS]

The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars (AD 226-363)
A Documentary HistoryEdition New ed Dodgeon, Michael H., Lieu, Samuel N.C.

Maybe this book can help a bit. I 'd bought it a couple of years ago and if i remember correctly it gives some information about you're question.

[Eleatic Guest]

What role did the behavior of the Arabs play or was there no Persian historiography in the first place?

The Muslims (not necessarily Arabs) did destroy a large part of the Avesta, which contained historiographical traditions.

But I suppose that this can not have been very much. The Greeks developed history in our sense of the word because they started to look for other causes than the simple "the gods are doing this or that"; it belonged to the wider wave of philosophical and physical speculation/science that started in the sixth century BCE in the Ionian cities. I don't know the ultimate cause of that revolution, but I am sure that a similar wave did not reach the Persian Empire. The conditions for historiography appear to have been absent.

Sounds like a fair description.

Any news from Farhad Assar? The poor fellow should be supported by government funds. Well, hope he gets the credit at least.

[Goffredo]

What little historiography might have been in Sassanid persia was entirely wiped out by Muslims.

[Antonius Lucretius]

Well, generally and most of the time, not in a very favourable way... :lol:
But once (can't remember when) a Persian envoy described Rome and Persia as "The two eyes of the world".
Some people view the Romano-Persian contest as a sort of Cold War that grew hot at times.
They probably viewed the Romans also as people who were seriously trying to rob them of their earnings in the very profitable trade with the East.