Armenia and Mesopotamia in Roman Eastern Policy and Ideology of the Antonine Period: The Problems of the Terminology of the Latin Tradition
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Abstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of the terminology used by the Latin Roman tradition of the 2nd century CE. The texts associated with coin legends represented the policy of the Roman Empire in the East, in particular in the context of the eastern campaign of Marcus Ulpius Trajan, which ended with the short-term transformation of the territory of Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia into Roman provinces. Not only large texts by Roman authors such as Tacitus, but also small inscriptions on coins were used to characterize the transformation of the territories of Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia into Roman territories. The author offers an original approach to the interpretation of some of the legends found on the issues of Roman coins of the Trajan era and which were associated with attempts to incorporate Armenia and Northern Mesopotamia into the Roman Empire. The formula “IN POTESTATEM P R REDACTAE” finds certain analogies in the texts of the Late Roman Republican era and the time of the Early Empire, which were connected, in particular, with the transformation of Ptolemaic Egypt into a Roman province. In the 2nd century CE the formula was already used to represent the accession of Armenia and Mesopotamia to Rome.
The author, unlike A. Kefelian, who proposed to connect the relevant terminology with legal analogies and property rights in the texts of Roman lawyers, offers his own interpretation. The used terms, in his opinion, were connected with the concept of “deditio in potestatem”, which had close ties with the foreign policy aspect of Roman activity, in particular in the East. Coin legends and inscriptions combine two main trends – we can see an appeal both to the victories of the Romans in the East and to the creation of new provinces in the context of the activity of the ruler, in particular through the category of delegated “power of the Roman people” along with “surrender” and “transfer” of certain territories and states under the “power of the people”, the symbolic and actual expression of which in the 1st–2nd centuries CE was connected with the Emperor. The corresponding study of terminological problems is one of the components of the study of the East image in the Western tradition, in particular in the Classical period.
How to Cite
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Roman Empire, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Latin tradition, Roman numismatics
Alföldi A. (1970), Die monarchische Repräsentation im römischen Kaiserreiche, Wissenschaftliche Buchges, Darmstadt.
Angeli Bertinelli M. G. (1976), “I Romani oltre l’Eufrate nel II secolo d. C. (le province di Assiria, di Meopotamia e di Osroene)”, in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Principat. Politische Geschichte, Bd. II. 9.1, Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin & New York, pp. 3–45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ 9783110887488-002
L’Année Epigraphique (2000), Presses Universitaires de France.
Augustus (1961), “Res Gestae Divi Augusti”, in Velleius Paterculus and Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, pp. 332–406.
Badian E. (2006) “Deditio”, in Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes, Brill publishing. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e312610
Burton P. J. (2009), “Ancient International Law, the Aetolian League, and the Ritual of Surrender during the Roman Republic: A Constructivist View”, The International History Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 237–252. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2009.9641154
Burton P. J. (2011), Friendship and Empire: Roman Diplomacy and Imperialism in the Middle Republic (353–146 BC), Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139 035590
Cicero (1913), de Officiis, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.marcus_tullius_cicero-de_officiis.1913 https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.marcus_tullius_cicero-de_officiis.1913
Dąbrowa E. (2021), “Parthian-Armenian Relations from the 2nd Century BCE to the Second Half of the 1st Century CE”, ELECTRUM, Vol. 28, Ancient Armenia in Context: The Kingdom of Greater Armenia and Its Neighbours, pp. 41–57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.005.13363
Dio Cassius (1925), Roman History, Vol. VIII, Books 61–70, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.dio_cassius-roman_history.1914 https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.dio_cassius-roman_history.1914
Dmitriev S. (2011), The Greek Slogan of Freedom and Early Roman Politics in Greece, Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195375183.001.0001
Eckstein A. M. (1995), “Glabrio and the Aetolians: A Note on Deditio”, Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 125, pp. 271–289. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/284356
Flavii Arriani quae existant omnia (1961), II: Scripta minora et fragmenta, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London.
Gai (1904), Institutiones, Oxford.
Hartmann U. (2022), Imperia sine fine? Der römisch-parthische Grenzraum als Konflikt- und Kontaktzone, W. Kohlhammer GmbH.
Hekster O. (2003), “Coins and messages. Audience targeting on coins of different denominations?”, in The Representation and Perception of Roman Imperial Power, Brill, pp. 20–35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004401631_007
Kéfélian A. (2021), “Armenia and Armenians in Roman Numismatics”, ELECTRUM, Vol. 28, Ancient Armenia in Context: The Kingdom of Greater Armenia and Its Neighbours, pp. 105–134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.009.13367
Kopij K. (2017), “Coin Propaganda and Communication”, in XV International Numismatic Congress. Proceedings, Vol. I, Messina, Roma, pp. 183–187.
Lavan M. (2013), Slaves to Rome Paradigms of Empire in Roman Culture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139199025 https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139199025
Lepper F. A. (1948), Trajan’s Parthian War, Oxford University Press.
Lichtenberger A., Schreiber T. and Zardaryan M. (2021), “First Results and Perspectives of a New Archaeological Project in the Armenian Capital Artaxata: From Artashes-Artaxias I to Roman Imperialism”, ELECTRUM, Vol. 28, Ancient Armenia in Context: The Kingdom of Greater Armenia and Its Neighbours, pp. 245–276. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.016.13374
Livy (1919), Vol. I, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.livy-history_rome_1.1919 https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.livy-history_rome_1.1919
Marciak M. (2017), Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West, Brill, Leiden and Boston. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/97 89004350724_001 https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004350724
Marciak M (2021), “The Upper Tigris Region between Rome, Iran, and Armenia”, ELECTRUM, Vol. 28, Ancient Armenia in Context: The Kingdom of Greater Armenia and Its Neighbours, pp. 151–161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.011.13369
Palermo R. (2019), On the Edge of Empires. North Mesopotamia During the Roman Period (2nd–4th c. CE), Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315648255
Roman Imperial Coinage (1926), Vol. 2: Vespasian to Hadrian, Spink & Son, London.
Rose C. B. (2005), “The Parthians in Augustan Rome”, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 109, No. 1, pp. 21–75. DOI: 10.3764/aja.109.1.21
Sastre I. and Suarez D. P. (2008), “Deditio in fidem and peasant forms of dependence in the Roman provincial system: the case of Northwestern Iberia”, Actes du Groupe de Recherches sur l’Esclavage depuis l’Antiquité, pp. 501–509.
Schmitt M. (1997), Die römische Außenpolitik des 2. Jahrhunderts n. Chr.: Friedenssicherung oder Expansion, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart.
Schulde J. (2017), Arsacids, Romans and Local Elites: Cross-Cultural Interactions of the Parthian Empire, 1st edition, Oxbow Books, Oxford.
Speidel M. (2021), “Provincia Armenia in the Light of the Epigraphic Evidence”, ELECTRUM, Vol. 28, Ancient Armenia in Context: The Kingdom of Greater Armenia and Its Neighbours, pp. 135–150. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.010.13368
Stickler T. (2021), “Armenien und Iberien zwischen Rom und Iran: wechselseitige Bezüge, parallele Entwicklungen”, ELECTRUM, Vol. 28, Ancient Armenia in Context: The Kingdom of Greater Armenia and Its Neighbours, pp. 189–206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.013.13371
Suetonius (1985), Lives of the Caesars, Vol. 2, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.suetonius-lives_caesars_book_viii_vespasian.1914 https://doi.org/10.4159/DLCL.suetonius-lives_caesars_book_viii_vespasian.1914
Traina G. (2021), “Ancient Armenia: Evidence and Models”, ELECTRUM, Vol. 28, Ancient Armenia in Context: The Kingdom of Greater Armenia and Its Neighbours, pp. 13–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.21.003.13361
Van-Wijlick H. A. M. (2013), Rome and Near Eastern Kingdoms and Principalities, 44–31 BC: A Study of Political Relations During Civil War, Doctoral thesis, Durham University, Durham. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004441767
Witschel C. (2004), Propaganda für den Princeps? Mechanismen der kaiserlichen Repräsentation im Imperium Romanum, Ungedruckte Habilitationsschrift, LMU München.
Zack A. (2016) “Forschungen über die rechtlichen Grundlagen der römischen Außenbeziehungen während der Republik bis zum Beginn des Prinzipats. VIII. Teil: Die juristische Form und der rechtliche Zweck der intergesellschaftlichen deditio und die Bedeutung der fides im Zusammenhang mit der deditio”, Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft, Bd. 19, pp. 89–163. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14628/GFA_019_2016_A06
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.