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ARSACID BEVERAGES IN LUCAN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2019
Extract
In the eighth book of Lucan's Bellum Ciuile, Pompey sends the Galatian king Deiotarus into the distant East to seek an alliance with Parthia, the vast empire beyond the Euphrates ruled by the Arsacid dynasty. His instructions to Deiotarus begin with these lines (8.211–14):
- ‘quando’ ait ‘Emathiis amissus cladibus orbis,
- qua Romanus erat, superest, fidissime regum,
- Eoam temptare fidem populosque bibentis
- Euphraten et adhuc securum a Caesare Tigrim.’
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 2019
Footnotes
I thank Michael Fontaine, Bruce Gibson and the journal's anonymous reviewer for their helpful suggestions. Citations of Lucan follow the Teubner edition of D.R. Shackleton Bailey (ed.), M. Annaei Lucani De Bello Civili Libri X (Stuttgart, 1988). All translations are my own.
References
1 Deiotarus’ embassy is otherwise unattested, but the scene may have some historical basis in Pompey's dispatch of C. Lucilius Hirrus (Caes. BCiu. 3.82.4; Cass. Dio 41.55.3–4, 42.2.5). See Radicke, J., Lucans poetische Technik: Studien zum historischen Epos (Leiden and Boston, 2004), 440–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Luc. 8.216–17: uocesque superbo | Arsacidaeperferre meas.
3 Two other rivers were known to classical authors as the Choaspes, one in northern Persia and one in India. For references and discussion, see Schmitt, R., ‘Choaspes’, in Yarshater, E. (ed.), Encyclopedia Iranica (Costa Mesa, 1991), 5.496Google Scholar.
4 See Bexley, E., ‘Replacing Rome: geographic and political centrality in Lucan's Pharsalia’, CPh 104 (2009), 459–75Google Scholar; Pogorzelski, R.J., ‘Orbis Romanus: Lucan and the limits of the Roman world’, TAPhA 141 (2011), 143–70Google Scholar; Tracy, J., Lucan's Egyptian Civil War (Cambridge, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. Rossi, A., ‘The Aeneid revisited: the journey of Pompey in Lucan's Pharsalia’, AJPh 121 (2000), 571–91Google Scholar, at 572–3.
5 Hdt. 1.188.1: καὶ δὴ καὶ ὕδωρ ἀπὸ τοῦ Χοάσπεω ποταμοῦ ἅμα ἄγεται τοῦ παρὰ Σοῦσα ῥέοντος, τοῦ μούνου πίνει βασιλεὺς καὶ ἄλλου οὐδενὸς ποταμοῦ; cf. Hdt. 5.49.7, 5.52.6. For commentary and additional bibliography, see Asheri, D., Lloyd, A. and Corcella, A., A Commentary on Herodotus Books I–IV (Oxford, 2007), 207Google Scholar; Kuhrt, A., The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (London, 2007), 585Google Scholar.
6 Ctesias, FGrHist 688 F 37 = Ath. Deipn. 2.23; cf. Curt. 5.2.9; Plut. Artax. 12.4.
7 Agathocles of Cyzicus, FGrHist 472 F 3 = Ath. Deipn. 12.9; D(e)inon, FGrHist 690 F 12 = Ath. Deipn. 14.67. Regarding the golden colour, see also Plin. HN 37.156.
8 The salubriousness of the Choaspes may be more than a Greco-Roman literary topos, however. See the discussion of a standard Babylonian medical incantation that mentions the river in Potts, D.T., ‘Elamite Ulā, Akkadian Ulaya, and Greek Choaspes: a solution to the Eulaios problem’, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 13 (1999), 27–44Google Scholar, at 28; for the text and translation of the incantation, see Farber, W., ‘Mannam Lušpur Ana Enkidu: some new thoughts about an old motif’, JNES 49 (1990), 299–321Google Scholar, at 315. For interpretations of the Choaspes tradition from the vantage point of Achaemenid history, see Lincoln, B., ‘Happiness for Mankind’: Achaemenian Religion and the Imperial Project (Leuven, 2012), 207–10Google Scholar; Briant, P., ‘L'eau du grand roi’, in Milano, L. (ed.), Drinking in Ancient Societies: History and Culture of Drinks in the Ancient Near East: Papers of a Symposium Held in Rome, May 17–19, 1990 (Padua, 1994), 45–65Google Scholar, contra Béquignon, Y., ‘Le breuvage du Grand Roi’, REA 42 (1940), 20–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Briant, P., From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (Winona Lake, 2002), 263–4, 267Google Scholar; Wiesehöfer, J., ‘Das “Paradies”: Persische Parkkultur als Zeugnis herrscherlicher Legitimation und Repräsentation’, in Ganzert, J. and Nielsen, I. (edd.), Herrschaftsverhältnisse und Herrschaftslegitimation: Bau- und Gartenkultur als historische Quellengattung hinsichtlich Manifestation und Legitimation von Herrschaft (Berlin, 2015), 49–64Google Scholar, at 51–3.
9 Tib. 3.7(4.1).140: regia lympha Choaspes. van Bercham, D., ‘Messalla ou Messalinus? Note sur le Panégyrique de Messalla’, MH 2 (1945), 33–8Google Scholar, at 37 takes the phrase as a reference to the Parthians of Tibullus’ own day. On the ‘Herodotean background’ of this passage, see Jeffreys, R., ‘Corpus Tibullianum 3.7(4.1).142’, Phoenix 48 (1994), 68–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 70.
10 Hor. Carm. 2.2.17: redditum Cyri solio Phraaten. For discussion, see Nabel, J., ‘Horace and the Tiridates episode’, RhM 158 (2015), 305–24Google Scholar.
11 See Wissemann, M., Die Parther in der augusteischen Dichtung (Frankfurt am Main, 1982), 71Google Scholar; Sonnabend, H., Fremdenbild und Politik: Vorstellungen der Römer von Ägypten und dem Partherreich in der späten Republik und frühen Kaiserzeit (Frankfurt am Main, 1986), 280–8Google Scholar; Spawforth, A., ‘Symbol of unity? The Persian-Wars tradition in the Roman empire’, in Hornblower, S. (ed.), Greek Historiography (Oxford and New York, 1994), 233–47Google Scholar; Lerouge, C., L'image des Parthes dans le monde gréco-romain (Stuttgart, 2007), 124–7Google Scholar; Shayegan, M.R., Arsacids and Sasanians: Political Ideology in Post-Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia (Cambridge, 2011), 332–40Google Scholar.
12 Potts (n. 8), especially 35. For the Roman view of the Choaspes and the Eulaeus as separate rivers, see also Strabo 15.3.5; Plin. HN 6.100, 6.130–8.
13 Strabo 15.3.22; Plut. De exil. 601D; Solin. De mirabilibus mundi 38.4; Auson. Ordo nob. urb. 20.26–9; Isid. Etym. 13.21.15; Eust. Commentarii in Dionysium Periegetem 1073, 1075 (= GGM 2.396), Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem 21.8 (= van der Valk, M. [ed.], Eustathii Archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes [Leiden, 1987], 4.446–7Google Scholar); cf. Lucian, Menippus 7; Ael. VH 12.40; Clem. Al. Paedagogus 2.2 (= Marcovich, M. [ed.], Clementis Alexandrini Paedagogus [Leiden and Boston, 2002], 86CrossRefGoogle Scholar). The passage in Isidore closely echoes that of Solinus, in some places word for word; cf. Crivăţ, A., ‘Isidore of Seville – reader of Solinus’, Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics 1 (2013), 113–33Google Scholar, at 118. On the interchangeability of the terms ‘Parthian’ and ‘Persian’ in Latin literature after the fall of the Arsacids to the Sasanians, see Drijvers, J., ‘Ammianus Marcellinus’ image of Arsaces and early Parthian history’, in Drijvers, J. and Hunt, D. (edd.), The Late Roman World and its Historian: Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus (London, 1999), 193–206Google Scholar, at 195.
14 The force of amborum in line 61 seems to indicate that the Parthian and ‘Germany’ are in the territory of the other and drinking from its respective river. The Arar is the Saône, which flowed through lands occupied by Germans in Virgil's time. See Coleman, R., Virgil: Eclogues (Cambridge, 1977), 85Google Scholar; Hubbard, T.K., ‘Allusive artistry and Vergil's revisionary program: Eclogues 1–3’, in Volk, K. (ed.), Vergil's Eclogues (Oxford, 2008), 79–109Google Scholar, at 87.
15 See Krisak, L. (transl.), Virgil's Eclogues (Philadelphia, 2010), 83Google Scholar, who explains Parthus as ‘(very) loosely, Persians, seen as eastern nomads’.
16 Mayer, R. (ed. and transl.), Lucan: Civil War VIII (Warminster, 1981), 115Google Scholar, who cites the examples of this poetic device collected in TLL 2.0.1964.39–66; see also Hunink, V., M. Annaeus Lucanus Bellum Civile Book III: A Commentary (Amsterdam, 1992), 125Google Scholar. Not all references to river-drinking in Lucan fit Mayer's description, however; see 3.237, 9.752, 10.278–9.
17 See n. 2 above.
18 Getty, R.J. (ed.), M. Annaei Lucani De Bello Civili Liber I (Cambridge, 1940), 44Google Scholar; Mayer (n. 16), 115; Roche, P., Lucan: De Bello Ciuili Book I (Oxford, 2009), 170Google Scholar. Roche finds only one occurrence of the patronymic in poetry after Lucan (Sil. Pun. 8.467), but cf. Mart. 9.35.3, where the Parthian court is called the Arsacia aula. On the dynastic name, cf. Dio Cass. 40.14.3: ἔς τε τὸ μέσον τότε πρῶτον ὑπ᾽ Ἀρσάκου τινὸς ἀφίκοντο, ὅθενπερ καὶ οἱ ἔπειτα βασιλεύσαντες αὐτῶν Ἀρσακίδαι ἐπωνομάσθησαν; Ampel. 31.2.1–2: Arsaces forma et uirtute praecipuus, cuius posteri Arsacidae cognominati sunt; Serv. Aen. 6.760, 12.529.
19 Luc. 8.396–416. On Arsacid and Persian marital customs in Greco-Roman literature and in historical context, see Jong, A. de, Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature (Leiden, 1997), 424–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bigwood, J.M., ‘Queen Mousa, mother and wife (?) of King Phraatakes of Parthia: a re-evaluation of the evidence’, Mouseion 4 (2004), 35–70Google Scholar, at 43–7. Bigwood discusses the allegedly incestuous relationship between the Arsacid king Phraataces and his mother Musa (Joseph. AJ 18.39–43), which may be behind Lentulus’ reference to Arsacid mother-son marriage.
20 See Lerouge (n. 11), 221–2; Isaac, B., The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton, 2004), 371–80Google Scholar.
21 The Natural History was composed in the 70s c.e., though the research for it is likely to have begun under Nero. See Baldwin, B., ‘The composition of Pliny's Natural History’, SO 70 (1995), 72–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 80; Murphy, T.M., Pliny the Elder's Natural History: The Empire in the Encyclopedia (Oxford, 2004), 3–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 See Postgate, J.P. (ed.), M. Annaei Lucani De Bello Civili Liber VIII (Cambridge, 1917), 58–9Google Scholar; Bartsch, S., Ideology in Cold Blood: A Reading of Lucan's Civil War (Cambridge, MA and London, 1997), 82–9Google Scholar; Tracy (n. 4), 25–30.
23 Luc. 1.200, 8.322; see Ahl, F., Lucan: An Introduction (Ithaca, 1976), 22, 172Google Scholar.
24 Tracy, J., ‘The significance of Lucan's Deiotarus episode’, CQ 66 (2016), 605–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 610 (quotation) and 606 (Deiotarus’ defection to Caesar).
25 Bexley, E., ‘Lucan's catalogues and the landscape of war’, in Skempis, M. and Ziogas, I. (edd.), Geography, Topography, Landscape: Configurations of Space in Greek and Roman Epic (Berlin, 2014), 373–403Google Scholar, at 385; see also Hunink (n. 16), 102–5.
26 Bexley (n. 25), 390. On Lucan's use of ethnography, see also Thomas, R., Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethnographical Tradition (Cambridge, 1982), 108–19Google Scholar.
27 Luc. 8.315; cf. 8.289–90. Other phrases from imperial literature in this vein include Just. Epit. 41.1.1 (diuisio orbis); Tac. Ann. 2.2.2 (orbis alius) and Manilius 4.674–5 (orbis alter). For discussion, see Sonnabend (n. 11); Schneider, R.M., ‘Die Faszination des Feindes: Bilder der Parther und des Orients in Rom’, in Wiesehöfer, J. (ed.), Das Partherreich und seine Zeugnisse = The Arsacid Empire – Sources and Documentation: Beiträge des internationalen Colloquiums, Eutin (27.–30. Juni 1996) (Stuttgart, 1998), 95–146Google Scholar, at 106–16.
28 Pogorzelski (n. 4), 154; cf. Bexley (n. 4).
29 Jeffreys (n. 9), 70.
30 Milton, Paradise Regained 3.288–9. See Brydges, E. (ed.), The Poetical Works of John Milton (London, 1876), 407–8Google Scholar; Gilbert, A., A Geographical Dictionary of Milton (New Haven, 1919), 84–5Google Scholar. Milton also describes the Choaspes as an ‘amber stream’, which recalls the fragment of Agathocles of Cyzicus cited above (n. 7).