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Tiridates (4), Parthian king of Armenia, 54 CE  

Margaret Stephana Drower and Barbara Levick

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Tiridates (4), brother of *Vologeses I of Parthia, who set him on the throne of *Armenia (54 ce). He fled before the Romans and was temporarily displaced by *Tigranes (4) V, but was reinstated by Vologeses. By a compromise with Cn. *Domitius Corbulo, Tiridates agreed to journey to Rome and receive the crown of Armenia ceremonially from *Nero (ce 66).

Article

Tissaphernes  

C. J. Tuplin

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Tissaphernes, son of Hydarnes. Having suppressed Pissuthnes' revolt, he became *satrap of *Sardis (c.413 bce), receiving overall authority in western Anatolia. Instructed to collect tribute from the Greek cities, he interfered in the *Peloponnesian War, but, despite treaty-negotiations, active co-operation with Sparta soon dwindled (some blamed Alcibiades' influence). *Cyrus(2)'s arrival in 407 sidelined Tissaphernes—and the war prospered. He took revenge by accusing Cyrus of plotting against *Artaxerxes (2) II (404), disputing control of Asiatic Greek cities after Cyrus cleared himself and resumed office, and denouncing Cyrus' insurrectionary plans in 401. Prominent at *Cunaxa and in the ensuing weeks (he negotiated with Cyrus' Greek generals and then murdered them at a meeting summoned to clarify and resolve mutual suspicions), he became Cyrus' effective successor in Anatolia. A demand for tribute from Ionia prompted Spartan intervention (400/399).

Article

Tripolis  

Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, Henri Seyrig, and Jean-François Salles

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East

Tripolis, Phoenician city, a joint foundation of *Tyre, *Sidon, and *Aradus. Between 104 and 95 bce it obtained its freedom from Antiochus IX (see seleucids), but later fell under a tyrant, who was executed by *Pompey; its autonomy was then restored. Its territory produced a noted wine.

Article

Trogodytae  

Robert G. Morkot

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Trogodytae were a people of ‘*Ethiopia’, in particular the Eastern Desert of southern Egypt and north Sudan. In MSS of classical authors we frequently find a reading which, by inclusion of the letter ‘l’, gives, or implies, the name Troglodytae, ‘cave-enterers’, ‘cave-dwellers’. This latter name may be applied rightly to people with that name placed by classical writers on the northern side of the *Caucasus, where ‘Troglodytes’ lived in caves because of the cold; to a people in north-western Africa; to a people in the interior of northern Africa; and possibly to peoples on the eastern coast of the *Red Sea. But when the people concerned are located in Egypt and to the south of it, the name Troglodytae must be taken as false, reflecting no doubt a common confusion, the true name, as various MSS and papyri show, being Trogodytae with no reference to caves. Trogodytica included the whole coastline from Suez to the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. There were and are no natural caves in the eastern deserts of Africa; and it is probable that the Trogodytes lived in huts of wickerwork as the Beja do now. Their lands on the Red Sea coast were explored by agents of *Ptolemy (1) II and II.

Article

Troy  

Peter Pavúk

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  3. Near East

Major Bronze Age fortified settlement on the West Anatolian coast, south of the Dardanelles, consisting of a citadel and a lower town, changing in size and importance over time. The site, formerly called formerly Hisarlık, has been intermittently excavated for more than a century now, mainly thanks to Heinrich Schliemann’s identification of the site with Homeric Troy. Whereas the Homeric question has become less central over the years, it is clear by now that Troy, thanks to its localisation in the border-zone between Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans, but also thanks to its uninterrupted occupation from c. 2900 bce to the 6th century ce, is an important archaeological site on its own. Troy became a major reference point, with two main cultural peaks: during Troy II/III (c. 2550–2200 bce) and later on during Troy VI Late/VIIa (c. 1400-1180 bce). It must have profited from a fertile surrounding, the trade in raw materials, or its facilitation, and possibly human resources. Situated on the edge of the Near Eastern civilisations, it was still part of the broader Bronze Age world.

Article

Tylos  

Daniel Potts

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Tylos, the Greek name (cf. Tyros (Strabo 16. 3. 4) Lat. Tyrus (Plin. HN 12. 21. 38)) given to the largest of the Bahrain islands in the *Persian Gulf, probably from Akkadian Tilmun via Aramaic †Tylwos, cf. Syriac. tlwn (attested in a letter written by the Nestorian catholicos Ishoyahb I in 584/5). *Androsthenes' visit in 324 bce effected the collection of detailed botanical data on Tylos, treated by *Theophrastus (Hist. pl. 4. 7. 7–8; 5. 4. 7–8; Caus. pl. 2. 5. 5). *Juba (2) (Plin., HN 6. 28. 147) had precise information on the island's location. Tylos was famed for its pearls (Plin. HN 6. 28. 147). Tylos minor (Plin., HN 12. 22. 39) is the neighbouring island of Muharraq, also called Arados (Strabo 16. 3. 4). The prehistory of Tylos extends back to at least the beginning of the 4th millennium bce, when it was inhabited by a population subsisting on herding, shellfish gathering, and fishing.

Article

Tyre  

Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, Henri Seyrig, Jean-François Salles, and J. F. Healey

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Tyre, a major city in southern Phoenicia (see phoenicians) with a large territory, built on an island but extending ashore, and equipped with two harbours. It is famed as the main founder of Phoenician colonies to the west (*Cyprus, *Carthage, etc. ), and its international trade from Spain to the *Persian Gulf is evoked in Ezekiel's prophecies (Ezek. 26–8). The Tyrian navy is often mentioned as an ally of the Persians (see navies; persia). In 332 bce it offered an obstinate resistance to *Alexander (3) the Great and was captured only after a famous siege. It made a rapid recovery and became a Ptolemaic possession (see egypt, Ptolemaic) ruled by suffetes. Conquered by the *Seleucids in 200 bce, it became autonomous in 126. It early struck a *foedus with Rome. It was made a colony (see colonization, roman) by *Septimius Severus and the capital of Syria Phoenice.

Article

Ugarit  

Jean-François Salles

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Ugarit, an important kingdom of N. Syria in the late bronze age, known from the excavations at Ras Shamra (16 km. (10 mi.) north of Lattakie) and the hundreds of texts in Ugaritic (alphabetic)/*cuneiform script found on the site. The city was destroyed in the early 12th cent. bce.

Article

Uranius, Greek writer about Arabia  

Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
09 June 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Late Antiquity
  3. Near East

His date is not quite certain, but 4th century ce (rather than three centuries earlier) seems likeliest. He is a source for much of the Arabian information in Stephanus of Byzantium, in whose treatise on ethnics he is praised highly.

Article

Urartu  

J. David Hawkins

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Urartu, iron age kingdom ( = Hebrew Ararat) in the territory of later *Armenia. The unified kingdom is known from its archaeology and monumental *cuneiform inscriptions under a dynasty c.830–640 bce. Its largely hostile relations with *Assyria (1) are documented by *Assyrian sources.

Article

Uruk, Hellenistic  

Heather D. Baker

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East

The site of Uruk (modern Warka; Greek Ὀρχόη, biblical Erech) lies some 110 miles (177 km) southeast of Babylon. A city already in the 4th millennium bce, Uruk had been continuously occupied since prehistory and remained an important center for the survival of cuneiform culture well into the Hellenistic era. At that time, the city was physically dominated by its two major temple precincts, that of the sky god Anu and that of the goddesses Ishtar and Nanaya. In contrast to Babylon with its Greek theatre, the long-running German excavations at Uruk have yielded no evidence of Greek-style buildings; rather, the temples and other structures were built in traditional Babylonian style. Members of the priesthood dominated the urban community, playing a prominent role in civic affairs as well as in the transmission of Babylonian scholarship. They continued to write their legal and administrative documents in Akkadian using the cuneiform script, although Aramaic had likely replaced Akkadian by now as the predominant spoken language. Traces of a Greek presence in Uruk include administrative bullae bearing inscriptions of Seleucid tax offices, as well as Greek personal names and occasional Greek words occurring in cuneiform tablets.

Article

Vologeses I  

Margaret Stephana Drower, Eric William Gray, and Barbara Levick

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
King of *Parthia, 51 ce/2–79/80. His family belonged to *Media Atropatene. Much of his reign was spent in wars with Rome and on his eastern frontier. In 54 Vologeses set his brother *Tiridates(3) on the throne of *Armenia (Tac. Ann. 12. 50). Cn. *Domitius Corbulo, sent to re-establish Roman influence, was at first successful, Vologeses being occupied on his eastern frontier with a rebellion. Tiridates fled, and a Roman nominee *Tigranes(4) was crowned as king of Armenia. But Vologeses returned to the war, and at one time gained an advantageous treaty from L. *Caesennius Paetus, after the latter's capitulation at Rhandeia. Finally, peace was made and Tiridates agreed (63) to go to Rome and pay homage to *Nero for his throne: this he did in 66. Vologeses' later relations with Rome were friendlier: he sought *Vespasian's help against the invading Alani (Suet.

Article

Xerxes I  

Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and Amélie Kuhrt

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Xerxes I (OP Khšāyaršā), son of *Darius(1) and Atossa, king of *Persia486–465 bce, chosen by his father as successor (XPf ll. 31 ff.; Hdt. 7. 2–3). At the beginning of his reign he crushed a revolt in Egypt (Hdt. 7. 3) and later two rebellions in *Babylon. Plans for an expedition against Greece were inherited from Darius: for the course of events see persian wars. No Persian document mentions the expedition.The more important palaces on the terrace of *Persepolis were built in Xerxes' reign, including the *Apadana with its impressive reliefs, illustrating the structure and the extent of the empire: king, court, and subject populations with their ethnographic characteristics. In the Daiva-inscription (XPh ll. 28–41) rebellion is equated with the neglect of *Ahuramazda and the worship of daiva's (‘bad gods’). Xerxes' destruction of the daiva-sanctuary marks no breach with his ancestors' presumed religious tolerance, as is often thought, since DB 5 already contains similar phraseology. Xerxes' reputation as a weakling and a womanizer depends on certain recognizably novelistic passages in Herodotus (7. 2–3, 9. 108–13) and on the reading of royal inscriptions as personal messages by the kings, rather than as formulaic royal statements. Seen from the heartland, his reign forms a period of consolidation, not of incipient decay. Xerxes was murdered in 465.

Article

Zeugma  

Margaret Stephana Drower, Eric William Gray, and Susan Mary Sherwin-White

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Near East

Zeugma (mod. Bâlkîs, opposite Bîrecik), in *Syria on the right bank of the *Euphrates at its chief crossing, about 112 km. (70 miles) below *Samosata. Twin colonies Seleuceia (right bank) and Apamea (left bank) were founded by *Seleucus (1) I (PlinHN 5. 86), which came to be known by the generic name Zeugma (‘junction’), and gave Seleucus control of the lower river crossings of the Euphrates. It is possible that Apamea was merely a suburb of Seleuceia. It was here (in 221) that *Antiochus (3) III met his own bride, *Laodice(3), daughter of *Mithradates II of *Pontus, on her journey from Pontus and celebrated the royal wedding (Polyb. 5. 43. 1–4).

Article

Zeuxis(1), of Heraclea (1) in Lucania, painter, 397 BCE  

Karim Arafat

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Near East
Zeuxis (1), painter, of *Heraclea(1) in Lucania, pupil of Neseus of Thasos or Damophilus of Himera. *Pliny(1) dates him 397 bce, rejecting 424. *Quintilian dates both him and *Parrhasius to the *Peloponnesian War. In *Plato(1)'s Protagoras (dramatic date about 430) he is young and a newcomer to Athens. His rose-wreathed *Eros is mentioned in Ar. Ach.991–2 (425). He painted Alcmena for Acragas before 406, and *Archelaus (2)'s palace between 413 and 399. He ‘entered the door opened by Apollodorus and stole his art’; he added the use of highlights to shading, and *Lucian praises in the *Centaur family (an instance of the unusual subjects which Zeuxis preferred) the subtle gradation of colour from the human to the animal body of the female Centaur; his paintings of grapes were said to have deceived birds; he said that if he had painted the boy carrying the grapes better, the birds would have been frightened off. His figures lacked the ethos (character) of *Polygnotus, although his Penelope was morality itself, and his Helen (for Croton or Acragas) an ideal picture compiled from several models; pathos (emotion) rather than ethos distinguished the Autoboreas with *Titan look and wild hair, and the *Menelaus (1) drenched in tears.

Article

Zeuxis (4), Seleucid viceroy  

Simon Hornblower

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Zeuxis (4), important *Seleucid viceroy of the time of *Antiochus (3) III: Polybius 5. 45. 4 and 16. 1. 8 with Walbank, HCP and J. Ma, Antiochus III and the Cities of Western Asia Minor (1999) for the inscriptions. Cf. SEG 36. 973 =Ma no. 29 for his title, and Ma nos. 123 ff. for his role. See amyzon; sardis.

Article

Zoroaster  

Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and W. F. M. Henkelman

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Near East
Zoroaster, Ζωροάστρης (Ζαθραύστης, Ζαράτας), is the Greek form Old Iranian Zarathuštra. He is considered by Zoroastrian tradition as prophet of a new religion; the revolutionary nature of his teachings is, however, debatable. In the oldest part of the Avesta, the Gāthā, he is called a ma̢thrān, ‘he who possesses the sacred formulas’. The Gāthā, ritualistic hymns, portray a dualistic system in which Aṣ̌a (truth, rightness) is opposed to Druj (lie, deceit) with *Ahura Mazdā is the supreme deity. They are dated, on linguistic grounds, to c.1000 bce. Whether Zoroaster was a historical figure, lived around this date, and wrote the Gāthā is debated; his persona certainly served as focal point of an emergent religious community. A date in the 6th cent. bce is suggested by late Zoroastrian tradition, but not supported by conclusive historical evidence. The Greeks knew of Zoroaster by the 5th cent. bce (*Xanthus(2) of Lydia in Diog.