Congrès Mondial des Études sur le Moyen-Orient et l'Afrique du Nord

Barcelone du 19 au 24 Juillet 2010

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description:

Chair: Toni Ñaco del Hoyo (ICREA & Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Paper Presenter: Borja Antela-Bernárdez (Professor, Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona, Spain) “Alexander of Babylon. The Macedonian Empire and the Middle East”
The Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Empire meant a main change in the definition of the political relationships in the Middle East. Nevertheless, Alexander the Great's use of the Persian aristocracy and the links and ties that related those aristocracies both to the country and to the people, and the impossibility of Alexander's Empire to regulate this whole territory sure have to be taken as a sign of the possible and unfinished plan of organization the young Macedonian conqueror would turn on in his conquered land. The relationships between Alexander and the Persians, and the wish to made a new approach on the character of the Macedonian conqueror, now from the East, and concretely with the Middle East -i.e. Babylon- as a center of his Empire, would suggest new ways of understanding the traditional opposition between the Persian world as a symbol of the Barbarians and the West. In deed, this paper shows the Persian side of the Macedonian Empire, as a first step for a new research on Alexander and the Barbarians.

Paper Presenter: Toni Ñaco del Hoyo (Professor, ICREA / Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) “Bands of brothers: demobilised soldiers as looters of towns in Late Hellenistic Asia Minor”
In this paper, I want to explore a succession of events taking place in Asia Minor in the last two centuries BCE, which ressemble the pillage caused by the Greek ex-mercenaries of the Persian King early in the Fourth century, as described in Xenophon's Anabasis. Later on, in the Late Hellenistic period, that same region became a geoestrategical crossroads for the military expansion policies of several Ancient powers, such as Republican Rome, the Hellenistic kingdoms of Seleucia and Pergamum, and some Anatolian states such as Pontus, Bythinia, Armenia, Parthia, etc.Accordingly, the intense warfare produced heavy losses on the local towns, particularly their civilian populations, subjected to all kind of plundering. However, not always regular armies were directly responsible for such devastation, but former soldiers who had been temporarily demobilised and were not subjected to public authority at the moment. Therefore, in order to analyse this phenomenon, I will make use of a twofold methodological approach. Firstly, I will focus on the evidence we have in our literary sources on the actual looters, often also described as occasional bandits but with a certain military origin, or even as actual gangsters occasionally enroled as soldiers in regular armies for specific missions. Secondly, the historical record ?literature but also inscriptions, coins and the archaeology- from the Asian towns will be scrutinized in search for evidence of any civic reaction to such looting activities, along with eventual public policies of recovery. To conclude, as a whole this paper will be an interesting exercise to test, all along the Late Hellenistic age, whether such bands of brothers acting privately as bandits, but with military discipline and probably a strict chain of command, were as much damaging for the Asian towns as regular public soldiers searching for their booty after a war victory.

Paper Presenter: Daniel Gómez-Castro (PhD Student, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) “Artaxerxes II and the Greek World: a King for Greece or a strategy in foreign policy?”
Despite all the troubles the Persian Empire ought to face during the first half of the IV century, such as the uprising of Cyrus the younger, a war against Sparta and the Cyprian & Egyptian revolt, the best known event from Artaxerxes II’s long reign is the 'King's Peace' of 386 BCE. Quite often, this treaty has been interpreted as a definitive proof for the submission of an unstable and weak Greece to its hatred Persian neighbours. Most recently, however, such a view has been challenged by the Iranian studies, pointing out the invention of a new strategy in foreign policy in order to describe the Achaemenid dominion over Asia Minor, against the interpretation of a simple form of imperialist expansion. Therefore, this paper will try to fix a new position in this long debate. As to the historical evidence, the remarkable advance in our knowledge on the Achaemenid Persia lately has made it possible to add to our record some non-Greek sources, basically inscriptions and literature, far from the 'hellenocentrism' within the Greek historians and orators, as well as some of the most recent archaeological findings in the region. Actually, I will focus my attention on two main issues. Firstly, an up to date 'état de la question' on the 'King's Peace', according to the opinion of Greek historians as well as scholars from the Iranian perspective, which seems most likely to be a necessary preliminary step. Secondly, an analysis of Artaxerxes' reign, lasting more than fifty years, could equally show any real Persian strategy, and even a foreign policy in the 'longue durée', allowing us to frame the discussion on the eventual Achaemenid sovereignty over Asia Minor, including the Greek poleis.

Paper Presenter:Leonardo Gregoratti (Romany History Researcher, Udine University, Italy) “All the Great King's Men: Crisis and Transformation of the Parthian Empire”
Between the last years of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD the Arsacid kingdom went through a period of serious political instability. Royal authority was reduced to a mere formal power at the mercy of Parthian noble houses which struggled each other to gain the throne for their own candidates. For decades Rome was able to interfere in the Arsacid national policy supporting his own pro-roman candidates and causing internal strife and rebellion to burst all over the kingdom. The new Great King Vologeses I managed to put an end to this ruinous situation. Renovating previous attempts already made by Artabanus II, he regained for the Crown the control over the main economic centres and the sources of tax incomes. To fight the power of aristocracy he searched for support among the kings of Parthian vassal states. In order to ensure royal control over minor kingdoms he appointed two of his brothers to the thrones of Armenia and Media, conceiving a sort of enlarged government system which enabled Parthia to successfully confront Rome in Armenia only few years later. Vologese’s new political organization basically followed by his 2nd century successors, as epigraphical sources tend to confirm, was probably one of the main reasons which made the Arsacid empire capable of withstanding Traian’s and Verus’ invasions without crumbling to pieces.

Paper Presenter: Maria Helena Trindade Lopes; Sofia Fonseca (Professor/Archaeologist, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) “The Ancient city of Memphis (Egypt): presence of foreigners (Greek mercenaries) in the Late Period occupation of Kôm Tuman, during Pharaoh Apries reign (XXVI dynasty) “
This paper aims to present the results from the archaeological campaigns of the Portuguese mission in Kôm Tuman, at north of the ancient city of Memphis, the first capital of Egypt and one of the most important cities during the 3000 years of Ancient Egypt history. The concession assigned to the Portuguese mission by the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) includes a vast area of approximately 220.000 m², and comprises the "Apries Palace" and its mercenary camp. The presence of foreigners in the city was already established by Petrie excavations in 1909 and 1910 and during our work we have confirmed Greek presence at the "mercenary camps" of Pharaoh Apries Palace. The Portuguese archaeological work began in the year 2000 and during the last 9 years the mission worked in different aspects related with the study and preservation of the site. Till this moment and according with our archaeological work and study of the finds, we have a chronological spanning from the New Kingdom to the Late Period, but for sure the site will yield materials from earlier periods: Memphis was the first capital of Egypt, established in 3100 BC, by Menes (1st dynasty); we made some drill and a sequence of deposits was established, giving us a 11 meters of subsoil occupation. We can divide the site in three major areas of occupation:
a) An area related with the Palace and the platform that supported the Palace structure (at North);
b) A habitat area where the mercenaries troupes from Aprie?s army lived (East);
c) A storage/ support area where we found some structures probably related with the Palace warehouses (South).During this presentation we will focus on the second area, related with the foreigner living in Egypt during Apries period (VI century BC) and the relations between Egypt and his Mediterranean neighbours.