The horse: A perfect gift to a Persian (or Parthian)

"For a nomadic people like the Persians, the horse had a significant practical and symbolic purpose and the importance of horses among the Iranian nobility is evidenced by the fact that many of them bore names compounded with the Old Persian word aspa – ‘horse’, observes Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh.  "Several of Darius I’s inscriptions note that Persia was a land containing both good men and good horses (DZe §1; DPd §2) and Herodotus famously states that Persian fathers were intent on teaching their sons ‘to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth’ (1. 136; see also Strabo 15. 3.18). The premium Persian horses were bred in the alfalfa-rich plains of Media, and it was here that the main royal stud farms were located (Polybius 10.70). Most prized of all were those steeds bred on the plains of Nisaea near Ecbatana and Bisitun, and Nisaean horses became celebrated for their magnificence, fine proportions, and swiftness (Herodotus 3. 106, 7. 40; Aristotle, History of Animals 9. 50.30). Nisaea is said to have sustained 160,000 horses (Diodorus 17.110), although stiff competition came from Media and Armenia which were also used for breeding good steeds (Strabo, Geography 11. 13.7; 11. 13.8, 14.9), as were the provinces of Babylonia (where one satrap possessed 800 stallions and 16,000 mares; Herodotus 1. 192), Cilicia (which provided an annual tribute of 360 white horses, Herodotus 3. 90), Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, and lands of the Saka which provided the Empire with its cavalry."

The Persepolis texts tell us that individuals who safeguarded the royal horses and officials serving as Masters of the Horse were paid well and enjoyed a diet of regular meat. Horses symbolized wealth and status and appeared in courtly ideology to model the ideal warrior image. They were also the center of aristocratic pastimes including hunting and racing.

According to Xenophon, the finest present to give a Persian was a horse and horses served as exceptional religious sacrifices.  

"As founder of the Empire, Cyrus II was honored with a horse sacrificed to his soul every month (Arrian, Anabasis 6. 29.7.)," states Llewellyn-Jones. "Moreover, the infamous tale recounted by Herodotus (3.85) of how Darius I acquired his kingdom through a trick involving the neighing of his horse is, in all probability, a Greek misunderstanding of the Iranian practice of hippomancy, or divination through the behavior of horses (see also Ctesias F13 §17), demonstrating the deep-set importance of the horse as a hallowed species in the Iranian consciousness."

Image: Procession of nobles, possibly from Palmyra, Syria, 100-150 CE, limestone, now in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum.

Palmyra was a key center for trade between the Roman and Parthian Empires. This unique relief at the Cleveland Museum of Art has been associated with Palmyra only through stylistic comparisons because its find spot is unknown. 

"It depicts men in Parthian dress riding Arabian horses with bejeweled harness trappings ahead of riders on camels—a possible reference to the caravans that made Palmyra so wealthy. Although all of the riders are dressed and equipped as Parthians, the proportions and perspective of the scene seem to be informed by Greco-Roman conventions. It may depict a ceremonial procession." - Cleveland Museum of Art

The museum defines the horses as Arabians but their body structure is quite stocky, not at all like the Arabian horses of our time. Yet, a 2017 study by evolutionary biologist Barbara Wallner at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna concluded that nearly all modern horse breeds can be traced to two distinct, ancient Middle Eastern lines, the Arabian and the now extinct Turkoman horses from the Eurasian Steppe. Wallner and her colleagues studied variations in a segment of DNA along the Y chromosomes of 52 modern male horses that represented 21 modern breeds then expanded their analysis to include 363 males representing 57 modern breeds.  

 

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Tigers and Roman bestial entertainment

Unlike lions, leopards, and bears, tigers appear relatively rarely in Roman art, with the tigress seen more frequently than her male counterpart. - Cleveland Art Museum

Apparently, the emperor Titus was the first ruler to introduce tigers to the crowds in the Flavian Amphitheater (Colosseum), among the 9,000 beasts killed over the course of its 100 day inauguration. I found a reference to the book "Rome beyond the Empire" by Mortimer Wheeler published in 1954 that describes Roman trading posts around the coast of India and how a Greek merchant sailed as far as the Bay of Bengal about 60 CE. Perhaps he established some trading relationships that resulted in the acquisition of those tigers.

"The Scriptores Historiae Augustae explicitly praised the emperor Antonius Pius for his munificence in staging a games featuring ‘all the animals of the whole earth,’ and it seems such claims were scarcely an exaggeration: lions, rhinos, crocodiles, hippos, cheetahs, rhinoceroses, monkeys and elephants were all transported from Africa to the capital. Tigers, leopards, panthers, and cheetahs made the perilous journey from Asia, whilst bears were captured and taken to Rome from the highlands of Scotland..." - Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Wild animals in the Colosseum, througheternity.com 

Elephants were actually the first animal used for a public spectacle in Rome in 251 BCE when 142 elephants appeared in a victory celebration of the Roman legions over Carthaginians riding the beasts. Sadly, the animals were slaughtered afterwards.

"With the passage of the centuries things got a lot more sophisticated. In 186 B.C. the Roman consul and general Marcus Fulvius Nobilior staged the first known example of lions and panthers being hunted down in the arena for sport, and his innovation caused a sensation. Such venationes quickly became a staple of the Roman games, known as ludi circenses, and in 46 BC Julius Caesar built a dedicated wooden amphitheater where such spectacles could be staged."  - Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Wild animals in the Colosseum, througheternity.com

The result of all of this carnage? Hippos disappeared from the Nile and lions no longer roamed through Mesopotamia, whilst the north African elephant, aurochs, European wild horses, great Auks and Eurasian lynxes were all wiped out entirely. 

Read more about it: https://www.througheternity.com/en/blog/history/wild-animals-in-the-colosseum.html# 

Image: Roman mosaic of Tigress and cubs, 300s CE, estern Roman Empire, now in the collections of the Cleveland Art Museum, image courtesy of the museum. 

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Roman influence in Buddhist art

This small bronze Buddha is probably one of the earliest iconic representations of Shakyamuni from Gandhara. He sits in a yogic posture holding his right hand in abhaya mudra (a gesture of approachability). His unusual halo has serrations that indicate radiating light. His hairstyle, the form of his robes, and the treatment of the figure reflect stylistic contacts with the classical traditions of the West. This Buddha shows closer affinities to Roman sculpture than any other surviving Gandharan bronze. - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Buddhism developed as early as the 6th century BCE. But, before the late 1st to early 2nd century CE, the Buddha was represented by symbols and not in human form.  In this early human incarnation of the Buddha, he is shown with a mustache, considered a symbol of princely status.  This aspect, found only on very early depictions of the Buddha, was not included when representations of the Buddha in a variety of postures with varying gestures were codified in the 4th century CE. The radiant halo is thought to be unique to this sculpture.  Some scholars have suggested that it is based upon depictions of the Roman emperor Nero who liked to be portrayed as Helios, the Sun God, with a radiant crown.  Depictions of Solar Apollo in Roman art from the same period also include the radiant crown of Helios.

Seated Buddha, early 2nd century CE, ancient Gandhara (modern day Pakistan) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Roman mosaic from El Djem, Tunisia depicting Solar Apollo with the radiant halo of Helios, late 2nd century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Mathiarex.

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Roman trading partners: The Kushans

Gandhāra was an ancient region in the Peshawar basin in the north-west of the ancient Indian subcontinent, corresponding to present-day north-west Pakistan and north-east Afghanistan. The centre of the region was at the confluence of the Kabul and Swat rivers, bounded by the Sulaiman Mountains on the west and the Indus River on the east.

Gandhara was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 327 BCE, it subsequently became part of the Maurya Empire and then the Indo-Greek Kingdom. The region was a major centre for Greco-Buddhism under the Indo-Greeks and Gandharan Buddhism under later dynasties. Gandhara attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century CE under the Kushan Empire.

The Kushans moved into Gandhāra from Central Asia after the fall of the Parthian dynasty about 75 CE. The Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, the Aksumite Empire and the Han dynasty of China and was at the center of trade relations between the Roman Empire and China.

Ambassadors from the Kushans who met with the Roman Emperor Hadrian are described in the Historia Augusta. According to Aurelius Victor and Appian, Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius also received Bactrian, Indian, and Hycanian ambassadors thought to be from Kushan. Archaeologists who uncovered the famous Begram Treasure in the summer capital of the Kushan Empire reported finding a considerable amount of goods imported from the Roman Empire especially various types of glassware.

The Kushan empire fragmented into western and eastern kingdoms in 225 CE. The Western Kushans (in Afghanistan) were soon subjugated by the Persian Sasanian Empire and lost Sogdiana, Bactria, and Gandhara to them. The Sassanian king Shapur I (240–270 CE) claims in his Naqsh-e Rostam inscription possession of the territory of the Kushans as far as "Purushapura" (Peshawar), suggesting he controlled Bactria and areas as far as the Hindu-Kush or even south of it. The Sasanians replaced the Persian vassals with their own administrators. But, Hormizd I Kushanshah, the brother of a ruling Sasanian satrap, led a rebellion against the Sasanians and reestablished an independent kingdom under his rule.

Then in the 4th century CE, the Guptas, an Indian dynasty pressed from the east and Shapur II regained control of large territories in the areas as well. The last of the Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian kingdoms were eventually overwhelmed by invaders from the north, known as the Kidarite Huns. The remnants of Kushan culture under the Kidarites in the northwest were ultimately wiped out in the end of the 5th century by the invasions of the Alchon Huns (sometimes considered as a branch of the Hephthalites), and later the Nezak Huns.

This door guardian or Dvarapala, is interesting because of its more realistic depiction of a warrior instead of the majority of idealized or mythological figures used as guardians in Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina shrines. Perhaps this is a result of earlier exposure to Hellenistic art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art said similar armored guardian figures were found flanking a doorway of a monastery at the Gandharan site of Thareli. They found it interesting that the monks chose to integrate such non-Buddhist deities into the embellishment of their monastic residences. The appearance of such protectors probably can be linked to the growing importance of the war god Skanda in the late Gandharan tradition.

Image: Door Guardian (Dvarapala), 4th century CE, ancient Gandhāra (modern Pakistan) courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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