Historical Studies

Historical Studies

Pursuing Iranian Traditions in Parthian Coinage

Document Type : ..

Authors
Abstract
Arsacid monarchy as the third Iranian dynasty played an important role in the ancient era for five centuries. However, due to the inadequacy of written documents from that era, coins are considered precious sources for us to identify the political, historical, cultural, artistic, and religious views and ideas of that time, i.e. Arsacid kings. Concerning the similarities between the employed symbols in Arsacid coins and ancient Greek culture symbols, Arsacids are often accused of being pureparvenuswho chiefly imitatedthe Greeksand lacked culture of their own. Nonetheless, a deeper scrutiny of Arsacid coins exposes that the depiction, writing, and clothing can be considered the revivers of Iranian traditions and this is the issue which is argued for in this study by means of coins examination studies and descriptive-analytic methods. The examination of coins shows that there was a return to previous traditions and an inclination towards establishing a balance between Iranian-Eastern traditions and Greek-oriented attitudes in post Achaemenid era among Arsacids
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  • Receive Date 05 December 2015
  • Revise Date 24 January 2016
  • Accept Date 28 February 2016