ОИФНВестник древней истории Vestnik drevney istorii
- ISSN (Print) 0321-0391
- ISSN (Online) 3034-5251
Индексирование
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Высшая аттестационная комиссия
При Министерстве образования и науки Российской Федерации
Научная электронная библиотека
The question has been asked whether there already existed a federal state regrouping the three Rhodian cities in the Archaic and early Classical period, before the start of the process of unification of the Rhodian cities at the end of the fifth century BCE. This essay argues that although the existence of a formal Rhodian federal state remains unproven, there existed other institutional structures that linked the three Rhodian cities. They shared a common membership in the Hellenion of Naucratis in Egypt, a sanctuary that was managed by nine cities of western Asia Minor on the model of an amphictiony. The organization of their common cult of Zeus Atabyrios also had the characteristics of an amphictiony. A new restoration of an early Hellenistic dedication of the attendants of the cult proves the existence at that time of a rotating priesthood of this god between the three cities. This may suggest that such a system existed already before the synoecism and even that the organization of the common priesthood of Halios, the cult of the unified Rhodian state, was modeled on that of the previous organization of the cult of Zeus Atabyrios.
Since the discovery at Garni (Armenia) in 1945 of a Greek inscription mentioning a king Tiridates (Trdat), there has been an ongoing debate on the identification of this king. On the basis of paleography and content, most scholars have preferred to date the document to the first-century CE reign of Tiridates I, despite what seemed to be a suggestive indication from the historian of Armenia Moses Khorenatsi that Tiridates the Great, in the early fourth century CE, had dedicated a Greek inscription in memory of his sister at Garni. This study attributes the inscription to the reign of Tiridates the Great, although it shows also that this text cannot be the one referred to by Moses Khorenatsi. This reattribution is of special importance for the early history of Armenia. It paves the way for a new analysis of the reign of the king who initiated the Christianization of the country. Our next article, in a forthcoming issue, will offer a new and full critical edition of the inscription, comparing it with prior reconstructions.
After showing in the first part of this article that the Greek inscription from the Garni fortress must be attributed to the reign of Tiridates III and not to that of Tiridates I, we provide here the announced new and full critical edition of the text.
Scopus
Crossref
Высшая аттестационная комиссия
При Министерстве образования и науки Российской Федерации
Научная электронная библиотека