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THE PERSIAN ROYAL TENT AND CEREMONIAL OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2017

Andrew W. Collins
Andrew W. Collins*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
*
[email protected]
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Extract

From 330 b.c. Alexander transformed his court by adopting a number of court personnel and practices from the Achaemenids. This included the adoption by the king of a mixed Persian and Macedonian royal costume, proskynēsis, Persian spear-bearers and certain Persian officers, such as the chiliarch and the chief usher (εἰσαγγελεύς). But Alexander also used an imposing tent and an audience style modelled on that of the Great King. It is my intention here to investigate the Persian-style tent of Alexander and the two court offices called the chiliarch and chief usher, associated with the king's new audience-style.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , May 2017 , pp. 71 - 76
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Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2017 

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References

1 For recent studies of Alexander's court and his court reforms, see Spawforth, A.J.S., ‘The court of Alexander the Great between Europe and Asia’, in Spawforth, A.J.S. (ed.), The Court and Court Society in Ancient Monarchies (Cambridge and New York, 2007), 82–120 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weber, G., ‘The court of Alexander the Great as social system’, in Heckel, W. and Tritle, L.A. (edd.), Alexander the Great: A New History (Malden, MA and Chichester, 2009), 83–98 Google Scholar; Coppola, A., ‘Alexander's court’, in Jacobs, B. and Rollinger, R. (edd.), Der Achämenidenhof. The Achaemenid Court: Akten des 2. Internationalen Kolloquiums zum Thema »Vorderasien im Spannungsfeld klassischer und altorientalischer Überlieferungen«, Landgut Castelen bei Basel, 23.–25. Mai 2007 (Wiesbaden, 2010), 139–54Google Scholar.

2 FGrHist 125 F 4 = Ath. 12.539d–f.

3 On this, see Jacoby's commentary to FGrHist 125 F 4 and Hammond, N.G.L., ‘Some passages in Polyaenus Stratagems concerning Alexander’, GRBS 37 (1996), 23–53 Google Scholar, at 48.

4 Polyaenus, Strat. 4.3.24: Ἀλέξανδρος ἐν μὲν τοῖς Μακεδόσιν ἢ ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησι δικάζων μέτριον καὶ δημοτικὸν ἔχειν τὸ δικαστήριον ἐδοκίμαζεν, ἐν δὲ τοῖς βαρβάροις λαμπρὸν καὶ στρατηγικὸν, ἐκπλήσσων τοὺς βαρβάρους καὶ τῷ τοῦ δικαστηρίου σχήματι. ἐν γοῦν Βάκτροις καὶ Ὑρκανίοις καὶ Ἰνδοῖς δικάζων εἶχε τὴν σκηνὴν ὧδε πεποιημένην. ἡ σκηνὴ τὸ μέγεθος ἦν κλινῶν ἑκατόν· χρύσεοι κίονες ὑπετίθεντο αὐτῇ πεντήκοντα· ὑπερτείνοντες οὐρανίσκοι διάχρυσοι, ποικίλμασιν ἐκπεπονημένοι, τὸν ἄνω τόπον ἐσκέπαζον. Πέρσαι μὲν πρῶτοι πεντακόσιοι μηλοφόροι περὶ τὴν σκηνὴν ἐντὸς ἵσταντο πορφυραῖς καὶ μηλίναις ἐσθῆσιν ἐξησκημένοι. Cf. Ael. VH 9.3.

5 See Arr. Anab. 2.12.3. See also Plut. Alex. 20.11–12; Curt. 3.11.23; Diod. Sic. 17.36.5; Just. Epit. 11.10.1–5.

6 See Briant, P., From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (trans. Daniels, P.T.) (Winona Lake, IN, 2002), 256–8Google Scholar; Spawforth (n. 1), 94–6.

7 Hdt. 9.70, 9.82.

8 See von Gall, H., ‘Das Zelt des Xerxes und seine Rolle als persischer Raumtyp in Griechenland’, Gymnasium 86 (1979), 450–2Google Scholar; Gabelmann, H., Antike Audienz- und Tribunalszenen (Darmstadt, 1984), 20Google Scholar.

9 Diodorus mentions a tent erected at Dium that held a hundred couches (Diod. Sic. 17.16.4), but the tent later described by Chares seems to be explicitly modelled on that of the Great King. See Spawforth (n. 1), 96.

10 ὁ … ἐπὶ τῶν στρωματοφυλάκων (Plut. Alex. 57.5).

11 Alexander in diuersa parte ripae statui suum tabernaculum iussit adsuetamque comitari ipsum cohortem ante id tabernaculum stare et omnem apparatum regiae magnificentiae hostium oculis de industria ostendi (Curt. 8.13.20).

12 Hesychius (μ 1200), s.v. μηλοφόροι; Arr. Anab. 3.11.5, 3.13.1, 3.16.2; Diod. Sic. 17.59.3. On the ‘apple-bearers’, see most recently Charles, M.B., ‘Immortals and apple bearers: towards a better understanding of Achaemenid infantry units’, CQ 61 (2011), 114–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 See also Curt. 7.5.40.

14 Arr. Anab. 4.12.1–2; Curt. 8.5.21–2.

15 The question whether Alexander's chiliarchy was merged with the equestrian chiliarchy or was a separate office is beyond the scope of my discussion here. The issue is a controversial one. For those who regard the court chiliarchy and the equestrian chiliarchy as one office, see Berve, H., Das Alexanderreich auf prosopographischer Grundlage (Munich, 1926), 2.173Google Scholar (no. 357); Schur, W., ‘Das Alexanderreich nach Alexanders Tode’, RhM 83 (1934), 129–56Google Scholar, at 130; Bengtson, H., Die Strategie in der hellenistischen Zeit: ein Beitrag zum antiken Staatsrecht (Munich, 1937), 1.66Google Scholar; Bosworth, A.B., ‘The death of Alexander the Great’, CQ 21 (1971), 112–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 132–3; Lane Fox, R., Alexander the Great (London, 1973), 318Google Scholar; and Heckel, W., The Marshals of Alexander's Empire (London, 1992), 366–9Google Scholar. For those who think that the court chiliarchy was distinct from the equestrian chiliarchy, see Goukowsky, P., Essai sur les origines du mythe d'Alexandre (336-270 av. j.c.) (Nancy, 1978), 1.32Google Scholar and 1.176–8; Briant, P., ‘Sources Gréco-Hellénistiques, institutions Perses et institutions Macédoniennes: continuités, changements et bricolages’, in Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. et al. (edd.), Continuity and Change: Proceedings of the Last Achaemenid History Workshop April 6–8, 1990 – Ann Arbor, Michigan (Leiden, 1994), 297Google Scholar; Bevan, E.R., ‘Note on the command held by Seleucus, 323–321 BC’, CR 14 (1900), 396–8Google Scholar; Bevan, E.R., The House of Seleucus (London, 1902), 322Google Scholar; Tarn, W.W., ‘Alexander's ὑπομνήματα and the world-kingdom’, JHS 41 (1921), 6–7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Collins, A.W., ‘The office of chiliarch under Alexander and the successors’, Phoenix 55 (2001), 259–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 267–8, 278–9. My own view has changed since my early work on this subject, and can now be found in Collins, A.W., ‘Alexander and the Persian court chiliarchy’, Historia 61 (2012), 159–67Google Scholar. See also Meeus, A., ‘Some institutional problems concerning the succession to Alexander the Great: prostasia and chiliarchy’, Historia 58 (2009), 287–310 Google Scholar. Charles, M., ‘The chiliarchs of Achaemenid Persia: towards a revised understanding of the office’, Phoenix 69 (2015), 279–303 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Charles, M., ‘The Achaemenid chiliarch par excellence: commander of guard infantry, cavalry or both?’, Historia 65 (2016), 392–412 Google Scholar.

16 See Plut. Alex. 74.2 for evidence of Easterners performing proskynēsis to Alexander in his last years. Most likely, the Iranians and other Eastern subjects had performed proskynēsis before 328 b.c. On this point, see Badian, E., ‘Alexander the Great between two thrones and heaven: variations on an old theme’, in Small, A.M. (ed.), Subject and Ruler: The Cult of the Ruling Power in Classical Antiquity, Papers Presented at a Conference Held in the University of Alberta on April 13–15, 1994 (Ann Arbor, 1996), 21–2Google Scholar; Bosworth, A.B., Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge, 1988), 286Google Scholar and Bosworth, A.B., Alexander and the East: the Triumph of Tragedy (New York, 1996), 111Google Scholar.

17 Bosworth (n. 15), 132. On the historicity of this private symposium, see Bosworth (n. 16 [1988]), 285. For Badian, E., ‘The deification of Alexander the Great’, in Dell, H.J. (ed.), Ancient Macedonian Studies in Honor of Charles F. Edson (Thessaloniki, 1981), 48–51 Google Scholar, the private symposium was an apologetic fiction of Chares.

18 Heckel (n. 15), 57.

19 Alex. 47.5: ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τῶν φίλων ἑώρα τῶν μεγίστων Ἡφαιστίωνα μὲν ἐπαινοῦντα καὶ συμμετακοσμούμενον αὐτῷ, Κρατερὸν δὲ τοῖς πατρίοις ἐμμένοντα, δι᾽ ἐκείνου μὲν ἐχρημάτιζε τοῖς βαρβάροις, διὰ τούτου δὲ τοῖς Ἕλλησι καὶ τοῖς Μακεδόσι.

20 On Chares and his history, see Schwartz, E., ‘Chares, 13’, RE III.2 (1899), 2129Google Scholar; FGrHist 125; Berve (n. 15) 2.405–6, no. 820; Lendle, O., Einführung in die griechische Geschichtsschreibung: von Hekataios bis Zosimos (Darmstadt, 1992), 160–2Google Scholar; and Heckel, W., Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire (Malden, MA, 2006), 83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Hinz, W., ‘Achaemenidische Hofverwaltung’, ZA 61 (1971), 260–311 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Olbrycht, M.J., Aleksander Wielki i swiat iranski [Alexander the Great and the Iranian World] (Rzeszow, 2004), 340Google Scholar. See also Olbrycht, M.J., ‘“An admirer of Persian ways”: Alexander the Great's reforms in Parthia-Hyrcania and the Iranian heritage’, in Daryaee, T., Mousavi, A. and Rezakhani, K. (edsd.), Excavating an Empire: Achaemenid Persia in Longue Durée (Costa Mesa, Cal., 2014), 37–62 Google Scholar, at 47–8.

22 Γαδάτας δὲ τῶν σκηπτούχων ἦρχεν (Cyr. 8.4.2).

23 For the later officials called εἰσαγγελεῖς in the Ptolemaic court, see Mooren, L., The Aulic Titulature in Ptolemaic Egypt (Brussels, 1975), 177–8Google Scholar.

24 See Jacoby's introductory remarks and commentary on FGrHist 125 F 1; Berve (n. 15), 2.405. See also Olbrycht (n. 21), 339.

25 See also Berve (n. 15), 1.19.

26 Curt. 6.7.17; Arr. Anab. 4.13.7.

27 Junge, P.J., ‘Hazarapatiš’, Klio 34 (1940), 17–18 Google Scholar; Olbrycht (n. 21), 119–20. See Ath. 14.633d on Cyrus’ command of the ῥαβδοῦχοι in the court of the Median Κing Astyages.

28 Justi, F., ‘Der Chiliarch des Dareios’, ZDMG 50 (1896), 659–64Google Scholar, at 660. Lewis, D.M., Sparta and Persia (Leiden, 1977), 16Google Scholar.

29 Diod. Sic. 17.77.4.