Located in the small kingdom of Commagene at the upper Euphrates, the late Hellenistic monument of Nemrud Dağ (c.50 BC) has been undeservedly neglected by scholars. Qualified as a Greco-Persian hybrid instigated by a lunatic king, this fascinating project of bricolage has been written out of history.
This volume redresses that imbalance, interpreting Nemrud Dağ as an attempt at canon building by Antiochos I in order to construct a dynastic ideology and social order, and proving the monument's importance for our understanding of a crucial transitional phase from Hellenistic to Roman. Hellenistic Commagene therefore holds a profound significance for a number of discussions, such as the functioning of the Hellenistic koine and the genesis of Roman "art", Hellenism and Persianism in antiquity, dynastic propaganda and the power of images, Romanisation in the East, the contextualising of the Augustan cultural revolution, and the role of Greek culture in the Roman world.
Author(s): Miguel John Versluys
Series: Greek Culture in the Roman World
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: xix, 312
City: Cambridge
Tags: Antiochus I, King of Commagene, active 69 B.C.-30 B.C.; Antiochus I, King of Commagene, active 69 B.C.-30 B.C.--Tomb; Excavations (Archaeology)--Turkey; Nemrut Dağı Mound (Turkey); Commagene--Antiquities; Turkey--Antiquities.
List of Illustrations [page xi]
Preface [xvii]
1 Approaching Nemrud Dağ [1]
1.1 Between Alexandria, Rome and Antioch [1]
1.2 Understanding Late Hellenistic Commagene [14]
1.2.1 A Global Hellenistic World [20]
1.2.2 An Archaeology of Intra-Cultural Connectivity [24]
1.2.3 Beyond Representation [29]
1.3 The Structure of the Book [33]
2 Commagene: A Historical Geography [38]
2.1 Earlier Research [41]
2.2 The Historical Background [46]
2.3 The Region and Its Archaeology [52]
2.3.1 Dynastic Monuments [52]
2.3.2 Cities [82]
2.3.3 Villages [91]
2.3.4 The Great Cult Inscription [101]
2.4 Evaluating the (Archaeological) Sources [104]
3 Identity [108]
3.1 An Analysis of the Bildprogramm: What Did Antiochos I Demonstrate? [111]
3.1.1 A Hilltop Sanctuary [111]
3.1.2 A Temple Tomb (Hierothesion) in the Form of a Tumulus [115]
3.1.3 Colossal Statues [120]
3.1.4 A Canonical Text: The Great Cult Inscription and the Nomos [124]
3.1.5 Dexiosis Reliefs and Other Sculptural Decorations [127]
3.1.6 Ancestor Galleries [130]
3.2 Monumentality, Visibility, Ideology and Eclecticism [135]
3.3 In Search for the Social Context [137]
3.4 Inventing Traditions in the Hellenistic World [141]
3.4.1 Ethnic Manoeuvring in Hellenistic Egypt [142]
3.4.2 Inventing Hasmonean Kingship [148]
3.4.3 “Client Kings”: Herod the Great and Juba II [151]
3.5 Structuring Identity [155]
3.5.1 Looking back: From Mausollos to the Seleucid Kings [160]
3.5.2 Looking Forward: A Friend of the Romans? [165]
3.6 Ideology, Social Order and Canon Building [168]
3.7 Questions [172]
3.7.1 The Elusive Ancestors [172]
3.7.2 Bricolage as Historical Evidence [178]
3.7.3 Beyond the Dynastic Mise en Scène [182]
4 Style [185]
4.1 “The Achievements of Hellenised Barbarians”: How to Describe the Antiochan Style [191]
4.1.1 Humann, Puchstein and the Four Topoi [191]
4.1.2 Twentieth-Century Explorers and Summarisers [193]
4.1.3 Archaeological Interpretation and the Antiochan Style [199]
4.1.4 Bricolage and the Juxtaposition of Discrete Elements [201]
4.2 What Is It That We Call Greek and Persian? [207]
4.2.1 Hellenisation, Hellenism and Diversities of Doing Greek [209]
4.2.2 Persianism in the Ancient World [213]
4.3 Three Case Studies on Bricolage in the First Century BC [219]
4.3.1 Mixtum Compositum: Material Culture in Late Republican and Augustan Rome [221]
4.3.2 Parthian Royal Ideology [229]
4.3.3 Religious Monumental Building in the Eastern Mediterranean [232]
4.4 Cultural Scenarios [241]
5 Postscript: Between East and West? [249]
Appendix: Antiochos’ Nomos: Translation [255]
References [261]
Bibliography [263]
Index [307]
