Finding Common Ground: Roman- Parthian Embassies in the Julio-Claudian Period

At the 2013 ASOR Annual Meeting, Jason Schlude (Duquesne University) and Benjamin Rubin (Williams College) presented their paper, “Finding Common Ground: Roman- Parthian Embassies in the Julio-Claudian Period.”

Abstract from the Program Book

Diplomatic embassies between Parthia and Rome were a relatively frequent occurrence during the first centuries B.C.E. and C.E. Scholars have traditionally characterized these embassies as elaborate political set pieces, which did little to foster genuine cultural understanding, and in some cases, even produced violent hostility. Such may be an apt description of diplomatic engagement during Crassus’s brief stint in the Near East, but this was arguably the exception rather than the rule. In this paper, we argue that embassies were, in fact, important mechanisms of cross-cultural exchange serving consistently to stabilize Roman-Parthian relations in the first centuries B.C.E. and C.E. To illustrate the process, we investigate the role of Roman-Parthian embassies in the Julio-Claudian period, especially in the time of Augustus. Beginning in the reign of Augustus, embassies between Rome and Parthia resulted in the residence of high-level elites from one empire within the confines of the other, gift exchange, and generation of material culture programs designed to define and advertise the relationship of Rome and Parthia for a domestic audience. These were tangible, accessible, and lasting agents of cross-cultural exchange. And the fact that they were subsequently enshrined in a variety of literary productions only reinforces the point. Such diplomatic events led Romans and Parthians to an evolved understanding of one another and the creation of a symbolic world that was intensely competitive at times, but nevertheless produced collaboration and lengthy periods of limited conflict. Embassies encouraged mutual learning and enabled the construction of a balanced peace.

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