SEE ALSO: Money; Rebellion; Satrapies
FURTHER READING
1 Briant, Pierre. 2002. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire, translated by Peter T. Daniels, 141, 409–10 (coinage), 472–84. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
2 Descat, Raymond. 1995. “Darius Ier et la monnaie.” AIIN 42: 9–20.
3 Tuplin, Christopher. 1989. “The Coinage of Aryandes.” REA 91.1: 61–83.
ARYENIS (Ἀρύηνις, ἡ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Daughter of the Lydian king ALYATTES, given in MARRIAGE to the Median king ASTYAGES in order to solidify the peace treaty agreed to by the two kingdoms c. 585 BCE (1.74.4; see also schol. Pl. Resp. 566c). Aryenis was thus the sister of the last king of LYDIA, CROESUS, and probably the grandmother (if MANDANE was her daughter) of the first king of PERSIA, CYRUS (II). “Aryenis” may in fact have been a Median title given to her upon her marriage, from OP *ahurānī‐, “spouse of the king” (Pirart 2002, 122).
SEE ALSO: Medes
REFERENCE
1 Pirart, Éric. 2002. “Le mazdéisme politique de Darius Ier.” Indo‐Iranian Journal 45.2: 121–51.
ASBYSTAE (Ἀσβύσται, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Nomadic Libyan (North African) tribe dwelling to the south of CYRENE (BA 38 B1). Herodotus states that the Asbystae are “drivers of four‐horse CHARIOTS most of all the Libyans” and that they attempt to imitate the Cyreneans in most of their customs (4.170). Some scholars propose an identification with the (‘Isbt.w) of Bronze Age Egyptian documents, but this remains uncertain.
SEE ALSO: Adicran; Bacales; Ethnography; Libya
FURTHER READING
1 Corcella in ALC, 697.
2 Desanges, Jehan. 1962. Catalogue des tribus africaines de l’antiquité classique à l’ouest du Nil, 147–49. Dakar: Université de Dakar.
ASCALON (ἡ Ἀσκάλων πόλις)
ERAN ALMAGOR
Jerusalem
An important maritime port city north of GAZA (modern Askelon/Askalan), connecting EGYPT and SYRIA (BA 70 F2). Ascalon was a member of the Philistine Pentapolis (1 Samuel 6:17, Amos 1:7–8, Jeremiah 25:20, 47:5, cf. 2 Samuel 1:20) and was said (unhistorically) to be temporarily conquered by the Israelite tribe of Judah (Judges 1:18; cf. Joseph. AJ 5.2.4.128). It paid TRIBUTE to the ASSYRIANS, but was destroyed in 604/3 BCE by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (cf. the Prophecies of destruction: Zephaniah 2:4, 7, Zechariah 9:5). After being rebuilt, in the Persian era, it belonged to TYRE (Ps.‐Scylax 104.3). Ascalon is mentioned by the Greek poet ALCAEUS (F48 Campbell) and the fifth‐century BCE historian Xanthus of LYDIA (BNJ 765 F8: established by the Lydians). Herodotus (1.105) relates that SCYTHIANS plundered the temple of APHRODITE Urania (= Atargatis/Derketo/Ashtart, see 1.131.3) and were punished by the goddess with a DISEASE “which made them women instead of men.”
SEE ALSO: Enarees; Near Eastern History; Punishment
FURTHER READING
1 Rainey, Anson F. 2001. “Herodotus’ Description of the East Mediterranean Coast.” BASOR 321: 57–63.
2 Rappaport, Uriel. 1970. “Gaza and Ascalon in the Persian and Hellenistic Periods in the Relation to Their Coins.” IEJ 20: 75–80.
ASHERI, DAVID
JOHN MARINCOLA
Florida State University
David Asheri (1925–2000) was born in Florence, but his family left Italy after the promulgation of anti‐Jewish statutes in 1938 and settled in Palestine in 1939. Asheri wrote his doctoral thesis in 1962, under Alexander Fuks, on land tenure in ancient Greece, and much of his early work concerned debt, loans, and issues surrounding land and tenancy. The influence of ARNALDO MOMIGLIANO led Asheri in the late 1960s to a new interest in historiography and, more particularly, in the ways in which we know about the past. He came to believe that the historian is always limited by the partial and problematic nature of the sources, and he was pessimistic that one could ever get at what really happened (Asheri, Lloyd, and Corcella 2007 (= ALC), xii–xiv; cf. Herman 2001).
The fruits of his deep thought and engagement with Herodotus are most visible in his four exceptional Italian commentaries on Books 1, 3, 8, and 9 (Asheri 1989, 1990a, 2003, 2006; the latter two were edited and brought out posthumously by Pietro Vannicelli; the commentaries on Books 1 and 3 are available in an English translation as part of Asheri, Lloyd, and Corcella 2007). Despite his pessimism about what we could really know about the past, his commentaries display a dazzling command of, and interest in, the historical Realien of the Persian world, and the issue of whether or not what Herodotus says is actually true is never far from his mind.
Asheri believes that Herodotus did not begin with any sort of unifying plan, but instead composed independent accounts (somewhat like Hellanicus) and only later integrated these into his main narrative, though the process of reworking was ultimately incomplete. He takes a traditional view of Herodotus’ TRAVELS and his SOURCES in those travels (e.g., in EGYPT he spoke not with actual PRIESTS but with “low‐ranking ministers with limited learning”; similarly, the logioi with whom Herodotus claimed to speak were either such men as these or were fictional). On the other hand, Herodotus clearly had access to genuine traditions or documents: witness his accounts of the conspirators against the MAGI (where most of the names agree with the BISITUN inscription), the ROYAL ROAD, and the tributary states of the Persian Empire. Asheri allows for slippage, however, between Herodotus’ sources and his own views, when (for example) Herodotus wishes to state something more pointedly; for one is dealing here with the conventions of a new genre (historiography), and these, rather than questions about Herodotus’ “honesty,” should be the focus of scholarly inquiry (Asheri 2007, 12–22). In his efforts to make sense of history, Herodotus records events selectively so as to invest them with greater meaning: Herodotus “is the prototype of the historian who teaches PHILOSOPHY by examples. His Persian kings, Greek statesmen, his wars and peoples—even his RIVERS and mountains—are often paradigmatic or fulfil some symbolic function” (1990b, 131).
Herodotus eschewed the abstract in favor of the personal. This can be seen in widely divergent areas. For example, he cares less about types of rule (tyranny, OLIGARCHY) than about how well individuals ruled and behaved. Elsewhere, important historical events, such as the IONIAN REVOLT or the establishment of DEMOCRACY at ATHENS, are often told through characters associated with those events. Wise ADVISERS bring a human dimension to the formulation
