Synopses & Reviews
This pioneering study examines a pivotal period in the history of Europe and the Near East. Spanning the ancient and medieval worlds, it investigates the shared ideal of sacred kingship that emerged in the late Roman and Persian empires. This shared ideal, while often generating conflict during the four centuries of the empires' coexistence (224-642), also drove exchange, especially the means and methods Roman and Persian sovereigns used to project their notions of universal rule: elaborate systems of ritual and their cultures' visual, architectural, and urban environments. Matthew Canepa explores the artistic, ritual, and ideological interactions between Rome and the Iranian world under the Sasanian dynasty, the last great Persian dynasty before Islam. He analyzes how these two hostile systems of sacred universal sovereignty not only coexisted, but fostered cross-cultural exchange and communication despite their undying rivalry. Bridging the traditional divide between classical and Iranian history, this book brings to life the dazzling courts of two global powers that deeply affected the cultures of medieval Europe, Byzantium, Islam, South Asia, and China.
Review
and#8220;This very good book is a welcome contribution . . . and is worthy of the prestigious series in which it appears.and#8221;
Synopsis
The Iranian Expanse explores how kings in the ancient Iranian world utilized the built and natural environment--everything from royal cities and paradise gardens, to hunting enclosures and fire temples--to form and contest Iranian cultural memory, royal identity, and sacred cosmologies over a thousand years of history. Although scholars have often noted startling continuities between the traditions of the Achaemenids and the art and architecture of medieval or Early Modern Islam, the tumultuous millennium between Alexander and Islam has routinely been downplayed or omitted. The Iranian Expanse delves into this fascinating period, examining royal culture and identity as something built and shaped by strategic changes to architectonic and urban spaces and the landscape of Western Asia. Canepa shows how the Seleucids, Arsacids, and Sasanians played a transformative role in developing a new Iranian royal culture that deeply influenced not only early Islam, but also the wider Persianate world of the Il-Khans, Safavids, Timurids, and Mughals.
Synopsis
and#147;This book is a true
tour de force in the scholarship of the late ancient world. Canepa has bridged the traditional divide between Classical and Iranian studies to illuminate the long-running artistic dialogue between the late Roman and Sasanian Empires. Every chapter offers exciting new insights into the development of late antique art and rituals of power."and#151;Joel Walker, author of
The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq"The Two Eyes of the Earth is a masterly synthesis of a theme of the utmost importance for the political culture of the late antique world."and#151;Peter Brown, author of Power and Persuasion
About the Author
Matthew P. Canepa is Assistant Professor of Art History at the College of Charleston where he is a faculty member in the interdisciplinary programs in Archaeology and Asian Studies.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Sources and Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. The Art and Ritual of Kingship Within and Between Rome and Sasanian Iran
3. The Lure of the Other and the Limits of the Past
4. Sapur I, King of Kings of Iran and Non-Iran
5. Romeand#8217;s Troubled Third Century and the Emergence of a New Equilibrium
6. Contested Images of Sacral Kingship and New Expressions of Triumph
7. Unceasing Embassies
8. City as Stage and Art as Statecraft
9. The Late Antique Kosmos of Power
Epilogue: The Legacy of the Two Eyes of the Earth
Notes
Bibliography
Index