FIRST PART

THE ART OF IRAN PREISLAMIC

THE ART OF SELEUCIDES AND PARTS

The Seleucids

After the victory over Dario III in Gaugamela, in the 331 a. C. Alexander the Macedonian proclaimed himself "Great King". Then he took with him the rich treasures of Susa and went to Persepolis, where he surely seized enormous wealth and magnificent treasures before setting the city on fire in the fourth month of his stay. The new excavations conducted after the Second World War have in fact brought to light documents that suggest that before the fire there were large-scale looting in the area. Most likely the looting and fire took place with the assent of Alexander, perhaps as a reprisal for the Greek temples burned by the Persians, or perhaps because Persepolis could represent an important point of reference for the surviving Achaemenids.
After Alexander's death, strong contrasts broke out among his officers, which led to the division of the occupied territories. Iran, Mesopotamia, northern Syria and a large part of Asia Minor fell under the control of Seleucus, which aspired to the unification of Greece and Iran. Following the indications left by Alexander to his generals, Seleuco married a Persian nobleman, from whom he had a son named Antiochus. These, once inherited the territories controlled by his father, consolidated the Seleucid dynasty that remained stable until about 250 a. C. From this date onwards, the Seleucids lived under the constant pressure of some Iranian peoples, particularly from their neighbors, coming from northern Khorasan. Lost, due to a rebellion, Balkh's satrapy, which included a large portion of the Afghan and Turkestan, and the Khorasan, were forced to withdraw within the borders of central Iran. The penetration of the parties within Iran then pushed the Seleucids back into Syria, where they were able to continue to exert some influence until the first half of the first century AD. C.
Some scholars have written that "the wedding of Susa", that is the marriage of Alexander with the daughter of Darius III and the daughter of Memnon, as well as the marriage of his officers - including that of Seleucus with the daughter of Yazdegerd, were ordered from Alessandro to favor the fusion between Persians and Greeks. However, historical documents show that this is not the case, as the Seleucid kings always emphasized their Greekness and the need to preserve it among the Iranians, maintaining political and military dominance over Iran. A project, this, that had no cultural goal. Despite this, they founded various cities in which Persians and Greeks lived in peace, and of which there are not many traces left. All this, however, determined a certain influence of Greek art on that of Iran, and the reception in Greek art of significant oriental influences, borrowed through Asia Minor. Plato himself, whose philosophy was later taken up by Muslim philosophers, was influenced by Mazdean principles.
The Seleucids, aware of the instability of their political base in Iran, tried to consolidate their power by giving a new organization to the administrative structure inherited from the Achaemenids, and creating a defense network that also included the use of the forts scattered along the main roads of communication of the Achaemenid Empire. The lands around these fortresses were assigned to the Greeks and they also became the center of a new network of postal services. As a result, these cities, which had Greek names and were inhabited mainly by Greeks, were transformed into Greek cities and the Seleucids endeavored to erect their temples there and introduce Greek religious traditions.
It is likely that one of these Greek cities was located near Fasa, in the Fars, since fragments of carved stone and Greek ceramics were found in the area. Another city was located in the Kangavar area, between Hamadan and Kermanshah. In this area there remained a partisan temple, which according to Isidore of Carax was dedicated to Artemis-Anahita; the city was in fact transformed into a later city. It is possible that another city rose near Khorkheh, near Delijan (halfway between Qom and Esfahan), where two Seleucid columns still stand. A fourth city was in the middle territory (in what is now Nahavand), and was named Laodicea. Probably the remains of the Seleucid cities have disappeared due to the fact that over time the farmers used the stones for their activities. However, Herzfeld attributes to the Seleucids a large stone building in Kangavar, as its construction technique differs from that of the Parthian buildings. In addition to this, Selucidi remains scattered architectural traces and fragments of large and imposing bronze statues. These fragments, together with other small metal artefacts from the Hellenistic period and statues of Greek divinities, show how widespread metalworking was at this time. There are also a number of official seals of the kingdom and tablets impressed. Briefly, the pieces are: images, half-joints or bust with head of gods or Greek heroes, images of Seleucid commanders, veils and symbolic-ritual objects, like a tripod of Apollo, or the anchor symbol, typical of the Seleucids, as symbol of Seleucus. Sometimes, there are also scenes of religious ceremonies or daily life, or images of animals or Greek artifacts.
In the design of the forms, it is not always possible to discriminate between Hellenistic style and tradition of the ancient Near East. The near Eastern tradition in the representation of Capricorn is clear. This style has changed little since the days of the Babylonians, and it has come to the Seleucids through the Achaemenids. Rostouzeff believes that these capricorns, and sometimes even the cancers, are typical symbols of the Alborz area and that their appearance on the seals is proof of the importance that the Babylonians gave to astronomical and astrological knowledge. Although the origin of these signs is very old, it is still possible that they have assumed astrological meanings in the Hellenistic period. In Babylon, illusionism, magic, divination and vaticination were very widespread, and it is possible that astrological wisdom has also been used in these areas. Perhaps because of its importance, this knowledge was reserved for the king and the court. Since the Hellenes were convinced that the only science capable of making known the motives of what happens on earth was astrology, it was one of the reasons for the fusion of elements close to Eastern and Hellenistic.

 The Parties
Architecture and urban planning

As we said, the Parthians were a nomadic tribe that inhabited northern Khorasan, known by this name from the time of the Achaemenids. From the religious point of view they were mazdei, perhaps also Zoroastrian, since the Iranian mythology wants Zarathustra from the northern Khorasan and the Balkh area. Some hypothesize that the parties descend from the Saka, but their language, belonging to the group of the ancestor and the ancient Persian, proves their Iranian origin. The territory of the Parthians was known by the name of Parnia, and constituted one of the Achaemenid satrapies.
In 250 BC, led by a leader that the Greek Strabo calls Arsace, the Parties began to press against the Seleucids succeeding, after the rebellion of Balkh (one of the kingdoms of northern Khorasan), to push them first towards the interior of the plateau Iranian and then even further, up to Babylon; Iran thus fell into the hands of Arsace I, even though it was only in the period of Mithridates I that the whole kingdom passed under the dominion of the Arsacids. The cult of Mazda, of the generosity and of the straight path practiced by the Arsacids allowed them to be accepted by the Persians and to govern the country for more than five centuries. After having dismissed the Selucids, the Parties did not revolutionize the bureaucratic structure by disrupting the previous organizational institutions, nor forcibly imposed their religious ideas. The sovereigns arsacidi defined themselves in the coins "friends of Greece". One wonders if they were actually friends of the Greeks, or tried to maintain a political alliance to avoid a military confrontation with them that still constituted a threat, as Alexander's army had shown. From the historical point of view, the truth is still obscure. What is indisputable, however, is that Mithridates I forced the Greeks into Syria. Under the Arsacidi religious minorities enjoyed the most total freedom, being able to live according to their customs, habits and laws.
Truthful or not, the definition of "friends of the Greeks" caused a feeling of discrimination to arise in the Persians, and they showed themselves hostile to the Arsacids until a powerful leader, belonging to a noble race, appeared, who overthrew the power of their dynasty. During the reign of Artabanus V, in fact, Ardashir I the Sasanide succeeded in breaking down, after five centuries, the arsacid government, and the defeated troops quickly repaired to the Khorasan. Probably, the cause of the lack of attention given by the Persian historians, and also by Ferdowsi, Arsacidi and the disappearance of their memory during the Sasanian period, was this proclaimed "friendship towards the Greeks". Notwithstanding this, it must not be forgotten that the parties tried to contribute as much as they could to the development of trade and the security of the country's roads, also devoting themselves to the construction of caravan routes and cities: for example, the city of Hatra, destroyed by the Sasanian Shapur I, and the city of Dura (250 BC). They also sought an outlet on the Mediterranean, which is why they received in their army the survivors of the Greek army defeated by the Seleucids. A phenomenon of the Arsacid period is the appearance of a new cult of the sun, that is one of the ancient Arian cults that in this period spread with new vigor thanks to the emergence of the figure of Mitra, considered of the same lineage of Zarathustra, whose influence extended to Europe, to such an extent that in the third century d. C. Mithraism was close to becoming an official religion of the Roman Empire. The influence of this cult in Europe was such that it served as a tread to the spread of Christianity, and indeed after the adoption in the Roman Empire of the latter as an official religion, many elements of Mithraism became part of the Christian faith. For example, the Christmas party was set up exactly on the date when the Christmas of Mitra was celebrated before the winter solstice. The impact of Mithraism in Europe was such as to make Renan say that "if while it was becoming established, Christianity had died due to some serious illness, today the world would be dominated by Mithraism."
Although their domination lasted a long time and was characterized by intense commercial and political activity, the artistic testimonies left to us by the Arsacids did not remain very much. One of the causes is probably to be found in the hostile attitude taken towards them, for nationalistic reasons, by the Sasanians, in addition to perhaps the Iranian characteristic of not caring too much about the past. In any case, as far as architecture is concerned, only the ruins of some buildings remain, the oldest of which are of Hellenistic style, while the more recent ones present a Partico-Khorasan style. It is only in the Sassanid period, however, that the Hellenistic influences disappear entirely, leaving space for one hundred percent Iranian art.
One of the testimonies brought to light by archaeologists is the ruins of Assur, a city erected by the Arsacids in the first century AD, in the territories of modern Iraq. At Hatra, about fifty kilometers from Assur, there are ruins of Assyrian buildings characterized by significant stylistic variations. The city of Assur in the Arsacid period was destroyed and rebuilt twice, the first by Trajan and the second by Septimius Severus, at the time of its Mesopotamian expeditions. From the analysis of the remains, it emerges that the buildings of Hatra were erected after the Trajan's expedition, in correspondence with the second reconstruction of Assur; in any case, the arsacid palaces of the two cities are different.
The oldest Assyrian buildings were built with raw bricks, and the use of bricks began in the fourth millennium and spread to Mesopotamia from the third. In Iran, the use of raw bricks to build houses and palaces continued even in the Achaemenid, Arsacid and Sassanid era, up until the Islamic period. Some of the Achaemenid palaces are in fact made of raw earth bricks; even today, building in raw earth has some advantages. The largest rooms in the main building in Assur have a brick-clad ceiling and a glazed roof; one of these rooms, on the other hand, is supported lengthwise by two arches resting on rectangular bases, with transverse beams, divided into three sections. This type of construction, simple and rational, was used in many countries, without anyone having ever investigated its origin. Some buildings have arches that support vaults, a type of construction that can be found in Assur, in Ctesiphon, Taq-e Kasri, in Baghdad, in Khan Arsema or in other Iranian sites such as Abarqu, in the province of Yazd, in Torbat -and Jam and other places, or even outside Iran: in France in the Church of St. Philibert de Tournus, in Farges, in the Abbey of Fontenay and elsewhere. In other forms, the arches support wooden beamed ceilings or flat ceilings in Syria, Jordan and Iran, at Iwan-e Karkheh.
In Hatra, the arches are made from stone and have radial joints. Even in Assur, wherever there are vaulted ceilings, these stones are used on three sides, as in the case of the ceilings of the corridors of the building. This ancient technique was common in the East and everywhere the wood was untraceable or scarce, as in the case of Ramses warehouses in Egypt or in the Babylonian tombs or in the conduits of Iranian qanat, where the same technique is still used.
The arsacid architecture does not have a great variety of forms and types of construction and its buildings were very common. It would seem that they knew only one type of vaulted ceiling and to give magnificence to their buildings they used the iwan, borrowing it from their predecessors. The origin of the iwan is not known, but what is clear is that it is an Iranian architectural element widespread in Iran from the eastern regions, which then spread to all Muslim countries after the Islamization of Iran . These tall and broad vaults, which we see on the facades of the buildings, constituted an ornamental element of the Sassanid court and then, in the Islamic period, of madrasas, mosques, caravanserais and palaces. These high ornamental iwan of the arsacid period were not built to the west and east, since the oldest of them is that of the palace of Ardashir in Firuzabad; that is at least two centuries before the palace of Assur and in the hypothesis that the architecture of the palace of Firuzabad is actually arsacide.
The original form of Hatra's palace was initially characterized by the presence of two large two-story iwan, divided on two sides by entreambi sides; then two more large iwan were added, so that the building was furnished with a long façade with four iwan. Behind the first iwan and adjacent to it was a rectangular room with a barrel ceiling. This first model of building spread significantly, taking the form of a parallelepiped surmounted by a dome, with a large iwan in function of entry. In Hatra there are other smaller buildings and less important private homes. One of them consists of a large iwan on the front and rooms that open on three of its sides. In another building, the rooms are arranged on its two sides; another building has three iwan next to each other, with rooms behind each one. The fourth building is made up of three iwan in a row, in front of which there are colonnaded arches. Yet another building presents an iwan with a room on one side and facing a hypostyle hall in Greek style.
Assur's arsenic palace is an example of composition with the iwan who in the Islamic period will become widespread and interesting with the name of shabestan-e morabba-e shekl: four iwan opening around a quadrangular courtyard that will become the most common form of mosques, religious schools and caravanserais. Undoubtedly, this architectural style, although also present in Assyrian-Arsacean architecture, is native to eastern Iran. The first Ghaznavid and Seljuk palaces were built on this model and it is at the peak of the Seljuk period that this style surpassed the borders of Iran and spread to Egypt, and from there elsewhere. Therefore, the iwan spread to Mesopotamia from the Khorasan in the arsacid period and then, in the Islamic period, the entrance iwan of the shabestan, of the mausoleums, of the palaces (for example that of Firuzabad), of the great madrasa Nezamiyeh, which has a particular and extraordinary style, they had a leading role in Iranian architecture.
The walls of Hatra's palace were clad in stone or skilfully plastered and then adorned with columns or half-columns with four facades, decorated with plant images and other forms. We know nothing about internal decorations; however, Philostratus, who lived at the time of Hatra, writes: "There is a room with the ceiling set with a blue lapis lazuli, which together with the gold produces the effect of a shining starry sky. There the king sits when he has to judge ". From another room he writes: "the images of the stars, the sun and the king shine from a crystal sky". This shows that the arcsacid palaces were entirely Eastern and Iranian, even though their facades were influenced by Greece.
The religious buildings of the arsacid era are either fully Iranian - as in Badr-e Neshandeh, Shiz and Meidan-e naft - or imitation of the Greek ones - as in Kharheh, Kangavar and Nahavand, and hybrid religious buildings may also exist, which merged elements of the two styles, even if nothing was found to confirm this hypothesis. A comparison between the surfaces and the images of the arsacid palaces and those of the Achaemenid palaces makes it clear that the bases of the former are the same as those of the Achaemenids transformed by substantial modifications and made simpler from the point of view of rationality of use. It is not clear whether this is a sign of the decadence of arsacid art, or it was a voluntary operation. It is known that the Iranian statuary declined in the arsacid period, the sculptors having lost the skill and skill of the past, but this does not mean that Iranian art lost its spirit. Achaemenid art was an expression of an absolute imperial power, and it is possible that a similar architecture changes according to the needs of the period, but it is not possible that the imitation has left such a profound sign in the soul of the Iranians. As we see, a real community between Iranian and Greek art has never existed. The decline of the arsacid art, produced in imitation of the Greek one, soon led to the flowering of a purely Iranian art.
It is worth mentioning some arsacid fire temple here, as some sites have been studied in the west and southwest of the country. The first is Badr-e Neshandeh, located in the oil-rich lands to the southwest, a few miles north of the Masjed-e Soleyman fire temple and resembling it. The date of the building can be placed around the arsacide period. The structure of the two temples is slightly dissimilar but both had the same intended use. The Masjed-e Soleyman temple is at the foot of the terraces that dominate it, since in the area there are natural gases that come out of the ground. Unlike Masjed-e Soleyman, Badr-e Neshandeh stands on a raised point, and is made up of several terraces and platforms of different surfaces. The highest platform is long 100 meters and wide 70, bounded by solid walls. The structure of the two buildings is the same and is built with cut stones, of different sizes, arranged randomly and placed one above the other without the aid of mortars. Above this platform, as in Masjed-e Soleyman, there is a quadrangular base with long sides 20 meters. At Masjed-e Soleyman, you can see the remains of the structure that stood above this base and which was then leveled, while at Badr-e Neshandeh there are the ruins of a small quadrangular building constructed using white stone. Two large staircases, one of which is to the west, respectively 17 and 12 meters long connect to the upper part of the base. Neither of the two stairways is arranged in axis with the large platform. The Badr building probably dates back to the time of Mitridate I (170-138 BC), and was used right in the Arsacid era, while the Masjed-e Soleyman temple was used until the Sassanid era.
Recently another high site was discovered, 40 kilometers northeast of Masjed-e Soleyman. The building stands on a hill, dominated by Mount Bilaveh; in turn, the building dominates a gorge that leads to the Shami necropolis. The building consists of a rectangular platform reached by a wide staircase. On the platform there is a quadrangular base similar in all respects to that of Badre Neshandeh. Another remarkable building is Takht-e Soleyman, in Azerbaijan, which - like Masjed-e Soleyman - stood in a place that has some mystery. Takht-e Soleyman is a temple of fire (ateshkadeh) called in the texts pahlavi "temple of fire of Gonjak" and the first geographers of the Islamic era, "shir". It is said that next to this temple, in the arsacid era, there was a magical lake of which no one was able to know the depth. Ya'qut claimed that the water of seven rivers flowed continuously from the lake, setting off many mills. In the temple, which acquired great importance in the Sasanian era, the famous fire of Azar Goshasb was kept. Mohalhal writes that the temple fire burned from 700 years; in the year 620 d. C., was destroyed by order of Heraclius, Roman emperor of the East.
Masjed-e Soleyman stands in a place where it filters from the natural gas soil; in the arsacide era, a platform of 120 was built for 150 meters, resting on the mountain on one side and connected on the other side to the ground by a wide high staircase from 5 to six meters. On the opposite side of the platform stood a tall pedestal on the side of 30 meters, in the same position as the quadrangular building of Badr-e Neshandeh.

 Numismatics and other arts

Since the habit of beating currency has spread, specialists, particularly in Iran, have always ranked numismatics as a minor art. As for the numismatic arsacide, it must be said that the first coins were imitations of the Greek ones, beaten with inscriptions in Greek characters. It is only during the reign of Fraate II that they began to change both the form and the type of writing, becoming completely arsacid. The Greek alphabet was replaced by a Semitic. At the height of the arsacid dynasty, the Pahlavi language became the official language of Iran; it is an Iranian dialect derived from the Avestan language and its appearance coincided with the abandonment of the Aramaic alphabet which was then used on coins. In this period, the arsacid coins lost all the Hellenizing characteristics that they had still maintained, and began to be beaten in silver. In this period, very few gold coins were beaten, and no more than two or three copies of them have come. Towards the end of the arsacide period, the drawing on coins became very simple, almost stylized, turning into a series of points and lines, hardly distinguishable. And this is why later, in the Sassanid era, the relief drawing reappears.
The oldest arsacid coin is attributed to Mithridates I, and is impressed with the image of a beardless, brave and bold head, aquiline nose, protruding eyebrows and eyes larger than normal, curved lips and volitional chin. On the head you can see a soft felt or leather headgear, with the tip bent forward and two stretches dropped on the shoulders, one forward and one back. The headgear is similar to that of the Saka, depicted in the Achaemenid images, and also presents some similarities with that of the Medes. On the other side of the coin is depicted, in a much more stylized way, a seated man, dressed in the meda manner and equipped with a bow; on both sides of man there are written in Greek characters. Probably it is the image of Arsace I, founder of the dynasty, and symbolic figure for the Arsacids.
The coins of Mitridate I present very realistic drawings. The naturalism arsacide caused a change in the same direction even in the Greek-Seleucid coins, which however oriented towards a more modest naturalism. Most of the arsacid coins that have come down to us belong to the era of Mithridates II (124-88 BC), that is, the great ruler who brought the empire to its peak. The coins depict Mithridates in profile, with a long beard and a long headpiece adorned with rows of pearls and precious stones, arranged on the hat like stars. More than the stars, however, is the water lily the artistic element borrowed from the Achaemenid art in the Arsacid art. From now on, this hat will be the hallmark of the Arsacids, and will be represented on coins beaten by most of the rulers of the dynasty and also worn by local governors and satraps, also represented on coins. On the other side of the coin, there is more or less the same symbolic image of Arsace on whose four sides appears this phrase: "I, Arsace, king of kings, right, benevolent and friend of Greece". After this period the design of the coins gradually begins to simplify. Some of these coins, however, are inspired by particular aesthetic principles, and continue their evolution, like a coin of the time of Faarte II, in which the king is portrayed seated on the throne with an eagle in his hand and his face turned to the left , while holding the royal scepter with the other hand. Behind the sovereign is a woman in Greek clothes standing, who is identified by her long scepter and crown in a goddess of a Greek city, portrayed while placing a garland on the head of the sovereign. On other coins of Faarte and other kings and arsacid governors are depicted scenes of important events of the period. Other coins, this time of the age of Faarte III, depict the face of the sovereign frontally. In these cases, it is a question of evolutions of the numismatic design that, although not present on the coins of other kings, can be found in the bas-reliefs and statues.
The crown or headgear of the arsacid kings are represented rather homogeneously over time. Normally it is a soft headgear with ribbons around the head, usually consisting of four thin strips, with a tail that falls behind the ring head or dropped open on the shoulders. In some coins, as in one of Cosroe Arsacide (109-129) the rear tail of the hat is a curled strip upwards. The image of all the arsacid coins in which the subject is in profile, is turned to the left, except for the later ones of Mitridate I, whose face is turned to the left. In three coins, Artabano III (10-40), Mitridate III (57-55 aC around) and Vologese IV (147-191) are represented opposite. In them, particularly in that of Vologese, the hair descends in a mass of curls on the two sides of the face. This is a hairstyle that will be taken by the Sassanids, whose hair falls on the shoulders on both sides. On the back of all the arsacid coins there is the image of Arsace I in the act of blessing the fire or judging, in the center of a box, on whose sides there is the name and the legend of the coin. Another exception consists of a coin of Partamasparte (III century BC), represented with the face covered by a felt hat, with the two margins that descend covering the ears and on the back the engraved image of a temple, to whose left is Arsace standing with a bow, and above a winged disc placed under a star. The winged disc is most likely an element inherited from the Achaemenids.
Always dating back to this period, two beautiful seals have come to us on one of which there is the same image of the back of this coin (the temple and Arsace), while on the other is represented the scene of two people fighting , one of which is accompanied by a dog. The image of the coin mentioned above (the one that probably portrays Mitridate I or one of its satraps), is turned to the right. Around the images of coins the environment is usually very simple; some coins are filled with rows of pearls, completely (that of Cosroe), or partially.
It is also necessary to talk about painting, sculpture, miniature and minor arsacid arts. It seems that one of the important arts of the arsacid era was painting; however, due to the passage of time and perhaps even the disinterestedness shown by the Sassanids towards the preservation of the partico remains, little remains of the wall painting of that period. If you agree to recognize the paintings of Kuh-e Khajeh, in Sistan, as arsacids, and if you take into consideration the study of those paintings made by Herzfeld, you can clearly see that in them emerges a Greek-Roman style devoid of substance and vigor , inconsistent. The compositional arrangement, the style in the representation of the eyes, seen from the front, and the relatively bright colors represent both an oriental inheritance and an arsacid specificity. These features are also shared by the murals of Doura Europos, in the Upper Euphrates region. In particular, two paintings depicting a hunter and a man on horseback while hunting with animals such as lions, deer, gazelles. The face and the torso of the rider are shown frontally. It is a return to a formal tradition close to the East, in particular Mesopotamian, which tends to return the depth of the design. In this painting, depth is rendered by the movement of animals on oblique lines. This, in all likelihood, was the model of Sassanid hunting paints. A tradition that with the elimination of realism passes through the heavy layers of time and comes in the form of portraiture to the Islamic period. It is said that during this period an illustrated book of syllabic poems for children (probably the children of the court) was entitled entitled The Asurik Tree, of which, however, nothing remained.
The paintings of Kuh-e Khajeh, from the point of view of color and the composition of positive and negative spaces are extremely interesting. In them there are substantial changes in Greco-Roman art and a positive movement towards Iranianism. The painting known as "of the three gods" represents, from the point of view of religious and artistic content, a new experience in arsacid art, as for the first time we see several subjects grouped in a work, and we tried to give depth to the space by arranging the figures one after the other, without a real knowledge of perspective. In another painting, which depicts the king and queen, we tried to give the body of the queen a particular movement, manifesting the feminine grace in a complete way. In the image the king's face is portrayed in profile, the body frontally, which represents a return to the Eastern and Iranian tradition. Another peculiarity of painting, at the same time Iranian and with Greco-Roman influences, is the representation of the "woman". In the Achaemenid era, the woman never appeared, while it could be found in the Seleucid Hellenistic coins. The appearance of the woman in the arsacid and then Sassanid era is the result of Western artistic influences. The colors used are red, blue, white, purple and a sort of black outline around some elements of the composition, which is very evident in the design of the head of a particular individual. Western experts, accustomed to Greco-Roman realism and then to the Gothic and Renaissance, up until the ninth century, interpreted the evolution of Iranian art from realism to a flat and over-realistic art as the incapacity of the arsacid artists and sasanidi to represent reality, where instead this evolution goes in much more complicated and difficult directions with respect to realism: giving depth by means of contours and full colors is much more difficult than doing it adding shade and volume. The orientalists emphasized the inability of Iranian artists to create movement using volumes and depths in painting and even in bas-relief, establishing that they arrived late, only in the twentieth century, to master this ability, when instead this change was influenced about 2000 years ago.
At Doura Europos, on the banks of the Euphrates, the Parthian art manifested itself more strongly than at Kuh-e Khajeh. In the temple built in honor of the gods of Palmyra, there are religious frescoes with Iranian characteristics even more relevant than those found at Kuh-e Khajeh. In one of these, known as the "Ritual of the Kunun Family", two priests are seen, one of whom burns incense in the fire while the other waits motionless next to a third person, who carries the ex voto for the temple. The images are fronts with dresses pleated geometric folds similar to those of Achaemenid clothes. The colors used are red, blue, white and brown, while all the elements of the composition are dashed with precise and regular black outlines. This tradition will re-emerge in the Islamic era. The attempt to give volume to a flat design by means of the outline, does not derive from the inability to make the design realistic as suggested by Western critics, but it is rather a national feature of Iran, which is traceable even before the Achaemenids in Luristan.
On a drawing of the arsacid era left on a wall of Assur, lines are used that clearly show how the Iranian artists painted according to strict artistic-intellectual criteria. In the drawing, the artist first identifies the vertical axis, which has a great importance in religious works, and then performs the composition by balancing the elements on the base of the axis in a non-specular way from its two parts. To establish a balance between art and movement, the artist draws a line parallel to the priest's hand and to accentuate the sense of movement he traces another line in the opposite direction, on the other hand. The necklace, the belt and the ribbon around the priestly dress are repetitions that serve to give rhythm and harmony, and on the trouser band, the movements complete the composition eliminating the monotony.
In the images of the temple of Mithra at Doura Europos, typically Iranian features are present in almost all paintings related to hunting scenes: the knight with the face in front and the body in profile; the embroidered dress of the hunter, portrayed in half-length on top of the trousers that tighten very downwards. The rider, with his feet pointed towards the ground, the horse's harness with metallic round pendants, the symbolic panorama, identifiable only thanks to some plants arranged singularly here and there, are all characteristics of Iranian art. If we observe the onagers who are fleeing, their correlation with the depictions of the horse in Iranian art of the following centuries will be clear.
In the houses of Doura Europos there are other mural representations, in the form of drawings or sketches. On the walls are painted war scenes or hunting, whose analysis bears witness to an important pictorial style in preparation. However, the discussion of these images goes beyond the scope of this volume.

 The bas-relief and the statuary

If the arsacide wall painting is worthy of the utmost attention, the same can not be said for the bas-relief. The lack of compositional harmony and the lack of refinement of the images, usually portrayed frontally (similar to some late-Elamite images), show the artists' lack of interest in stone sculpture. The oldest images on arsacid stone, which date back to the time of Mithridates II, were carved in the lower part of the Bisotun rocks. It is perhaps due to the fact that Darius carved his own image and his own documents on those rocks that Mithridates, wishing to claim that lineage, ordered to sculpt in the same place. In the nineteenth century, an inscription was engraved on these images; however, the images were preserved thanks to some drawings made on the spot, in the previous century, by a European traveler. In them, four notables make a vow of loyalty and submission to Mithridates II. A bas-relief with the king arsacide is also found below one of the reliefs of Persepolis, inspired by the images of the place. However, the king arsacide also added an inscription in Greek with the name of the subjects represented.
On the same rock of Bisotun, next to Mithridates II, King Goudarz (Gotarze) II on the occasion of his victory against one of the pretenders to the throne supported by the Romans, he carved his own image under an inscription in Greek. Above him, a winged angel puts his crown on his head. Apart from this angel, the rest of the bas-relief is completely Iranian: the king on horse lands his rival, while a notable of the country is ready to his orders. Also in Bisotun, on a fifth stone detached from the mountain, is depicted a partisan prince burning fragrant incense, portrayed frontally. In one of the bas-reliefs of Tang-e Saruk, on a high wall at the foot of the Zagros, in the current Khuzestan, a prince is portrayed in the act of giving a ring to his subordinates. The prince is seated at the shutter, leaning against a pillow. The figure is front, in front of him there are some people, with lances at attention; others are behind him. Not far from the meeting, a god crowns the prince and then we see a war scene starring an arsacid king on horseback. The horse and the knight, fixed while wearing his armor and holding a sharp spear against the enemy, are portrayed as on the walls of the houses of Doura Europos. In this representation there is a fundamental evolution, that is the tendency to explain events.
In another bas-relief of Tang-e Saruk, a king, or a prince on horseback, is portrayed in the act of killing a lion. In other scenes, the same person, more imposing than the rest of the characters, is depicted standing up, while a prince sits on the throne; then, again, with a diadem, standing and blessing in front of a conical sacrificial altar. The king's following is arranged along two overlapping lines. Most probably, as Henning states, the images date back to the last quarter of the second century. In a scene recently discovered (less than half a century ago) in Susa, Artabanus V, seated, hands over the ring of power to the governor of the city; both are carved from the front, and the date engraved at the foot of the work corresponds to the 215 d. C. The work presents several innovations: the emptying of the parts outside the image in order to make it stand out, while in reality it is flat; the work is performed largely by means of negative and positive lines impressed on a positive surface, a novelty that unfortunately did not follow.
If we consider the first century of arsacid rule as a period of transition from Hellenizing art to an Iranian style, and we talk of partisan or arsacid art from the moment when Mitridate I, around the 170 BC, transformed his kingdom into a great power proportions, we must also consider as arsacid also what was created at Nemrud Dagh, in Asia Minor, from the parts of the sanctuary of Antiochus I of Commagene (62-36 BC). Antiochus, whose mother was an Achaemenid princess, considered himself an Achaemenid, even though he grew up in Greek culture. At Nemrud Dagh he tried to build a temple in which Greek and Iranian gods could be worshiped together, so much so that he left an inscription that linked Zeuz to Ahura Mazda, Helios to Mithra and Heracles to Verethragna. We also see, from the bas-reliefs, that even the clothes and headgear of the gods are of arsacid cut: the one wearing Helios-Mitra, in fact, is nothing but an arsacid hat. The faces, the hairstyles and the facial features, on the other hand, are completely Greek (not arched eyebrows and thick minds). Even in the image in which Antiochus is portrayed together with Darius, the Achaemenid king is portrayed with Greek characteristics. In the representation in which Helios and Mitra are facing each other, together with Antiochus, the Greek god wears the tipic, long conical hat of the Arsacids and Antiochus the crenellated crown partica. Both are dressed and arranged in a typically "Iranian" way.
Considering that the site of Nimrud Dagh was built between 69 and 24, it is a contemporary of the Mithridates III and Vologese I kingdoms. Although Antiochus was Greek and had many Greek artists at his service, the weight of the Parthian art on Nimrud Dagh it is preponderant compared to that of Greek art, which allows us to affirm without fear of contradiction that it is a particular site, as regards the statuary but above all in the bas-reliefs. The architects of these images can be divided into two categories: those who made Greek statues and those who made images of Iranian deities. In both cases, the aesthetic influence of the Iranian elements is preponderant and clear. For example, in the representation of Helios-Mitra and Antiochus, the sun god has a radiant halo on his head, which is a Mithraic attribute, and a bundle of twigs (the barsom), a symbol of Iranian tradition, as well as Iranian. weapons and the clothes she wears. Ghirshman believes that "the art of Nimrud Dagh, though attentive to some rules of Greek art and linked to the principles of Achaemenid art, shows a new course from the arsacide world, which leaves a significant Iranian influence in this region."
The influence of which Ghirshman speaks immediately reveals itself also in Palmyra, a political and economic center that became part of the Roman world from the beginning of the Christian era until its fall, in the 272, which acted as a bridge between civilization and culture arsacide and the Roman one. Here, the arsacid art is revealed in particular in the bas-relief while the statuary is Greco-Roman. In the art of the low relief and sculpture of Palmira two techniques are used that are typically found in the partico art, that is the frontal perspective and the "asymmetrical" symmetry. A half-length of Vologese III was found in Palmira, probably made by a stone carver. The profound influence of Parthian art is also evident in the bas-relief of three deities of Palmyra (Kalibul, Baal Shamin and Malik Baal) who, although they have tried to give them the features and the Greek features, have clothes, weapons, and attributes (like the halo) clearly Iranian. In a bas-relief of the year 191, a group of characters is portrayed standing in a frontal position, with long dresses of an unequivocably arsacid type, in the act of burning incense on the fire; the image is a clear attempt to imitate the Achaemenid style. Observing the bas-reliefs of the hypogean tomb of Antatan, built in 220, or a bas-relief of two soldiers kept in the Louvre, one can venture the hypothesis that an art in all respects arsacide has developed outside the confines of their territory . Folds, embroidery and ornaments of the garments, even up to the way of sitting and resting on the cushions, are all characteristically arsacid elements.
There are also many statues of women with veils on their heads, bouquets and Iranian ornaments, which despite the effort to give them a Byzantine appearance, are arsacid in all respects. From these we can deduce the profound influence of the parts and then of the Sassanids on the art of Byzantium. In addition to the sculpture of Palmira, bas-reliefs of arsacid style were also found in Hatra (today's al-Hadr), with features and other details inspired by the Parthian art, so that any kind of Byzantine influence can be excluded. The statues of the kings and princesses of Hatra, financo the images of the three female deities who ride a lion found there, were made by partici artists. The belligerent army that is kept in the Mosul museum is an excellent example: the folds of the clothes, especially the trousers, which are gathered from the bottom upwards, confirm their particular provenance.
In Susa a large number of statues of arsacid knights were found, which are now partly preserved in Tehran and partly in the Louvre. There are also a number of bronze statues of the Arsacid period, a little larger than the natural size, only some of the qualifications have been received intact. These findings come from the necropolis of Shami, in the area of ​​Mal Amir, in the mountainous territory of Alyamas, which remained for some time under the control of the arsacids. One of these statues depicts an arsacide with broad and strong shoulders, in an immobile position; he wears iranian clothes and stands in front of the observer, his legs slightly separated, stuffed in felt or leather boots, well planted on the ground, covered with wide and comfortable trousers. The stone body of the subject is proportioned and the coat he wears is long and features long, straight folds that descend to the hips below the knees, guiding the eye along an oblique line to the chest. A belt encircles the powerful sides. It seems almost to be able to say that the clothes worn by today's Kurds have their origin in this type of arsacid dress. The statue's head has been made separately and is slightly smaller than the body. It also seems that the head has been sketched in a mold, while the eyes, the eyebrows, the lips, the whiskers, the short beard and the fringe have been sculpted at a later time. From the historical point of view, the statue is earlier than the one, mutilated, to that of the kushana epoch (found at Sorkh Katl in Afghanistan), since in this there is a softer stroke and a greater perfection in the frontal representation, also respect to those of Palmira in Hatra. The innovative style of this statue has not been repeated in other works. For this reason, it can be attributed to the first half of the II century or to the end of the I d. C. In this stylized and simplified royal figure, there is nothing that can be compared to the softness of the findings of the Seleucid head that was found in the same place and belongs to the Greek governor of the place. In the same way, the style found in the statue has nothing to do with that of the fragments of other statues found in the same necropolis of Shami.
In the field of minor arsacid arts it is necessary to mention a vessel which, according to the ancient-Iranian tradition, is decorated with animal forms. Most of these forms represent panthers, leopards and other felines with the body relaxed or bent; in addition, also small terracotta statues that reproduce the Achaemenid style, without having perfection, maturity and originality. Some ivory plaques have also been found with archers and other figures, shown frontally or in profile, very similar, in their garments and hairstyles, to the figures of Palmyra and Dura Europos. Some women's statues have also been found without clothes made of bone, which are imitations of prehistoric specimens of this area, some of which are very refined and others of little value and of poor quality.
In the arsacid period, many seals were not produced. Many of those attributed to the arsacids are actually Sassanid, while in those found at Nasa, the Seleucid tradition is generally prevalent. Most of the mythological beings depicted in them reproduce the ancient style of the Near East or are inspired by Greek forms, and are predictably of no great value and do not deserve too much interest or analysis here.
An interesting element of the arsacide tradition is the development of minor arts and textile arts. The latter, which had not known any particular evolution in the Achaemenid era, flourished during the arsacid period thanks to the stimulus represented by the commercial relations established with the Syrian and Phoenician ports. Filostrato, for example, talks about the weaving with gold thread and the silver adorned fabrics: "The houses and the portals, instead of being decorated with painting, are decorated with fabrics embroidered with gold and quilted with plaques of silver and golden and shimmering designs. The themes are mostly borrowed from Greek mythology and episodes from the life of Andromeda, Amione and Orpheus. In the scenes, Datis destroys Nagasus with heavy weapons, Atafronte encircles Aritri, and Khashayarsha takes his enemies prisoner. Elsewhere, we see the conquest of Athens, the battle of Thermopylae, and episodes of the Middle Wars, a dry river that had quenched their thirsty army and the bridge that was made over the sea. " All this, together with the images of Kuh-e Khajeh, the inlaid ceilings of precious stones of the last arsacid kings, stars and planets of shining stones set in the lapis lazuli ceilings and the statues and other finds recovered in the Shami necropolis are all examples of arsacid art that have come down to us both physically and through the chroniclers' stories.
Before closing the discourse on the Arsacidi, it is necessary to briefly address the theme of vascular painting, found on finds that probably come from the necropolis of Shami. The vase has a decoration painted in three parts: the body of the vase and two margins, and presents numerous particularities. In the lower part of the vase two lion heads emerge, recalling the lion heads of the golden vessels of Kalardasht and Hasanlu. The images on the body of the vase have a particular symmetry: the snake spiral figures are transformed into ornamental plant elements, on which, as in the tradition of the bronzes of Luristan and Mesopotamia, two animals are posed (in this case two birds). The spiroid motif, even before being Iranian, is Byzantine; but iranico is the style of the heads of the lion and the birds. Around the neck of the vase there are two bands decorated with themes of pastures and animals in the lasso and taming of horses. Unlike those of the vase body that are completely ornamental, these themes are extremely realistic. The vase has not yet been dated with precision.
When the arkacid kings presented themselves, spontaneously wanting for reasons of national security, as "friends of Greece", those Persians who did not react positively to this attitude, instituted specific orders in some territories, installing local governments. Among these, the governments of Fars and Kerman, in the hands of a certain Sasan, a Persian who considered himself the lineage of the Achaemenids. In the time of Artabanus V, the last sovereign arsacid, Ardashir, who ruled this southern part of the plateau, became so powerful that the arsacide, to avoid headaches on that border, gave him his daughter in marriage. Nevertheless, Ardashir confronted himself in war with Artabanus and, after having defeated him and killed him, in 222, he entered Ctesiphon and proclaimed himself king of Iran.