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Podcast: New Books in Italian Studies
Episode: Jake Nabel, "The Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian Relations" (U California Press, 2025)
Description: ï»żAt the beginning of the common era, the two major imperial powers of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East were Rome and Parthia. In thisÂ
(open access) bookÂ ï»żThe Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian Relations (U California Press, 2025), Jake Nabel analyzes Roman-Parthian interstate politics by focusing on a group of princes from the Arsacid familyâthe ruling dynasty of Parthiaâwho were sent to live at the Roman court. Although Roman authors called these figures âhostagesâ and scholars have studied them as such, Nabel draws on Iranian and Armenian sources to argue that the Parthians would have seen them as the empe...