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29-602: Persica may refer to: Persica (Ctesias) , a lost ancient Greek text Persica (section) , a section of Prunus Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Persica . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Persica&oldid=1224959395 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

58-427: A list of kings from Ninus and Semiramis down to Artaxerxes II. Ctesias' Persica has not been preserved through a manuscript tradition. The knowledge of it is derived through a single papyrus fragment containing 29 lines of text ( POxy 2330) and references in later ancient authors, most importantly Diodorus Siculus , Nicolaus of Damascus , Dionysius of Halicarnassus , Plutarch , Claudius Aelianus , Athenaeus and

87-514: A long-standing member of the Persian court. As such, he also seems to have had access to the "royal archives" and "royal parchments". The existence of such administrative documents in Persia remains contested. Additionally, it is not known whether Ctesias knew Old Persian (or whichever language was in use at the court), and, even if he knew the language, it is generally doubted that he could read

116-561: A narrow focus on the Greco-Persian wars of the early 5th century BC, while others, such as Hellanicus, adopted a broader approach similar to Ctesias' and dealt with the whole history of the Assyrian, Median and Persian empires. The most important writer concerned with Persian history before Ctesias was Herodotus of Halicarnassus , whose immensely influential Histories have been preserved in their entirety. Ctesias seems to have been

145-500: A prudent man who, falling into the hands of robbers, sacrifices all that he is carrying, to save his life, and forfeits his possessions by way of ransom. If however it has already saved its life by self-castration and is again pursued, then it stands up and reveals that it offers no ground for their eager pursuit, and releases the hunters from all further exertions, for they esteem its flesh less. Often however Beavers with testicles intact, after escaping as far away as possible, have drawn in

174-560: A wider European audience. An English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the Loeb Classical Library , 3 vols. (1958-59). Various History ( Ποικίλη ἱστορία , Poikílē historía )—for the most part preserved only in an abridged form —is Aelian's other well-known work, a miscellany of anecdotes and biographical sketches, lists, pithy maxims, and descriptions of natural wonders and strange local customs, in 14 books, with many surprises for

203-440: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Persica (Ctesias) Books 1–3 : Assyrian history. The books described the reign of the legendary king Ninus who founded the Assyrian empire and the city of Nineveh , and conquered large parts of western Asia; the reign of the legendary Queen Semiramis and her invasion of India; the reigns of Ninyas and of Sardanapalus and

232-601: Is preserved only on a single fragment, it is very difficult to gauge his style of writing. His openness to oral traditions and emphasis on melodramatic episodes at royal court (centered, in the latter part of the work, around the figure of the Queen Parisatys) suggest a work that is between history and fiction (also known as "faction") and akin to the novelistic genre. An important testimony on Ctesias' dramatic style comes from Dionysius of Halicarnassus (On Style 3): The charge of garrulity often brought against Ctesias on

261-592: Is told by others, and even that he does not believe them. Aelian's work is one of the sources of medieval natural history and of the bestiaries of the Middle Ages. The surviving portions of the text are badly mangled and garbled and replete with later interpolations. Conrad Gessner (or Gesner), the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelian's work, to give it

290-621: The Loeb Classical Library . Considerable fragments of two other works, On Providence and Divine Manifestations , are preserved in the early medieval encyclopedia, the Suda . Twenty "letters from a farmer" after the manner of Alciphron are also attributed to him. The letters are invented compositions to a fictitious correspondent, which are a device for vignettes of agricultural and rural life, set in Attica, though mellifluous Aelian once boasted that he had never been outside Italy, never been aboard

319-536: The Various History is a classical "magazine" in the original sense of that word. He is not perfectly trustworthy in details, and his writing was heavily influenced by Stoic opinions, perhaps so that his readers will not feel guilty, but Jane Ellen Harrison found survivals of archaic rites mentioned by Aelian very illuminating in her Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903, 1922). Varia Historia

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348-469: The cuneiform . Interestingly, it has been argued that the most important source for Ctesias' work might have been the oral narratives (epics, romances and historical accounts), which were typical of the ancient Near Eastern societies. Thus, Ctesias' account would be valuable as presenting Persian history in the way in which the Persians themselves customarily viewed it. Since Ctesias' original language

377-831: The Byzantine bishop Photius . A vast majority of the later references refers to Persica rather than citing them verbatim, thus not allowing us a direct access to Ctesias' own words. The most important editions of the fragments of the Persica up to date include: Ctesias' Persica fits into a larger tradition of ancient Greek historical and ethnographical works dealing with Near Eastern history and culture. The earliest Greek writers of Persica have been collected among Jacoby's Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum and include Hecataeus of Miletus (1), Hellanicus of Lesbos (4), Charon of Lampsacus (262), Dionysius of Miletus (687) and Xanthus of Sardis (765). Some of these authors, like Dionysius, had

406-471: The Elder , Theopompus , and Lycus of Rhegium , but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness. He is more attentive to marine life than might be expected, though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen". At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he specifically states that he is merely reporting what

435-727: The charge of unreliability has been supplemented by a charge of orientalism. The most vocal proponent of that view had been the historian Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg . More recently, scholars have tried to view Ctesias on his own terms and in light of what he himself was trying to achieve: not a history, but a vibrant and dramatic narrative based, among other things, on his own experience in the Persian royal court and on Persian oral traditions he came into contact with. Claudius Aelianus Claudius Aelianus ( Ancient Greek : Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός , Greek transliteration Kláudios Ailianós ; c.  175  – c.  235 AD ), commonly Aelian ( / ˈ iː l i ən / ), born at Praeneste ,

464-513: The coveted part, and with great skill and ingenuity tricked their pursuers, pretending that they no longer possessed what they were keeping in concealment. The Loeb Classical Library introduction characterizes the book as "an appealing collection of facts and fables about the animal kingdom that invites the reader to ponder contrasts between human and animal behavior". Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, not only Pliny

493-595: The cultural historian and the mythographer , anecdotes about the famous Greek philosophers, poets, historians, and playwrights and myths instructively retold. The emphasis is on various moralizing tales about heroes and rulers, athletes and wise men; reports about food and drink, different styles in dress or lovers, local habits in giving gifts or entertainments, or in religious beliefs and death customs; and comments on Greek painting. Aelian gives accounts of, among other things, fly fishing using lures of red wool and feathers, lacquerwork , and serpent worship. Essentially,

522-526: The death of her son Cyrus the Younger. Dionysius concludes that: Altogether this poet (for a poet Ctesias may well be called) is an artist in vividness throughout his writings.(trans. W. Rhys Roberts) While Ctesias' paradoxographical Indica have had a rough reception in Antiquity and have been mocked for its phantasies by a variety of authors including Lucian , it has been argued that the reception of

551-509: The earliest writer to attempt to write Persian history after Herodotus. Ctesias' Persica has often been seen as a response to Herodotus. Photius, who was still able to read Ctesias' Persica , wrote: [he] gives an account of Cyrus, Cambyses, the Magian, Darius, and Xerxes, in which he differs almost entirely from Herodotus, whom he accuses of falsehood in many passages and calls an inventor of fables (trans. Rene Henry) Many scholars accept that

580-506: The end of the Assyrian empire after the revolts of Arbaces of Media and Belesys of Babylon . Books 4–6 : Median history. The books recounted the history of the Median empire from the reign of Arbaces to the reign of Astyages and his defeat in the hands of Cyrus the Great of Persia. Books 1–6 may have originally been conceived as a separate work devoted to Assyriaca and Medica, and opposed to

609-482: The ground of his repetitions can perhaps in many passages be established, but in many instances it is his critics who fail to appreciate the writer's vividness. The same word is repeated because this often makes a greater impression. (trans. W. Rhys Roberts) Dionysius goes on to cite the way in which Ctesias' styled a pathetic dialogue between the Queen Mother Parysatis and a messenger informing her of

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638-518: The machinations of his wife, Queen Parysatis . Books 19–23 : The reign of Artaxerxes II down to 398 BC, including the revolt of Cyrus the Younger and his death at the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC), the machinations of the Queen Mother Parysatis (who had the murderers of Cyrus the Younger tortured and executed and who poisoned the King's favourite wife Stateira ), and Ctesias' role as negotiator (with Conon of Athens). The work seems to have concluded with

667-415: The moral lessons they convey; others because they are astonishing. The Beaver is an amphibious creature: by day it lives hidden in rivers, but at night it roams the land, feeding itself with anything that it can find. Now it understands the reason why hunters come after it with such eagerness and impetuosity, and it puts down its head and with its teeth cuts off its testicles and throws them in their path, as

696-570: The much more grounded Persica was generally more positive. It had certainly influenced two later authors of Persica, who wrote in the last decade of the Achemenid rule in Persia: Dinon of Colophon and Heracleides of Cumae . In the late 19th and early 20th century scholarship, Persica have often been viewed as unreliable and disappointing. In the second half of the 20th century, in the wake of Edward Saïd 's controversial 1978 book,

725-478: The relation of Ctesius' Persica to Herodotus was antagonistic. Other scholars, such as Bichler, think that Ctesias parodied Herodotus and wrote "like a kind of persiflage and... not a serious attempt to correct Herodotus". It is generally agreed that Ctesias was influenced by the earlier writers of the Persica tradition. More importantly, he seems to have been the first Greek writer to view Persia from within, as

754-638: The rest of the work devoted to the Persian history. Books 7–11 : Cyrus the Great (600–530 BC). The books described Cyrus' rise from humble origins, his conquest of the Median empire and his reign down to his death. Books 12–15 : The reigns of Cambyses (530–522 BC), Darius the Great (522–486 BC) and Xerxes I (486–465 BC). Books 16–17 : The reign of Artaxerxes I (465–424 BC), including Inarus' revolt in Egypt (460–455 BC) and Megabyzus' revolt. Books 18 : The reigns of Xerxes II (424 BC), Sogdianus (424 BC) and Darius II Ochus (423–405/4 BC), including

783-649: The surprising lore, which offers unexpected glimpses into the Greco-Roman world-view. De Natura Animalium is also the only Greco-Roman work to mention Gilgamesh . On the Nature of Animals (alternatively "On the Characteristics of Animals"; Ancient Greek : Περὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος , Perì zṓōn idiótētos ; usually cited by its Latin title De Natura Animalium ) is a collection, in seventeen books, of brief stories of natural history. Some are included for

812-460: Was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus , who died in 222. He spoke Greek so fluently that he was called "honey-tongued" ( μελίγλωσσος meliglossos ); Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors, and wrote in a slightly archaizing Greek himself. His two chief works are valuable for the numerous quotations from the works of earlier authors, which are otherwise lost, and for

841-581: Was first printed in 1545. The standard modern text is that of Mervin R. Dilts (1974). Two English translations of the Various History, by Fleming (1576) and Stanley (1665) made Aelian's miscellany available to English readers, but after 1665 no English translation appeared, until three English translations appeared almost simultaneously: James G. DeVoto, Claudius Aelianus: Ποικίλης Ἱστορίας ( Varia Historia ) Chicago, 1995; Diane Ostrom Johnson, An English Translation of Claudius Aelianus' "Varia Historia" , 1997; and N. G. Wilson, Aelian: Historical Miscellany in

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