Imperia sine fine? The Roman-Parthian frontier zone as conflict and contact area from the late 1st to the early 3rd c. A.D.

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The external border of Rome in the Near East has in the past often aroused the attention of researchers. The scientific pursuit of this topic has been mostly shaped by three aspects: First, the military aspect was clearly central; second, the topic was only considered from the Roman point of view; and third, research emphasis was time-wise clearly on Late Antiquity.Against this backdrop, this project targets the systematic examination of the frontier zone in the Near East during the period of Vespasianus or Vologeses I. about 70 AD to Severus Alexander or the downfall of the monarchy of the Arsacids about 230 AD. This temporal limitation seems sensible because it corresponds to a historically coherent epoch. Next to the border security of the empires, especially the political, cultural and economic changes in this frontier zone between the Zagrus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, resulting of the collision of two empires, are to be analysed from a local perspective. This examination should show that the region was more often shaped by peaceful relationships than by the often discussed conflicts between the empires. The frontier zone is supposed to be considered and represented consistently from different perspectives as a in many ways independent area of exchange, trade, cultural contacts and political relationships of local and regional actors. The different types of sources, the Greek-Latin tradition, the oriental literary traditions from the Syrian-Mesopotamian cultural area and Iran, the documentary sources and the archaeological evidence of the military facilities and the Near Eastern cultural centres in the frontier zone will be analysed in collaboration with an interdisciplinary workgroup of experts from Jena and also from other countries. In doing so, the individual steps of the examination are supposed to expose two contrary aspects: On the one hand, both empires shaped their peripheries during the considered timeframe through power-political, juridical and military parameters, on the other hand, the area was on both sides of the border moulded by local and regional forces as a connected cultural area sui generis. The forces of the centre and those of the periphery didn't always align, but they both exercised decisive influence on the frontier zone. The systematic examination of the reciprocal interaction of both factors promises a deeper understanding of the local history but also of the bigger historical developments.