Dealing with Achaemenid Legacies in Parthia and Chorasmia, 3rd-1st century BC: Different Outcomes in Different Contexts?

The discussion on the Achaemenid cultural and ideological legacies in post-Achaemenid times has been traditionally focused on a “Persian” perspective, due to the influence of the paradigm of the Achaemenid connections of the Sasanians. The effect has been that the more than five centuries between the fall of the Persian Empire and the birth of the Sasanian one have been objectively neglected, partly as result and partly concurring to draw a picture built on premises that are less objective than what commonly believed, first of all being the assumption of a generalized loss of memories of the Achaemenid past among Iranians. The paper will present a non-Persian perspective on the problem mainly based on visual evidence, discussing the case of the Arsacids, which is crucial for various reasons, not least because of their proximity in time to the Achaemenids and because their dynasty was the longest-ruling in pre-Islamic Iran, in comparison with that of Chorasmia, another non-Persian Iranian region that had an Achaemenid phase but, having been not impacted by the Macedonian conquest, followed in post-Achaemenid times a different historical trajectory from that of western Iran.

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