What is it about?
Is diplomacy purely the business of states, or can non-state actors conduct it as well? This chapter tackles that question through a case study of foreign relations between Rome and Parthia, the two imperial giants of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Some features of the Roman-Parthian relationship conform with modern definitions of diplomacy; other features don't. I argue that both ancient historians and political scientists stand to gain by exploring various theorizations of diplomacy in the historical context of the ancient world.
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Why is it important?
Political scientists who work on diplomacy read ancient history, but ancient historians who work on diplomacy do not often consult scholarship in political science. This chapter tries to rectify that one-sided relationship.
Perspectives
I hope that this chapter will be of interest both to ancient historians and to political scientists, and that it will lead to more dialogue between the two fields.
Jake Nabel
Pennsylvania State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Parthia, Rome, and the Horizons of Ancient Diplomacy, October 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004710771_014.
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