Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE by Matt Waters

Author:Matt Waters [Waters, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780521253697
Amazon: 0521253691
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2014-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

Medism

Another important issue of terminology involves the Greek phenomenon of Medism. This term and its varying manifestations as verb and noun – “to Medize,” “to go over to the Mede,” “Medizer,” etc. – referred to Greeks or others who supported the Persians, either by offering tokens of submission (earth and water) or by outright support. The term might apply whether the “Medizing” was compelled or voluntary. This is common but somewhat curious phraseology throughout the Classical accounts: we are dealing with Persians, of course, not Medes, though the latter were subjects of the Persian Empire. So, why “Medize” instead of “Persianize”? Scholars have struggled with this issue for a long time, and explanations vary.6 Did the Greeks simply not differentiate between the culturally and linguistically related Medes and Persians? Did the Greeks simply see the Persian Empire as a continuation of the Median? Even though Herodotus uses the term “Medism” and its variants throughout his work, he clearly distinguishes the two peoples. One piece of evidence comes from a poet named Xenophanes, from the Ionian city of Colophon. Xenophanes was born circa 570 BCE and lived during both Lydian and Persian domination – or, as expressed in the following fragment – the Median domination.7

Such are the things to discuss by the fire in winter while reclining on a soft couch, well-fed, drinking sweet wine, snacking on seeds: Who are you, and from where among men? How many years have passed you by, good man? How old were you when the Mede came?

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