L’Alter Orbis Partho-Sassanides dans les sources latines : Construction et usage des représentations chez Tacite, Ammien et dans l’Historia Augusta

Details

Supervisors

Van Haeperen, Françoise

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en histoire, à finalité approfondie

Abstract

enThis thesis examines the representations of the Parthian and Sasanian kingdoms within Imperial Roman historiography through a corpus consisting of Tacitus’s Annals, Ammianus Marcellinus’s Res Gestae, and the Historia Augusta. More specifically, it investigates the place occupied by representations of the Partho-Sasanians, the role their deployment plays within the narrative and ideological strategies of these authors, and the ways in which these representations are rooted in their respective contexts of composition. Following a systematic compilation of textual occurrences evidencing such representations, their analysis highlights three major dynamics : the systematic deployment of past historical episodes to illuminate contemporary realities, a persistent adherence to a set of subjective assessments frequently attached to these peoples, and the equivalence drawn between the two rival powers. This study thus explores the role of representations in shaping Roman historiographical discourse and, more broadly, in constructing Roman imperial identity itself.