JózefWolski’s Writings on the Arsacid History and Culture: A Critique

JózefWolski’s works on the Arsacid history and culture has led to a new approach which has shed new light on the unknown and ambiguous aspects of the Arsacid Empire. For him, the first step in reconstructing the picture of Arsacid period in the framework of the Ancient Persian history is reexamining and revising the ideas long held by historians of this period. The method implemented is to extract Wolski’s basic vision and approach out of his key writings. To this end, many of his most important papers were translated or summarized. Among the most important achievements of this study in introducing his works is that the Persian domestic sources gained prominence and were changed into canonical works.As well, a systematic criticism of Greek and Roman sources related to the Arsacid Empire was achieved. Moreover, the most fundamental strategy of the author under discussion was to find the ideological links between Arsacid and Achaemenid traditions. To unravel these links, he brings forth the hypothesis concerning ArsacidIranism. Although not fully successful, his ideas were instrumental in modifying the negative opinions towards the empire.