Government and Diplomacy 215writteninreplytothem,thelatterroletendstobethemoreprominent,and
todeterminethetitulatureoftheofficialsconcerned.Farmoreimportant
forourpurposes,however,isthecontrastbetweentheverycleareffecton
thestructureandfunctioningoftheimperialentourageoftherespectpaid
totheGreekcitiesoftheEmpireontheonehand,andthetotalabsenceon
theotherofanypreciseapparatustohandlediplomaticrelationsbeyondthe
frontier.
As regards a large proportion of the areas with which the Empire was
in some permanent or repeatedly renewed relationship, we could simply
suppose that the same apparatus designed for ‘‘internal’’ exchanges of a
diplomatictypecouldbeappliedwithoutdifficulty—indeed,inthecaseof
‘‘client’’ kings without anycleardistinction—to relations which might be
regardedas‘‘external.’’Itcan,forinstance,beassumedwithoutquestionthat
Greek was the diplomatic language of all letters to and from kings on the
easternperimeteroftheEmpire,fromtheBosporankingdomonthenorth
coastoftheBlackSeatoArmenia,Commagene(finallyabsorbedinabout
a.d.72),OsrhoeneontheothersideoftheEuphrates,absorbedina.d.213–
14,Nabatea(Arabia),absorbedina.d.106,andevenParthiaitself,aswellas
itsPersiansuccessorempireofthe220sonwards.Wehaveinthecaseofthe
ParthianEmpireapreciseparallelintherespectshowntothe‘‘Greekness’’of
theGreekcitieswithinitsborders.Fortheonlydocumentaryexamplewhich
wehaveofaletterwrittenbyaParthiankingisonewrittenina.d.21byArta-
banusIIItothecityofSeleuciaontheEulaeus,theancientSusainpresent-
dayIran.^25 AswiththenumerouslettersofRomanemperorstoGreekcities,
ofwhichsomeexamplesarementionedabove,weoweourknowledgeof
thislettertothefactthatthecityconcernedhaditpubliclyinscribed.Itfol-
lows,however,andcouldnotbedoubtedonmoregeneralgrounds,thatthe
Parthianswillalwayshavehadthecapacitytoconductdiplomaticrelations
with the Roman Empire,or specifically with the emperor, in Greek.This
willhaveremainedtrueeveninthelaterperiod,whenitisgenerallythought
that,inbroaderculturalterms,thelong-lastinginfluenceoftheGreekcul-
tureimportedintotheMiddleEastbyAlexanderhadbegunperceptiblyto
decline.So,forinstance,thereistheevidenceofawonderfulnewdiscovery,
abronzestatueoftheGreekheroHerakles,capturedbytheParthianking
Vologaesesina.d.150inthecourseofhisconquestofthelittlekingdomof
Mesene,attheheadofthePersianGulf,anddedicatedbyhiminthetemple
- C.B.Welles,Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period(NewHavenandLondon,
1934),no.75.