Pourdavoud Lecture Series: Jake Nabel

Royce 306

Misunderstanding in Ancient Interstate Relations The Arsacid Princes of the Roman Empire Jake Nabel (Pennsylvania State University) Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time Royce Hall 306 and Via Zoom   Registration Link: https://forms.gle/ZFb7yBFBeEs2VfMt6 Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92060104969 In the first century CE, several Arsacid princes from the Iranian empire of Parthia were sent to live at the court of the Roman emperor. While Roman authors called these figures “hostages” and scholars have studied them as such, this talk will employ Iranian and Armenian sources to argue that the Parthians would have seen them as the emperor’s foster-children. These divergent...