Greek in Asia: Understanding Hellenism in Susa and Seleucia on the Tigris

Susa and Seleucia on the Tigris have very different historical backgrounds. The former is one of the most ancient sites known in Asia, with a continuous occupation dating back to the fourth millennium BC, while the latter is a Seleucid foundation of the very end of the fourth century BC. This essay focuses on two objects. The example from Seleucia is a bronze statue of Herakles with a bilingual Greek and Parthian inscription, and that from Susa is a small relief depicting an offering Aphrodite. We argue that the interpretation of these objects should not focus exclusively on ethnic or cultural identities but rather on the global networks to which they belonged on the basis of their iconography, style, and materiality. What we see in Seleucia and Susa from that perspective is creative local appropriation from a cosmopolitan repertoire.