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Chapter 4. Christianity as the Universal Practical Virtue

Chapter 4. Christianity as the Universal Practical Virtue The presentation of Christianity as a way of life maintains a significant thematic resonance throughout Theodoret’s Therapeutikê. Following the long line of Christian authors who from an early stage offered Christianity as a response to pagan polemic, his motivation lay in the conviction that Christianity encompassed and surpassed all that ancient philosophy had attempted to accomplish. While Theodoret devotes… Read more

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Chapter 5. Theodoret’s Rhetoric, Style, and Argumentation: Some Literary Considerations

Chapter 5. Theodoret’s Rhetoric, Style, and Argumentation: Some Literary Considerations The Therapeutikê’s literary features are informed by a set of recognizable historical, religious, educational, and cultural concerns, which have yet to be integrated into a coherent account. [1] More specifically, a number of these features form an integral part of Theodoret’s apologetic program. He makes this explicit in the preface to the… Read more

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Conclusion

Conclusion This book has sought to study several aspects of Theodoret’s apologetics. By showing the number of methods that Theodoret employs to engage the larger problems of his period, his dynamism and the urgency of his project have become apparent. Rather than a “stale exercise,” [1] a new assessment of Theodoret’s apologetic program has emerged. This needs to be said in view… Read more

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Bibliography

Bibliography Primary Sources Ambjörn, L., trans. 2008. Zacharias of Mytilene. The Life of Severus. Piscataway, NJ. Burguière, P., and P. Évieux, eds. 1985. Cyril of Alexandria. Contra Iulianum. Sources chrétiennes 322. Paris. Canivet, P., ed. 2000–2001. Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Thérapeutique des maladies helléniques. 2 vols. Revised ed. Sources chrétiennes 57. Paris. Canivet, P.,… Read more

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Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments To Farideh and Daryush It is a great pleasure to acknowledge those who have generously afforded me their time and insights during the composition of this study. My gratitude to Prods Oktor Skjærvø, Richard N. Frye, and Ernst Badian for their comments on earlier parts of this book. I owe a great debt of thanks to Clarisse Herrenschmidt, Olga M. Davidson, Daniel T. Potts,… Read more

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Introduction

Introduction In the sixth century BCE, following the death of King Cambyses on his Egyptian campaign, the Persian heartland was the scene of an antique murder mystery, during which the Achaemenid throne was held or seized by one or several individual(s)—about whose identity our sources provide conflicting information—who were eventually eliminated through an aristocratic coup d’état fomented by Darius I. The event itself may have been of… Read more

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Abbreviations

Abbreviations DB = Inscriptions of Darius at Bisotun FGH = Fragmente der griechischen Historiker NPi = Inscription of Narseh at Paikuli LABS = Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars, ed. Parpola Š-KhM = Šāhnāme, ed. Khaleghi-Motlagh … Read more

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1. The Sources

Chapter 1. The Sources Old Persian Epigraphy: The Bisotun Inscription According to Darius’ inscription at Bisotun (composed in the late sixth century BCE), [1] King Cambyses killed his brother Bardiya on the eve of his Egyptian campaign without the people (kāra-) being aware of his crime. [2] During the king’s absence in Egypt, according to the… Read more

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2. On the Historical Personae Bardiya and Gaumāta

Chapter 2. On the Historical Personae Bardiya and Gaumāta The duplication of the usurper in the Greek sources—which contrasts with the Bisotun inscription’s single “usurper”—is commonly believed to derive from the erroneous interpretation of Gaumāta’s titles as appellations of secondary persons. [1] The names of the pair transmitted by Herodotus, namely, Patizeithēs and Smerdis, could be respectively interpreted as graecized renderings of… Read more

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3. The Concept and Reality of the Substitute Kingin Mesopotamia and Iran

Chapter 3. The Concept and Reality of the Substitute Kingin Mesopotamia and Iran Having made a case for the historicity of both Bardiya and Gaumāta, and their presumed functions of “kingmaker” and “puppet-king,” in the classical sources, there remains the necessity of revealing the historical prece-dents, or literary patterns, upon which Darius’ fabricated chronicle—as put forth in the Bisotun inscription—rested. The first of these forms the main… Read more