1. General remarks and aims of this article
1.1. Problems connected with the sources
The Oracle of Hyspaspes (OH) is one of the most evasive texts of the Hellenistic period. The text has not survived in its entirety. We know of its existence from quotation by five different authors, although it has also been suggested by scholars that a text of that name never existedFootnote 1.
Three different hypotheses have been put forward. According to the first, the OH is a mere fabrication of the different authors who quote it, according to the second we are dealing with scattered generic material simply grouped under the same pseudonym but according to the third hypothesis what the five authors quote constitutes the remains of what was once a complete text (or at least a complete oral tradition put down into written form).Footnote 2
To agree with the first hypothesis looks absurd to me; how could five separate authors (namely Justin, Clement, Lactantius, Lydos, and Aristokritos), ranging from the Second to the Sixth centuries ce come up with different parts of a whole, all of them fabricated and yet somehow coherent?Footnote 3
The second hypothesis looks more reasonable, especially if we take into account the fact that Sibylline material is also grouped under the simple name of ‘the Sibyl’. Nothing could prevent, in principle, the same happening to HystaspesFootnote 4.
The third one is by far the most important, due to the number and quality of the arguments involved. But again, nobody so far has figured out, no matter how ingeniously the resources, the reconstruction of the OH from what is leftFootnote 5. It seems to me that this is due to the fact that it always looks difficult to try to reconstruct a whole text from leftovers; this happens because scholars are, understandably, more comfortable with a whole-matching group of fragments than with a jigsaw puzzle missing many parts and, especially in the field of comparative studies in religion, to mere wishful-thinking.Footnote 6 We may just end up with what we wanted to be in the first place, and no matter how good the scholar, this is not sound procedure.Footnote 7
In any case, what I am arguing about in this article relates to the dating of the OH or of its Vorlage – I think it is reasonable to push it backwards a little more than the middle of the First Century ce and go to around 140-90 bce, to Asia Minor (a location most scholars agree with as probable); in short, to the time of Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus.
It also seems that a relation to Mithridatic propaganda is more sound than to posit than a connection with bce Zoroastrian sources for the whole OH without further arguments than those regarding a supposed general Eastern hatred for the Romans. The legacy of Eddy (Samuel K. Eddy. The King is Dead. Studies in the Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism 334-31 b.c. (Lincoln, 1961), notwithstanding the scope and quality of his work, seems to work against sound methodology on this specific issue.
1.2. Political issues and the OH
This last observation regarding East-West antagonism was necessary to state that we are left with a lot of fragmentary material whose wholeness cannot be proved (or if it can, this is not the place to discuss it), but nonetheless whose dating can be tackled with much more confidence. It is in this sense that the third issue raised at the beginning of this article, namely the political one, is what will be discussed – treating the OH as kind of Sibylline oracle does not have support in any kind of evidence, nor does the idea that it is a mere fabrication of five different authors working at widely varying places in both time and location.
As a tentative hypothesis, the politically turbulent Asia Minor of the Second to First Centuries bce looks as the most suitable place according to all investigations proceeded so far. The centuries old syncretism, the well-known Persian colonies, the Jewish communities, the story of Alexander as related by Lucian of Samosata and the presence of Sibylline referencesFootnote 8 all point to Asia Minor as the strongest candidate for a birthplace of the Vorlage to the OH, if not to the text itself.
2. Possible place of origin for the OH
2.1. Why Asia Minor?
Among the many uncertainties surrounding the OH the ones related to its birthplace are easier to deal with than those of authorship and date.Footnote 9
The main reasons for that have already been put clearly both by orthodox defenders of the OH as a Zoroastrian product and by the heterodox position of Flusser, ascribing it a Judeo-Christian origin in the form it came down to us, especially in Lactantius’ testimony.Footnote 10 Scholarship on the OH takes into account, so far, the following aspects of what was left of the text: I will put them forward first and discuss them later on.
First of all, the idea that the OH is to be inserted among other non-clearly defined “resistance” literature can easily turn into a kind of circular argument: the many times that Hystaspes is quoted in our five surviving sources together with the Sibylline oracles are “proof” of that statement, which is, in turn, “proof” that both Hystaspes and the Sibyl were guises for the “cultural resistance” against Rome.Footnote 11 And the issue of what exactly “resistance” can mean is a particularly tricky one – are we to understand that each and every reader / hearer of the OH was a potential warrior against Roman domination? Or could it be the other way round – the supernatural promises to be found in texts such as the OH would lead to a sort of “political quietism”, as some have argued?Footnote 12 This question is far from resolved and ultimately we would need to know far more than we do about the conditions of reading in Antiquity, both of apocalyptic material and of literature at large.
2.2. Mithridates VI EupatorFootnote 13 and the political use of oracles.
Broadly speaking, for several reasons it is reasonable to compare what is in the OH to what we know about the spreading of oracles in Mithridates’ time (all portraying him as an Asiatic avenger against Rome) and to the content of the Sibor. First, Lucian's testimony is crucial, since it shows that at least one “author” in Asia Minor was spreading on an enormous scale oracles of doom throughout the Mediterranean at the terminus post quem for the OH.
Second, many issues common to Hystaspes and other apocalyptic material can with some degree of certainty be assigned to Asia Minor; this is especially true of Revelation (ascribed to someone in Patmos writing to churches near Ephesus), but also to the oracle-monger Alexander of Abnoteichos as described by Lucian of Samosata (who accordingly had a bureau in Rome but his chief office for producing and spreading oracles was in Chalcedon, at Abnoteichos).
Third, besides textual similarities, the existence of big and organised Persian colonies throughout Asia Minor would have also facilitated the exchange of ideas between Zoroastrians (Hystaspes is, after all, a Zoroastrian figure) and other peoples resistant to Greek or Roman dominion.Footnote 14
The fourth argument leads to political events: Asia Minor had foremost political and strategical importance, hence the frequent trouble arising there. Examples would be Aristonicus’ role after Attalus III bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in a suspicious will and, more than other events, the immense turmoil caused by Mithridates in his three wars against Rome from 88-63 bce.
The main issue relating to the OH in the context of cultural resistance in Asia Minor has been raised before by other scholars, even if briefly. It seems to start with a fragment by Poseidonius of Apamea, the polymath who lived between 135 bce - 51 bce and was born in Apamea, Syria. It reads thus:
Every city agrees to superhuman honours for him and invokes the god-king (or calls him to their aid): on every side oracles and prophecy rule over the inhabited world.Footnote 15
The fragment is very important when inserted in two different contexts and shall be our departure point for the present discussion.
3. “Cultural resistance” and Roman penetration in Asia Minor
3.1. the theme of cultural resistance to Rome
To begin with, the theme of cultural resistance to Rome (and Mithridates can be rightfully acknowledged as the greatest champion of the Hellenistic cause against Rome); secondly, because Mithridates himself was involved to a great extent in Persian affairs and at least for propaganda purposes, with Mithraism – he was sometimes hailed as “Mithradates”, “the gift of Mithra”.Footnote 16 Incidentally, this use of propagandistic issues may be better studied by looking at the parallels between the fragments on his propaganda agenda and the smallest testimonies to the OH, namely the ones from Lydos and Aristokritos, for they relate the OH more clearly to the use of astrology and thus, to Mithraism itself.Footnote 17 So I hope to show how Mithridates could have used material akin to the proposed Vorlage of the OH and thus move back the earlier dating proposed until now, as stated at the beginning of this article.
3.2. Dating of the OH
Dating of the OH has so far been understood in the following terms: the OH as it came down to us must be earlier than its oldest witness, Justin (i.e. circa 150 ce); from then on backwards things become more challenging to date– by analogy to Rev 11-13, it was written at a time when the Temple still stood up, i.e. 70 ceFootnote 18 or earlier. Given then, that highly messianic hopes circulated among the people of Jerusalem from the 37 bce siege by Herod, onwards; as they did from the 70 ce siege, the theme could well date from that far back.Footnote 19 Now, if this reasoning applies to the events in 37 bce, I see no reason to ignore the possibility of similar behaviour during Pompey's invasion in 63 bce; what I am proposing is merely to push further back the speculative dating proposed by Flusser for the OH, to its Vorlage, or even to the text as it once was in written form. This would fit not only with Pompey's final tour in the East but also with the end of the Mithridatic Wars, and could place our sources or appropriation of themes somewhere between the end of the Second Century bce and the late Seventies bce.
In other words, many of the themes present in the OH may be related to the world of Mithridates and to the syncretistic milieu of Asia Minor during his lifetime. And this adds to the discussion not only of the dating of the OH itself, but also to Sibylline material and Persian apocryphal.
And methodologically, even the most skeptical critics of Iranian influence on Jewish literatureFootnote 20 would agree that it is bad scholarship to base one's conclusions only according to the dating of the text as a written object. The testimonies are late-dated, but this does not preclude them from portraying at least a Vorlage of the OH. If scholarship should be based solely on the dating of texts as material artifacts, we would be closer to archaeology than to history – and we are dealing with the content of the OH rather than the dating or the material provenance of the sources available.
4. Miracles, portents and omens regarding Mithridates and the OH
4.1. Mithridates's use of oracles as propaganda
As seen, Mithridates himself appears to have made use of oracles as forms of propaganda; besides, some natural accidents may have come in very handy for his purposes. Some occurred during his reign, some are rightly or wrongly ascribed to his birth.
Taking a closer look at both categories, we have a first group of portents. Mithridateswas struck by lightning while young, as a modern author explains:
The widespread belief in the ancient Near East that heavenly fire or light would announce the birth of a redeemer helps explain another story told about Mithridates. When he was a baby, lightning struck his cradle. Mithridates was unharmed, but the lightning left a distinctive scar-in the shape of a diadem or crown-on his forehead. Some said the lightning strike inspired his nickname, Dionysus, after the Greek god of liberation, change, and new beginnings. Dionysus had been marked for greatness by Zeus's divine lightning while still in the womb.Footnote 21
Also in his year of birth 135 bce a comet appeared in the sky, like the star of Bethlehem,Footnote 22 as stated in Justin's testimony in his Epitome of Pompeius Trogus’ History:
Again, heavenly prodigies predicted his future greatness. In the year that he [Mithridates] was begotten, and again when he first began to rule, a comet blazed in such a way, on both occasions for seventy days, that the whole sky seemed to be on fire. Footnote 23
And this mysterious announcing of a saviour-King was just the first of many linking Mithridates to well-spread prophecies, and this would all work to his own benefit – in Hellenistic thinking, the more mysterious a thing the more divine it was.Footnote 24 Falling comets find their place among the signs of the end in DI 7.19: in the SibOr, outstanding passages are 2.34-38: “And again God will perform a great sign / for a star will shine like a resplendent crown / resplendent, gleaming from the radiant heaven / for no small number of days, For then he will show / from heaven a crown to men who strive in contest”.Footnote 25 SibOr 3.349 also mentions a “comet” related to signs of dread – but “dread” to whom?
A number of Mithridates’ coins reflected these phenomena - both for Greeks and Romans, falling stars or comets would sound much more like predictions of evil than of good;Footnote 26 how would Mithridates make use of stars as positive omens? Maybe one should handle them as mere symbols for Asia Minor rather than propagandistic omens.
4.2. Babylonian interpretation
The answer lies partly in the fact that in the Babylonian Near East, contrary to Greco-Roman tradition, comets were sometimes hailed as good omens; here as in many other cases Mithridates would play both Greek-rescuer and Eastern-avenger. According to the more traditional arguments that see apocalyptic literature as a form of resistance against Hellenisation, the use of such items of propaganda by Mithridates poses a formidable puzzle,Footnote 27 since in Zoroastrianism stars, comets or shooting stars would be associated with cosmic disorder and not with anything good – i.e. not with Ahuramazda. Indeed, to date there is no definite answer regarding the use of a comet as a good omen by Mithridates’ supporters inasmuch as the king was familiarised with Zoroastrianism and had so many Persian-origin subjects to account for and that supported him – i.e. there is no definite explanation on how this omen could have had a good usage for propagandistic purposes.Footnote 28
4.3. Uncommon astral phenomena
These are reflected in the OH much the same as in Persian material: examples would be, in the OH fragments of Lactantius, our best witness for the present purposes:Footnote 29
OH / DI 7:
[…] at that time the Son of God would be sent by the Father, to destroy all the wicked and set free the pious […] these things are true and certain, being foretold by the unanimous annunciation of all the prophets, since Trimegistus, Hystaspes and the Sibyls have all foretold the same things.Footnote 30
Wonderful prodigies also in heaven shall confound the minds of men with the greatest terrors, and the trains of comets, and the darkness of the sun, and the colour of the moon, and the gliding of the falling stars. Nor, however, will these things take place in the accustomed manner; but there will suddenly appear stars unknown and unseen by the eyes; the sun will be perpetually darkened, so that there will be scarcely any distinction between the night and the day; the moon will now fail, not for three hours only, but, overspread with perpetual blood, will go through extraordinary movements, so that it will not be easy for man to ascertain the courses of the heavenly bodies or the system of the times; for there will either be summer in the winter, or winter in the summer. Then the year will be shortened, and the month diminished, and the day contracted into a short space; and stars shall fall in great numbers, so that all the heavens will appear dark without any lights. The loftiest mountains also will fall, and be levelled with the plains; the sea will be rendered unnavigable. Footnote 31
Then the middle of heaven shall be laid open in the dead and darkness of the night, that the light of the descending God may be manifest in all the world as light […] There shall suddenly fall from the heaven a sword, that the righteous may know that the leader of the sacred warfare is about to descend. Footnote 32
BY:Footnote 33
The year, month and day [will be] shorter.Footnote 34
The Sun's rays will be very level and much concealed; the Sun will show a melancholy sign. Footnote 35
The Moon will change her colour, and [there] will be melancholy, darkness and gloom on earth.Footnote 36
On the night the prince will come to the earth, stars will rain from the sky. Footnote 37
The GrBd 33:30 should be mentioned in passing for dealing with similar omens: there will be a terrific rain of hail and snow out of seasons (GrBd 33.30; this rain is called malkūsān in Pahlavi). The sun will stand at the zenith in the sky (GrBd 33.32 and the same theme in 32.34).
4.4. Justice the Sun and Kingship.
In a sense, all this reflected the idea, already old by Mithridates’ time (i.e. mainly dating from the Second to the First Centuries bce) that tied together ideas of justice with the Sun and with kingship.Footnote 38 It should also be remembered that Dionysus has lore attaching him to Asia, among other things as a conqueror of India – a feat ascribed in some fashion to Alexander as well, one of the role-models for Mithridates.Footnote 39
Most of all, the resemblance between the reference to the comet in the BY and the lightning in Lactantius appears to fit perfectly with what is described regarding Mithridates’ birth; we have seen that it is not possible anymore to get away with the portents regarding his birth as mere fabrication, even if it were some sort of anti-propaganda. The comets actually appeared.Footnote 40
Now, what would be the link between an apocalyptic text that came down to us in manuscripts of a later date (the BY), Lactantius’ testimony (also very late, from the Fourth Century ce) and a possible Vorlage of the OH running back to Mithridates’ time?
The answers are to be found in the reasonings behind the testimonials. First of all, Aristokritos and Lydos both attribute to Hystaspes a role akin to that of Zoroaster in terms of Chaldean magic, wisdom lore and astrology; this was the staple reading of characters in a world where the Greeks remained “solidly monolingual”Footnote 41 but at the same time, pseudepigraphy was never randomly used in Antiquity.Footnote 42 The role of Hystaspes as an enlightened prophet in Persian literature may have been more important in his relation to the future overthrow of Rome than anything else.Footnote 43 The passages of Lydos and Aristokritos read, respectively: “That the Chaldeans of the school of Zoroaster and Hystaspes, and the Egyptians, took the days of the week from the number of the planets”; and
In the fourth place […] he [Aristokritos] adduces the oracles of a certain Hystaspes, king of the Persians or Chaldeans, a man of most distinguished birth (he says) and hence a receiver of a revelation of divine mysteries concerning the Saviour's incarnation; at the end of the book he sets down a very abbreviated chronology from Adam until the days of Zeno, in which he asserts that the fulfillment would take place after the completion of 6,000 years; for, he says, it is written (Ps. 89: 4) that a thousand years are with the Lord as one day; in six days God made the universe and rested on the seventh. After the passing of 6,000 years, which are counted as equivalent to six, everything ought to come to a halt. Footnote 44
These two passages are very scarce in information about Hystaspes himself or even to the OH; but they relate “Hystapes-like wisdom”, so to speak, to a (supposedly) Persian milieu, or at least a Hellenised Persian one – the sort of Greek-imagined Zoroastrianism depicted, among others, by Diogenes Laertius.Footnote 45 It is time now to turn back to Persian literature and to the parallels it may provide for us.
5. The remnants of the OH and other apocalyptic texts possibly related to the Mithridaic Wars
5.1. Persian references to Hystaspes as a prophet
The core passages in Persian literature regarding Hystaspes's role as a prophet are all to be found in some Persian pseudepigraphic texts, where Vištasp (the original Persian name of Hystaspes, regardless of the matter whether he was the mythical protector of Zoroaster or the father of Darius I) is used as a synonym to prophetic gifts – this would be of foremost importance in casting him as “hero” of the OH in the Christian or Judaic garb in which it came down to us. In the Wizirkard i Denig 19 Vištasp appears as a diviner, although only in his sleep, this differs from details in the extant OH.Footnote 46
The question-answer form, as introduced by Vištasp in the Wizirkard i Denig (“This pure religion, how long will it last?” etc.; Jamasp interprets for king Vištasp a dream in much the same fashion that Daniel did for Nabucodonosor) is also a point to be taken into consideration regarding the extant OH – traces of its form were, presumably, still to be seen in Jewish mediaeval apocalypses.Footnote 47 In terms of the visionary process itself, we should take note that the sage Jāmāsp interprets for king Vištasp a dream in much the same fashion that Daniel did for Nebucadnezzar.Footnote 48
5.2. The OH and apocalyptic writing's relationship?
A further issue is the relation that can be established between the OH and other apocalyptic material. This has been abundantly studied; however most of the parallels deal with post bce texts.Footnote 49 This is easily explained – the latter are more plentiful and thus parallels of any sort are easier to confirm or deny. But for our purposes – namely, to see whether the datings proposed for the OH can actually be stretched back to Mithridates reign, most of these are useless.
A particularly useful passage is SibOr 3.611-618:
A great king will come from Asia, a blazing eagle, / who will cover the whole land with infantry and cavalry [and] all handmade works will fall in a flame of fire.
And then again 3.652-654:
And then God will send a King from the Sun / who will stop the entire earth from evil war, / killing some, imposing oaths of loyalty on others […]
A more complete description of Mithridates’ political career would be difficult to find: the reference to a “King from the Sun” may relate to the East at large, but the eagles appear, interestingly, in coinage of a contemporary of Mithridates and together with a comet;Footnote 50 the Sun-image could also relate to Mithra, or we could be dealing with both issues here.
The reference to a blazing eagle coming from Asia could mean a “burned” or “fired” bird symbolising Rome, especially after Mithridates’ early successes and Tigranes’ coinage in Armenia. I would say that we have here a superposition of an early stratum related to Mithridates as avenger of Asia added to his murderous lore later ascribed to Nero – otherwise the whole Nero redivivus legend makes very little sense as an Easterner.
Exceptions are SibOr 5.137 and 214 ff; 8.70-71; 12.78 ff., which have so far also been read in connection with the Nero redivivus legend (and by inference of Flusser, to Rev 12-13). We saw that SibOr 3 also relates Rome's ruin to omens in the form of a sword-shaped comet.Footnote 51
But if there are any relations to be established between the earlier strata of SibOr 8 and the OH, the case for “the murderer of his mother” should be revised in the light of Mithridates’ biography. Here again there is nothing exceptionally new to scholarship, and I propose just a closer look at the “history” of Mithridates early years.
5.2. Members of Mithridates's family were assassinated
Mithridates's father, Mithridates V, was poisoned probably in 120 bce and after the event his wife Laodice took charge of Pontus's affairs; she had Mithridates VI’ brother as a puppet ruler. Mithridates VI Eupator fled while young and, after resorting to military support, took the throne back for himself; one day, probably in 115 bce, he locked his mother and brother up in their luxury country house and soon after both died, probably poisoned.Footnote 52
Mithridates was well-known in Antiquity for being supremely versed in poisons and their effects; he may have acquired this knowledge (which is reminiscent of Attalus III’ hobby as a botanist) while he was away from home, afraid of other conspiracies on the part of his own mother who might kill him as well.
If there is any truth in the story, it would place Mithridates in a position almost as prominent as Nero for the title of “mother-killer” displayed in SibOr 8, and may even allow us to go further back in the sources related to the OH. It must be stated, however, that this is an indirect assumption that rests on the idea that there are common themes shared between SibOr 8 (in the form that it came down to us in) and with parts of the OH their origins are unknown; this is a highly speculative idea but I see no reason why Nero should deserve the title more than Mithridates besides his insertion in a chronological line (as in SibOr 8). We may be dealing here with an older stratum linking matricide to Mithridates before it was linked to Nero, the case is made all the stronger by the Eastern-avenger which is ascribed to both but which appears very strange in Nero's story.
5.3. Persian links
Another point to be taken into consideration is that both for Mithridates and for the Nero redivivus legend there is a common ground of Parthian or Persian links – both would come from the East and avenge Eastern lands against Rome. It should be noted that the Nero redivivus theme appears – as one should expect in texts so varied as the SibOr – in a different shape from SibOr 5.118 ff. to 142; the reference to Rome is unequivocal.
A gory aspect of Mithridates’ rule has also been overlooked so far and is, in my opinion, paralleled both by the OH or its Vorlage and Persian apocalypticism: the amazing link between Aquillius execution in 88 bce and the double themes of the final judgment (retributive, in Persian terms) and that of Roman avarice in the administration of the East:Footnote 53
Not long afterward he [Mithridates] captured Manius Aquilius, one of the ambassadors and the one who was most to blame for this war. Mithridates led him around, bound on an ass, and compelled him to introduce himself to the public as ‘maniac’. Finally, at Pergamon, Mithridates poured molten gold down his throat, thus rebuking the Romans for their bribe-taking.
I would like to point out that, given Mithidates’ family ties with syncretistic cults in Asia Minor and his acquaintance with Zoroastrianism, it becomes rather difficult to explain the presence of the star as a positive omen in his coinage. On the other hand, the execution of Aquilius by molten metal and not by any other means may be related in a straightforward manner to the final ordeal of Zoroastrianism – where, for the just, molten metal will be like warm milk, but for the evil-doers it will be like true molten metal.Footnote 54
The portents related to the end of time are not only related to cosmological signs, but also to earthly ones. Here again, ex-eventu prophecy, real events and even the magnificent expenditures of Mithridates as champion of the Greek cause mingle together: compare the OH in
Cities shall be utterly overthrown, and shall perish; not only by fire and the sword, but also by continual earthquakes and overflowings of waters. Footnote 55
With the promises of SibOr 4.129; 140 ff.
Then indeed an earthquake will destroy at once Salamis and Paphos […] Woe to miserable Cyprus, a broad wave of the sea / will cover you when you have been tossed up by wintry blasts.
Strabo has a lot to say on similar events taking place in Syria and Asia Minor.Footnote 56
All this looks as if the script of the Sibylline passages matches real events still vivid in the memory of a Diaspora Jew (as the author of OrSib 4 likely was) what we can read in the witnesses to the OH and, more importantly, to Mithridates’ deeds and propaganda.
6. In conclusion, the evidence discussed in this article suggests that, some elements used in the political propaganda of Mithridates VI Eupator could be related to the Oracle of Hystaspes or its Vorlage: My main arguments are: 1. The comparison of portents in the sky to Persian material can be ascribed to a later era, given recent analysis of Babylonian and Chinese observations of Halley's comet; 2. By comparison with events in Mithridates’ life that can be paralleled to SibOr 3 and 8; as they come down to us, these are literary products of a later stage, but many strata are to be found underneath the text which we have received. This takes us again to the discussion of the relationship between text as content and text as material object, as discussed before.
So, this article aims to point out some similarities between the OH (or for that matter, its Vorlage) and other ones related to Mithridatic propaganda. Further support for this view derives from the Sibylline Oracles, inasmuch as they persistently present the theme of Asia avenging Rome's misdeeds. The portents regarding Mithridates’ birth, crowning and kingship are strikingly similar to some related in what is left of the OH. Such similarities suggest that the Oracle of Hystaspes or its Vorlage was already extant in the second century bc as part of the Iranian apocalyptic tradition.
