Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

c h a p t e r 7
Religion: Christianity and Zoroastrianism
From the third century onwards the religious policy of the great powers
formed an important part of Roman–Persian relations. Evidently, there was
an interaction between religion and foreign relations, and developments in
West and East not only were of the same character but also took place
simultaneously. This means that Rome and the Persian Empire dealt with
religious matters in a comparable way and that the state of religious affairs
in the East and in the West affected the neighbour’s course of action. In
particular after the dramatic religious changes during the reign of Constantine
the Great the conflict between the now Christian Rome and the
Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire escalated, also ideologically. 1
29: Religion and kingship in the Sasanian Empire
First, let us examine the situation in the Sasanian Empire. 2 Here, the doctrine
of Zarathustra 3 became the privileged religion and developed into a
supporting pillar of Sasanian kingship. Zoroastrianism was therefore the
religion of the Sasanian rulers and furthered by them in an exceptional
way. The religious development aimed at and entailed a concentration of
royal power and a centralisation of rule. 4 This formed a stark contrast to
the situation during the Parthian rule. During the Parthian period religious
matters in Iran were characterised by an extremely tolerant attitude
of the state towards other religious movements to the effect that Eastern
1 Modern scholarship distinguishes between Zarathustrianism and Zoroastrianism. The latter term
designates the religion as it had developed in the later, especially the Sasanian, period, in contrast to
the original religion established by Zarathustra.
2 Cf. the relevant chapters in Duchesne-Guillemin 1964; also 1983: 874–97 and Schippmann 1990:
92–102 and Wiesehöfer 2001: 199–221.
3 On Zarathustra and his doctrine see Boyce 1984a and 1982; de Jong 1997; Stausberg 2002 (on the
Sasanian period 205–62); on the controversial dating of Zarathustra’s life see Shahbazi 2002b: 7–45
(between the end of the 2nd millennium bc and the 7th/6th century bc).
4 On Zoroastrianism under the Sasanians see Duchesne-Guillemin 1983; further references in
Wiesehöfer 2001: 288–9.
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