Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

37 Mutual cultural interest 265
hiding from the search for knowledge causes them the greatest harm. For whoever
does not learn has no insight. When I had examined what these two peoples possessed
of governmental and political cleverness and when I had combined the noble
deeds of my ancestors with what I gathered through my own reasoning, what I had
myself found out, and what I received from the kings who do not belong to us, I
established the work from which follow success and goodness. I dismissed the other
nations, for I found no insight, nor intelligence, nor cleverness in them but rather I
found them to possess injustice, envy, deception, greed, avarice, maladministration,
ignorance, (a tendency to) break agreements, and little reward. No government
can prosper on the basis of these things, nor do they generate prosperity.
The passage attests to Xusrō’s efforts in gaining all sorts of knowledge
about different cultures. This aspect of Sasanian kingship, which had been
ignored for a long time, has received its deserved attention by more recent
scholars. 100 Admittedly, Xusrō I tries to appear in the best light, 101 but
his intellectual curiosity and his willingness to learn from foreign peoples
and to appreciate other cultures are as obvious as his tolerance with regard
to persons of a different faith. Numerous further testimonies confirm the
extent to which the king engaged in the study of philosophy and literature,
theology, statecraft, law and medicine. 102 Both he and Xusrō II Parvēz (602–
28) were largely responsible for the fact that Sasanian culture flourished
during the late phase of the Empire. 103 F. Altheim and R. Stiehl give an
accurate assessment by calling late Sasanian Iran a centre for the exchange
of both religions and ideologies. 104
Our study of the relations between Rome and Iran from the third to the
seventh century has shown the following. Reducing the Sasanian–Roman
confrontations to episodes of war and ignoring the role the East played in
establishing close relations is inappropriate. This holds true although the
Eastern power seems to have been more willing to receive Western ideas
than vice versa. Both empires made intensive use of the many different ways
in which they could exercise influence on the other. This influence was felt
in all aspects of life, political, diplomatic, economic and cultural. As the
Byzantine author and diplomat Peter the Patrician put it, ‘It is obvious
for all mankind that the Roman and the Persian Empires are just like two
lamps; and it is necessary that, like eyes, the one is brightened by the light of
the other and that they do not angrily strive for each other’s destruction.’ 105
Unfortunately, the hopes articulated in these words were not fulfilled.
100 Garsoïan 1983: 586–92 and Shahbazi 1990: 592.
101 On the clear ‘self-praise’ of the king see also Wiesehöfer 2001: 217.
102 Cf. the references in ibid. 103 On late Sasanian culture see Wiesehöfer 2001: 216–21.
104 Altheim and Stiehl 1957: 275. 105 Petrus Patricius, frg. 13; see 17.