Iranian Freedom in Global Antiquity

About the Lecture: 

A long tradition of scholarship on the concept of freedom in antiquity imagines it as a proprietary value of the Greeks and Romans. In other ancient cultures, the story goes, freedom was of marginal importance, and it was subordinated to other political ideals. This narrative founders, however, in the world of late antique Iran, where freedom (āzādīh in Middle Persian) is abundantly attested as a core value of the Sasanian ruling classes. This talk will explore the concept’s manifestations in diverse evidence from Sasanian epigraphy, Zoroastrian religious literature, Armenian historiography, and documentary texts in Bactrian and Sogdian. It will also delve into the intellectual history of āzādīh to argue that its contours developed through Iranian dialogue with the broader ancient world, especially the legacy of the Hellenistic age. 

About the Speaker: 

Jake Nabel is the Tombros Early Career Professor of Classical Studies and an Assistant Professor of Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He is a historian of ancient Rome, pre-Islamic Iran, and the points of contact between the two. His book The Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian Relations was published by the University of California Press in April 2025. At Minnesota, he will be developing a new monograph on the concept of freedom in post-Hellenistic Iran. Jake will be visiting from March 30-April 3, 2026.

Sponsors and co-hosts: 

Department of Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures 

This event is part of the Exploring Assumptions of Cultural History Series