Isidore of Charax

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Isidore of Charax (

Greco-Roman geographer of the 1st century BC and 1st century AD, a citizen of the Parthian Empire,[1]
about whom nothing is known but his name and that he wrote at least one work.

Name

Isidore's name has been interpreted by editor and translator W.H. Schoff[2] to indicate that he was from the city of Charax in Characene on the northern end of the present Persian Gulf. However, the Greek charax merely means "palisade" and there were several fortified towns that bore the name (see Charax).

Parthian Stations

Isidore's best known work is "The

Phraates IV
, which occurred in that year.

In its surviving form, "The Parthian Stations" appears to be a summary from some larger work. A reference in

pearl fishing
.

The 1st-century

geographic distances.[5]

The 2nd-century

Lucian of Samosata also cites an Isidore (although not necessarily this one) for claims of longevity.[6]
Lucian does not note the name of the work he is quoting.

A collection of translations of the various fragments attributed to Isidore of Charax were published with commentary in "The Parthian Stations", a forty-six-page booklet by Wilfred Harvey Schoff in 1914. The Greek text in that volume is that established by Karl Müller.[7]

References

  1. ^ Davis, Richard (2002). "Greece ix. Greek and Persian Romances". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XI, Fasc. 4. pp. 339–342.
  2. ^ Schoff, Wilfred H. (1914), Parthian Stations by Isidore of Charax: The Greek text, with a translation and commentary, Philadelphia: Commercial Museum
  3. ^ Athenaeus of Naucratis. Deipnosophistae, iii.46.
  4. ^ Pliny, Natural History vi.31.
  5. ^ Pliny. Natural History, ii.112, iv.5, iv.30, iv.37, v.6, v.9, v.35-39, v.43.
  6. ^ Lucian of Samosata. Macrobii 15 and 18
  7. ^ Müller, Karl. Geographi Græci Minores, I, pp. 244–256. Paris, 1853.