Classical Studies Program, Hannah Arendt Center, Historical Studies Program, and Middle Eastern Studies Program present:
Freedom in the Political Thought of Ancient Iran
Jake Nabel, ’07 Penn State University
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Olin Humanities, Room 204
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
This event occurs on:
Wed. September 30, 5:30 pm – 7 pm
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 in diverse evidence from Sasanian epigraphy, Zoroastrian religious literature, Armenian historiography, and documentary texts in Bactrian and Sogdian. It will also compare Iranian āzādīh with Greco-Roman freedom to reassess the narrative of ancient civilizational divergence that has often been predicated upon this political value.
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 in diverse evidence from Sasanian epigraphy, Zoroastrian religious literature, Armenian historiography, and documentary texts in Bactrian and Sogdian. It will also compare Iranian āzādīh with Greco-Roman freedom to reassess the narrative of ancient civilizational divergence that has often been predicated upon this political value.