Ethnographic Falsification in the Lost Histories of Alexander
The Case of the ‘Arimaspi’
Abstract
This study draws some links between the tendency of Alexander‟s first historians to falsify geographic and ethnographic data and the renaming of the Iranian Ariaspians to Arimaspi. The paper is organized into two sections. First, it explains the reasons why this change of name should reasonably be attributed to the first historians of Alexander and not to later authors. Second, it is argued that the renaming was possibly orchestrated by Alexander himself during the army‟s stay in the Ariaspians‟ territory in the winter of 330/329 BC. In support of this view, I present the similarities these authors must have discerned between the mythical Arimaspi and the Iranian Ariaspians, similarities which should have inspired them to proceed with this identification between the two peoples.
Keywords
Alexander the Great, Ariaspians, Arimaspi, first historians of Alexander, ethnography, geography, myth and historiography, propagandaReferences
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