希罗多德的“米底史”新议

A Up-to-day Survey of Herodotus’ Mêdikos Logos

希罗多德的"米底故事"一直是史学界复原古代米底历史的基本依据,舍此别无其他完整可靠的书面史料,而且,由于希罗多德提供的某些关键细节同巴比伦编年史相吻合,而被国际史学界长期因袭,中国的历史教科书亦复如是。然而,希罗多德的"米底故事"迄今未获得近东考古资料的确切佐证,甚至与之相互抵牾,迫使某些当代近东史家重新思考希罗多德米底史的历史真实性。通过梳理相关学术史,分析伊朗考古实物资料以及亚述、巴比伦和波斯的相关铭文史料,不难发现希罗多德所述米底古史的虚妄性。借助这些近东资料,有可能复原米底早期历史中的某些面相,也有助于分析希罗多德"米底故事"的史料来源及其中的希腊化成分。

As the only available integrated written source, Herodotus’ Mêdikos Logos, which also matches with Babylonian Chronicles in some significant details, is regarded as the essential material for reconstructing the history of ancient Media all along and adopted into the historical writings of Media by ancient historians for a long time. So do the descriptions of ancient Media in Chinese textbooks. However, the Mêdikos Logos so far has not been proved by the archaeological results in the Near East. The archaeological findings even provide contrary evidences against Herodotus’ account, which push some researchers of Near East history to reconsider the veridicality of Herodotus. By organizing the related researches and analyzing the materials from the excavations in Iran and those epigraphical sources in Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Babylonian dialects and in Old Persian, it is possible to find out the unreliability in Herodotean version of Ancient Media. Furthermore, with assistance of these materials from the Near East, it is also feasible to reconstruct some aspects of early Median history as well as to purse the historical sources of Herodotus’ Mêdikos Logos andthe Hellenic elements in it.