Justin

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Justin (2nd century AD) was a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire. His name is mentioned only in the title of his own history, and there it is in the genitive, which would be M. Juniani Justini no matter which nomen he bore.

Variants

• Justin (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 9, 31, 103, 421.)

Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV

Of his personal history nothing is known. He is the author of Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV, a work described by himself in his preface as a collection of the most important and interesting passages from the voluminous Historiae philippicae et totius mundi origines et terrae situs, written in the time of Augustus by Pompeius Trogus.

Period

His date is uncertain, except that he must have lived after Trogus. He writes that the Romans and the Parthians have divided the world between them; while this is presumably from Trogus, it would be an anachronism after the rise of the Sassanian Empire in the 3rd century AD. Although Latin changed slowly, Justin's language would also be consistent with a date in the 2nd century AD. Ronald Syme argues for a date around 390, immediately before the compilation of the Augustan History, and dismisses the anachronism as unimportant; readers would understand that these passages represented Trogus' time, not their own.

The work of Trogus is lost; but the prologi or arguments of the text are preserved by Pliny and other writers. Although the main theme of Trogus was the rise and history of the Macedonian monarchy, Justin yet permitted himself considerable freedom of digression, and thus produced an idiosyncratic anthology instead of a mundane summary (or 'epitome') of the work.

The Eleventh Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica concluded that his history contained much valuable information and that the style, though far from perfect, is clear and occasionally elegant. The book was much used in the Middle Ages, when the author was sometimes confused with Justin Martyr.

Jat History

In the wake of Alexander of Macedonia's conquest of Persia in the late 4th century B. C., the Achaemenid dynasty ended. However within a hundred years a new group, the Parthians, were able to re-establish an Iranian empire which rivaled Rome in the Near East. Justin's Roman description of the Parthians indicates that the Parthians, like the Shang and Chou in China, were a nomadic people who established an imperial dynasty.

Justin writes that THE Parthians in whose hands the empire of the east now is, having divided the world, as it were, with the Romans, were originally exiles from Scythia. This is apparent from their very name; for in the Scythian language exiles are called Parthi. During the time of the Assyrians and Medes, they were the most obscure of all the people of the east. Subsequently, too, when the empire of the east was transferred from the Medes to the Persians, they were but as a herd without a name, and fell under the power of the stronger. At last they became subject to the Macedonians, when they conquered the east; so that it must seem wonderful to every one, that they should have reached such a height of good fortune as to rule over those nations under whose sway they had been merely slaves. Being assailed by the Romans, also, in three wars, under the conduct of the greatest generals, and at the most flourishing period of the republic, they alone, of all nations, were not only a match for them, but came off victorious; though it may have been a greater glory to them, indeed, to have been able to rise amidst the Assyrian, Median, and Persian empires, so celebrated of old, and the most powerful dominion of Bactria, peopled with a thousand cities, than to have been victorious in war against a people that came from a distance; especially when they were continually harassed by severe wars with the Scythians and other neighbouring nations, and pressed with various other formidable contests.

The Parthians, being forced to quit Scythia by discord at home, gradually settled in the deserts betwixt Hyrcania, the Dahae, the Arei, the Sparni[2] and Marsiani. They then advanced their borders, though their neighbours, who at first made no opposition, at length endeavoured to prevent them, to such an extent, that they not only got possession of the vast level plains, but also of steep hills, and heights of the mountains; and hence it is that an excess of heat or cold prevails in most parts of the Parthian territories; since the snow is troublesome on the higher grounds, and the heat in the plains.

It is important to note that in Roman sources (Justin) the Parthians are described as a unification of Medes and Scythians. Their costumes,culture and language are described as a mixture of both with increase of power being more like that of the Medes.

Getae and Dacians: There is dispute among scholars whether the Getae were Dacians or had some other relationship with them. Several sources from the Antiquity claim the ethnic or linguistic identity of the two people. In his Geographica (Strabo), Strabo wrote about the two tribes speaking the same language. Junianus Justinus (Justin) considers the Dacians are the successors of the Getae. .

Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria) quotes Justin who consider the Sacaraucae and the Asiani as the Royal Scythians for they headed the Tokhari (Tusar, Tukhar Jats) confederation as the latter's Kings.

Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria) quotes Justin who refers to the important federations and confederacies or unions of the Saka tribes.

Jat clans

• According to Todd's Rajasthan (based upon the writings of Justin and Herodotus), thousands of years before Christ, the Sihag Mahajati tribe lived on the bank of the River Oxus (Amu Darya). The Her, Bhullar and Dahiya also lived in the adjoining countries of Iran and Turkistan .

References

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