Un episodio di bilinguismo greco-partico: Γωτάρσης Γεόποθρος a Bīsotūn

This paper deals with a short inscription in Greek characters engraved on a rock face in the Bīsotūn mountain complex, which was already known since the nineteenth century. The inscription includes a single onomastic formula; it should be linked to that of a longer one, also in Greek, engraved a little higher up and depicting a procession of Parthian dignitaries paying homage to the king of kings Mithradates II (123 - 91 B.C.). A careful study of the formula Γωτάρσης Γεόποθρος provides some interesting conclusions, based also on a comparison with other Parthian inscriptions: (i) the text contains a Greek L2 rendering of the typically Paleo-Parthian patronymic formula Gōtarz Gēv puθr "Gotarz son of Gēv", where both the phonology (retention of /t/ and of /θr/) and the microsyntax (Specified + Specifying, without ezāfe) clearly denounce an Iranian matrix language; (ii) the inscription, thanks also to some Neo-Babylonian documents and a thorough paleographical analysis, must refer to the ruler Gotarz I (90-81 BC) and not Gotarz II (42-52 CE) as believed by most. In sum, the short but highly valuable document confirms the presence of Greek in the competence of bilingual individuals who gravitated around the courts of Parthian rulers; it also points to the monumental role and functions that Greek-language epigraphy still played in the mid-1st century BCE in the Arsacid Īrān. Moreover, the analysis of the phrase Γωτάρσης Γεόποθρος, if properly understood, documents a very rare case of ongoing interference between Parthian L1 and Greek L2, an interference that must have reflected a relatively widespread and intense contact between the two languages.