On the term βίσταξ in a gloss by Hesychius

This paper is devoted to the the Greek word and the corresponding Middle Iranian βίσταξ word bitaxš, a term that has received a great deal of attention from specialists in Persian studies over the last century. The Iranian term is unusually well documented in both inscriptions and Book Pahlavi texts. The term bitaxš certainly indicated a very high dignitary of the Parthian court, later penetrated in the ranks of the Sāsānid court. Insufficient thought has been given, in the many discussions on this Iranian office, to the extremely precious, albeit brief, testimonium contained in a lemma of Hesychius. A careful inspection of the Hesychuys passage in ms H allows us to read, without any distortion of the transmitted text, "βίσταξ, ὁ β' [scil. δεύτερος] βασιλεὺς παρὰ Πέρσαις", "b., the second king among the Persians". Hesychius' lemma is, quite simply, the transposition of an etymological reintepretation of the Middle Iranian term bitaxš, which can only be understood in the presence of specifically Parthian metalinguistic expertise. Indeed the Parthian form can be traced back to the ancient compound *bitya-xšaya-"margrave; governor representing the king"; it was initially transformed into bitiaxš, a form that was reinterpreted in some marginal areas in such a way that it was combined with Parthian *pātixšāh "ruler". Later, at the end ofthe 2nd century CE, the /i/ or /j/ in the second syllable disappeared: hence the documented forms from the 3rd century CE onwards, not without fluctuations, bitaxš/pitaxš.