ἀδρασταδάραν σαλάνης <Iranian; Early Byzantine period>
👉 ἀδρασταδάραν σαλάνης m. – ‘a Sassanid title of a high civil and military official’ (Procop., De bell. 1.6.18, 1.11.25, 1.11.38).
⚠ Procop., De bell. 1.6.18, 1.11.25, 1.11.38, mentions this title in the context of the Sassanid empire under the king Kavad I (488–531); he describes a man holding it as τὸν ἐπὶ ἀρχαῖς τε ὁμοῦ καὶ στρατιώταις ἅπασιν ἐφεστῶτα ‘the one set in authority over all magistrates and over the whole army’ (1.6.18; trans. H.B. Dewing).
🅔 A Middle Persian expression – ἀδρασταδάραν σαλάνης goes back to the Middle Persian title artēštārān sālār (attested in Kārnāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pābagān, i.e. Book of the Deeds of Ardashir, Son of Papak, and in an Arabic transliteration in the History of the Prophets and Kings by al-Tabarī); its basic meaning is ‘leader of soldiers’; cf. also Middle Persian artēštārān sardār ‘id.’. Greek ἀδρασταδάραν is a distorted form of Middle Persiian artēštārān (pl.) ‘soldiers’, sing. artēštār ‘warrior, soldier’, Modern Persian artešdār ‘soldier’. The cluster -rt- underwent a metathesis to -δρ-. The presence of the unetymological syllable -δα- might be explained simply as a distortion of a foreign word. Greek σαλάνης is derived from Middle Persian sālār, sārār ‘leader, master’, Modern Persian sālār ‘old, aged; prince, chieftain, leader, general, commander etc.’; cf. Classical Armenian sałar ‘general in chief’ (from Iranian); moreover, cf. Middle Persian sardār ‘the chief, leader, commander, manager’, Modern Persian sardār ‘general, field-marshal, officer of rank, king’s lieutenant etc.’, saudār ‘general, commander’. Greek -λάν- goes back to -lār- and, probably, underwent a dissimilation l ... r → l ... n. According to another view, Greek σαλαν- comes from the plural form (pluralis maiestatis) *salārān due to a haplological shortening, but there is no evidence for use of the title artēštārān sālār or even sālār in that way. Cf. also an improbable hypothesis that Greek ἀδρασταδάραν goes back not to artēštārān, but to the hypothetical Middle Persian term *ādištādārān ‘chiefs of fire-stands’ (Middle Persian ādišt ‘fire-stand’ and dār- ‘to hold, to possess’).
📖 CPD: 11 and 73; CPED: 34, 642, 673 and 707; DMMPP: 305; MP: II, 30 and 173; NDAE: 630. Ref.: Börm 2007: 145f.; Brust 2008: 45-48 and 569-571; Christensen 1944: 131f.; EIr: s.v. Artēštārān sālār; Horn 1893: 153, § 692.