Mesopotamia (Roman province)
Provincia Mesopotamia ἐπαρχία Μεσοποταμίας | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nisibis (Nusaybin) | |||||||||
Historical era | Antiquity | ||||||||
• Established by Trajan | 116 | ||||||||
• Evacuated by Hadrian | 117 | ||||||||
• Re-established by Septimius Severus | 198 | ||||||||
637 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Iraq Turkey Syria |
Mesopotamia was the name of a
Trajan's province
In 113, the Roman emperor Trajan (r. 98–117) launched a war against Rome's long-time eastern rival, the Parthian Empire. In 114, he conquered Armenia, which was made into a province, and by the end of 115, he had conquered northern Mesopotamia. This too was organized as a province in early 116, when coins were minted to celebrate the fact.[1]
Later in the same year, Trajan marched into central and southern Mesopotamia (enlarging and completing the province of Mesopotamia) and across the river Tigris to Adiabene, which he annexed into another Roman province, Assyria.[2] But he did not stop there. In the last months of 116, he captured the Persian city of Susa and deposed the Parthian king Osroes I, putting his own puppet ruler Parthamaspates on the Parthian throne. Never again would the Roman Empire advance so far to the east.
As soon as Trajan died, however, his successor Hadrian (r. 117–138) relinquished his conquests east of the Euphrates river, which became again the Roman Empire's eastern boundary.[3][4]
Severus's province
Lucius Verus's campaign
Northern Mesopotamia, including
Year of the Five Emperors
This control was threatened in 195, during the civil war between Septimius Severus (r. 193–211) and the usurper Pescennius Niger, when rebellions broke out in the area, and Nisibis was besieged. Severus quickly restored order and organized Osroene as a full province.[5][6]
Reconquest by Severus
Next, Severus embarked on a war against Parthia, which he concluded successfully with the sack of the Parthian capital Ctesiphon. In emulation of Trajan, he re-established a province of Mesopotamia in 198, with Nisibis, elevated to the status of a full colonia, as its capital.[7][8]
Unlike Trajan's province, which encompassed the whole of Roman-occupied Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the new province was limited between the province of Osroene to the south, the Euphrates and Tigris to the north, and the river Chaboras (modern Khabur) to the east.[9]
Warzone
For the remainder of its existence, the new province would remain a bone of contention between the Romans and their eastern neighbors, suffering heavily in the recurrent
Diocletianic-Constantinian reorganization
Under the reforms of
Late Roman/Early Byzantine Mesopotamia
After the troubles Roman forces faced in the Anastasian War of 502–506, the East Roman emperor Anastasius I (r. 491–518) built the fortress of Dara as a counter to Nisibis and as the new base of the dux Mesopotamiae.
During the reforms of
See also
References
- ^ Bennett (1997), pp. 196, 198–199
- ^ Bennett (1997), p. 201
- ^ Bennett (1997), pp. 206–207
- ^ Mommsen, Dickson & Haverfield (2004), p. 72
- ^ Mommsen, Dickson & Haverfield (2004), pp. 77–78
- ^ Southern (2001), p. 33
- ^ Mommsen, Dickson & Haverfield (2004), pp. 78–79
- ^ Southern (2001), p. 42
- ^ a b c d Kazhdan (1991), p. 1348
- ^ Southern (2001), p. 70–71
- ^ Mommsen, Dickson & Haverfield (2004), p. 100
- ^ Mommsen, Dickson & Haverfield (2004), pp. 103–104
Sources
- Bennett, Julian (1997). Trajan: Optimus Princeps. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16524-5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
- Mommsen, Theodor; Dickson, William Purdie; Haverfield, Francis (2004). The provinces of the Roman Empire: from Caesar to Diocletian, Vol. II. Gorgias Press LLC. ISBN 978-1-59333-026-2. [dead link]
- Southern, Pat (2001). The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-45159-5.