|
|||
|
|
|||
|
the opulent harbor of Antioch, and then Antioch, the capital of
Syria, and took them. Then he dashed to the North and took Cyrrhus,
Seleucia (he calls it another Seleucia, the identity is uncertain),
Alexandria (i.e., Alexandretta), and Nicopolis. From this point he may
have advanced to Cappadocia though it is much more probable that the
expedition to Cappadocia was carried out by his son Ormizd from
Armenia (see below, p. 42). In this expedition several Cappadocian
cities enumerated at the end of his list were captured. (6) Thus far
we are able to follow Shapuhr in his campaign. What follows - a list
of ten names - is a puzzle. The names are as follows: Sinzara, Xh ( ?)
amath, Aristia, Dichor, Doliche, Dura, Korkusion, Germanicia, Batna,
Chanar. We may suspect that these are the cities which Shapuhr's army
took on its way back. The southern army captured Sinzara
(Larisa),28 Hamath (Hama) and Aristia (Arethusa,
cf. A. T. Olmstead, op. cit. p. 407), but was not able to take Hemesa,
while the northern army succeeded in taking the inland temple city of
Doliche and the enigmatic Dichor. In addition four fortified posts
near the Euphrates, enumerated from south to north, were captured. The
cities are Dura, Circesium (this is certainly the
Taking the campaign as narrated by Shapuhr - without trying for the moment to connect it with the data of our literary and numismatic evidence - it appears very peculiar. In his account of the first part of it - the advance up the Euphrates to Barbalissus, Shapuhr mentions as captured only a few strongholds of the Roman Euphrates limes. Not a word is said of the Roman garrisoned cities between Anath and Birtha, and there were several of them, known to us from the letter of Marius Maximus and from other evidence. I mean from South to North: Belesi Biblada, Eddana, |
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Created by the Digital
Documentation Center at AUB
in collaboration with Al
Mashriq of Høgskolen i
Østfold, Norway. 981218 MB - Email: hseeden@aub.edu.lb |
of
Shapuhr),29 Bathna (if it is the Syrian Bathnae and not
Bathnae Anthemusias), Germanicia, and Chanar (location
uncertain). This may have been done by the same northern army. This
however does not account for the order from south to north in which
the cities are listed. It may therefore be more probable to assume
that the four cities of the Euphrates, like the cities of Cappadocia,
form a kind of Appendix to the main list. The capture of them may
represent the results of the activity of Shapuhr's rearguard which
after Barbalissus, moving from south to north, was able to get hold of
these fortresses which were passed by Shapuhr himself during his hasty
advance at the beginning of his expedition. This would account for the
geographical order in which the aforesaid cities appear in Shapuhr's
list (cf. below, p. 53). In any case it is almost certain that Dura of
this list, the neighbor of Circesium, is Dura-Europos on the
Euphrates. No other Dura is known in the region where Shapuhr's army
was operating.
of Shapuhr is Circesium. The identification with Coracesium
(A. T. Olmstead, op. cit. p. 410, n. 110) is of course out of
question.