07-05-2012, 06:33 PM
The battle of Satala in AD298 is mentioned often in secondary and online sources, including this book and this one. It's mentioned on Livius.org, and even has its own Wikipedia page. This is the occasion when Galerius, after being beaten a couple of years before in Mesopotamia, led an army into Armenia and defeated the occupying Persians under Narses, capturing the king's camp together with his treasure and harem.
Clearly it was a decisive and spectacular battle - but unfortunately it didn't exist, or at least it didn't happen at Satala... :wink:
The only reference to location of the battle (which is described in other sources, without being specifically placed) is in the dubious 4th-5th century History of the Armenians by Faustus of Byzantium, aka P'awstos Buzand (Book 3.21.72):
Anyway, the battle obviously wasn't at Satala, which was the Roman mustering point. So where was 'Osxay'? This place is often mentioned by Faustus/Pawstos, and translated as Oxsay, Osxay, Oxsa, Oshka, or Osχai/Oχsa/Toχai...
The district of Basean (or Phasiana) is usually placed between the headwaters of the Araxes and the Euphrates, east of Erzerum in the vicinity of modern Pasinler. But it seems to have been one of those rather mobile geographical entities, shifting about depending on who was in charge and who the neighbours were... Pasinler looks like a pretty good place for a battle, and some historians (like Williams in Diocletian and the Roman Recovery) take a safe bet and site the battle 'near modern Erzerum'.
Others (like Yar-Shater in the Encyclopaedia Iranica) think that the location is actually the modern village of Oskik, which unfortunately doesn't appear on any map I can find... but it seems to be in the far east of Turkey, near the Iranian border, perhaps somewhere around Diyadin. (Does anyone have a detailed map of this area, perhaps?)
Alternatively, there is actually a village called Oskha, again in the mountains of eastern Turkey but closer to the Georgian border... But what would Narses be doing camped all the way up there?
Can the location of this battle be located or guessed at, then, or is it lost? Either way, the only thing we can be pretty certain about is that the 'Battle of Satala' didn't happen at Satala! :-)
Clearly it was a decisive and spectacular battle - but unfortunately it didn't exist, or at least it didn't happen at Satala... :wink:
The only reference to location of the battle (which is described in other sources, without being specifically placed) is in the dubious 4th-5th century History of the Armenians by Faustus of Byzantium, aka P'awstos Buzand (Book 3.21.72):
Quote:"the emperor of Byzantium [i.e Galerius]... assembled his troops and came to the country of Armenia, against the king of Iran. He left his army near the city of Satagh [or Satal - Satala].The account ends with Galerius killing all the male prisoners and marching the rest off to 'Byzantium'! In fact, he seems to have pursued Narses into Mesopotamia, liberated Nisibis and marched all the way to Ctesiphon before imposing a peace treaty on Persia that lasted for a generation.
...[The Iranian army] was encamped in the district of Basean, in the village called Osxay... [The Byzantines] came and attacked the army of the king of Iran encamped in that same place, finding them negligently unconcerned and unsuspectingly at rest. Attacking during the daytime, they fell upon the Iranian king, putting everything to the sword and sparing no one. Then they took the banak as loot, the king's women, the bambish [queen of queens] and the women with her their possessions and goods into captivity—their women and treasures, provisions and equippage. Only the king was able to escape by a hairsbreadth and go free as a fugitive, thanks to a swift running pony."
Anyway, the battle obviously wasn't at Satala, which was the Roman mustering point. So where was 'Osxay'? This place is often mentioned by Faustus/Pawstos, and translated as Oxsay, Osxay, Oxsa, Oshka, or Osχai/Oχsa/Toχai...
The district of Basean (or Phasiana) is usually placed between the headwaters of the Araxes and the Euphrates, east of Erzerum in the vicinity of modern Pasinler. But it seems to have been one of those rather mobile geographical entities, shifting about depending on who was in charge and who the neighbours were... Pasinler looks like a pretty good place for a battle, and some historians (like Williams in Diocletian and the Roman Recovery) take a safe bet and site the battle 'near modern Erzerum'.
Others (like Yar-Shater in the Encyclopaedia Iranica) think that the location is actually the modern village of Oskik, which unfortunately doesn't appear on any map I can find... but it seems to be in the far east of Turkey, near the Iranian border, perhaps somewhere around Diyadin. (Does anyone have a detailed map of this area, perhaps?)
Alternatively, there is actually a village called Oskha, again in the mountains of eastern Turkey but closer to the Georgian border... But what would Narses be doing camped all the way up there?
Can the location of this battle be located or guessed at, then, or is it lost? Either way, the only thing we can be pretty certain about is that the 'Battle of Satala' didn't happen at Satala! :-)
Nathan Ross
