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Nisibis 252-298: Who controlled the city?
#1
My first thread is about a doubt about who controlled this city between these years. I am creating a website about the Roman Empire and managing to recreate the border under several periods and cities timeline (see https://www.romanempire.cloud/history?l=EN - you have to select the cities in which you are interested), but the 260-298 period is not clear for Nisibis.

What do we know?

Nisibis was initially taken by Trajanus, but left after the retreat and finally lost with the Parthian client kingdom defeaut under Hadrian (117 AD).
After was conquered but not annexed under Lucius Verus' campaings, and finally annexed under Septimius Severus. With Caracalla the empire arrived to control the territory around Hatra (probably as client kingdom).

Shapur I in his first campaign against Rome conquered Nisibis and other cities, but the Gordian III reconquered all the territories (242), moving also in the Eastern Mesopotamia, where he died.

In the second campaign (252), Shapur seems that managed to conquer again Nisibis, but this fact is confirmed only by secondaries sources, for what I know (Zosimus, V-VI centuries). But, for what I know, this fact is neither confirmed in the Res Gestae Divi Saporis, that instead describe an attack versus Syria (Dura Europos (only in 256), Antiochia, ...), but nothing versus the the central Mesopotamia. 

In the 257 Valerianus was able to take back a great part of the lost territories, around the Euphrate river, without the need to take cities in the central part of Mesopotamia, so also this suggests that Nisibis was not taken during the second campaign.

Finally, with the third offensive and the Valerianus' capture, the Eastern front quite collapsed, but even with this new offensive (against Edessa and Carrhae), we cannot see any reference to Nisibis in the Res Gestae Divi Saporis.

So, my first question, have I missed anything? Do we have any source of the period that includes the lost of Nisibis in the second or third Shapur's offensive?


After Shapur's campaigns, we can see the Odenatus' rise, and Odenatus taken back Edessa, Carrhae... and it seems also Nisibis (260/261). But also here, I cannot find any primary source, or archaeological testimony (coins, inscriptions, ...). Do you have any valid source for this?

After, Nisibis should be for sure under Roman Control. But,in the 298, Nisibis (and Mesopotamia), seems to be part of the conquest of Galerius' campaign. So, it seems that Nisibis at the time was not part of the Roman Empire... but when was it lost?
I have found that the only explanation to this could be that after the defeat of the 296, the Romans left Nisibis, but it is also possible that the city was not abandoned and the Roman garrison remained there.
We know that in the 298 Diocletianus moved to Nisibis to stop Galerius' campaign, but for what I know there was no military conquest of the city.


So, do you have any primary source for this period about who controlled Nisibis in these ages?
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#2
(09-18-2018, 08:12 PM)CaesarAugustus Wrote: in the 298, Nisibis (and Mesopotamia), seems to be part of the conquest of Galerius' campaign. So, it seems that Nisibis at the time was not part of the Roman Empire... but when was it lost?

Sources are extremely scarce and very hazy for the eastern frontier during this entire period (as you've found!). It looks like you've already established whatever might be best guesses for the earlier period - Nisibis seems to have been passed back and forth, but was more generally under Roman control.

The victory of Carus in the AD280s would appear to have solidified Roman rule over the eastern front up to the Tigris. However, things changed with the accession of Narses in c.293: according to Lactantius (de mortibus 9.5) he assembled an army and invaded the Roman provinces, "emulating the example set by his grandfather".

How far he got in this invasion is unknown. Aurelius Victor (Caesars 39.22) writes that he "greatly vexed the east", while Ammianus, Orosius and Jerome just mention that he "made war upon the east".

Several writers mention Galerius's first campaign against the Persians in 296, which was probably intended to stem their advance but which led to defeat somewhere between Carrhae and Callinicum, and then his second attempt in 298 through Armenia.

Festus (breviarium 14.57) writes that "after peace had been made (in 298/99) Mesopotamia was restored (to us) and the boundary re-established beyond the Tigris." This suggests that Narses had indeed captured Mesopotamia - or parts of it - but after his defeat in Armenia he was obliged to give it up.

Where Nisibis fits into this is unclear, except that the tetrarchs met there in 299 during the treaty negotiations, and the treaty itself established it as the sole trading point between the empires. We might assume that Narses captured it at some point c.296, or alternatively that it held out with a Roman or pro-Roman garrison, perhaps under blockade, until Galerius relieved it. It does seem to have been a formidable fortress, as Shapur II discovered a few decades later.
Nathan Ross
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#3
Yes, quite difficult to have primary sources. But I always hope that some new inscriptions can be discovered, helping to shed light on this complex period.
- CaesarAugustus
www.romanempire.cloud
(Marco Parente)
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#4
(09-21-2018, 07:49 PM)CaesarAugustus Wrote: I always hope that some new inscriptions can be discovered

We're unlikely to get anything new from Nisibis until the end of the current round of wars in the Middle East. It lies directly on the Syria/Turkey border, at the centre of the ongoing Kurdish insurgency, and most of the site is currently occupied by minefields and barbed wire fences.
Nathan Ross
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#5
True, but the situation in the future could improve. In these last years we have seen a huge improvement in the studies concerning the Arabia Petraea (for example valuable studies conducted in Hegra/Mada'in Salih), so maybe something will change for the better also for the places around Nisibis.
- CaesarAugustus
www.romanempire.cloud
(Marco Parente)
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