On the Edge of Empires: North Mesopotamia During the Roman Period (2nd – 4th c. CE) 1317300459, 9781317300458

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ONTHEEDGE OFEMPIRES NORTH MESOPOTAMIA DURING THEROMAN PERIOD (2ND-4TH C. CE) Rocco Palermo

On the Edge of Empires

On the Edge of Empires explores the mixed culture of North Mesopotamia in the Roman period. This volatile region at the eastern edge of the Roman world became during the imperial period the theatre of confrontation for multiple political entities: Rome, Parthia, Sasanian Persia. Roman presence is only recognizable through military installations - forts, barracks, military camps - yet these fascinating lands tell a story of frontier people and soldiers, of trade despite war, and daily life between the empires. This volume combines archaeological and historical, literary, and environmental evidence in order to explore this important borderland between East and West. On the Edge of Empires is a valuable addition to researchers engaged in the historical and archaeological reconstruction of the frontier areas of the Roman Empire, and a fascinating study for students and scholars of the Romans and their neighbours, borderlands in antiquity, and the history and archaeology of empires. Rocco Palermo is a Researcher at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He has carried out fieldwork in Italy, Syria, and Jordan, and he is currently involved in two different projects in Northern Iraq with the University of Udine, Italy, and Harvard University, USA. He is currently working on a book on the landscape and settlements of Hellenistic-period Mesopotamia.

Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East Series editor: Greg Fisher, Carleton University, Canada

Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East provides a global forum for works addressing the history and culture of the Ancient Near East, spanning a broad period from the foundation of civilisation in the region until the end of the Abbasid period. The series includes research monographs, edited works, collections developed from conferences and workshops, and volumes suitable for the university classroom. Being a Man Negotiating Ancient Constructs of Masculinity Edited by Ilona Zsolnay "Losing One's Head" in the Ancient Near East Interpretation and Meaning of Decapitation Rita Dolce The Reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in History and Historical Memory John P. Nielsen Discovering Babylon Rannfrid Thelle On the Edge of Empires North Mesopotamia During the Roman Period (2nd-4th c. Rocco Palermo

CE)

For more information on this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. corn/ classicalstudies/ series/HIST ANE

On the Edge of Empires North Mesopotamia During the Roman Period (2nd-4th c. CE)

Rocco Palermo

!l Routledge ~~

Taylor & Francis Group

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Rocco Palermo

The right of Rocco Palermo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-1-138-12013-6 ISBN: 978-1-315-64825-5

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Contents

List of figures Preface Acknowledgements Major ancient sources Major abbreviations

IX Xlll XXIV XXVI XXIX

1 Rome shifts eastwards: empires, hegemony, and frontiers

1

2 From the Anatolian plateau to the steppe: geography and climate of North Mesopotamia

9

3 From Trajan to Jovian: conquest, organization, and loss of a borderland

24

4 Empires and the cities: urban areas in North Mesopotamia

63

5 Minor settlements, forts, and camps: exploring the Roman frontier in the Syrian-Iraqi steppe

116

6 Imperial impact on a small scale: the site of Tell Barri between the 2nd and 4th c. CE

164

7 Landscape(s) and the empires: survey data for Roman-period Mesopotamia

190

8 Mobility, strategy, and the empires: the Peutinger Map and the route system in North Mesopotamia

210

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9 Across the edges: Arabs and nomads in Romanperiod Mesopotamia 10 Rome and the steppe: conclusions

231 247

Bibliography

255

Index

279

Figures

All maps, tables, graphs, and pictures produced otherwise noted. 0.1 1.1 2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4.1

by R. Palermo unless

Composite satellite imagery of the Middle East. View of the modern city of Sanliurfa (Turkey) from the citadel. Schematic representation of rainfall lines (isohyets) in Northern Mesopotamia. Number refers to the average amount of rainfall (in mm) per year. Average 24-hour temperatures (in °C) and rainfall (in mm) in four major centres in the region: A= Al-Qamishli (Syria); B = Diyarbakir (Turkey); C = Mosul (Iraq); D = Deir ez-Zor (Syria). Climate variability in the Eastern Mediterranean region over the past 6,000 years. The period covered by this book is roughly comprised between 1,900 and 1,600 years BP. Climate events recorded in the textual sources between 100 BCE and 800 CE in the Roman Near East. Aureus struck after Trajan's conquest with the legend "PAR THIA CAPT A". The milestone of Karsi in the Erbil Museum of Civilizations, Kurdistan region of Iraq. The remains of the supposed Arch of Trajan at Dura Europos. Shapur I holding Valerian by the hand while receiving the supplication of Philip the Arab, Naqs-e Rostam, Iran. The colonnaded street in Palmyra, Syria. Major centres in Roman-period Mesopotamia.

XVll

2

11

14

17 19 28 29 32 46 50 67

X

Figures

4.2 4.3 4.4

4.5 4.6 4.7

4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 5.1 5.2 5.3

5.4

5.5

5.6 5.7

Detail of the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome with the siege of Nisibis. The Roman-period columns in the no man's land between Turkey and Syria. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967) of the modern Iraqi centre of Sinjar/Shingal (anc. Singara). The U-shaped towers are still visible in the western part of the defensive wall, partly embedded in the modern buildings. Singara as seen in one of aerial shots that Poidebard took in the late 1920s. Singara in one of the aerial shots of Sir Aurel Stein. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967) of the modern Syrian centre of Ras el-Ain (anc. Rhesaina). The cuirassed statue unearthed at Tell Fekheryieh/ Rhesaina. Access routes at Hatra. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). The Herakles statue from Hatra. Route network in the area of Hatra. Distribution of all the sites mentioned in the chapter. View of the site of Seh Qubba from the eastern bank of the Tigris. The site of Seh Qubba as seen from the eastern bank of the Tigris in Northern Iraq. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967) of the area of Eski Hendek and the complex remains of Fenik along the Tigris in south-east Turkey. The site of Eski Hendek and Fenik along the Tigris. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). The squared fort is marked with the letter A, while the supposed later adjoined trapezoidal shaped section to the west is marked with the letter B. The round-shaped projecting towers are clearly visible along the western and southern parts of the settlement. Tell Tuneinir in a shot by P.A. Poidebard. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967) of Ain Sinu, in north-west Iraq. The two complexes of AS I and AS II are clearly visible north of the Sinjar-Tell Afar road.

75 76

80 85 86

90 94 98 101 104 117 119

121

125

126 129

132

Figures

5.8 5.9 5.10

5.11

5.12

5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16

5.17 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8

6.9 6.10

Ain Sinu in a shot taken by Sir Aurel Stein in 1935. Diamond-stamped pottery from Ain Sinu. The village of Tell Afar (Ad Pontem) in a shot taken by Sir Aurel Stein (1938). The wadi is visible in the foreground below the citadel mound (a possibly medieval bridge, still in use, is on the left). The straight line beyond the modern houses is the road that connected the village to the Sinjar area. The area of Khirbet al-Han in north-east Syria. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). The so-called castellum of Brak in relation to the ancient site of Tell Brak. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). The site of Tell Bati. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). The fort of Qasr al-Bshir, Jordan. The area between Singara and Hatra, with some of the minor sites discussed. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967) of the site of Tell Hadhail, north-west Iraq. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967) of the site of Sheikh Ibrahim, Iraq. The location of Tell Barri within its geographic context. An aerial view of Tell Barri taken from U2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft in 1960. View of the main mound from the south. Part of the eastern section of the fortification at Tell Barri. The public building in Area M, in the lower town of the site. View of the Parthian/Roman-period domestic quarter of Area H. Collapsed storage jars in Area H. The domestic use of this area has been proved up to the 6th c. CE. Computation of the ceramics unearthed in the Parthian/Roman levels of Area H, according to the code in use on the excavation. Comparison chart between major pottery classes in the levels of the residential quarter of Area H. A selection of pottery sherds from the residential quarter of Area H. Top row: common-ware (with DSP

Xl

137 139

142

149

151 152 153 155

156 158 166 166 167 170 171 172 173

178 179

Xll

Figures

specimens); bottom left: glazed ware ceramics and associated finds; bottom right: brittle ware ceramics. 6.11 Comparison chart between major ceramic classes in the levels dated to the 2nd-4th c. CE period in Area E (2007-2010). 7.1 Map with the localization of the surveys discussed in this chapter. 7.2.1 Tell Beydar Survey: Hellenistic-period sites. 7.2.2 Tell Beydar Survey: Parthian/Roman-period sites. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, 7.3 December 1967) of Site THS 60. The north-west/south-east alignment of Parthian/ 7.4 Roman-period sites in the North Jazira Project Area. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). Selected excavated sites within the framework of the 7.5 Zammar Area Project. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). The plan of the site of Kazrik Bogacz1. 7.6 8.1 Detail of the Peutinger Map showing eastern Syria and Mesopotamia. 8.2 Route 1. The village of Bara at the northern edge of the Jebel 8.3 Sinjar. CORONA satellite image (Mission 1102-1025, December 1967). Route 2. 8.4 The Khatunyieh peninsula as seen through the lens 8.5 of Sir Aurel Sein in 1936. Route 3. 8.6 Topographic profile of the Amida-Nisibis 8.7 segment of Route 3. Route 4. 8.8 Tell Mejdel. CORONA satellite image (Mission 8.9 1102-1025, December 1967). 9.1 Tentative distribution of the nomadic tribes of North Mesopotamia as mentioned in the literary sources.

180

182 195 197 197 201

203

204 206 216 217

219 220 222 223 224 225 226

238

Preface

Empire( s) on the border The present research took shape following on the trail of a series of important works concerning the Roman Near East and the complex panorama the impact of Rome generated in the entire region. The most significant studies have been carried out by Fergus Millar (The Roman Near East: 31 B.C. A.D. 337, 1993) and Maurice Sartre (D'Alexandre a Zenobie. Histoire du Levant Antique, IVeme siecle av. ].-C. - IIIeme siecle ap. J.-C, 2001), and alongside there is the research of Nigel Pollard on the military/civilian relationship (Soldiers, Cities, and Civilians in Roman Syria, 2000), Kevin Butcher (Roman Syria and the Near East, 2003 ), Peter Edwell (Between Rome and Persia: The Middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Palmyra under Roman Control, 2008), and Greg Fisher on the interaction with the Arabs (Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity, 2011). These latter volumes, more focused on the land beyond the Levantine area, should be seen as a direct consequence of the flourishing of Roman frontier studies since the mid-1990s. Works such as Roman Army in the East (BAR Supp. Series) edited by David Kennedy, Benjamin Isaac's The Limits of the Empire (1990), and C.R. Whittaker's Frontiers of the Roman Empire ( 1994) have been purposely focused on the specific nature of the limes and the regional dynamics, taking equally significant but different approaches to the theme, both in terms of geographical and cultural aspects. Eastern frontier studies in particular have received an important impetus since the beginning of the 20th c. The pioneering studies of Antoine Poidebard (La Trace de Rome dans le Desert de Syrie, 1934) 1 and Sir Aurel Stein (see the republished Limes Report by Gregory and Kennedy in 1985) have paved the way for later investigations: Louis Dillemann's Haute Mesopotamie Oriental et Pays Adjacents (1962) and David Oates' Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq (1968). David Kennedy himself extensively contributed to the understanding of the Roman eastern frontier and of the impact of the army in that specific context. 2 Eventually, the proceedings of the many Limes conferences published so far offer useful insights into Roman frontier studies, providing relevant and broader

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comparative evidence. All these works extended the guidelines of research, often using innovative methods such as aerial photography (and more recently also satellite imagery), which permitted a considerable development in the study of the eastern frontier. More recently, excavation projects in the area have made further advances in our knowledge of the topic possible with due attention to the complex dynamics of interaction and material culture hybridization. And yet there is no doubt that the starting point for the understanding of such dynamics must be the identification of the possible interaction points, with their discrepancies and analogies, but it is also extremely relevant to take into account the dynamics of hybridization that almost certainly took place throughout the region. In fact, hybridization is most appropriate for the mixture of ethnic groups, religions, and social institutions that shaped the Near East in the period from the 1st to the late 4th c. CE. The phenomenon may be quite easily recognized in major towns (and substantially excavated sites), where the abundance of archaeological data helps the historical reconstruction, as well as the identification of features of individual cultures, whereas it appears to be increasingly vanishing in minor (and secondary) settlements. In this sense, our knowledge of the rural landscape and the countryside itself is restricted by the relative scarcity of historical and archaeological evidence, which inevitably leads to less extensive research. The few minor sites mentioned in the literary sources are not only still unexcavated, but too often not even identified, whereas sites where excavations have been conducted are sometimes unknown to ancient sources. Notwithstanding this lack of evidence on both the archaeological and the historical side of the investigation, the countryside and hinterlands of large cities still remain a key to the understanding of the Roman presence in the area, as well as for the comprehension of the organization and administration on the territories of the steppe lands. The integration of the archaeological data with the available literary and epigraphic evidence represents, therefore, a major way by means of which the traces of the imperial confrontations beyond the Euphrates might be understood and, more importantly, might be effectively placed in relation to the geographical and sociocultural framework in which they took place. In this sense, the region of North Mesopotamia is pivotal as the consideration of a specific event in a precise chronological time frame inevitably involves the examination of a greater number of factors that set the stage for the comprehension of that event (Figure 0.1). The whole area that lies between the upper courses of the Euphrates and the Tigris witnessed processes such as the Neolithic revolution and the establishment of complex societies at the end of the 5th millennium BCE. During the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE, the entire region was subjected to the expansionist campaigns of different empires, some coming from the south (Akkad), others originated locally (Mittanni). During the Iron Age, the Assyrian Empire, whose political core was in North Mesopotamia proper,

Preface xv more particularly in the area of the Upper Tigris where major Assyrian capitals were located (Nineveh, Assur, Nimrud), conquered the lands west of Tigris, and hence western Syria, southern Anatolia, the Levantine area, and Egypt, contributing to the formation of a wider political entity with strong and convincing imperial features. 3 After the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, the region became part of the Babylonian kingdom that fell a short time later (early 6th c. BCE) at the hands of the Achaemenids. The Achaemenid presence is unfortunately not well defined archaeologically, mainly because of a notable lack of substantial stratigraphic evidence, a fact that makes the understanding of its impact in the region difficult and also impedes a reliable classification of the material culture for this specific period. It is known from classical literary sources (Herodotus), however, that the empire's complex system of routes (formerly known as the Royal Road, although it includes many roads) passed through the region, and that a large part of Upper Mesopotamia was at the time a (secondary) satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. The period between the Assyrians and the Achaemenids also marked the first approach of the socalled territorial empires to the region, which is the subject of this book. With the acquisition of the Mesopotamian lands by the Seleucid kingdom, the social and civic customs of the Mediterranean (and Greek) world came into contact with the older traditions of the Semitic world. The foundation (and sometimes symbolic refoundation) of cities and major centres during the Seleucid period (roughly from the very late 4th c. to the late 2nd c. BCE, in this part of Mesopotamia) confirms the significant presence of "Greek" communities, which presumably included both military personnel and civilians, in the local social substrate. The mixed population of this period generated the very first global world of ancient times, favouring integration and hybridization at every level of society. If such dynamics are archaeologically well documented in major centres and core regions, they escape a total comprehension in peripheral areas and generally in the rural countryside. Only a small number of sites in the area east of the Tetrapolis of western Syria have yielded substantial and reliable archaeological evidence of a Seleucid presence. Jebel Khalid, a fortified site on the right bank of the Syrian Euphrates, is one such site. 4 The lack of stratified Seleucid material is counterbalanced by the massive quantity of contemporary local pottery collected during the several surveys carried out throughout the entire area of North Mesopotamia. This should be seen as a sign that the region was relatively peaceful and prosperous, characterized by a spread of quite small settlements surrounded by large farms, which could have contributed to the reshaping of the landscape that effectively happened under the Seleucids as a consequence of the end of the Persian dominion and the realization of wise social and economic dynamics. The Seleucid Empire, however, was significantly weakened at the end of the 2nd c. BCE, when all of Mesopotamia fell into the hands of the Parthian kingdom, which would politically and culturally control much of the region

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from then until the early 3rd c. CE. If the early years of the Parthian occupation were marked by a consistent preservation of the imprint of the Seleucids, the confrontations with Rome, which started in the 1st c. BCE, contributed to the creation of a different cultural sphere that, albeit strongly affected by Greek influences, began to retain and develop more local characteristics. From this period onwards, the history of North Mesopotamia coincides with the events that marked the interactions and confrontations between the empires actively involved in the control of the region (Rome, Parthia, Sasanian, Persia). The Parthians defied Rome and forced emperors and generals to deploy significant numbers of soldiers in the area (especially in the late 2nd c. CE), but it was the confrontation with the Sasanian dynasty that contributed to the creation of the two eyes of the earth, two global empires that contested the dominion over these lands (frequently contested and shared lands). 5 In this sense, the creation of a borderland in North Mesopotamia emphasizes the double creation of limits, that is edges, which alternately involved Rome and the Eastern empires. Rome did not push to conquer the Iranian world, and neither were the Sasanian Persians (nor the Parthians) excessively interested in the prolonged territorial and political control of western Syria and the Levantine area (if one excludes the brief, albeit decisive, conquests of Shapur I; see Chapter 3 in this volume). These specific dynamics therefore generated a complex series of multiple interactions that per se define the space of North Mesopotamia. Yet the scenario was not limited to the big empires, and it would be a mistake to consider the lands of Mesopotamia as Roman, Parthian, or Sasanian. This is not a black-and-white consideration - instead, grey, in all of its hues, was a key feature. Arabs, for example, played a major role, and their reciprocal interactions with the territorial imperial entities have rightly been underlined. 6 As mentioned above, studies regarding the frontier and the Roman army in the east have developed greatly since the 1950s, and today the Roman presence in these territories can be understood only through a comprehension of the dynamics of the cultural, religious, and political diversities of the epoch. Starting from this assumption, the complex substrate of the region should be always considered, also keeping in mind the different aspects of each diverse ethnic group (Greeks, Romans, Parthians, Arabs), all settled within a relatively small area, which, moreover, had its own social structures (and superstructures) since long before the coming of Alexander the Great. In the chapters that follow, I will try to define these aspects by describing both the historical and archaeological evidence of these interactions, which primarily occurred at two different levels: first, cities and the urban context; and second, the rural scenario, each of them with a complex and wide spectrum of social interactions. In this sense, a necessary historical framework will be provided in order to contextualize all the events.

Preface xvu

Figure 0.1 Composite satellite imagery of the Middle East. Sources: Esri, DigitalGlobe, Earthstar Geographies, CNES/Airbus DS, GeoEye, USDA FSA,

USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, IGP, and the GIS user community.

The main body of the work has been divided into three parts that consider the main centres, the minor settlements, and the rural landscape. Cities such as Nisibis, Rhesaina, and Singara should be considered as strategic nodal points, whereas the countryside and the rural landscape of the region are fundamental to a general understanding of such a particular scenario, especially as related to the route system, the social mobility, and the movements of the different armies. As Susan Alcock has rightly argued, the administration of a given province largely depended upon the cooperation of local power networks, and the richer and wealthier they were, the stronger central power was.7 Indeed, Roman strategies, pre-existing cultures, and local factors should be considered as a unique series of processes in order to understand the provincial dynamics of large parts of the Roman Empire (particularly the Eastern Mediterranean regions). Local changes can only be directly related in part to Roman interaction in the region, and should be analysed as direct consequences of a transformation in their own context. In this sense, economy and trade, intended as the engines of trans-regional interactions, acted as primary proxies for Rome. The movements of people and goods defined the frontier area par excellence, and Roman Mesopotamia did not represent an exception. Interaction and dialogue between major centres and their enlarged hinterlands contributed, therefore, to the creation of multiple interplay zones that determined the complexity of the imperial frontiers.

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The reader might say that, at this point, there is a limited use of the archaeological evidence to define the Roman imperial impact. I am not going to deny that this could be partly true. Yet archaeological research, far from perfectly defining the Roman presence in Mesopotamia, has driven the academic community's attention towards the sensitive problem of periodization in such overlooked lands. Roman-period ceramics, Latin inscriptions, significant Roman buildings (baths, amphitheatres, etc.) are poorly represented or entirely absent in Mesopotamia, where, on the contrary, the Roman presence adapted to rather than transformed the social and cultural (pre-existent) landscape. Archaeological investigations carried out in the last 20 years or so have convincingly demonstrated how Rome's world (intended as a social, mental, and economic construct) did not fit into the context like a peg in a hole, but rather modified its own characteristics, making large use of locally produced pottery, for example, setting up military camps in different ways compared to the western part of the empire, and dialoguing not with conquered people, but with custodians of long-lasting cultures. In such a peculiar context, Rome made large use of cultural borrowings, but it also tried to maintain local traditions untouched. Imperial interactions are visible in any archaeological level of contemporary excavated sites in the region. Roman ceramics, although not extensively attested, are found in association with locally made common-wares. Fragments of statues in Parthian style are unearthed alongside Roman imperial coins, and so on. This is undeniable evidence of a mixed cultural landscape that, even if short-lived, manifested all the features of the contested cultural and physical space where the balance between the large political entities/interests and the consistent relationship defined its own nature. A large part of the research on the Roman provinces proceed from certain assumptions regarding acculturation and cultural transmission, often putting the local features of a given area into the background in order to track the Western and especially Roman characteristics. In fact, the Roman Western provinces all experienced important changes in linguistic and material culture, as might be easily observed in Gaul, Roman Britain, and part of the Rhine limes, whereas local identities in the Near East were strongly conserved despite the demonstrable inclusion of Western proxies. The interpretation of cultures as single and stable units cannot thus be applied to the Roman Near East. Local traits (i.e. Semitic) that existed long before the Greeks and the Romans are certain to have reacted through the centuries to new input from the East and the rising of regional identities. The Roman colonial system, for example, was only partially applicable to the Near East, where the settlement landscape differed considerably from that in the West. Nevertheless, a large part of western Syria was repopulated on the largest scale during the Roman period (previously extended urbanization occurred during the Bronze Age). Most areas west of the Euphrates were intensively inhabited long before the coming of the Roman army. The Assyrian Empire

Preface x1x for example, strongly contributed to the development of the region between the 12th and the 7th c. BCE. Even the polis structure in Hellenistic Syria was not a fait accompli. For example, it has been demonstrated that before the coming of Rome, the Decapolis region (Southern Levant) was characterized by fortified villages and towns ruled by local tyrants and chiefs. 8 The political structure of the other regions of Syria before the Romans arrived, although still a matter of discussion, was perhaps not so different. Areas east of the Euphrates particularly constituted a sort of cultural mix between strong local roots and, on the other hand, the presence of the Macedonian/Seleucid dominion. The interaction took the shape of a binary relation and mutual collaboration by which aspects of each group moved towards the other, and vice versa. Starting from this assumption, therefore, each settlement in the area east of the Euphrates must be considered on the basis of three factors. The first is concerned with origins, rooted in the pre-classical period or Hellenistic age. The second is the role that the same settlement played during the Roman interferences in the region and how such processes are reflected in both sociopolitical and material perspectives. The third is the point of view that concerns the interaction (formal and informal) between the local culture(s) and Western (or Eastern) influences, and in what measure these are reflected in the material culture and in political, religious, and social life. Finally, another important aspect to consider is the impact of the rural landscape on imperial and larger-scale events. Archaeological surveys have shed a new light on the regional changes in the landscape since the Neolithic period, even though rarely with a specific focus on the changes that occurred after the collapse of the pre-Hellenistic kingdoms and before the rise of Islam. Notwithstanding the crucial role that Northern Mesopotamia played in the confrontation between the territorial empires, the entire area saw the development of small interconnected settlements. These proliferated despite the political issues and retained strong local appeal, occasionally becoming important, but most of the time sustaining themselves according to proven dynamics with no particular interest in actively participating in major political issues. In this context, for instance, some of the sites mentioned in the Peutinger Map, which is one of the most important documents for reconstructing the regional landscape in the Roman period, are practically unknown, yet they are clear evidence of the presence of several inhabited centres (obviously with different dimensions and degree of importance) in this territory apart from the region's main cities. The crucial question regards the role of the hinterland(s) in the political confrontation, and how they reacted and responded in turn to the complex dynamics that took place in the major centres. Urban context, rural scenario, and social interactions, manifested through the archaeological record, are therefore the main cornerstones upon which this investigation has been based. The analysis of these aspects constitutes the bulk of the work and the primary step for the understanding of the imperial scenario of Northern Mesopotamia.

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Structure of the book

On the Edge of Empires is divided into three large sections that aim to cover the historical sequence of the events in the area, the analysis of the archaeological record (with the inclusion of previously unpublished material), and the analysis of the available data for the comprehension of the impact of the empires in this long-neglected region. With the specific objective of attracting a broader audience, this volume intends to offer to the reader a comprehensive overview of the North Mesopotamian region during the first centuries of our era. Dynamics of hegemony and power constitute the core of the investigation, which focuses on the archaeological evidence as a reflection of various political confrontations. This adds some salt, so to say, to the research that, from a chronological point of view, also coincides, on one hand, with the very first approaches of the Roman Empire in the region (very early 2nd c. CE), and, on the other hand, with the end of Rome's control over the area in consequence of the campaign of Shapur II in the 4th c. CE. Since one might notice the originality of these chronological limits, it is fundamental to understand that these temporal markers have been purposely chosen to examine the impact of the Roman Empire in that particular chronological window that covered the exact moment of the real interaction(s), when the territorial acquisition was partly achieved, and before the end of the confrontation(s) with local and external agents. This phase, which covers almost three centuries, coincided with the easternmost expansions of the empire, with the deadliest military struggles and with the barely disguised attempts to control this very same region and to secure the enormous economic interest deriving from it. Different degrees of interactions and confrontations among the political and social agents in North Mesopotamia also played a fundamental role. The relationship between the imperial army and the local communities, for example, characterized the daily life, whereas the confrontations with the Parthians and the Sasanians shaped the historical narration, thereby frequently modifying the socio-economic context. Glimpses into the daily life of the frontier from the papyri of Dura and those from the Euphrates valley are further evidence of this consistent and reciprocal relation. 9 Despite the interesting panorama that the region offers for the comprehension of borderland areas in the framework of studies of the Roman world, North Mesopotamia is generally labelled as a "no man's land", a place where the continuous tensions between different powers affected the imperial impact, and consequently a zone that retained its own traditions despite acting as an investment territory for the empires. This partial disinterest contributed to our poor knowledge of Roman Mesopotamia; its geographical extension is even blurrier than the archaeological evidence. In fact, it is quite a challenge to define suitable limits for the region, as even in ancient times the territory was not well established. Latin and Greek

Preface xx1 authors do not describe Mesopotamia uniformly, and the geographic features of the region overlap too often with the characteristics of other more or less distant neighbouring areas (Coele Syria, Adiabene, Osrhoene). When the region became officially part of the Roman Empire at the end of the 2nd c. CE, the military occupation of the major centres (Nisibis, Singara, and Rhesaina) reflected what the Romans thought of the region's extension. The triangle between these three cities encompassed a large steppe-like and yet fertile area where Roman control was exercised through military presence rather than a real territorial organization. The impact of the empire in this area (the Upper Khabur basin) mirrors a policy that does not correspond to the 'normal' behaviour of Rome in the provinces. If, on the one hand, this was because of the ephemeral character of the occupation, on the other hand the pre-existent panorama nevertheless facilitated the Roman impact. Mesopotamia was not a terra incognita, and the historical sequence until the Roman occupation of Trajan and Severus left tangible and substantial markers on the ground and on every aspect of the social, cultural, religious, and economic life of the region. Rome's impact in Mesopotamia was significantly different in comparison to other regions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. The combination of pre-Roman complex structures and the short (and yet substantial) control of the region are all data that support the unicity of the region and of its role within the limits of the empires. For these reasons, On the Edge of Empires has been structured along a major axis of research that covers a precise spectrum of peculiarities and has the specific aim of emphasizing the unique features of the region compared to the larger area of the Roman Near East, and generally to the other frontiers of the empires. The book follows a precise approach that combines an understanding of the presence of the empires in this area through both the archaeological evidence and the textual records. Empires and their impact on the formation and development of specifically controlled areas constitute the focus of Chapter 1, which starts with a theoretical introduction to the imperial impact and hegemony in ancient and modern times, and subsequently focuses on the case study of North Mesopotamia as an imperial borderland. The geography and the environmental context occupies a primary position in the narration (see Chapter 2). The attention to this particular landscape, paired with evidence regarding the climactic variabilities through time and past ecological characteristics, is fundamental as an introduction to the role of the empires in such a fragile landscape. The specific environmental features of the Mesopotamian steppe lands affected the imperial decisions on both the Roman and the Parthian/Sasanian side, resulting in a series of ecology-driven decisions rarely seen in any other part of the Roman world. Chapter 3 focuses on the historical events that form the background to the archaeological evidence in the region from the Euphrates to the Tigris in

xxn

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the period between the 2nd and the 4th c. CE. The analysis of the epigraphic and textual data helps to define the peculiar socio-economic and political setting of Rome's eastern frontier, its relationship with the Eastern empires, and to describe the dynamics at the basis of the control of the landscape. Contextual analysis of the major urban centres in North Mesopotamia is also fundamental (see Chapter 4). Their importance in the specific context of this book is further emphasized by the fact that in some of these urban nodes, both archaeological and textual evidence are available. These crucial points acted as primary hubs in the development of trade and movements within the region and to distant areas. Nisibis, Singara, and Rhesaina also hosted Roman legions (or parts of Roman legions), and one might suppose that the civic institution present, for example at Dura Europos, with a strong interaction between the civic and military parts of the city, possibly occurred elsewhere and in a similar way in the lands of North Mesopotamia. Chapter 5 discusses minor settlements and other sites (military fortresses, camps, etc.) and their role within the Mesopotamian geographical and cultural landscape. This is a crucial chapter as it deals with the difficult research question of the identification on the ground of military presence of Rome outside of large centres. It also aims to assess the relevance of local aspects and identities as compared to the imperial globalizing tendencies. Despite the scant material record in terms of archaeology, these minor centres were, in fact, often directly involved in the dynamics that pervaded the region and that happen to frequently be at the core of Roman military operations. To further investigate their positions, I also purposely decided to include, as Chapter 6, the case of Tell Barri, in the Upper Khabur basin, as it is one of the very few archaeological sites in the region with extensive and reliable exposed stratified material contemporary with the Roman presence in Mesopotamia. In particular, the local identity of its inhabitants will be discussed by means of a preliminary examination and interpretation of the architectural remains on the site and the related excavated artefacts. A general consideration of settlement patterns in the region will be discussed in Chapter 7, where the available survey data will be examined and placed in relation to large amounts of archaeological and historical evidence and the historical events that took place in the steppe lands of North Mesopotamia. The route system in the region will be the focus of Chapter 8. This will include an analysis of the possible trade routes and communication axes, as well as a series of GIS-derived maps with the aim of reconstructing viable itineraries in order to suggest the existence of ancient tracks. The Peutinger Map in particular will occupy a predominant position in this part of the book. Combining literary evidence with the cartographic sources and ground recognition (where available) might contribute to a better understanding of mobility in the borderland area of Mesopotamia. Chapter 9 focuses, eventually, on the Arab and nomadic presence in the region during the time frame of the research. General conclusions (see Chapter 10) close the volume.

Preface xxm Finally, tables, charts, and maps will help the reader throughout the analysis of the topic in the hope of making clear some aspects of the relationship between settlements and the natural context, and most of the historical interactions between the empires that once challenged each other for control of a land nowadays almost completely forgotten.

Notes 1 Even though some of his identifications were lately questioned (Gregory 2

3 4 5 6 7

8 9

1997), the study is still incredibly valuable. Kennedy and Riley 1990; Kennedy and Humphrey 1996. Fales 2001. Clarke 2002; Jackson and Tidmarsh 2011. Canepa 2009. Retso 2003; Fisher 2011; Fisher 2016. Alcock 1993. Graf 1994. Feissel and Gascou 1995.

Acknowledgements

I am quite certain that the act of transforming my own PhD thesis into a readable (and hopefully enjoyable) book is a complex task. It took me two years before I actively worked on the text, and the moment I started reading it again I soon realized how much work was still to do. I tried to restructure my text, to adapt it to a more general audience, to widen the themes discussed by including comparative analyses and easy-to-read explications. I would be lying if I did not say that in doing this, I received the invaluable help of so many people, which is somehow an understatement to list here in one and a half pages. A particularly heartfelt thank you is due to the late Paolo Emilio Pecorella, who inspired me with this passion for the Near East and first gave me the chance to work in Mesopotamia. Our short but essential conversations at dawn on the top of the tell will stick in my mind forever. I am extremely grateful to Raffaella Pierobon Benoit, who constantly took an active interest in my work through the years and gave me precious advice and interesting ideas to develop. I also want to thank Frarn;ois Villeneuve, who hosted me in the Archeologie du Proche-Orient Hellenistique et Romain (APOHR) team at the Maison de l' Archeologie et Ethnologie in Paris during my PhD years, and enriched my stay in France with useful discussions and bibliographical suggestions. My deepest gratitude goes also to Frarn;ois Chausson (Universite de Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne) for his precious advice during my stay in France and his reviews of my PhD thesis in the making. Their suggestions and advice have been fundamental for the development of the text. I owe deep gratitude to Joan Oates, with whom I had an interesting dialogue about Ain Sinu in Cambridge and the difficulty of being an archaeologist in the Near East: what her late husband David did for the research of Roman Mesopotamia still stands unpaired. I must warmly thank Daniele Morandi Bonacossi for letting me see the Roman eastern frontier from the enemy territory in modern Iraq; we had (and still have) some interesting discussions regarding the archaeological landscape of Northern Mesopotamia through time, and how men impacted and still impact the environment. A heartfelt thank you goes to Jason Ur, with whom I always have very stimulating discussions, often in the field. Also, his hospitality at Harvard made my three-month period in Cambridge very pleasant. A special thank you goes to Lidewijde de Jong for her invaluable suggestions regarding the structure of this book and in general how to app roach

Acknowledgements

xxv

such a complex topic. Greg Fisher should be thanked for his constant concern and invaluable support in the making of the text itself. His role as editor of the series further enhanced my willingness to present a valid work. A due thank you also goes to Elizabeth Thomasson-Risch at Routledge, whose interest in my work was matched only by her patience with my (delayed) deadlines, to Andrew Craddock for his extraordinary work as copy-editor and to Colin Morgan at Swales & Willis. I am extremely grateful to Geraint Thomas, who kindly accepted to review my English and provided me with useful and constant advice. Anthony Comfort and Justine Gaborit are to be thanked, along with Michal Marciak. I wandered the Upper Tigris region with them while writing the book and enjoyed very animated discussions on the Hellenistic and Roman landscape of North Mesopotamia. A particular thank you also goes to Enrico Foietta and Rodolfo Brancato, for having shared with me their research. Many other people should be thanked for their support, advice, and suggestions that I avidly collected during these last four years. In particular, I would like here to thank Mauro De Nardis for his support and his constant encouragement, especially during my MA years in Naples. On the Edge of Empires originated conceptually in Syria while I was a member of the Italian Archaeological Expedition at Tell Barri, and saw its end in a hot and sunny summer while surveying Northern Iraq within the framework of the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey and the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project. Both teams provided me with invaluable suggestions and precious advice through the years. In particular, I wish to thank Costanza Coppini, Paolo Cimadomo, Raffaella Pappalardo, Marco Iamoni, Katia Gavagnin, Alberto Savioli, Luigi Turri, Riccardo Menis, Giancarlo Garna, Francesca Simi, and Petra Creamer. Many other friends and colleagues should be thanked for their support, encouragement, and advice. Among these: Stefan Hauser, Dario Nappo, John MacGinnis, Matteo Merlino, JeanJacques Herr, Andrea Squitieri, and many many others. In the past two years I have been lucky enough to become a Researcher at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology. The favorable working conditions and the constant exchanges with staff and students enhanced my research. I cannot list everyone here, but discussions with Peter Attema, Wim Jongman, Martijn van Leusen, and Sofia Voutsaki were extremely stimulating and provided me with so much food for thought. Writing a book about events that occurred in the distant past is hard work, and this would not have been possible to achieve without suitable family conditions. My parents, Teresa and Peppe, sustained and encouraged me during these years of alternating fortunes, as did my brother Luca who - himself a former PhD student - has always been an example to me of academic passion in the face of any adversity. A warm thank you goes to Sabrina and to Alice, who was born while I was writing. This book is for her, and I hope she will be willing to read it one day. All of them have, directly or indirectly, contributed to the realization of the following pages. A very special thought, lastly, goes to all my Syrian friends. My love for their country makes me hope that peace will very soon return to their lives.

Major ancient sources

Most of the ancient sources refer to the Loeb Classical Library (LCL) collections. Different editions are specifically marked. Ammianus Marcellinus Appian, B.C. CIL CIS Dio

Epit. de Caes. Eutropius, Brev. Festus, Brev. Pronto

H 1, 2, 3 HA Herodian IG IGLS ILS

Inv. IP

Loeb Classical Library (LCL, trad. ]. C. Rolfe, 1939-1950) Appian, Bella Civilia, LCL (trans. H. White) Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum Paris, Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, 1893-1954 Cassius Dio, Historia Romana, LCL (trad. Ernest Cary) Die Epitome de Caesaribus, trans. J. Schlumberger, Munich: Beck, 1974 Eutropius, Breviarum, trans. H.W. Bird, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993 Breviarum, ed. and trans. J.W. Eadie, London: Athlone Press, 1967 Ad Verum Imp. Letters to Lucius Verus, m Epistulae, LCL, trans. C.R. Haines Inventaire des inscriptions hatreennes, ed. B. Aggoula, Paris, 1991 Scriptores Historia Augusta, LCL, trans. D. Magie Historia ah excess divi Marci, LCL, ed. C.R. Whittaker Inscriptiones Graecae Inscriptions grecques et latines de Syrie Inscriptione Latinae Selectae, ed. H. Dessau, Berlin, 1892-1916 Inventaire des inscriptions de Palmyre, ed. J. Cantineau et al., 1930-1975 Inscriptions de Palmyre, ed. K. al-Asad and J.B. Yon, Beirut: IFPO Press, 2001

Major ancient sources Isidore Jerome, Chron. Josephus, A] Josephus, BJ Libanius, Ep. Libanius, Or. Lucian Hist. Conser. Malalas

Moses Khorenats'I, Hist. Arm. Not. Dignit. Or. Orac. Sib. XIII

Orosius, Adv. Pag.

PAT P. Dura

P.Euphr.

Pliny, NH Plutarch, Lucullus Polybius Procop., Bell. Pers. Ptolemy, Geogr.

xxvu

Isidore of Charax, Parthian Stations, trans. W.H. Schoff, repr. Chicago: Ares Publishers 197 6 Chronicon, trans. M.D. Donalson, Pittsburgh, PA: Mellen University Press, 1996 Antiquitates Judaicae, LCL, ed. H. Thackeray and R. Marcus Bellum Judaicum, LCL, ed. H. Thackeray Epistoles, LCL, ed. A.F. Norman Orations, LCL, ed. A.F. Norman Quomodo Historia Conscribenda Sit, ed. C. Jacobitz, Leipzig, 1896-1897 John Malalas, Chronographia, trans. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and R. Scott, Melbourne: AABS, 1986 History of the Armenians, ed. and trans. R.W. Thomson, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978 Notitia Dignitatum Orientalis, in Dodgeon and Lieu, Roman Eastern Frontier, 1994, 341-348 The Thirteenth Sybilline Oracle, ed. and trans. D.S. Potter, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990 Adversus Paganos, trans. R.J. Deferrari, Washington, DC: Catholic University Press of America, 1964 Palmyrene Aramaic Texts, ed. D.R. Hiller and E. Cussini, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 The Excavations at Dura-Europos, Final Report Volume V, Part 1: The Parchments and Papyri, ed. and trans. C.B. Welles, R.O. Fink, and J.F. Gilliam, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1959 D. Feissel and J. Gascou, "Documents d'Archives Romains Inedits du Moyen Euphrate (Ille siecle apres J.-C.)", CRAI 1989, 535-561; D. Feissel, J. Gascou, and J. Teixidor, "Documents d' Archives Romains Inedits du Moyen Euphrate", ]Sav, 1997,3-57 Naturalis Historia, LCL, trans. H. Rackham Vita Luculli, LCL, trans. B. Perrin Historia, LCL, trans. W.R. Paton Procopius, De Bello Persico, LCL, trans. H.B. Dewing Geographia, trans. E.L. Stevenson, Mineola, NY, 1991

xxvm

Major ancient sources

SKZ/RGDS

Steph. Byz. Suetonius Syncellus Tabari, Ann. T acitus, Ann. Tacitus, Hist. Victor, Caes. Zonaras Zosimus, Nov. Hist.

Inschrift Sabuhrs I. and der Ka'ba-I Zardust/ Res Gestae Divi Saporis, ed. and trans. P. Huyse, London: SOAS, 1999 Stephanus Byzantinys, Ethnika, ed. A. Meineke, Berlin: G. Reimer, 1849 De Vita Caesarum, LCL, trans. J.C. Rolfe. Georgius Syncellus, ed. A.A. Mosshammer, Leipzig: Teubner, 1984 Annales, in Dodgeon and Lieu, Roman Eastern Frontier, 1994, 275-295 Annales, LCL, trans. J. Jackson Historiarum, LCL, ed. C.H. Moore Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus, trans. H.W. Bird, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1994 Ioannes Zonaras, Annales, ed. M. Pinder and T. Biittner-Wobst, CSHB 29.1-3, Bonn, 1841-1897 Nova Historia, trans. R.T. Ridley, Melbourne: AABS, 1982.

Major abbreviations

AAAS AE AJA ANRW BAR-IS BASOR BMC Arabia BZ CAH CHI CJ CRAI CSHB DOP EAA

GJ JSav JRA JRS JSS JNES PdP RIC RPC TEAD YCS ZPE

Les Annales Archeologiques Arabes Syriennes L'Annee epigraphique American Journal of Archaeology Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini (Berlin 1972-) British Archaeological Reports, International Series Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research Catalogue of the Greek Coins from Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia, ed. F.G. Hill, London: British Museum, 1922 Byzantinische Zeitschrift The Cambridge Ancient History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1923The Cambridge History of Iran, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 Classical Journal Comptes rend us de seances de l' Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae Dumbarton Oaks Papers Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica The Geographical Journal Journal des savants Journal of Roman Archaeology Journal of Roman Studies Journal of Semitic Studies Journal of Near Eastern Studies La Parola del Passato, Napoli Roman Imperial Coinage Roman Provincial Coinage The Excavations at Dura Europos. Preliminary Report. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1929-1952 Yale Classical Studies Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Taylor& Francis Taylor & Francis Group http:/ /taylorandfrancis.com

1

Rome shifts eastwards Empires, hegemony, and frontiers

Introduction The road from the East towards Sanliurfa, ancient Edessa, is nowadays a straight and modern two-carriage motorway that cuts through a basaltic and dusty area in south-eastern Turkey. Coming from Diyarbakir and eager to see such an important place for the first time in my life, I took that road on a hot August morning a few years ago. The city is now inhabited by almost two million people, but despite numerous traces of its historical importance, tourists visiting the city are unlikely to see any evidence for an episode pivotal to Roman expansion in the East (see Figure 1.1). One day late in the spring of 260 CE, the Roman army was focused on defending the walls of Edessa from Sasanian attack. Little did the Romans realize that the very same day, everything they knew was destined to change. The role Rome had appointed for itself, and for which its army had fought and marched in the four corners of the world, was going to be seriously challenged for the first time. The Battle of Edessa marked a major turning point in the history of the Roman Near East. The Sasanian army emerged victorious from the battle, with the Roman Emperor Valerian along with about 60,000 Roman soldiers captured and condemned to end their days far from Rome, in Bishapur in the heart of Persia. 1 A power that had begun as a small riverine settlement in central Italy, and which had gone on to build a global empire largely unthreatened, was dealt a decisive strategic and symbolic blow. After Edessa, the pre-existing balance of power was changed forever. Shapur, the Sasanian king, pushed his army into Cilicia (modern southern Turkey) before being eventually defeated by a coalition led by Odenathus, Lord of Palmyra, a city that in turn came to play a prominent role in the following years. Edessa thus represented a major challenge to the Roman Empire, symbolized by the capture in battle of the emperor. While the confrontation between Rome and Sasanian Persia did not come to an end with the Persian victory at Edessa, the realization that Roman power faced significant opposition in the East altered Rome's understanding of the nature of its eastern boundaries.

2

Rome shifts eastwards

Figure 1.1 View of the modern city of Sanliurfa (Turkey) from the citadel.

Strategy, power, alliances, and other factors, including trade, should be considered the cornerstones upon which the Roman presence beyond the Euphrates had been built and developed. The Battle of Edessa, while a natural outcome of earlier disputes, was also the departure point for a different type of relationship that developed from continuous conflict, but also through the climate of mutual reciprocity that shaped the Mesopotamian plain - what was then the edge of both empires. Historical research has so far focused on military operations in the area of the Euphrates, Dura Europos, and essentially the Syrian Desert towards Palmyra, furnishing a large amount of valuable evidence for the Roman presence in the region. In contrast, however, the zones between the Khabur and the Tigris have received far less attention. The consequence of this imbalance is that even the capital of the province of Mesopotamia, Nisibis, is not at all well known from an archaeological point of view, and even historical information about the city is very scarce and quite often unclear. 2 Yet Mesopotamia, and specifically the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, was an area of real importance for the interactions between the Roman world and its Eastern neighbours. It was a permeable and porous borderland, never belonging completely to either Rome or Persia. It was an area that managed a precarious balance between West and East, retaining its own peculiar character.

Rome shifts eastwards

3

As I hope to demonstrate later on in the book, this specific characteristic permeability - helped the peoples of Northern Mesopotamia to defend the region's unique role and to control, in a way, the impact of empire. Local actors constituted a third agent that contributed significantly to the evolution of the regional landscape - its economy, social textures, and military nature - negotiating its own role between the Roman and Persian empires.

Theoretical background In a recent book, Lori Khatchadourian notes the use(s) and abuse(s) of the words "satrap" and "satrapies" in newspapers, magazines, books, and television shows from the 1970s onwards, and particularly in relation to Middle Eastern countries and the American interference in their politics. The use of the word to indicate authoritarianism, oriental despotic practices, and political insolence denotes the negative aspect of it, but also suggests that "what makes the contemporary journalistic usage exceptionally provocative is not only the trans historical bridge that it builds, but also the unseemly baggage that it brings" .3 The modern tendency to use the word satrap in reference to power structures of the Middle East has cast it as a contrast to the democratic and righteous vision of the Western world. In light of this intriguing comparison, I would like to draw attention to another powerful word, which, unlike the term satrap, has an even more complex meaning when used in modern, often volatile, contexts: empire. The word "empire" is probably one of the most over-abused terms in modern usage. It is applied generally to an enormous variety of situations, and it can cover a wide array of contexts (from the economic empire of the United States to the film The Empire Strikes Back). Additionally, its adjectival noun, "imperialism", carries a bewildering array of meanings, interpretations, and specific visions that are substantially (and, in modern contexts, also inevitably) shaped by both negative and positive factors. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word "empire" as "an extensive group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch, an oligarchy or a sovereign state". Interestingly, the example the OED provides to substantiate its entry is that of the Roman Empire. As David Mattingly noted, the modern use of the term implies the union of three semantic aspects: the idea of sovereignty, the concept of an unsubordinated state, and expansionism at the expense of other states or regions. 4 All these aspects are to be found in the example of the Roman Empire. They occasionally overlap each other and constitute the base upon which Roman expansion was partly constructed. Although today the word 'empire' has a slightly different connotation,5 the processes that led to the formation of the Roman Empire are as common to a series of megastates in antiquity (Incas, Assyrians, Persians, Mayans) 6 as they are in modern times when economic dependence and the global market created a new world order.

4

Rome shifts eastwards

An "empire" is therefore usually seen as an entity that controls other societies, with such control creating the condition of "imperialism" .7 Three major factors can influence the formation of an "empire": the importance of a single metropolis, which may lead the conquest of distant areas; the strength or weakness of the limits (the "peripheries"); and the characteristics of the global system, which might contribute to the rise, maintenance, or fall of the entire imperial apparatus. This specific consideration finds its own counterpart in Marxist historiography, which views the formation of empires as being naturally divided between the non-capitalistic entities (the Roman Empire, in this specific case) and the capitalistic powers (in the period from the Spanish Empire onwards). 8 More recently, H. Cline and M. Graham have rediscovered a valuable interpretative model of the formation of the ancient empires, first expressed by sociologist Michael Mann. This model envisioned ancient societies to be organized on the basis of four different and overlapping social powers: ideology, economy, military, and politics (abbreviated by Mann with the acronym IEMP). 9 The success of empires largely depended on the simultaneous and effective combination of these four aspects, contributing to the creation of the necessary tools to rule over both people and geographical space. 10 In this regard, the Roman Empire is an ideal candidate to test the IEMP model: all four aspects overlapped, aligned, and continued to sustain the central power from its very own core in the Italian Peninsula to the distant regions through ties, also with the support of peripheral cores such as major cities (e.g. Antioch, Alexandria, Trier). This particular impact also allowed Rome to exercise a precise form of control over its borders, constructing a complex series of mixed landscapes that involved and affected social, political, economic, and religious life. Peripheries or margins of the empires are places where hegemony and imperialism are negotiated, challenged, and established in cycles. 11 In these particular areas, people give shape to particular repertoires of rules that eventually contribute to the creation of multiple mixed cultural frameworks, expressed in the case of Rome's frontiers, and especially mirrored along the eastern frontier of Mesopotamia. 12 More perhaps than the republic, the idea of "Roman Empire" brings to mind the image of a powerful, solid, almost infinite entity created by means of territorial conquest, effective military organization, and underpinned by economic success. In the context of the Roman Empire, the dualistic terminology theorized by Gramsci between powers founded on "domination" and powers based on "hegemony" is fundamentally useful to understand the dynamics that played out in North Mesopotamia during the early centuries of our era. 13 Yet the term "hegemony" in Gramsci has two sides. On the one hand, it contrasts unequivocally with "domination", whereas, on the other hand, "hegemonic" is sometimes used as an opposite of "corporate" or "economic-corporate" to designate the major aspect of a specific historical phase. In such an instance, a particular group moves beyond a position of existence and defence of its economic situation, to

Rome shifts eastwards

5

aspire towards a new status of leadership in the political and social arena, which might then also extend beyond its own frontiers. 14 Gramsci therefore defined societies characterized by the predominance of force as "economiccorpora te". These societies are expressed through the application of direct and unfiltered power by means of an economic dictatorship. 15 On the basis of this assumption, Gramsci suggested that the normal transition between a formed society and its sociopolitical transformation must necessarily pass through a period of dictatorship. If one applies Gramsci's perspective to ancient history, such dynamics are easily discernible in the process that saw the republic evolve into the Roman Empire. But how exactly can this perspective apply to the impact of the Roman Empire on its eastern fringes? The impact of empire is not a straightforward process, and must be treated with caution, with the numerous complex aspects of mutual interactions between Romans and the different social and political entities within the periphery taken into account. On the eastern frontier - the area with which this study is concerned - the hegemonic character of Rome interfaced with the considerable influence of Eastern empires, most notably the Parthians and Sasanians, which provided a counterbalance to Rome's power, effectively acted as other imperial entities, and therefore contributed significantly to the region's cultural and political complexity. 16 In order to create an empire, control over lands and people is crucial, but the mutual relations and agreements with multiple types of political entities are also pertinent. Quite often, this control is exercised over a large number of people by small groups, and for this very reason it is intriguing to consider Mattingly's view of a common origin for both the "land empires" of antiquity and the "sea empires" of the 19th and 20th c.17The various forms of control also lead to the creation of particular areas of crisis, where the confrontation intensifies and the binary relationship (or multiple relationships) takes place along different axes, precisely reflecting more complex contrasts that involve several aspects of society, religion, economic interests, and culture. Some of the most visible expression of ancient empires included the co-opting of a large number of people to build a complex landscape of bureaucracy - supported as well by military activities and the modification of the pre-existing economic models - which ultimately served as support for the management of distant lands by both regional and central administrative powers. Such an approach was characterized in the pre-Roman era by, for example, the Achaemenid and Seleucid examples, but the Roman Empire refined this approach, making it more complex in the process, but not without social and political tensions. Ancient societies relied little on processes of selfdetermination, and particularly in connection with practices of imperialism. However, riots and revolts in the Roman Empire indicate that the inclusion of specific territories within the Roman-controlled lands did not take place easily. This is the case of Rome's conquests in Dacia, Germania, and Britannia. In the contested space of North Mesopotamia, such phenomena are less evident, but not absent (see Chapter 3 in this volume).

6

Rome shifts eastwards

For such reasons, the contextual environment of Roman expansion does not differ too greatly from contemporary examples. In modern times, political and economic powers often have to deal with confrontations arising from situations such as economic crises, social tensions, internal strife, and wars. Situations such as these often draw in or include substantive issues such as a religious disagreement, ethnic differences, or the collision of economic interests. Borderlands - the region along the periphery of empire where identities are fluid, contested, and negotiated - have long provided the perfect habitat for the development of such dynamics. Borderlands presented an invaluable framework for interaction and engagement between different groups, establishing examples of bilateral interplays and reciprocal approaches, as indeed they still do today. In a straightforward view, modern scholars have come to think of borderlands as areas where no major (or hegemonic, in a Gramscian sense) power expresses a firm political and economic dominion. In the ancient world, such a phenomenon is pretty well recognizable along peripheral areas, where the elusiveness of the imperial central power gave birth to the non-mediation of the authority, which outsourced the control of such areas to local elites. Borderlands are indeed particular spaces of communication cooperation, and negotiation, that can take the form of military confrontation, economic and state dependence, and religious conflicts. 18 Also, cross-border contacts at the fringes of states are sometimes more relevant than the connections between the edges and the political core itself. The formation of a new context in borderland areas gives birth to unique economic, social, and political networks. Yet borderland areas are also extremely changeable, and their fluidity, in terms of social, economic, and political aspects, as well as physical fluctuations, is something that characterized the surrounding sociocultural and political environment. For the study of Roman frontiers, the mobility of people and goods, and most importantly the permeability of the frontier itself, should always be given the utmost importance, and at the same time the historical and archaeological context must constantly keep this situation firmly in mind. Whittaker provides a nuanced understanding of the non-static nature of Roman frontiers. 19 In this sense, the formation of a complex zone such as the Roman eastern borderland involved the participation of numerous different agents aside from the imperial actors: Rome, Parthia, and Sasanian Persia. The relationships between the settled population, whose subsistence was mainly based on agriculture, the nomadic component, which relied on pastoralism, and those who fell somewhere along the spectrum in between contributed to the creation of a specific socio-ecological interface in the contested regions. In this sense, Arabs played a key role. Studies on the interaction between settled peoples and nomadic tribes have proved to be successful in regions such as the Negev or the Jordan Desert, whereas our understanding of the processes of negotiation in Mesopotamia is limited. 20 As in other areas of the ancient world, nomads lived at the edges of the settled states and they were not autarchic communities.

Rome shifts eastwards

7

This post-Marxist view has also been expressed by Anatoly Khazanov, who has rightly pointed out, and on several occasions, that nomadic tribes necessitate to interact with settled peoples. 21 Khazanov specifically writes about the nomadic cultures of the Central Asian steppe lands, which, starting from the 1st millennium BC, got more and more in contact with settled groups. One may assume that this protocol of interaction was initiated at the very beginning of the age of the empires in the ancient world, where centralized and state-managed communities acted as social and economic partners for the non-sedentary populations. This partnership is also occasionally archaeologically visible, as in the case of the south-west Near East, as said, and the Jordan Desert in particular. This study aims, therefore, to include, as far as possible given the available information, the analysis of the interaction between the local/nomadic component and the empires, thereby underscoring a key shift in our understanding of the eastern frontier, moving away from the view of a binary relationship between "desert and sown" towards a more complex view of interaction. In this scenario, however, the archaeological record is often missing from the Mesopotamian region. The scant datasets from the few excavations specifically focused on the Roman-period levels and the surveys (whose biases will be extensively discussed, along with their relevance, further on in the book) provide only limited information, although it can be assessed and combined with the textual evidence in order to respond to critical and unavoidable questions. Indeed, one might ask about the value of the archaeological evidence in reconstructing the imperial framework of Rome's operation in Mesopotamia. Is there any reliable clue as regards the traceability of such impacts on the ground? How do we proceed in terms of methodological approach towards the understanding of the imperial impact in the contested space of the Mesopotamian steppe lands? I will try to answer these questions in the following pages and to emphasize the importance and the necessity of an integrated analysis making use of the literary sources, the historical research, and the archaeological realia; combining their strong points is the necessary and primary step towards the reconsideration of the Roman impact beyond the Euphrates. Recent archaeological investigations in Northern Mesopotamia, broadly intended as the area enclosed between the upper basins of the Euphrates and the Tigris, have successfully shown a new (or renewed) interest in the understanding of the material evidence of the ancient empires, particularly as regards land control, water management, and route networks. The massive impact of the Assyrian, Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian empires in Mesopotamia (territorial empires) on the ground is easily recognizable. The Neo-Assyrian-period canal system perfectly sums up how a structured imperial community adapted the landscape to serve political and economic interests. 22 The same happened as regards the complex military control of Rome and the irrigation systems of Sasanian times. In this renaissance of research on the human (empires) impact on the landscape (imperial territory), the inclusion of Rome's expansions, confrontations,

8 Rome shifts eastwards and relations with the territories of Mesopotamia, the Eastern empires, and the local sociocultural proxies might eventually fit together in the most perfect way, eventually updating the research agenda. Notwithstanding the fact that the modern political situation is preventing further investigation of Rome's eastern border in Mesopotamia for the time being, I am sure that this renewed interest in the mechanics of empires in the region will one day contribute to the advancement of our full understanding of the Mesopotamian steppe lands during the Hellenistic, Parthian, Roman, and Sasanian periods.

Notes 1 On this episode and its broader sociopolitical outcomes, see the recent volume of Colom 2017. 2 A detailed account on the history and archaeology of the city is offered in Chapter 4 in this volume. 3 Khatchadourian 2016, xxii. 4 Mattingly 2011, 10. 5 See, for example, the comparative debate between the Roman Empire and the United States in Maier 2006. On empire and the world history, see also Cooper and Burbank 2010; Parsons 2010. 6 Alcock et al. 2001; Morrison and Scheidel 2009. More recently, see also During and Stek 2018. 7 Doyle 1986, 123-138. 8 Meiksins Wood 2003. 9 Mann 1986, 2; Cline and Graham 2011, 5. 10 Altaweel and Squitieri 2018. 11 Ludden 2011, 135-136; Sinopoli 1994. 12 De Jong and Palermo 2018. 13 Fontana 1993, 3. 14 Gramsci's hegemony theories first appeared in 1926 in the "Notes on the Southern Question", and they were later reprised in his "Prison Notebooks" (written between 1929 and 1935, first published in Italy between 1948 and 1951 ). 15 Bates 1975, 355. 16 A concept that is, however, also applicable the other way around (i.e. Rome being the other imperial entity from the Eastern perspective). 17 Mattingly 2011, 7. 18 Lee and North 2016, 2. 19 The fluctuations of the Roman eastern frontier were marvellously expressed by Frezouls in a very famous article (Frezouls 1981, 177-225). 20 In general, on nomads and archaeology, see Cribb 1991, and Szuchman 2009 for the specific geographical setting of the ancient Near East. On the archaeology of nomads in Jordan and the Negev, see Finkelstein and Perevolotsky 1990; Rosen 1992. More recently, a Leiden-based project is investigating the "Landscape of Survival" in the Jordan Black Desert in relation to the nomads/settled peoples interactions in the region (Akkermans et al. 2014, 186-205; Huigens 2015). 21 Khazanov 2015, 32. In general, on the post-Marxist theories, see also Khazanov 1994. 22 Ur et al. 2013; Bonacossi and Iamoni 2015.

2

From the Anatolian plateau to the steppe Geography and climate of North Mesopotamia

Introduction In 232 CE, the Roman army passed through the steppe areas of the Balikh river basin en route for Antioch after the disastrous defeat at the hands of the Sasanians. Unaccustomed to the hot weather they encountered on their march, a large number of Severus Alexander's soldiers suffered, and some of them died, from the severe heat and the lack of water. 1 The arid nature of the area and the meagre hospitality available in those lands considerably affected the retreat. A useful comparison is to be found in the vivid account of the failed siege of Hatra by Septimius Severus, given by Herodian, where the Roman army suffered greatly from the oppressive heat (seep. 100 in this volume). 2 These conditions were by no means unique; later, in the fourth century, Ammianus Marcellinus would comment on the effects of the climate and the lack of water during the Sasanian siege of Amida. 3 Beginning this chapter by recalling the difficulties the Roman army encountered while marching and campaigning through North Mesopotamia emphasizes the importance of the ecology- broadly defined as the combination of the climate and the natural environment, and their dynamic relationship to living creatures 4 - and its central contribution to gaining an accurate understanding of the impact of human (and specifically imperial) occupation in the region. This chapter discusses the geography and the environmental features of North Mesopotamia, both in its modern context and in connection with the confrontations between the empires. First, it explores the physical geography of the region; second, it focuses on issues of climate and environment, with a view to a reconstruction of ancient climate conditions. Climatology studies related generally to the Roman period have tended to focus their attention on the Western portion of the Empire, even if, in some cases, the inclusion of the Eastern Mediterranean basin has enlarged the geographical framework of such studies and allowed for broader considerations. 5 For Mesopotamia more specifically, there exist some detailed climatologic studies, yet these mostly address the early history of the region. 6 Recent work, however, has shifted scholarly attention towards the later periods of occupation in Mesopotamia, and this has stimulated research about climate changes and environmental variations affecting economic and social landscapes. 7 Such analyses include, for example, the reconsideration of the paleo-climate

10

From the Anatolian plateau to the steppe

datasets for the Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sasanian periods, up to the Islamic conquest. The intent of these studies is to trace the characteristics of changes in political and economic behaviour, and their possible link to major disruptions in climate, as well as other environmental factors. The impact of climate and environment on human behaviour is of great interest to any study of the development and activities of large empires in North Mesopotamia.

Defining a space What exactly is North Mesopotamia? The common conception of Mesopotamia is that of the "Land between the Rivers", a static and unique landscape. Yet there is more than this "single" Mesopotamia. Greater Mesopotamia includes, for example, the upper course of the Tigris river in south-eastern Anatolia, the middle course of the Euphrates, the eastern basin of the Tigris up to the foothills of the Zagros mountains, the valleys of the Zabs, the steppe lands of the Syrian-Iraqi Jezirah, the Diyala basin in central Iraq, the Marshes in southern Iraq, and the desert areas that cross the modern border between Syria and Iraq. This vast area is a region of great ecological and environmental complexity. 8 North Mesopotamia is just a tiny portion of this enormous land, yet even within this region can be found a diverse ecology. North Mesopotamia currently straddles three modern countries: Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. Defining its limits is not straightforward, but it can be understood in general terms as the land mass located between the area east of the upper courses of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers below the Anatolian plateau, together with the northern margins of the Syrian Desert between Syria and Iraq. At certain points in the Roman period, this large area encompassed part of the province of Syria, a part of the territory under the control of the kingdoms of Osrhoene and Armenia (to the west and north, respectively) and part of the kingdom of Adiabene in the east. The western territories of the Parthians and the Sasanians also included part of geographical Mesopotamia, at different points in antiquity. This book focuses on North Mesopotamia, the region that was most affected by the Roman presence and occupation from the early 2nd c. CE to the late 4th c. CE. North Mesopotamia is now divided between Syria, a part of south-eastern Turkey, and north-western Iraq. A substantial part is known by the name of the Jezirah (Arabic for "island"), indicating its position in between the two major rivers of the Euphrates and Tigris. The region is geographically part of the Arabian Plate, and it largely consists of flat or slightly rolling plains with only a few major peaks: these are the Jebel Abdel Aziz (maximum height 920 MASL) and the Jebel Sinjar (maximum height 1,480 MASL). Rivers and seasonal streams, widespread throughout the Near East, known as wadi, have left their mark on the plains of Jezirah. Excluding the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Kha bur and Balikh rivers are the major watercourses of North Mesopotamia, both flowing into the Euphrates. Annual mean discharge for these rivers is 50 m 3/s and 6 m 3/s, respectively. Sub-tributaries such as the wadi Radd or the wadi Jaghjagh and the wadi Tharthar, close to the ancient city of Hatra enrich the riverine landscape of the Jezirah.

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