Abgar VIII | |
---|---|
Abgar VIII as King on the obverse of a Roman coin. | |
King of Osroene | |
Reign | 177-212 CE |
Predecessor | Ma'nu VIII bar Ma'nu |
Successor | Abgar IX |
Born | Edessa, Upper Mesopotamia (modern-day Şanlıurfa, Turkey) |
Died | c. 212 |
Religion | Christianity |
Abgar VIII of Edessa, also known as Abgar the Great [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [lower-alpha 1] or Abgar bar Ma'nu, [1] [3] [7] was an Arab [lower-alpha 2] king of Osroene from 177 CE to 212 CE. [4] [2] [5] [lower-alpha 3]
Abgar the Great was most remembered for his alleged conversion to Christianity in about 200 CE and the declaration of Christianity as the official religion of the city at that time. [5] [9] [10] It has been suggested that a cross shown on the tiara of Abgar VIII in coins he minted has a Christian meaning. [11]
Osroene was a client state of the Roman Empire at this time. [1] Prior to Abgar VIII taking the throne, in 165 CE the Roman military had reinstated Abgar VII, [12] and they continued to have a significant presence in the region. Nevertheless, Abgar VIII's initial actions suggest that he was not wholly loyal to Rome nor was closely monitored by Rome. While Abgar VIII's coins bear the image of the Roman Emperor Commodus, Abgar's goals were to maintain a degree of independence and to extend his influence geographically as much as possible without disturbing the greater powers of Rome and Parthia. [7]
Abgar VIII supported Pescennius Niger as Roman Emperor in 193 CE. However Pescennius Niger was swiftly challenged and deposed by the Emperor Septimius Severus. Abgar VIII's submission to Septimus Severus is portrayed on the Arch of Severus in Rome. He was not deposed, but Osroene was made a Roman province and Abgar's kingdom was reduced to a rump state containing just the city of Edessa. [2] Abgar was fully reconciled with Septimus Severus and was later received with honour as a guest of Septimus Severus in Rome. [1] In an additional display of loyalty, Abgar VIII took on the Latin name Lucius Aelius Aurelius Septimus. [6]
Christianity spread in Edessa significantly during Abgar VIII's reign. [1] The Chronicle of Edessa (540 CE) reports that a Christian church building in Edessa was damaged in a flood in November 201 CE. [1] The Christian philosopher Bardaisan was a member of Abgar VIII's court. [3]
In 1904 Adolf von Harnack proposed that Lucius of Britain, a ruler mentioned in the Liber Pontificalis as contemporaneous with Pope Eleutherius, actually was Abgar of Edessa. Harnack argued that 'Britanio' was written as an erroneous expansion for 'Britio', a citadel of Edessa. Harnack's proposal has been challenged by British archaeologist David J. Knight, who argued that Abgar of Edessa was never called Lucius of Britio/Birtha in contemporary sources. [13]
Upon his death in 212 CE, [6] Abgar the Great was succeeded by his son Abgar IX. However, Abgar IX was summoned with his son to Rome in 213 CE and murdered on the orders of Caracalla. [14] A year later Caracalla ended the independence of Osroene and incorporated it as a province into Roman Empire. [15]
Lucius Septimius Severus was a Roman politician who served as emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus was the final contender to seize power after the death of the emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors.
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Osroene or Osrhoene was an ancient region and state in Upper Mesopotamia. The Kingdom of Osroene, also known as the "Kingdom of Edessa", according to the name of its capital city, existed from the 2nd century BC, up to the 3rd century AD, and was ruled by the Abgarid dynasty. Generally allied with the Parthians, the Kingdom of Osroene enjoyed semi-autonomy to complete independence from the years of 132 BC to AD 214. Though ruled by a dynasty of Arab origin, the kingdom's population was of mixed culture, being Syriac-speaking from the earliest times. The city's cultural setting was fundamentally Syriac, alongside strong Greek and Parthian influences, though some Arab cults were also attested at Edessa.
Edessa was an ancient city (polis) in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It was founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene, and continued as capital of the Roman province of Osroene. In Late Antiquity, it became a prominent center of Christian learning and seat of the Catechetical School of Edessa. During the Crusades, it was the capital of the County of Edessa.
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Mesopotamia was the name of a Roman province, initially a short-lived creation of the Roman emperor Trajan in 116–117 and then re-established by Emperor Septimius Severus in c. 198. Control of the province was subsequently fought over between the Roman and the Sassanian empires until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century.
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Abgar IX Severus was king of Osroene.
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The Abgarid dynasty was a dynasty of Nabataean Arab origin. Members of the dynasty, the Abgarids, reigned between 134 BC and 242 AD over Edessa and Osroene in Upper Mesopotamia. Some members of the dynasty bore Iranian names, while others had Arabic names, including Abgar itself. J.B. Segal notes that the names ending in "-u" are "undoubtedly Nabatean". The Abgarid dynasts spoke "a form of Aramaic".
The siege of Edessa took place in 165 when the Roman Empire, under Emperor Lucius Verus, besieged the city of Edessa, held by the Parthian Empire.
The siege of Edessa took place in 163 when the Parthian Empire, under Vologases IV, besieged the city of Edessa, held by the Roman Empire.