Siege of Dura-Europos

Siege of Dura-Europos in 239 AD
Part of the Mesopotamian campaigns of Ardashir I
Ancient streets and roads of the fortress of Dura-Europos.
Date April 20, 239 AD [note 1] [4] [5] Location Dura-Europos, along the Euphrates, Syria 34°44′49″N40°43′48″E / 34.747°N 40.730°E / 34.747; 40.730 Result Roman victory [4] [6] [7] [8]
Belligerents
Sassanid Empire	Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Ardashir I Shapur I [6]	Julius Terentius [6]
Strength
Much larger army [6] [8]	"A few thousand" men [9] from the legions IIII Scythica and XVI Flavia Firma [10] Possibly also Cohors XX Palmyrenorum [6]
Dura-Europos class=notpageimage| Location of the battle site within modern-day Syria.

The siege of Dura-Europos in 239 AD, or Ardashir I's siege of Dura-Europos, took place on April 20 between a large invading Sassanid force against a Roman garrison in the fortress along the Euphrates.

The siege

During the reign of Maximinus the Thracian, who succeeded the last emperor of the Severan dynasty, Alexander, the cities of the Roman province of Mesopotamia, Nisibis and Carrhae, were besieged and occupied by the Sasanids. ^{[11] [12]} Not surprisingly, Herodian also suggests that the Sasanids remained quiet for three or four years after Alexander Severus' campaigns of 232, the final outcome of which was highly uncertain for the two sides. ^[13]

In 239 AD, a new large-scale invasion by the Sasanian armies occurred later that year, which laid siege to the fortress-city of Dura Europos, a Roman outpost on the Euphrates River. The advance was repulsed. ^{[4] [6] [7] [8]}

Notes

1. [The thirteenth day of the month of Xandikus in the year 550, the Persians descended upon us] (April 20, 239 AD); from Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. ^[1] The journal Historia i Świat also claims the same date, ^[2] while we know for sure the siege happened in April of that year. ^[3]

References

1. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 7, Berlin 1934, 743b (from Dura-Europos): «Il tredicesimo giorno del mese di Xandikus dell'anno 550, i Persiani scesero verso di noi».
2. Maksymiuk, Katarzyna (September 2017). "The capture Ḥaṭrā in light of military and political activities of Ardašīr I". Historia i Świat. 6: 89–95. doi:10.34739/his.2017.06.06. hdl: 11331/2445 .
3. Wiesenhöfer 1986, Vol. II, Fasc. 4, pp. 471–476.
4. Historia Augusta, Maximus and Balbinus, 13.5.
5. Inscription AE 1948, 124.
6. Millar 1993, p. 150.
7. X. Loriot, Les premières années de la grande crise du III siecle: de l'avènement de Maximin Thrace (235) à la mort de Gordian III (244), Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt , II. 2 (1975), p. 657.
8. Southern 2001, p. 70.
9. Joseph Despina (September 2004). "Dura Evropos, the earliest Christian church" (PDF) (in Greek). p. 130. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-09-29. Article in Archeology & Arts.
10. James, Simon (2019). The Roman Military Base at Dura-Europos, Syria: An Archaeological Visualization. Oxford University Press. pp. 241–250. ISBN   9780198743569.
11. Joannes Zonaras, Extracts of History, XII, 18.
12. George Syncellus, Selezione di cronografia, 681.
13. Herodian, History of the Empire after Marcus Aurelius, VI, 6.6.

Sources

• Millar, Fergus (1993). The Roman near East (31 BC - AD 337). Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0415239448.

• Southern, Pat (2001). The Roman Empire: from Severus to Constantine. Routledge. ISBN   978-0415239431.

• Wiesehöfer, Joseph (1986). "ARDAŠĪR I i. History". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica . London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.