In Chapter 1 we saw that the war between Rome and the Parthians, which began over a dispute regarding Armenia in 161, had important ramifications for the region encompassing Palmyra, Osrhoene, the middle Euphrates and Mesopotamia. As a result of the Roman campaigns against the Parthians under Lucius Verus the kingdom of Osrhoene became a client-kingdom of Rome and Rome’s power was extended down the Euphrates from the Khabur to Dura Europos and beyond.126 This power appears to have been enforced mostly through Palmyrene troops. It was in this period that a permanent Roman military presence was established at
Palmyra in the form of Palmyrene auxiliary troops attached to the Roman army. The beginning of a Roman military presence in northern Mesopotamia probably belongs to this period also.
The only evidence for the Roman occupation of Dura Europos is archaeological, although literary evidence for the event has been mistakenly attributed to references by Lucian of Samosata who reports a great battle between the Romans and Parthians at a place called Europos. It was claimed that the Parthians lost over 70,000 men in this battle, but Lucian held this to be an exaggeration.127 Lucian’s Europos was clearly not Dura Europos and was located on the upper-middle Euphrates at the ancient site of Carchemish.128 Like Dura Europos, Europos was founded during the reign of Seleucus I Nicator.129 Pliny the Elder referred to this site in his list of Syrian cities, describing it as lying between Zeugma and Thapsacus on the Euphrates.130 The long-standing attribution of the name Europos to this city is demonstrated by the fact that it was still known as Europos in the sixth century AD.131 The literary evidence shows that the bulk of the fighting between Rome and Parthia in the 160s took place on the Euphrates between Zeugma and Nicephorium. Elsewhere, Lucian referred to a battle near Sura, and Fronto reported victories by Verus’ forces at Dausara, upstream from Sura, and Nicephorium (Callinicum) downstream from it.132 Avidius Cassius’ quick march along the Euphrates, which culminated in the capture of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 165, was facilitated by the victories won over the Parthians at the Euphrates fortifications of Europos, Dausara, Sura and Nicephorium.133
It is reasonable to accept that Dura Europos came under Roman control at the time of Verus’ invasion of Parthia that was directed down the Euphrates in 165, but there is no evidence from the site which conclusively confirms the date of the Roman occupation.134 There is enough evidence, however, for the date of AD 165 to be established as a reasonable proposition. Cumont reported an undated inscription on a stone column dedicated to Lucius Verus, which was discovered in the Temple of Artemis, and proposed that this fixed the date of the Roman occupation of the city.135 More recent investigation at Dura by Leriche reports a tunnel or mine found running from the desert and under the secondary gate in the west wall of the city. It is claimed that the mine was dug by the Romans as part of their conquest of the town in 165.136 The earliest datable evidence of a change in the political control of Dura Europos at this time can probably be seen in the presence of Palmyrene inscriptions in the Mithraeum. The first dates to 168 and is a dedication to Mithras in Palmyrene by Ethpeni, the strategos in command of the archers in Dura.137 The second, in Greek, is dated 170/171 and is a dedication to Mithras by a strategos with a Palmyrene name.138 It is generally accepted that the Roman military presence at Dura took the form of Palmyrene archers as allies of Rome at this time.139 One school of thought, however, suggests that the archers were already at Dura for the purposes of protecting the caravans during the Parthian period.140 It was from these archers that the nucleus of the Roman garrison at Dura in the third century, Cohors XX Palmyrenorum, appears to have been formed.
There is little to mark a significant change at Dura in the first 40 years of Roman control.141 The ongoing importance of the city’s Greek institutions, evident from a papyrus of 180, led the editors of the papyri to suggest that ‘Dura must have been relatively free at this period’, implying that Rome’s assumption of control of Dura and an extended section of the Euphrates was not marked by a major reorganization or military presence.142 A strategos or epistates still ruled the city, but it seems that the Romans replaced the family that had held these offices for much of the late Parthian period with another.143 It is also possible that these offices began to take on a role of military leadership.144 The numerous temples of the Parthian period and the few which traced their origins to the Seleucid period continued to function. While there were some enlargements and renovations of religious buildings during the Roman period, the building of new ones was limited and appears to have been related more to the Roman military presence at the city in the third century.
The Temple of Artemis continued as a major civic shrine, as it had during the Parthian period.145 The temple received some additional chapels and an enlarged enclosure to its south, but the main alteration to it was the addition of an odeon in the first decade of the third century.146 The Temple of Zeus Megistos demonstrated a similarly important civic role with a dedication in 169/170 celebrating various additions funded by Seleukos, who was strategos and epistates of the city.147 Other temples whose origins date to the Parthian period, such as the Temple of Adonis and the Temple of Bel in the necropolis, underwent enlargements and changes early in the Roman period of control.148 The datable evidence indicates, therefore, that in the early years of Roman control, Dura Europos continued in much the same way as it had under the Parthians.149 The Palmyrene community continued to grow and thrive and the temples continued to function as before, some of them undergoing enlargement and renovation as the city continued to prosper.
While Rome ultimately controlled Dura, its military power was exercised through Palmyrene auxiliaries. This was probably the case for settlements on much of the area of the middle Euphrates and Khabur rivers that came under Roman control under Lucius Verus. The third century, however, saw some significant changes that were related mostly to the role Dura Europos was to play in the territorial and military organization of Septimius Severus and his successors. This included a greater military presence on the middle Euphrates and in the newly formed province of Mesopotamia, and it became vitally important to Rome’s control of this recently acquired territory. Developments at Palmyra in the same period are closely linked with this activity.
World History
