A number of studies of the Euphrates and Khabur rivers and Roman archaeological sites in their vicinity have been made over the last century. These studies have contributed to the development of a picture of the Roman presence on the Euphrates and within its vicinity, but they were often too ready in their identification of sites as Roman. An early example of one of these studies is that of Chapot.6 Chapot analysed archaeological evidence for fortifications and roads along the Euphrates, in Cappadocia, Armenia, the Khabur basin, Mesopotamia and in Syria. Much of Chapot’s analysis focused on evidence from the fourth century and later, but some valuable observations were made about sites on the Euphrates before this period. The monumental four-volume work of Sarre and Herzfeld is a detailed description of archaeological sites visited in their extensive travels in Syria and Iraq in the last decades of the nineteenth century and early in the twentieth century.7 They identified and described numerous sites in the Tigris, Euphrates and Khabur river valleys. Their analysis and discussion of many sites focused mostly on Islamic material, but some useful observations were made about sites from the Roman period.
Perhaps the most extensive and admirable study of Roman fortifications and roads in the East was that of Poidebard.8 Poidebard’s impressive work, conducted over many years, was an attempt to identify lines of Roman defensive fortifications across the deserts and rivers in Syria, as well as in some parts of northern Iraq. The volume of text described the structure of what Poidebard referred to as the limes from the reign of Trajan to the ‘Arab Conquest’ and the various defensive lines which he claimed to have identified. Poidebard’s mapping of the many sites he photographed and visited was an attempt to demonstrate in considerable detail the extent of a physical limes, or system of defence, in Syria from the air. A significant proportion of the material covered by Poidebard is from periods later than that dealt with in this book, and there has been sustained criticism of Poidebard’s ready identification of sites as Roman; nonetheless, the work remains valuable to this study and is an enduring tribute to the man and his labours.
An important and more recent investigation by Kennedy and Riley brings together the pioneering works of Poidebard and two other significant scholar/aviators, Sir Aurel Stein and O. G.S. Crawford.9 Stein and Crawford studied the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic archaeological remains of the Near East from the air from the 1920s to the 1940s.10 Crawford and Stein mostly covered Iraq and what was then Transjordan in an attempt to emulate and supplement Poidebard’s work in Syria.11 Kennedy and Riley bring together the key material from Poidebard, Stein and Crawford as well as photographic material from other sources to provide a more concise picture of Rome’s desert frontier and its important features as it was conceived between the First World War and the Second World War.12
More specific studies of the Euphrates on the ground were undertaken by the scholar-travellers Musil and Dussaud, and their observations are also important to sections of this book.13 Musil’s travels were undertaken two decades earlier than the publication date of his book in 1927, which focused on the middle Euphrates, sections of the Tigris and parts of Mesopotamia and Syria. Exceptionally precise in describing the journeys, Musil attempted to identify the ancient names of many of the archaeological sites he visited based on their modern names. He also listed references in Classical and Islamic literature to many of the sites he attempted to identify. Musil’s and Dussaud’s works have sometimes been neglected in more recent scholarship in deference to Sarre and Herzfeld and Poidebard, but they are relied on to an extent in Chapter 3 where an attempt is made to identify a number of ancient locations referred to in the parchments and papyri from Dura Europos and the Euphrates papyri. The above pioneering works are now outdated in some respects as considerable excavation and research has been carried out since. However, they provide an enduring record of the archaeological sites, which in many cases have become seriously degraded since the early twentieth century.
More recent archaeological surveys on particular sections of the Euphrates include those of Kohlmeyer and Geyer and Monchambert.14 Kohlmeyer focuses on earlier periods than those covered in this book, but some observations are of relevance to sites on the Euphrates between Sura and the Khabur confluence in the Parthian and Roman periods. Geyer and Monchambert’s recent study is part of the Mission Archeologique de Mari and surveys the Euphrates from the vicinity of its confluence with the Khabur to Abou Kemal on the modern border between Syria and Iraq. The study provides an important hydrographical analysis of this section of the Euphrates and highlights the significance of the Dawrin canal that runs parallel to the river on its left bank on this section. Much of their study also focuses on earlier periods, but it provides some useful analysis of the itinerary of Isidore of Charax and the probable locations of the Euphrates sites mentioned in his work, together with other locations on the Euphrates and lower Khabur. A useful three-volume catalogue of the military sites on the Roman eastern frontier is provided by Shelagh Gregory.15 This work undertakes an architectural analysis and summary of the details of fortifications on Rome’s eastern frontier and owes much to the works of Sarre and Herzfeld and Poidebard, together with the publications of the archaeology performed on some sites excavated since their earlier observations. Studies by Kettenhofen and Huyse both focus on the third-century Sasanian Persian invasions of the Roman eastern provinces and discuss the identification and details of the various sites Shapur I claimed to have captured in the SKZ, including the Euphrates sites in the first Syrian campaign of 252/253.16
One of the important aims of this book is to combine the evidence of archaeology, ancient texts and modern observations of scholar-travellers to focus on the expansion and maintenance of Roman power in the region of the middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Palmyra in the second and third centuries AD. This regional and chronological focus is positioned between broader studies of the Roman Near East and Roman Syria and specific archaeological analyses of individual sites. The focus of the book is at times on detailed and specific material, though on other occasions it expands to consider broader political and military developments; however, the overall aim is a regional study in the second and third centuries AD.
World History
