Practically all that is known of Dura Europos in antiquity comes from the archaeological evidence discovered at the site, but there are brief references to the city in three ancient texts. Isidore of Charax states that ‘Dura, the city of Nicanor (is) a Macedonian foundation which the Greeks call Europos.’12 Referring to the Mesopotamian campaigns of Molon, the satrap of Media who had rebelled against Antiochus III in 222bc, Polybius claimed that Molon ‘occupied Parapotamia as far as the town of Europos’.13 Towards the end of the fourth century AD, Ammianus Marcelli-nus reported that Dura was in ruins when the invading Roman force he accompanied under the Emperor Julian passed by the site in April 363.14
Nicanor, a nephew of Seleucus I Nicator, was governor of Mesopotamia and the founder of many cities in the name of his uncle.15 He was a well-known figure in Greek colonization and was celebrated as such for centuries afterwards. Indeed, Seleucus Nicator appears to have been revered as the founding patron of Dura Europos throughout the city’s entire history as he was still honoured as the official founder of the city on the basis of references in a divorce document of ad254.16 Evidence from the Temple of the Gadde, a Palmyrene temple enlarged c. AD 159, depicts the protecting god of the house of the Seleucids, Zeus Olympios, as the Tyche of Dura, which indicates ongoing links with Seleucus Nicator as the city’s official founder, and there are epigraphic instances of his name in Palmyrene from the same temple.17 In a papyrus from Dura dating to ad180 reference is made to a priest of King Seleucus Nicator, demonstrating that his cult was still active early in the Roman period of control of the city.18
The choice of the site of Dura Europos reflects some of the major criteria of the Seleucid kings for founding a colony.19 The aspect of Dura Europos, as described by M. I. Rostovtzeff, is as follows:
Figure 4.3 The north wadi at Dura Europos from tower 1.
The city stood in a position of great natural strength, on a rocky plateau overhanging the Euphrates and flanked by two deep ravines. It was surrounded by strong walls of stone with a superstructure of mud bricks pierced by three monumental gates and including a citadel on the river front.20
The city, as Rostovtzeff further indicated, was situated at a vital point on the Euphrates for military and commercial traffic between upper and lower Mesopotamia. In addition to its possible importance as a trade centre, Dura also had the advantage of being surrounded by fertile territory. The documents from the Parthian and Roman periods indicate the extent of this fertility, and this was almost certainly the situation in the Seleucid period.21 While it may have been geographically remote to the later Seleu-cids, the Parthians and the Romans, the productive nature of this section of the Euphrates and the lower Khabur made it an important region, considering the harsh countryside that surrounded it.
The population of Dura Europos appears to have been quite small until the middle of the second century BC, from which time many of the surviving Seleucid features of the city were constructed.22 These features include the defences, the citadel palace, the redoubt, the agora and perhaps some temple foundations. It is likely that the plan and layout of the city dates back to its founding, but there is very little evidence of an early Seleucid nature at Dura
Figure 4.4 The Palmyra Gate at Dura Europos was the main entrance to the city in the west wall.
Other than the coins.23 The division of the civic area into rectangular insulae and the establishment of the main east-west road, beginning at the Palmyra Gate, is a typical example of a Macedonian town founded in the East in common with many cities in Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia.24 The imposing city walls with their towers and the presence of a citadel palace overlooking the city are classic features of Hellenistic fortifications.25 Besides the citadel a second fortress, the ‘redoubt’, was built on a height in the eastern part of the town. The redoubt contained a Hellenistic palace and to the south a temple, thought to be of Zeus Olympios. It is possible that the redoubt was the seat of the strategos of Dura.26 The citadel palace, like the other Hellenistic features at Dura, is mostly late Seleucid, its construction dating to the middle of the second century BC.27 While some changes to the perimeter walls of the city were effected in the Parthian and Roman periods, the main features of the walls as they currently stand, being the socle, towers and most of the curtains, were constructed in the last 50 years of the Seleu-cid occupation of the city.28 On the basis of recent archaeological work it also seems that the Palmyra Gate was constructed in this period.29
Excavations uncovered the fragmentary remains of what were identified by the Yale excavators as a Temple of Artemis and a Temple of Zeus
Megistos dating from the Seleucid period. Thorough excavation of the numerous temples belonging to the Parthian period shows no evidence that there were earlier Seleucid versions of them.30 As Dura does not appear to have had a very large population during most of the Hellenistic period, the two Seleucid temples are thought to have catered sufficiently for the population.31 These temples were rebuilt many times in the Parthian and Roman periods, and their layouts in the Seleucid period are difficult to reconstruct.32 Indeed, Downey casts doubt on the identification of these buildings as temples in their earlier phases, noting the extensive reconstruction work done on their plans by the Yale
Team.33
Of approximately 14,000 coins catalogued in the final report of the coins found at Dura, 1,024 were identified as Seleucid.34 In his analysis of the Seleucid coinage, Bellinger attempted to link the presence of almost every coin to wider events in the region during the city’s 550-year existence, which has led to a number of problems in reconstructing the city’s history. Little more can be done historically with the Seleucid coins than to demonstrate a pattern that is also reflected in the numismatic evidence of the Parthian and Roman periods. A large majority of them originated from the Antioch mint.35 It is significant that the same observation can be made
Figure 4.5 The irrigation belt looking from the south-east corner of Dura Europos.
Of the Parthian period as this is a further reflection of how closely linked Dura was to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East both commercially and culturally during 250 years of Parthian control of the city.36 Dura’s military importance in the Seleucid period seems to have been at its greatest late in the Seleucid period when the Parthians increasingly threatened the eastern possessions of the Seleucids, and it seems not to have assumed military importance again until the Roman period.
World History
