The Land at the End of the Empire: The Roman Eastern Border in Mesopotamia
October 2024 | Vol. 12.10
By Rocco Palermo
On a cliff overlooking the Tigris River, circa 90 kms North of Mosul in what is now northern Iraq, lies a small cemetery, locally known (in Kurdish) as Seh Qubba, “three tombs”. The name refers to the presence of the graves of three local sheikhs, but this place holds more than that. In the mid-1980s brief salvage excavations partly exposed a small settlement, with remnants of typical Roman architectures (small baths, for example) and evident trace of a Roman military presence, dated between the end of the 2nd and the early 3rd centuries CE.
It is not by chance that this small fort was placed on the western bank of the Tigris. At that time, the mighty river was de facto the easternmost border of the Empire and the sole frontier (limes) where Rome faced organized, structured, and politically complex entities, the Parthians (late 2nd century BCE – early 3rd century CE) and the Sasanians (224 CE – mid-7th century CE).
The Tigris thus bounded Roman-period Mesopotamia to the East whereas the Khabur river, tributary of the Euphrates, separated it from Syria and the client kingdom of Osrhoene. At the North, the Taurus mountains and the Upper Tigris valley formed a natural frontier between Mesopotamia and greater Armenia, as the Syrian desert — south of the confluence Euphrates-Khabur — did in the South.
Map of North Mesopotamia with major geographical features and sites mentioned in the text (Map by R. Palermo).
Up until the mid-1st century BCE, Rome had little or no interest in the steppe lands of North Mesopotamia, nor any territory beyond the Euphrates, and in fact the river itself was perceived both as a physical and ideological frontier, separating the Mediterranean world from the unknown. The sliding door moment can be found in the dusty plains of southern Anatolia in 53 BCE, when the Roman triumvir Crassus led seven Roman legions to meet the Parthian army, led by general Surena, at the gates of Carrhae, modern Harran in Türkiye. The battle favored the Parthians, with Rome suffering one of the most severe defeats of its history. From this period onwards, the history of North Mesopotamia coincides with the events that marked the interactions between all the agents actively involved in the control of the region (Rome, Parthia, Sasanian Persia). The Parthians continuously defied Rome and forced emperors to deploy significant numbers of soldiers in the area (especially in the late 2nd century CE). But it was the confrontation with the Sasanian dynasty that contributed to the creation of two global empires that contested the dominion over these lands until late antiquity.
This territory was kaleidoscopic and dynamic, heavily subject to different degrees of political control and acting alternately as a buffer zone, an official provincia, and a contested area between the Empires. But the scenario was not limited to the large-scale empires, and it would be a mistake to consider the lands of Mesopotamia as Roman, Parthian, or Sasanian. Arab tribes, for example, as well as local Aramaic-speaking communities played a major role, and their reciprocal interactions with the territorial imperial entities certainly had an impact on the socio-cultural, economic, and political characteristics of the region.
Indeed, it would be naïve to look for substantial evidence of typical Roman-period material culture in Mesopotamia. The Roman presence, strongly intertwined to the military occupation, is primarily visible — and/or known in the textual records — in major cities. Centers like Dura Europos, in Syria, and to a lesser extent Nisibis (mod. Nusaybin, in South-eastern Turkey), Rhesaina (mod. Ras el-Ain, Syria), and Singara (mod. Sinjar or Shingal, in North-western Iraq) all show records of official Roman occupation.
The Euphrates River as seen from the Citadel of Dura Europos. Photo by R. Palermo.
Urban Centers
Dura Europos, on a cliff overlooking the Euphrates in Syria, holds a primary spot in the archaeological panorama of Roman-period Mesopotamia. The impressive archaeological remains of the city — enclosed by massive walls and spatially organized by insulae (habitation blocks) — have yielded records of a multi-ethnic and religious settlement, with rich civilian houses flanked by a military quarter with baths and a small amphitheater, with temples and shrines dedicated to local deities, but also a synagogue and a church. The dry conditions of the steppe of eastern Syria have also enabled the preservation of written documents (papyri and parchment) with records of economic interactions between Roman soldiers and local communities, frescoes, textiles, armies and armors, and the best-preserved military shield (scutum) of the Roman times, among other things.
Archaeological remains in other major cities of Roman Mesopotamia are equally relevant, if perhaps less visually impressive than at Dura. At Rhesaina, the discovery of a loricate, a statue (unfortunately headless) of an individual wearing a cuirass (lorica), speaks for an official presence of Roman miliary personnel in the city. At Singara, the remains of the imponent city walls (partly excavated by the late David Oates in the 1950s) with U-shaped towers and city gates confirm the military relevance of this strategic center at the feet of the Jebel Sinjar. Ancient literary sources also record the presence of Roman legions in both Rhesaina (Legio III Parthica) and Singara (Legio I Parthica). A citadel was most likely present at Singara, as confirmed by the artificial hill — today covered by houses — at the East of the supposed ancient settlement. There are no visible remains of this structure, but from that position one could have an almost total control over the plain south of the city, and most importantly of the West–East Road coming from the Khabur valley. The current visible layout of the defensive walls is dated to the 4th century CE (although with possible, and extensive, later modification).
CORONA image (Mission 1102, December 1967) of Singara/Sinjar. U-shaped towers and the possible citadel are indicated. Map and graphic elaboration by R. Palermo.
The creation of an official provincia Mesopotamia following the campaigns of Septimius Severus (late 2nd – early 3rd century CE) marks the most relevant political and military success of Rome. The territory from the Khabur river to the western bank of the Tigris was fully integrated in the Roman provincial administration, with Nisibis promoted to colonia and capital of the new province. Unlike Singara, the archaeological remains of Nisibis are less evident, as the modern city practically overlaps with the supposed ancient center. A group of Corinthian columns in the no man’s land between Syria and Turkey possibly belonged to a public building (market square or a hippodrome), whereas the 4th century CE church complex of Mar Yaqub, with a still standing baptistery, calls attention to the crucial role that the city had in the religious life of Christian communities during late antiquity.
The Corinthian columns in the no man’s land between Syria and Turkey, possibly part of a public building of Roman period Nisibis. Photo by R. Palermo.
Rural Landscapes
Looking at the rural landscape, the rolling plains of north-eastern Syria and north-western Iraq are dotted with hundreds of squared structures of different sizes and types, very often built with sun-dried mudbricks. Past historical and archaeological narratives have linked these structures to a capillary presence of Roman military troops, almost exclusively on the assumption that square = Roman, although only less than a handful of them has been the systematic subject of excavation. One cannot exclude that some of these forts might have been used by Roman troops (or, most likely, auxiliary troops), but there is convincing evidence that most of them should be in fact dated to later periods.
Archaeological exploration (in the limited areas it has been carried out) has provided interesting evidence. A few kilometers east of Singara/Sinjar lie the remains of a complex site, Ain Sinu. The presence of a small, fort-like structure with an adjoining, larger, set of barracks led British archaeologists in the 1950s to label the site as a permanent castrum-like settlement occupied by the Roman army.
CORONA image (Mission 1102, December 1967) of Ain Sinu and its neighbouring regions. Major features are indicated. Map and graphic elaboration by R. Palermo.
On the basis of the excavated evidence, a 3rd century CE chronology was suggested by the late David Oates and his team. Ain Sinu was only briefly investigated almost 70 years ago, but its function and architecture have been puzzling archaeologists and historians for decades. The excavated material culture, including Roman numismatic evidence associated with a great quantity of local ceramics, inserts the site into the local cultural horizon. However, the architecture of the fort and the barracks do not resemble any traditional Roman period forts either in the Eastern Mediterranean or Europe (with the sole exception of a rather similar one close to Köln, in Germany). Instead, strict architectural comparisons have been identified with several forts located in the Gorgan area of northern Iran, and all dated to the Sasanian period. A suggestive interpretation, which also hints at the political complexity of Roman period Mesopotamia, is that the site at Ain Sinu was originally built by the Sasanians, perhaps in connection with a western expansion beyond the Tigris front, and later conquered and re-occupied (for a short period of time) by non-Sasanian troops — either a Roman detachment or auxiliary soldiers.
Cities and isolated forts did not constitute the sole settlements of the region; rural villages did exist, mostly populated by local Aramaic-speaking communities. The lively economic relationships of the citizens and soldiers of Dura and Nisibis with individuals living in these minor settlements area is recorded in the papyri and parchments found at Dura and in the group so-called “from the Euphrates”. This group of documents shed an unprecedented degree of light on the socio-political dynamics in the region between the Khabur and the Euphrates. Economic transactions and trade, together with judicial activities, and military operations and tasks are recorded. In particular, the documents from Dura represent the most important papyrological dossier on the Roman army ever found.
Most of the villages cited in the papyri, however, are difficult to locate on the ground and no archaeological investigation has ever been carried out at the few that could have been identified. Systematic exploration of Parthian, Roman, and Sasanian period small sites in Mesopotamia is very much limited, with some notable exception. Excavations at the site of Tell Barri, in northeastern Syria, have provided substantial evidence for the understanding of the daily life of rural communities of Mesopotamian in time of political turmoil, and particularly in the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE.
Part of the 1st c. BCE/1st c. CE defensive wall at the site of Tell Barri, Syria. © Missione Archeologica Italiana a Tell Barri.
The remains of a massive fortification on the main mound of the site, with evidence of destruction roughly dated to the early 2nd century CE have been suggestively linked to Trajan’s invasion of Mesopotamia. The peculiar material culture of Tell Barri also speaks for a very diverse socio-cultural landscape of Roman period Mesopotamia. Ceramics made following local traditions are found alongside with typically “Roman” styles fineware such as Eastern Sigillata. Parthian coins, Hatrene sculptures and a Latin inscription referring to a procurator (Roman official in charge of the financial affairs of a province) were all recovered at the site.
Latin inscriptions, the language of military and power, are limited to only a few through the region. Notable is the milestone from Karsi, which bears evidence of a road crossing the Jebel Sinjar, dated to the Trajanic period. Once thought lost, it has been rediscovered and is now on display in the Erbil Museum of Civilization.
Composed image of the milestone from Karsi, northern Iraq, rediscovered by the author in the Erbil Museum of Civilization (Iraqi Kurdistan). Photo and graphic elaboration by R. Palermo.
There are also three Latin inscription from Hatra, a Parthian holy city in northwestern Iraq, that suggest a temporary Roman military presence in the Sun-God city, which was otherwise never fully integrated in the Roman administration of Mesopotamia and ultimately conquered by the Sasanians in the first half of the 3rd century CE.
The archaeological data in our hands is far from satisfactory and political instability further hinders archaeological exploration in the area at present. Even so, recent investigations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, East of the Tigris (and thus beyond the limes) are substantially rewriting the traditional narrative of Mesopotamia as a war-torn area between the Empires at the beginning of the 1st millennium CE, highlighting how the Parthian-period occupation of the extended region East of Tigris experienced a considerable demographic growth despite the political turmoil. This was possibly due to a limited interference of the Roman miliary operations in the area, and to the pivotal role of the local dynasty of Adiabene, a vassal-state of the Parthian Empire, that controlled the region immediately to the east of the Tigris, which is from where this short journey through Roman period Mesopotamia has begun.
Rocco Palermo is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. His book, On the Edge of Empires: North Mesopotamia During the Roman Period, was published in 2019.
Further reading:
Ball, W. (2003) ed. Ancient Settlement in the Zammar Region: Excavations by the British Archaeological Expedition to Iraq in the Saddam Dam Salvage Project 1985-86: Volume I. Archaeopress, Oxford.
Comfort, A. (2023). The Roman Frontier with Persia in North-Eastern Mesopotamia : Fortresses and Roads around Singara. Oxford: Archaeopress
Edwell, P. (2008). Between Rome and Persia. The Middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia, and Palmyra under Roman Control. Routledge, London-New York.
Millar, F. (1993). The Roman Near East. 31 BC – 337 AD. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Oates, D. (1968). Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq. British Academy, London
Palermo, R. (2019). On the Edge of Empires. North Mesopotamia during the Roman Period. Routledge, London-New York.
How to cite this article:
Palermo, R. 2024. “The Land at the End of the Empire: The Roman Eastern Border in Mesopotamia.” The Ancient Near East Today 12.10. Accessed at: https://anetoday.org/roman-eastern-border-mesopotamia/.
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