Mesopotamia (Roman province)
In early 116, Rome minted coins to announce the creation of a new province called Mesopotamia. The ancient land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was now officially part of the empire. Within a year, it was given back. Within a century, it was reclaimed. For the four hundred years that followed, this corridor of territory swung between Roman and Persian control. Neither side could break the cycle. What drove two empires to fight repeatedly over the same strip of land, and what finally settled the question for good?
The war that created Mesopotamia began in 113, when the emperor Trajan launched his campaign against the Parthian Empire. He had ruled Rome since 98, and this eastern push would prove the most ambitious of his reign. Armenia fell in 114 and became a Roman province. By the end of 115, his forces held northern Mesopotamia. He organized it as a province and continued south, taking central and southern Mesopotamia later that same year. He crossed the Tigris into Adiabene and annexed it as the province of Assyria. In the last months of 116, he captured the Persian city of Susa. He then removed the Parthian king Osroes I from his throne, placing his own candidate, Parthamaspates, in his place. Never again would the Roman Empire advance so far east. Trajan died without securing these gains. His successor Hadrian, who reigned from 117 to 138, gave up every territory east of the Euphrates. Hadrian's withdrawal returned the Euphrates to its old role as Rome's eastern boundary. That line would hold for a generation before fresh opportunity drew Rome east again.
The campaign of Lucius Verus in 161-166 brought northern Mesopotamia, including Osroene, back under Roman influence. Verus chose not to organize new formal provinces. He left vassal rulers in place and stationed Roman garrisons in the region, most notably at Nisibis. That arrangement held until 195, when civil war between the emperor Septimius Severus and the usurper Pescennius Niger set off rebellions across the area. Nisibis came under siege. Severus moved quickly, restored order, and organized Osroene as a full province. He then turned east against Parthia and sacked the Parthian capital Ctesiphon. In 198, consciously imitating Trajan, he re-established the province of Mesopotamia. Nisibis became its capital, raised to the rank of a full colonia. The new province was smaller than Trajan's. It was bounded by the province of Osroene to the south and the Euphrates and Tigris to the north. The river Chaboras, known today as the Khabur, marked its eastern limit. The Parthian dynasty that Severus had defeated would be swept away by 224, replaced by the Sassanid Empire under Ardashir I.
Ardashir I, who founded the Sassanid Empire and reigned from 224 to 241, attacked and overran Mesopotamia in 239-243. The assault came in the turmoil that followed the Year of the Six Emperors. A Roman general named Timesitheus pushed the Sassanids back and recovered the province, but Timesitheus himself died in 243. In the 250s, Shapur I, Ardashir's successor as Persian shah, launched a fresh assault. He fought the emperor Valerian across the region and captured him at the city of Edessa in 260. The following year, Odaenathus of Palmyra engaged Shapur and forced the Persians to retreat. The province had now come under Persian attack twice in a generation. Diocletian would eventually reorganize its administrative structure as part of a sweeping reform of Rome's eastern defenses.
Diocletian (reigning 284-305) and Constantine I (reigning 306-337) folded the province into the Diocese of the East. That diocese answered to the praetorian prefecture of the East. That arrangement held until the debacle of Julian's Persian expedition in 363. Rome surrendered Nisibis, Singara, and territory in Adiabene. The provincial capital moved to Amida. The military commander, known as the dux Mesopotamiae, relocated to Constantina. Other towns in the province included Martyropolis and Kephas. Bishops from the region had attended the First Council of Nicaea, representing sees at Edessa, Nisibis, Rhesaina, Makedonopolis, and Fars. By the Council of Constantinople in 381, the active sees had shifted to Amida, Constantina, and Amaria. This mirrored the territorial losses of 363.
After the difficulties of the Anastasian War of 502-506, the emperor Anastasius I built the fortress of Dara. It served as a counterweight to the now-Persian Nisibis. Dara became the new seat of the dux Mesopotamiae. Justinian I (reigning 527-565) then reorganized the region further. The northern districts, including Martyropolis, were transferred to the new province of Armenia IV. The remaining territory was split into two districts. One, centered on Amida, covered the area south of the Tigris. The other, centered on Dara, covered the region of Tur Abdin. The Notitia Antiochena, a church document from the 580s, listed eight suffragan bishoprics under the see of Amida. The see of Dara held only three. Tur Abdin had become a center of monastic life, home to communities including the monastery of Qarṭmin. It would remain the heart of the Syrian Orthodox world for centuries.
In 573, Persian forces captured Dara. The East Romans recovered it under the peace of 591. The next war, fought between 602 and 628, put Dara in Persian hands again. The Romans took it back after 628, but the recovery proved brief. Between 633 and 640, Muslim armies moved through the region and ended both Roman and Sassanid authority permanently. Tur Abdin, which had grown as a center of Syrian Orthodox monastic life under Roman rule, would carry that role into the centuries ahead.
Common questions
When was the Roman province of Mesopotamia first established?
The Roman province of Mesopotamia was first established in early 116 by the emperor Trajan. He had conquered northern Mesopotamia by the end of 115 and organized it formally as a province. His successor Hadrian abandoned the province in 117, returning the Euphrates to its role as Rome's eastern boundary.
Who re-established the Roman province of Mesopotamia after Hadrian abandoned it?
Septimius Severus re-established the province of Mesopotamia in 198, following his sack of the Parthian capital Ctesiphon. He deliberately modeled his action on Trajan's original conquest, naming Nisibis as the new provincial capital and raising it to the rank of a full colonia.
What were the boundaries of the Roman province of Mesopotamia under Septimius Severus?
Under Septimius Severus, the province of Mesopotamia was bounded by the province of Osroene to the south, the Euphrates and Tigris to the north, and the river Chaboras, known today as the Khabur, to the east. It was smaller than the province Trajan had originally created.
Who captured the Roman emperor Valerian in the province of Mesopotamia?
The Persian shah Shapur I captured the Roman emperor Valerian at the city of Edessa in 260, during fighting across the province of Mesopotamia. Odaenathus of Palmyra subsequently engaged Shapur and forced the Persians to retreat.
What happened to Nisibis and the Roman province of Mesopotamia after Julian's Persian expedition?
After the debacle of Julian's Persian expedition in 363, Rome surrendered Nisibis, Singara, and territory in Adiabene. The provincial capital moved to Amida, and the military commander, the dux Mesopotamiae, relocated to Constantina.
What finally ended Roman control of the province of Mesopotamia?
Muslim armies swept through Mesopotamia between 633 and 640, permanently ending both Roman and Sassanid authority in the region. The East Romans had briefly recovered Dara after the war of 602-628, but the Muslim conquests ended their presence entirely.