HISTORY OF THE HELLENISTIC SYRIAN STATES

 

The Nabataean Kingdom (586 BCE - 106 CE)

Nabataea (pronounced, nab-uh-tay-uh) was an Arabo-Aramaean state located between the Sinai Peninsula in the south and the Golan Heights in the north, the Jordan Rift Valley in the west and the Nefud Desert (northwestern Arabian Peninsula) in the east (roughly analogous to modern western Jordan). Its capital was the famous rock-carved city of Petra, although Nabataean hegemony eventually came to include a number of other prosperous cities (Bosra, Hegra, Shivta, Avdat, Mampsis, Haluza, Dahab, and Nitzana). There may have been Nabatu Arab tribes living in eastern Jordan as early as the sixth century BCE, but they did not rise to prominence until the Wars of the Diadochi (322-275 BCE) that led to the breakup of Alexander's Macedonian Empire. When the Hebrews were mass-deported from the Kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (605-562 BCE), this created a power vacuum in Palestine into which the Edomites inserted themselves (the Edomites were a Canaanite people living between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba). This paved the way for the Nabatu (a northern Arab tribe) to expand from the fringes of the Nefud Desert into the vacated land of Edom, where they were able to dominate regional trade networks linking the Hejaz (i.e., the Red Sea coast of the Arabian Peninsula), Egypt, early eastern African states (Kush, Meroe, and Daamat), and early southern Arabian states (Saba/Sheba and Hadhramaut) with the Aramaean kingdoms of Syria, the Neo-Babylonian Empire of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia, and the Lydian Kingdom in Anatolia. Growing wealth and power, fed in large part by trade in luxury goods such as frankincense, myrrh, ebony, and ivory, allowed the Nabataeans to gradually expand their hegemony northward into Moab, Gilead, and Ammon (regions of the Jordan Rift Valley to the east of the Jordan River), as well as into the Hejaz (the northwestern Red Sea coastal strip of the Arabian Peninsula). This brought them into close contact with the Aramaean Kingdom of Damascus in southern Syria, and like many of their contemporaries the Nabataeans were strongly influenced by Aramaic language and culture (no doubt enabling them to better participate in regional trade and diplomacy). When the Hebrews were restored to their homeland in Palestine by Cyrus II (559-530 BCE) after he toppled the Neo-Babylonian Empire and founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Nabataeans became close allies of the Zugot leaders (539-140 BCE) and the Hasmonean Dynasty (140-37 BCE) during the Second Temple Period of Jewish history (the Edomites were driven into the Golan Heights, where they became known as the Ituraeans). The Nabataeans remained independent of Persia, Alexander's Greco-Macedonian empire, the Seleukid successor state, and the Parthian Empire. However, during the reigns of Alexander Jannai/Yannai (103-76 BCE) of the Hasmonean Kingdom and Obodas/Ubaidah I (96-85 BCE) of Nabataea, the Jewish-Nabataean alliance fell apart, and the two kingdoms fought for control of the Golan Heights, Moab, and Gilead. This gave Rome a pretext to get involved in the region (the war disrupted Roman access to the Red Sea trade networks), and the Hasmoneans were overthrown in favor of the Herodian Dynasty of the Ituraeans (47 BCE-92 CE). The Herodian and Nabataean kingdoms were made client states of the Roman Empire. However, Jewish-Nabataean rivalry continued—with the support of Cleopatra VII Philopater (51-12 BCE), the Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, Herod I (37-4 BCE) of Judaea briefly conquered Nabataea (ca. 32-31 BCE). Peace was restored by Roman fiat, Ptolemaic Egypt fell to the Romans (ca. 30 BCE), and following Herod's death the Romans divided the Herodian Kingdom into four separate kingdoms, each ruled by a son of Herod (the Herodian Tetrarchy). This had the intended effect of reducing the regional power of the Jews, restoring the primacy of Nabataea as Rome's favored client and buffer state between the empire's eastern Mediterranean possessions and the Arab tribes to the east (known to the Romans as saraceni), and stabilizing the Red Sea trade routes (by this time, Nabataean hegemony had expanded into the Sinai). The favored status of the Nabataean Kingdom led to a flourishing of local culture. It is perhaps surprising, then, that the Roman emperor Trajan (98-117 CE) chose to annex Nabataea in 106 CE (it was colonized and converted into the Roman province of Arabia Petraea), following the death of the loyal Nabataean client-king Rabbel II (70-106 CE). However, Trajan went on to launch a major invasion of the Parthian Empire that succeeded in temporarily occupying much of Mesopotamia (including the Parthian capital at Ctesiphon), and at the same time Roman troops carried out a far less well-known operation that pushed the Roman border with Arabia south into the Hejaz as far as the city of Hegra—a stout Roman road was flung down the coast (the Via Traiana Nova), a move that generally meant the Romans planned to stay. Hegra was almost directly across the Red Sea from Rome's southernmost Red Sea port in Egypt, Berenice, and the road would both have eased trade up from the Red Sea into Nabataea and Judaea as well as given Roman legions quick access to the region. This left the expanse of the Nefud Desert within the arc of Roman-occupied territory in southwestern Asia. While campaigning in Parthia and the Hejaz, Trajan experimented with developing a camel-corps of mixed horse and camel cavalry, and he put great efforts into developing a network of alliances with the dominant Arab tribes living in the Nefud Desert at that time. Trajan's motives for his eastern campaigns have been much debated, although I think it seems clear that at a minimum he was aiming to restructure Rome's eastern frontier to regularize its borders and secure direct Roman access to the primary regions through which long-distance trade passed (and thus cutting out middlemen like the Nabataeans)—i.e., from India up the Persian Gulf to Charakene and on through Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire; from China through central Asia into Mesopotamia via Elymais and thence on to the Roman Empire; and from the Horn of Africa and the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula up the Red Sea to either Egypt or northern Arabia and on to the eastern Mediterranean. Seen in this light, it seems likely that Trajan annexed Nabataea because he planned to push the Roman frontier further east, permanently. This would have placed the annexation well within standard Roman practice for extending the borders, with the Romanization of a former border state going hand-in-hand with a strong push to convert barbarians further afield into clients of the empire (in this case, the Saracenic/northern Arab tribes). Regardless, we will likely never know for certain what Trajan's ultimate plans may have been because he died on 8 August 117 CE, after having fallen ill while overseeing the consolidation of his conquest of Mesopotamia, and his autobiographical memoirs were subsequently lost to history (we only know they existed because they are mentioned by other Roman writers). Trajan's successor, Hadrian, abandoned Trajan's Mesopotamian conquests. But I digress. Trajan's annexation of Nabataea leads to the end of the road for a discussion of the independent Kingdom of Nabataea. 

 

Kingdom of Adiabene (559 BCE - 224 CE)

Adiabene (pronounced, ad-dy-uh-ben-ay) encompassed the former heartlands of Assyria in northern Upper Mesopotamia. Although its capital city was Arbela, it also included the former capital city of the Assyrian Empire, Nineveh (much reduced in circumstances). Adiabene was bordered by the Armenian Kingdom of Gordyene/Korduene/Corduene in the north, Atropatene to the east, Osrohene to the southwest, the Armenian Kingdom of Sophene to the northwest, and Hatra to the south. The kingdom's population was primarily Aramaic-speaking Chaldean Semites (i.e., Assyrians), although there were significant minorities of Orontes (an indigenous Caucasian people related to the Armenians) and West Aryans (descended from the Skythians), as well as the ubiquitous Syrian merchants and Greek colonists. It's rulers converted to Judaism in the first century CE, although until then the primary religion was Ashurism (a Mazdayan sect). The Kingdom of Adiabene was first constituted as a vassal-state of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (550-330 BCE), went through a period of independence during the Alexandrian Macedonian and Seleukid empires (330-247 BCE), was again reduced to vassal status by the Parthian Empire (247 BCE-224 CE), briefly became a client kingdom of the Roman Empire following Trajan's conquest of Mesopotamia (117-118 CE), and finally was conquered by the Sassanid Dynasty of Persia (ca. 224 CE) and converted into a province of the Persian Empire (Nodsheragan).

 

Kingdom of Atropatene (323 BCE - 643 CE)

Atropatene (pronounced, at-row-pat-teen-ay) was originally part of the Achaemenid province of Media (an area of northern Mesopotamia colonized by the Medes). When the Achaemenid Empire was toppled by Alexander the Great (ca. 330-323 BCE), Media was divided into two satrapies (i.e., provinces)—Media Matiene encompassed the southern two-thirds, and Media Atropatene encompassed the northern third. Media Atropatene lay along the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea, with Hyrcania to the east, Media Matiene to the south, Armenia to the northwest, and Adiabene to the west. Media Atropatene means, “Media of [belonging to] Atropates,” Atropates being the first Macedonian satrap/governor. However, when Seleukos I Nikator (358-281 BCE) emerged from the Wars of the Diadochi (322-275 BCE) as emperor of Persia, Atropates refused to give him his allegiance, instead declaring Atropatene an independent kingdom. It is probably at that time that the name was shortened to Atropatene—it was common practice amongst Hellenistic monarchs to identify themselves directly with the state they ruled (e.g., Alexandrian Empire, Seleukid Empire, Ptolemaic Empire, etc.). Subsequently, Atropatene was reduced to vassal status by the Parthians (247 BCE-224 CE), who named it Aturpatakan (Pahlavi, “Land of Fire”), and later still it was annexed by the Sassanids (226-651 CE) and converted into a province (Middle Persian, Adurbadagan). The name, “Land of Fire,” is believed to have been derived from the fact that the region was a source of naptha (a naturally occurring petroleum/pitch used in the making of ancient incendiary weapons). The capital of Atropatene was at Ganzak, and its population was primarily Hurrians (an indigenous Caucasian people), Medes (Iranians), Skythians (West Aryans), Caucasian Albanians in the northeastern regions (a people related to the Hurrians), and Hyrcanians in the eastern regions (a mixed Kassite-Iranian people). As with many of the kingdoms covered by this gallery, there were also Syrian merchants and Greek colonists, mainly living in the capital.

 

Kingdom of Hatra (300 BCE - 241 CE)

The city-state of Hatra was located in the Jazira Desert region of Upper Mesopotamia (northwest Iraq). Hatra was a heavily fortified city, in part famous for its large compliment of tension and torsion artillery, and it had a small but disciplined army. It was founded during the Seleukid Dynasty (312-63 BCE) as a Greco-Macedonian colony amidst the Aramaic-speaking Arab tribes that had recently settled in southern Assyria. Its population consisted primarily of Arabo-Aramaeans, various eastern Semitic peoples, and a Greek minority (these probably built the city's original artillery pieces, and their descendants may have continued the tradition). Hatra was a close ally of the Parthian Empire (247 BCE-224 CE), and it is believed that the Hatrenes developed a unique combat system during the period of the Parthian-Hatrene alliance—cataphract camelry—which attracted the attention of Roman writers. The Parthians may have tried to develop their own cataphract camel corps on the Hatrene model (period sources are unclear when mentioning these troops, whether they are Hatrene or Parthian, although both states fielded them). Hatra was a tough nut to crack, repelling sieges by the Roman emperors Trajan (ca. 116-117 CE) and Septimius Severus (ca. 198-199 CE). Hatra and Adiabene sided with the Parthians when the Sassanids took over the Persian Empire, and although Adiabene fell to the Sassanids rather quickly, Hatra held out for a little over two decades (ca. 224-241 CE), delivering a crushing defeat to the army of Ardashir I (224-242 CE) at the Battle of Shahrazoor (238 CE). However, Ardashir's dynamic successor, Shapur I (240-270 CE), was determined to erase the shame of this defeat and restore the honor of Persian arms, laying siege to Hatra (ca. 240-241 CE). Ultimately, he took the city by subterfuge. Legend has it that Nadira, daughter of the king of Hatra (Abdsamiya II), betrayed the city to Shapur's forces after receiving promises from Shapur's spies in the city that the royal family would be spared and that Shapur would not allow his men to ravage the city's populace. In return, Shapur asked only that Nadira marry him. A gate was opened, Shapur's forces entered the city and took control of it, and the populace was spared. However, Nadira's father was summarily executed and Nadira was forcefully confined in Shapur's harem as a wife or concubine (he later had her murdered). As with Adiabene, Hatra received a Persian governor and garrison, and was organized into a military border province (Araba/Arbaya).

 

Kingdom of Elymais (220 BCE - 224 CE)

The early history of Elam and the Elamites are discussed on the Main Gallery page. Although Elamites undoubtedly continued to be a primary ethnic component of the Elymaian state, the Kingdom of Elymais (pronounced, ee-lye-may-us) was a more complex cultural aggregate that included Syrians, Greeks, Persians, and Parthians, and the Elamite language died out by about 300 BCE, to be replaced by Aramaic, Greek, Pahlavi, and Persian (each in turn). The state is first mentioned in historical sources (ca. 220 BCE), after a 100-year hiatus in which the Elamites disappeared from the historical record. At the time it is first mentioned, the Kingdom of Elymais was a vassal kingdom of the Seleukid Empire (312-63 BCE), and subsequently Elymaian kings and troops were frequently mentioned playing a role in the wars of the Seleukids, usually as allies of their imperial overlords (in particular, their camel-mounted archers seem to have impressed Greek authors). Interestingly, the Elymaian state is portrayed as being quite wealthy—the Seleukids tried on at least two occasions to raid temple sanctuaries in Elymaian cities (in the Hellenistic world, temples were both foci of faith and often repositories of wealth that operated something like banking institutions), although on both occasions the Elymaians repelled Seleukid forces. Under the Arsakids/Parthians (247 BCE-224 CE) Elymais seems to have continued as a semi-autonomous vassal state, but it lost its independence when the Sassanids overthrew the Parthians. As mentioned on the Main Gallery page, ethnic Persians began to make major in-roads into Elam beginning in about 770 BCE, and by the time of the Sassanid takeover they seem to have made up a majority of the rural population. Following the Sassanid takeover, the Kingdom of Elymais was transformed into the province of Khuzistan. Khuzistan became the seat of the East Syrian Ecclesiastical Province (Beth Huzaye) of the Assyrian Church of the East (a Syriac Nestorian Christian sect first established in Assyria/Adiabene in the first century CE, and spreading throughout southwestern and central Asia by the fourteenth century CE, which became one of the largest and most influential Christian denominations with origins outside the Roman Empire, excepting perhaps only the Coptic Church of East Africa). The primary cities of Elymais were Susa, Anshan, and Awan.

 

 

Kingdom of Osrohene (132 BCE - 244 CE)

The Kingdom of Osrohene (pronounced, oss-row-en-ay) was centered on three fortress-cities in Upper Mesopotamia, between the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—Edessa, Singara, and Nisibis—although it also included other important cities such as Carrhae and Apamaea. Edessa was the capital city, and so the state is sometimes called the Kingdom of Edessa. Osrohene was founded by Osroes of Orhai (after whom the kingdom was named), a Nabataean tribal chieftain (malka), who conquered the region from the Seleukids in 136-132 BCE. The Nabataean Kingdom of Osrohene became an outpost of Arabo-Aramaean/Syrian culture, although unlike Nabataea proper, Osrohene only enjoyed a brief period of independence (ca. 132-95 BCE) before becoming a vassal state of the Parthian Empire (ca. 95 BCE-116 CE). Osrohene enjoyed a particularly advantageous strategic position, dominating several major trade routes that led from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus into Anatolia and Syria, although this also meant that it became a bone of contention between the Roman and Parthian empires during the Roman-Parthian Wars (66 BCE-217 CE). For the Romans, Osrohene provided an ideal logistical base from which attacks could be made on the southern Caucasus and Mesopotamia, while in the other direction it could provide Parthian armies with the ability to strike at either Anatolia or Syria. The Roman general, Marcus Licinius Crassus (115-53 BCE), was led into an ambush by Abgar II (68-52 BCE), the king of Osrohene, at the Battle of Carrhae (6 May 53 BCE), one of the greatest defeats suffered by the Roman military in its entire history (the Romans lost over 20,000 men KIA, and lost another 10,000 to capture and enslavement). Abgar and Artavazdes II, king of Armenia, made an alliance with Crassus against Orodes II, king-of-kings of Parthia, but both were secretly in alliance with Orodes. Crassus decided to invade Parthian Mesopotamia via Osrohene, and allowed Abgar to provide the Roman army with scouts and guides—these led Crassus into an ambush near the town of Carrhae, after having been marched across the Syrian Desert. Later, during Trajan’s reorganization of Rome’s eastern frontier (see Nabataea above), Edessa was besieged, stormed, and sacked by the Romans, although the royal family survived and was allowed to pledge its allegiance to Rome as client-kings. Thus, Osrohene became a Roman client kingdom for about a century (ca. 116-216 CE), during which time it was Christianized (Abgar IX, 179-186 CE, became its first Christian king). Ironically, it was the Roman emperor Marcus Iulius Philippus (244-249 CE), commonly known as Philip “the Arab” because he was from the province of Arabia Petraea (formerly the Kingdom of Nabataea), who ended Osrohene’s independence by deposing its last king, Abgar Farhat bar Man’nu (242-244 CE), and formally annexing Osrohene/Edessa into Rome’s Mesopotamian province.

 

Kingdom of Charakene/Mesene (127 BCE - 222 CE)

The Kingdom of Charakene (pronounced, kar-uh-keen-uh), sometimes known as the Kingdom of Mesene (mess-een-uh), encompassed the lands to either side of the river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, known in ancient times as the Arvand Rud (Pahlavi), today known as the Shatt-al-Arab (Arabic, “Stream of the Arabs”). The kingdom sometimes included areas of Lower Mesopotamia and western Bahrayn (the northern Persian Gulf coast of the Arabian Peninsula). It's capital was at Charax Spasinu (the kingdom is also sometimes known as Charax), a port city built by Alexander the Great near the mouth of the Arvand Rud on the Persian Gulf Coast of what is today Iraq. It was bordered by Elymais to the northeast, the Persian Gulf to the east, the Nefud Desert to the south, and Mesopotamia to the west. Charakene was a satrapy of the Seleukid Empire until the satrap Hyspaosines/Aspasine (209-124 BCE) rebelled against Antiokhos IV Epiphanes (175-164 BCE) and declared himself king. At the time, he was taking advantage of an invasion of Mesopotamia by the Parthians, who ultimately conquered the Seleukid Empire, while Hyspaosines went on to carve out a sizeable territory for himself. His successor, Apodakos, was forced to come to terms with the Parthians, however, although Charakene retained much of its autonomy as a vassal state of the Parthian Empire. In addition to serving as middlemen in the India-Persia-Rome trade, Charakene was home to the largest date palm forest in the world, making dried dates and date wine important exports. Ironically, despite being vassals of the Parthians, many Charakenian kings proved themselves all too willing to ally with the Romans. However, when Ardashir I, the king of Persia, overthrew the Parthians and founded the Sassanid Dyasty of Persia (ca. 221-224 CE), the king of Charakene, Abinergaos III (210-222 CE), once again sought to take advantage of the dynastic change to declare independence, but he was defeated in battle by Ardashir and slain. Charakene was reorganized as a Persian province and renamed Maishan (see my Sassanid Persia gallery).

 

Kingdom of Emesa/Hamesa (64 BCE - 217 CE)

The Kingdom of Emesa (prnounced, em-ees-uh) was roughly analogous to the modern-day Homs Governorate in central Syria. The city itself was one of the primary Syrian ports on the Orontes River, from which goods carried overland by caravans were loaded on barges and shipped to the coast, where they were transferred to sea-going vessels and exported throughout the Mediterranean. Its main rival was the Seleukid (and later Roman) city of Antioch, which lay to the north. Palmyra and the Syrian Desert lay to the east, Nabataea and the Hauran Desert lay to the south, and Osrohene and the Armenian Kingdom of Kommagene lay to the northeast. Although the region had been home to the Emesenes/Emesenoi—a northern Arab people—for at least 1,000 years, the city of Emesa was founded by Seleukos I Nikator (306-281 BCE), and the region was made into a satrapy of the Seleukid Empire (the capital was not at that time Emesa, but Arethusa, a city to the north). The rulers of the local Arabo-Aramaean tribes were granted the title of phylarchos (Greek, “tribal-ruler”). Emesa was initially a cult center dedicated to an Arab solar deity named Gabal, but its strategic position on the trade route linking Palmyra and the Mediterranean soon allowed it to eclipse Arethusa. By the mid-first century BCE, Seleukid power in Syria was waning fast, and the Romans sent Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) to protect Roman interests in the eastern Mediterranean—Pompey sought to create a network of alliances between many of the emerging Hellenistic Syrian states, as well as the local Arabo-Aramaean tribes, with key leaders accepting Roman leadership as client-kings of Rome. One of these was the priest-king of Emesa, Sampsiceramos I. Emesa remained an important cult center, as well as an economic entrepôt, and wealth flowed into the great Temple of the Sun in Emesa. Emesa remained a staunch ally of the Roman Empire for its entire history, being granted the status of a Roman colony by the emperor Caracalla in 217 CE—by that time, the city had become thoroughly Romanized, although the cult of Gabal remained strong. In a side-note, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (218-222 CE) came from Emesa (raised to the purple only one year after his city was officially annexed). In his youth he had served as a priest of Gabal, and after he became emperor, he took the regnal name of Elagabalus (“One beloved of Gabal”). However, he fell afoul of the Roman nobles and populace by declaring Gabal as the new head of the Roman pantheon (replacing Jupiter Optimus Maximus), by practicing polygamy (he had five wives), and by introducing many of the ecstatic rites of western Syrian sun worship to Rome (including orgiastic events in which senators and their wives were forced to participate). On 11 March 222 CE the Praetorian Guard murdered him, purged the palace of his favorites, and forced the Senate to denounce him by damnatio memoriae (Latin, “condemnation of memory”)—essentially erasing him from official public record and reversing all official acts.