Osroene or Osrhoene (; ) was an ancient kingdom and region in Upper Mesopotamia. The Kingdom of Osroene, also known as the "Kingdom of Edessa" ( / "Kingdom of Urhay"), according to the name of its capital city (now Urfa, Turkey), existed from the 2nd century BC, up to the 3rd century AD, and was ruled by the Abgarid dynasty.
They were generally allied with the Parthian Empire.
The ruling Abgarid dynasty was deposed by the Romans during the reign of Roman Emperor Caracalla (211–217), probably in 214 or 216, and Osroene was incorporated as Roman province, but it was briefly reestablished during the reign of Roman emperor Gordianus III (238–244). Christianity came early to Osroene. From 318, Osroene was a part of the Diocese of the East. By the 5th century, Edessa had become a main center of Syriac literature and learning. In 608, the Sasanian emperor, Khosrow II (590–628), took Osroene. It was briefly reconquered by the Byzantines, but in 638 it fell to the Muslims as part of the Muslim conquests.
Osroene endured for four centuries, with twenty-eight rulers occasionally named "king" on their coins. Most of the kings of Osroene were called Abgar or Manu and settled in urban centers.
Osroene was generally allied with the Parthian Empire. After a period under the rule of the Parthian Empire, it was absorbed into the Roman Empire in 114 as a semiautonomous vassal state, and incorporated as a simple Roman province in 214.
Edessa was regularly described as the 'capital of Mesopotamia' in early Syriac manuscripts. The earliest dated Christian literary manuscript in any language was written in November 411 CE, a fragment of Isaiah is dated 459-60 CE, a manuscript containing Genesis and Exodus is dated 463-4 CE, and the earliest dated Gospels in any language were completed in October 510 CE, although there are undated Gospel manuscripts which probably are from the fifth century.
By the end of the second century Christianity was well established in Edessa in various forms, some texts belong to the early third century and provide unambiguous evidence for Christianity at Edessa, such as the account of the flood at Edessa in 201 CE which is preserved in the Chronicle of Edessa, fragments of Bardaisan's works preserved by later writers and the Book of the Laws of the Countries written in the School of Bardaisan. By the end of the third century Christianity had spread to surrounding villages.
By c. AD 200, the Church in Edessa must have been of some size to judge from the expansion of Christianity in the early third century in Osroene and neighboring Adiabene, as according to the Chronicle of Arbela there were more than twenty bishoprics in the region bordering the Tigris in AD 224. Edessa was known as a Christian city at a very early date, but the countryside was only Christianized during the 4-5th centuries by Syrian monks and ascetics.
General opinion is that the official adoption of Christianity happened during the reign of Abgar VIII the Great (177 – 212), who was either Christian himself or not at all hostile to Christians, as the Christian writer Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160 – c. 240) stayed at Abgar the Great's court in 195, and a Christian inscription was produced in Edessa, which is from the same period or few decades later than the Inscription of Abercius from 216.
It is estimated that Christianity was preached in Edessa since 160 – 170, and a flood in 201 destroyed "the temple of the church of the Christians", indicating a community large enough to have had a building of notable importance to the city at the time. The earliest known Syriac writer, Bardaisan (154-222), was active, and contemporary coins dated 179-192 clearly show Abgar VIII the Great wearing a tiara with a cross.In the Church of the Virgin in Dayr al-Suryān in Egypt, built in the middle seventh century and monumental paintings applied in later centuries, a number of narrative scenes of conversion as the central theme were painted. There are remains of a painting of King Abgar of Edessa with the mandylion, while on the same wall there is a painting of Constantine the Great on horseback holding the sign of the cross in his first battle as a Christian. The paintings are making a clear statement: Constantine was the first Christian Roman emperor but Edessa had a Christian king almost three centuries before. On an opposite wall fragments are preserved of Gregory the Illuminator's conversion of the Armenians. The unique conversion scenes were probably painted as a carefully planned addition after the eight century, covering scenes of the Pentecost, and it is possible that the church building had a geographical symbolism as Ethiopia is equaled with the south, Armenia with the north, and Byzantium and Edessa with the east.
In his writings, Pliny the Elder refers to the natives of Osroene and Commagene as Arabs and the region as Arabia.H. I. MacAdam, N. J. Munday, "Cicero's Reference to Bostra (AD Q. FRAT. 2. 11. 3)", Classical Philology, pp.131-136, 1983. Abgar II is called "an Arab phylarch" by Plutarch, while Abgar V is described as "king of the Arabs" by Tacitus.Guscin, Mark (2016). The Tradition of the Image of Edessa. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 13.
The Edessene onomastic contains many Arabic names. The most common one in the ruling dynasty of Edessa being Abgar, a well-attested name among Arabic groups of Ancient history.Retso, Jan (2013). The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads. Routledge. p. 419."Abgar, is a well-known name among Arabic-speaking groups in antiquity, the Nabataeans included." Some members of the dynasty bore Iranian names, while others had Arabic names. Judah Segal notes that the names ending in "-u" are "undoubtedly Nabatean". The Abgarid dynasts spoke "a form of Aramaic language".
It was in the region in which the legend of Abgar V originated.
Edessa, the capital of the ancient kingdom, was a fortress of considerable strength and a staging post both large and nearest to the Euphrates. It was an important road junction; an ancient highway, along which caravans carried merchandise from China and India to the West, meeting there a north–south road connecting the Armenian Highlands with Antioch. Inevitably, Edessa figured prominently on the international stage.
In 64 BC, as Pompey waged war on the Parthian Empire, Abgar II of Osrhoene had sided with the Romans when Lucius Afranius occupied Upper Mesopotamia. The king was initially an ally of the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus in his campaign against the Parthians in 53 BC, but Roman historians allege that he betrayed Crassus by leading him to deviate from his safe route along the river and instead into an open desert, where the troops suffered from the barrenness and thus were vulnerable to cavalry attack. Abgar is said to have met with Surenas, the Parthian general, and informed him of the Roman movements. The enormous and infamous Battle of Carrhae followed and destroyed the entire Roman army. Just prior to the battle, Abgar made a pretext to ride away. However, modern historians have questioned whether Abgar intended to betray the Romans and instead may have simply been leading them along an old Arab trade route.Sheldon, Mary Rose, "Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome: Trust in the Gods But Verify", pg. 92 According to a Syriac source, Abgar died later that year.
In the early 2nd century AD, King Abgar VII joined the Emperor Trajan's campaign into Mesopotamia and entertained him at court. The king later rebelled against the Romans, however, which led to the Roman general Lusius Quietus sacking Edessa and putting an end to Osrhoene's independence in 116. In 123, during the reign of Hadrian, the Abgarid dynasty was restored with the installation of Ma'nu VII, and Osroene was established as a client kingdom of the Empire.Ball, W (2001). Rome in the East: the transformation of an empire. Routledge. p. 90. After the Roman–Parthian War of 161–166 under Marcus Aurelius, forts were built and a Roman garrison was stationed in Nusaybin. In 195, following a civil war in which the kingdom had supported his rival Pescennius Niger, Septimius Severus mounted an invasion and annexed the territory as a new province, making Nisibis the capital.Southern, Pat, "The Empress Zenobia: Palmyra's Rebel Queen", 2009: pg. 36 However, the emperor did allow the king, Abgar XI, to retain the city of Edessa and a small territory surrounding it.Birley, Anthony, "Septimius Severus: The African Emperor", 1999: pg. 115 In 213, the reigning king was deposed by Caracalla, and the remaining territory was incorporated into the Roman province of Osroene.Sinclair, T.A., "Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume IV: pg. 196
According to legends (without historical justification), by 201 AD or earlier, under King Abgar the Great, Osroene became the first Christian state.Cheetham, Samuel (1905). A History of the Christian Church During the First Six Centuries. Macmillan and Co. p. 58.Lockyer, Herbert (1988). All the Apostles of the Bible. Zondervan. p. 260. . It is believed that the Gospel of Thomas emanated from Edessa around 140. Prominent early Christian figures have lived in and emerged from the region such as Tatian the Assyrian people, who came to Edessa from Hadiab (Adiabene). He made a trip to Rome and returned to Edessa around 172–173. Tatian was the editor of the Diatessaron, which was the primary sacred text of Syriac language-speaking Christianity until in the 5th century the Rabbula and Theodoret suppressed it and substituted a revision of the Old Syriac Canonical Gospels (as in the Syriac Sinaiticus and Curetonian Gospels).L.W. Barnard, The Origins and Emergence of the Church in Edessa during the First Two Centuries A.D., Vigiliae Christianae, pp.161-175, 1968 (see pp. 162,165,167,169).
Then, Edessa was again brought under Roman control by Decius and it was made a center of Roman operations against the Sasanian Empire. Amru, possibly a descendant of Abgar, is mentioned as king in the Paikuli inscription, recording the victory of Narseh in the Sassanid civil war of 293. Historians identify that Amru as Amru ibn Adi, the fourth king of the Lakhmids, which was then still based in Harran, not yet moved to al-Hirah in southern Mesopotamia.A. T. Olmstead, "The Mid-Third Century of the Christian Era. II", Classical Philology (1942): 398-420 (see p. 399)
Many centuries later, Dagalaiphus and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene, accompanied Julian in his war against the Sasanian emperor, Shapur II, in the 4th century.E. Gibbon, The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, Vol. I, Chapter XXIV [1] .
Following Emperor Diocletian's tetrarchy reform during his reign (284-305), it was part of the diocese of the East, in the praetorian prefecture of the same name.
According to the late-4th-century Notitia Dignitatum, it was headed by a Roman governor of the rank of praeses, and it was also the seat of the dux Mesopotamiae, who ranked as vir illustris and commanded (c. 400) the following army units:
According to Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, "there were some very learned men who formerly flourished in Osroene, as for instance Bardaisan, who devised a heresy designated by his name, and his son Harmonius. It is related that this latter was deeply versed in Grecian erudition, and was the first to subdue his native tongue to meters and musical laws; these verses he delivered to the choirs" and that Arianism, a more successful heresy, met with opposition there.
+Kings of Edessa/Osroene !width="220px" | Comments |
Ruled alone | |
Ruled together | |
Ruled together | |
Ruled alone | |
1st tenure | |
2nd tenure | |
Ruled together | |
Ruled alone | |
First tenure | |
Installed by the Parthians | |
Second tenure | |
Deposed by the Romans; Osroene incorporated as a Roman province ( colonia) | |
Ruled only in name | |
Ruled only in name |
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