Page 27 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

H EDESSA UNDER THE KINGS

Rome. In 194, in the unrest which followed the murder of Emperor Pertinax,
there was a general pro-Parthian rising in Mesopotamia. Abgar of Osrhoene1
joined the ruler of Adiabene in laying siege to Nisibis. They later claimed, in
an embassy to Septimius Severus, that they had attacked Nisibis because it
had supported his rival Pescennius Niger; it is more likely that they hoped
that the Roman hold had weakened, and that they could regain their inde-
pendence. Their hopes were not realized. They could not take the city
though they destroyed some supporters of Niger. Subsequently they offered
to return their Roman prisoners to Severus, but they showed no inclination
to yield forts which they had taken or to admit Roman troops. Severus
swiftly defeated 'Abgar, King of the Persians' and his allies, and awarded
Nisibis the status of colonia. For a while he appointed a procurator in charge
of Osrhoene, feeling perhaps that the pro-Parthian party at Edessa was still
strong. Soon, however, he gave the throne back to Abgar. This time Roman
confidence in the king of Edessa was justified. When Severus returned to
Rome the Parthians crossed the Tigris and besieged Nisibis. But Abgar, who
had adopted the Roman names of Lucius Aelius Aurelius Septimus, identi-
fied himself with the Roman cause, and gave his sons as hostages to Rome and
also offered the services of his skilled archers. Severus, after routing the
Parthians in an easy campaign in 197-8, again declared Osrhoene a client
state, and recognized Abgar's authority as 'king of kings'. He invited Abgar
to visit Rome. The reception there of the king of Edessa was, declares a
Roman historian, the most lavish accorded to a foreign potentate since Nero
welcomed Tiridates of Armenia in A.D. 66. Abgar's journey must have taken
place after 204 when the Emperor returned home.
Abgar the Great died in, probably, 212. He was succeeded by his son
Abgar Severus,2 but the independence of Edessa was drawing to its close.
Caracalla, preparing his expedition against Parthia sent a friendly invitation
to the king of Edessa to visit him, possibly at Rome; when the king arrived,
he was seized and deposed, on the pretext that he had ill-treated his subjects
while claiming that he was introducing them to Roman practices. In 213-14,
probably in January 214, Edessa was proclaimed a colonia*
The events of the following years are obscure. Edessa's coins show that
she used the titles Aurelia Antonina; under Macrinus, these were replaced by
Opellia Macriniana. Subsequently, the colony carried the names Marcia,
Aurelia, Antoniana, and later Alexandria or Alexandriana, combined in
various ways. According, however, to a Syriac chronicle, a king Ma'nu son of

1 Abgar VIII, commonly called the Great, doubt taken the name Severus as a compliment
A.D. 177—212. It has been maintained that this to the Emperor, after the victorious Roman
king should be regarded as Abgar IX—in- campaign against Parthia in 197-8.
correctly, as has been shown by A. R. Bellinger 3 Caracalla spent the winter of 216—17 at
and C. B. Welles, Y.C.S. v, 1935, 150. Edessa. He was assassinated in spring 217
z Abgar IX, Severus, A.D. 212-14; he had no while on a visit to Harran.

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