Page 29 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

i6 EDESSA UNDER THE KINGS
The foundation of the kingdom of Edessa is ascribed by Syriac chroniclers
to the year 180 of the Seleucid era—that is to 132-131 B.C.1 The first king is
said to have been a certain Aryu. This name is the Canaanite-Aramaic term
for lion; in the ancient Semitic, and particularly the Arab world the names of
animals are frequently found as the appellation of tribal groups and of indivi-
dual members of tribes, but whether we should look here for totemistic
affiliations is open to question.2 Armenian writers3 claim the rulers of Edessa
as Armenian, successors of Abgar4 son of Arsham, who moved his capital
there from Metsbin (Nisibis). The names of the kings of Edessa and their
fathers' names do not lend support to the theory. Some of these names are
Iranian (like Fradhasht, Ezad, Frahad); we shall see that Edessa lay largely
within the cultural milieu of Parthia. Others (Maz'ur, Abgar, Wa'el) are in
use in Arabic. But most striking, because they are least easy to explain, are
those names which terminate in the suffix V (Ma'nu, 'Abdu, Bakru, Gebar'u,
Sahru). They are undoubtedly Nabataean. In ethnic origin the Nabataeans
were Arab;5 their activity and area of settlement extended from southern
Palestine to Syria, Arabia, and the Persian Gulf. Their language, however,
was a branch of Aramaic particularly close to Arabic, written in a peculiar
script. Significantly, the language of most of the inscriptions of Edessa at the
time of the monarchy is Syriac, and this was the language of its townspeople
and its scholars during the following centuries. Syriac as a principal member
of the Aramaic group of languages is related closely to Nabataean in structure
and vocabulary.
While, however, the rulers of Edessa were largely of Nabataean stock, the
general population was more mixed in origin. There must have been con-
siderable intermarriage between the colonists from Macedonia or Asia
Minor or Syria, and the native population. In the sixth century John of
Malalas alleges that Seleucus Nicator had described Edessa as 'half-barbarian
(ui£o|3ocp|3ccpos) Antioch'. Inscriptions show that the name Seleucus was
popular at Edessa in the period of the monarchy; the name Antiochus is
also found, though less frequently. Under the influence of Rome, Edessans

1 Five years earlier, according to a late umbilical hernia, a paunchy person; it is found
Syriac chronicler; he regards the date of the also in Arabic as a personal name. The associa-
conquest of Mesopotamia by the Parthians as tion of Abgar with Iranian has been doubted;
the date of the beginning of the kingdom at the etymology from Armenian azoag-ayr,
Edessa. 'great man', suggested by Moses of Khoren is
2 Another hypothesis on the origin of this certainly to be rejected. Tacitus uses the form
name is given on p. 72 n. 2 below. Acbar, while Plutarch gives Agbar as well as
3 Possibly also Jacob of Edessa, if our text Abgar. The proper name Abgar is found in
of his chronicle is reliable. Armenian 'histories' Palmyrene inscriptions. The form Agbar occurs
on this period consist of a medley of legends. already in the Aramaic inscription of Nerab
4 This name, which is characteristic of the which was inscribed probably in the seventh
dynasty of Edessa, is said to mean 'lame' in century B.C.
Syriac; cf. p. 73 below. The name is still found, 5 By Pliny, Tacitus, and Plutarch, the Edes-
of a Christian bishop, in the tenth century. In sans are termed 'Arabs'.
Arabic the word denotes a person with an

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