Page 37 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

24 EDESSA UNDER THE KINGS

and there is evidence that the ruling houses of Edessa and of Adiabene were
connected by alliance, if not by ties of blood.1 In A.D. 194 the armies of
Edessa and Adiabene were associated in the siege of Nisibis—evidence of
unsettled conditions, and perhaps also of the need to assert control of the
trade route. Certainly the oasis of Sumatar Harabesi recognized the authority
of Edessa in A.D. i6$.2 To the south of Edessa there must have been rivalry
between that city and Batnae, capital of Anthemusia. Both were the seat of an
Arab or Nabataean monarchy, and Batnae, like Edessa, was a considerable
centre of commerce.3 The king of Edessa evidently encouraged the Romans
to annex Anthemusia in, probably, A.D. 115, and may have profited as a
result. But even Harran, no more than forty kilometres south of Edessa,
maintained the status of colonia; it retained its traditional system of govern-
ment and remained virtually independent of Edessa until a very late date.4
We receive a graphic picture of the topography of Edessa itself from the
account, in the Chronicle of Edessa, of the flooding of the city in A.D. 201. It
is written in crisp Syriac, and must have been composed not long after that
memorable November night. It merits quotation in full:
In the year 513 in the reign of [Septimius] Severus and the reign of king Abgar, son
of king Ma'nu, in the month of the latter Teshrin, the spring of water that comes forth
from the great palace of king Abgar the Great became abundant; and it rose abundantly as
had been its wont previously, and it became full and overflowed on all sides. The royal
courtyards and porticoes and rooms5 began to be filled with water. When our lord king
Abgar saw this he went up to a safe place on the hill, above his palace where the workmen
of the royal works reside and dwell. While then the experts6 were considering what to do
about the excess of waters which had been added, there took place a great and abundant
downpour of rain during the night. The [river] Daisan came before the usual time and
month and foreign waters came, and they found the sluices closed with large plated iron
[bars] and with reinforced iron bolts. Since no ingress was found for the waters, a great
lake formed outside the city walls and the waters began to descend between the battle-
ments of the walls into the city. King Abgar standing on the great tower called' [the tower]
of the Persians', saw the waters by [the light of] burning torches and ordered that the gates
and the eight sluices7 of the eastern8 wall of the city should be removed from [the place]
where the river came out. But at that very moment the waters broke down the western
wall of the city and entered into the city. They destroyed the great and beautiful palace
of our lord king and removed everything that was found in their path—the charming and
beautiful buildings of the city, everything that was near the river to the south and north.
They caused damage, moreover, to the nave9 of the church of the Christians. In this
1 Pliny, it is true, assumes that the Orroei s Or 'courtyards and porticoes and royal
extended from the Euphrates in the west, to the houses'.
Tigris in the east and to Armenia in the north, 6 Lit., wise men.
but he is writing with obvious imprecision. 7 One editor reads, 'gates of the eight
1 See p. 23. 3 Cf. p. 137. sluices'.
4 On the traditional enmity between Edessa 8 The text has 'western'; see, however,
and Harran see the present writer's Edessa and pp. 7, 156.
Harran (Inaugural lecture delivered on 9 May ' Or 'shrine'; Syriac, haikla.
1962).

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