Edessa - Clickable Map of the Roman Empire - First Century AD
Edessa
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Ancient Edessa Ancient capital city of Macedonia located on the Via Egnatia
Edessa A city of Macedonia, once the capital and the burial place of the kings (Plut. Pyrrh. 26). - Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers.
Edessa (Greek: Έδεσσα, �dessa, /ˈe�esa/) is the capital of the Pella Prefecture, in the Central Macedonia periphery of Greece. It was also the capital of the defunct province of the same name. The city achieved certain prominence in the first centuries AD, being located on the Via Egnatia. From 27 BC to 249 AD it had its own mint. Archaeological remains have been discovered on the site of ancient Edessa, just below the modern city. The walls and the agora have been unearthed so far. A colonnade with inscription in Greek dates from Roman times. - WikipediaEdessa EDESSA
EDESSA (ἡ Ἔδεσσα: Eth. Ἐδεσσαῖος, Ἐδεσσηνός), a town of great importance in the
northern extremity of Mesopotamia, in the province of Osrho�ne, which itself is
said to have derived its name from one of the early kings of the town. (Dionys.
Patr. ap. Assem.ii. p. 98; Procop. B. P. 2.17.) It was situated on the river
Scirtus (now Daisan), a small tributary of the Euphrates, and was distant about
40 miles from Zeugma (Itin. Ant. l.c.), and a day's journey from Batna (Procop.
B. P. 2.12). Accounts differ as to the date of its foundation, some placing it
extremely early, and ascendingto mythical times, as St. Isidore, who attributes
its origin to Nembroth or Nimrod, and St. Ephrem, who says Nimrod ruled at Arach
and Edessa (Comment, in Genesim.) It is, however, most likely that Appian is
correct in stating that it was really built by Seleucus, and that it was one of
the many towns, built or restored about the same period of history to which
European names were given by the Macedonian rulers. (Syr. 57.) The same
statement is made by Cedrenus (i. p. 166). Its position has not been clearly
noted by some ancient writers. Thus Stephanus and Strabo placed it in Syria, the
latter confounding it with Hierapolis, and stating that, like it, it bore
anciently the name of Bambyce (Βαμβύκη, xvi. p. 748). Pliny asserts that it was
in Arabia, and was called Antiocheia-Calirrhoes, from a fountain of that name
which existed in the city (5.24. s. 21), This position is certainly wrong; but
the remark is curious, as it connects the town with some notices in other
authors. Thus Stephanus (l.c.) states that it was called Edessa from the force
of its waters (διὰ δὴν τῶν ὑδάτων δύμην οὕτω κληθεῖσα), and from the town of the
same name in Macedonia; while, in his list of the places which bore the name of
Antiocheia, the 8th is designated ἡ ἐπὶ τῆς Καλιρρόης λίμνης. Ancient coins of
Edessa abound between the ages of Commodus and Trajanus Decius; the majority of
them reading, on the reverse, ΚΟΛ. Μ. ΕΔΕΞΞΑ or ΕΔΕΞΑ, or with the insertion of
the title �Metropolis,� ΚΟΛ. ΜΑΚ. ΕΔΕΞΞΑ. ΜΗΤΡ. The exact meaning of the second
word ΜΑΚ. has not been satisfactorily explained; but we cannot help suspecting
that it refers to the popular belief in the Macedonian origin of the city, ΚΟΛ.
ΜΑΚ. being short for ΚΛΛΩΝΙΑ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ. The obverses present busts of the Abgari
or local rulers, and of the contemporaneous Roman emperors. There exists, too, a
peculiar class of autonomous Greek copper coins, all of which bear on the
obverses heads of Antiochus IV., and are perfectly alike in their fabric and
art. Their reverses bear respectively the names of an Antiocheia in Ptolemais,
Mygdonia, and near Daphne; the fourth has been till this time undetermined. It
reads ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΕΠΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΡΟΗΙ. With the evidence stated above, we make no
doubt that this coin belongs to the 8th Antiocheia of Stephanus, one of the
names, as it appears, of Edessa, and the title whereby it may have been usually
recognised during the period of Antiochus IV. There is no reasonable objection
to the belief that the modern town of Orfah or Urfah represents the site of the
ancient Edessa. (Tavernier, 2.4; Pococke, ii. p. 232; Niebuhr, ii. p. 407.) In
this instance the most ancient name; appears to have been preserved, Isidorus
speaking of Μαννούορρα, evidently the Orrha of Mannus, who was one of the kings
of Edessa.
Little is known of the history of Edessa, subsequently to its foundation by
Seleucus, till Christian times: but during the wars between the Graeco-Roman
empire and the Persians, and in Ecclesiastical history, Edessa plays a very
prominent part. Many notices of the events of the period may be found in the
following authorities. (Procop. B. P. 1.17, &c., B. G. 4.14, &c., de Aedific.
2.7; Evagrius, H. E. 4.8--26; Malala, Chron. 17. p. 418; Hierocl. p. 714; Dionys.
Patriarch. ap. Assem. l.c.; Theophanes and Cedrenus.) It appears that the town
suffered as much from natural causes as from the attacks. of enemies. Of these,
the river Scirtus was the principal cause, no less than four destructive foods
being recorded in the Chronicon Edessenum (ap. Assem. p. 386) and other works.
In A.D. 718 the town was nearly destroyed by an earthquake (Dionys. Patr. ap.
Assem. ii. p. 259), yet the work of restoration (commenced by Justinian after
one of the floods, Procop. de Aedif. 2.7) must have been rapid, or the
importance of the place, itself very great, since it appears from the Chronicon
of Bar Hebraeus, that as late as A.D. 1184 there were no less than 15 large
churches which fell into the hands of the Saracens. (Assem. ii. p. 368). In A.D.
1285 it is coupled with other deserted and ruined towns, such as Beroea and
Haran, by Maphrianus. (Assem. ii. p. 260.) Since then, it has never risen to its
former greatness, though it is and has been a place of some importance for the
inland trade between Kurdistan and Aleppo. The original government of Edessa
appears to have been vested in kings or petty princes, more or less dependent on
the neighbouring empires, first on the rulers of the Syro-Macedonian dynasty,
and then under the Roman and Byzantine emperors. The local names of the kings
were Abgarus and Mannus; titles which appear to have been preserved among them,
like the names of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies in Egypt. Their names are found (as
stated before) on the Greek coins of Edessa, till the time of Trajanus Decius. A
series of them is given by Dionysius (ap. Assem. l.c.), and many of them are
mentioned in the histories of the times (Procop. Bell. 4.17., Eusebius, and the
Chronicon Edessenum).
Edessa was celebrated in Christian times for its schools of theology, to which
students came from great distances. Of these, the most important was the Schola
Persica. This school appears to have been limited to Christians of the Persian
nation. The professors are memorable in history for the part they took in, the
Nestorian controversy, under the guidance of John, Patriarch of Antioch, and
Ibas, Bishop of Edessa, A.D. 449--457, against St. Cyril, It is clear from a
letter of Beth Arsamensis, and from the Chronicon Edessenum, that their
Nestorian [1.807] teaching was the cause of the ruin of this school. The
professors were expelled by Martyrus, Bishop of Edessa, and the school itself
pulled down by order of Zeno the Roman emperor, A.D. 489, and a: church
dedicated to St. Mary was built on its ruins. (Simeon Beth Arsamensis ap. Assem.
i. p. 353; Chron. Edess. ap. Assem. i. p. 406,; Theodor. H. E. 2.558. 566.) The
expulsion of the professors was doubtless one chief cause of the immediate and
subsequent spread of the Nestorian heresy. There was, besides the Schola Persica,
at least: one other school for miscellaneous pupils and learning. St. Epiphanius
shows that the Syriac language was in his day, much studied by the Persians (Haeres.
66), and it is manifest that Edessa was for many years the principal seat of
Oriental learning. - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography,
William Smith, LLD, Ed.
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