Romans in the East: the upper Tigris River region (SE Turkey) and the Eastern frontier

Abstract

This article focuses on the ancient topography of the upper Tigris river valley, the
area located in southeastern Turkey between the modern town of Bismil and the
Cizre-Silopi plain, in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, when it was a contested
borderland between Roman and Eastern Empires. The upper Tigris river region lies
at a crucial intersection between Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Located between the
Caucasus, the Syrian-Iraqi border, southeastern Anatolia and western Iran, the region
was affected by the relations between many north-south focused and east-west
focused political forces throughout millennia2. Due to its position, at the end of the
1st millennium BCE the region was highly influenced by the pervasive interests of
Rome in expanding toward the East: therefore the upper Tigris became the stage of
combat between Romans and Parthians until the 2nd century CE, when the Arsacids
where replaced by the more aggressive Sasanians. Therefore, throughout the first half
of the 1st millennium CE the landscape in the upper Tigris river valley was highly influenced
by its nature as borderland, as it is suggested by historical sources and archaeological
data.