Edessa

Edessa

A settlement was founded on the location of the Syrian town by Seleucus I Nicator in 304 B.C. The new settlement was named "Edessa" after the ancient capital of Macedonia. The native Syriac name of the city, "Orhay" corresponds with the toponym Antiochia Kallirhoe "Antioch by the Kallirhoe" which is found on Edessan coins struck by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC). In the second half of the 2nd century BC, as the Seleucid monarchy disintegrated in the wars with Parthia (145–129), Edessa became the capital of the Abgar dynasty, who founded the Kingdom of Osroene (also known in history as Kingdom of Edessa). Following its capture and sack by Trajan, the Romans occupied Edessa from 116 to 118, although its sympathies towards the Parthians led to Lucius Verus pillaging the city later in the 2nd century. From 212 to 214 the kingdom was a Roman province. The emperor Caracalla was assassinated on the road from Edessa to Carrhae by one of his guards in 217. Edessa became one of the frontier cities of the province of Osroene and lay close to the border of Sassanid Persia. The Battle of Edessa took place between the armies of the Roman Empire under the command of Emperor Valerianus and Sassanid forces under Shahanshah Shapur I in 260. The Roman army was defeated and captured in its entirety by the Persian forces, including Valerian himself. Rebuilt by Emperor Justin, and called after him Justinopolis, Edessa was taken in 609 by Sassanid Persia, and soon retaken by Heraclius, but lost to the Muslim army under the Rashidun Caliphate during the Islamic conquest of Levant in 638 A.D.