Rhabdion
Rhabdion (Greek: Ῥάβδιον) was an early Byzantine fortress, located to the northeast of Nisibis on the border with the Sasanian Empire. It is now identified with Hatem Tai castle in southeastern Turkey.[2][1]
| Rhabdion | |
|---|---|
.png) Sketch of Hatem Tai Castle by John George Taylor (1865) | |
  Rhabdion | |
| Coordinates | 37°12′38″N 41°36′44″E[1][2] |
| Type | Fortress |
| Site history | |
| Battles/wars | Roman–Persian Wars |
It was probably built, along with Amida and Cepha, by Emperor Constantius II (r. 337–361).[2] after the loss of the trans-Tigris areas and some border forts to the Sasanians in 363, Rhabdion became the easternmost Roman frontier outpost, perhaps even de facto exclave in Persian territory, since the only road to it appears to have been from the south, passing across the plain by the Persian-controlled city of Nisibis.[3]
The Hatem Tai castle was visited in the early 1860s by John George Taylor, then British consul in Diyarbakir, who sketched its outline in his Travels in Kurdistan (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 35, 1865).[4] At the time, the Hatem Tai castle was identified with another ancient fortress known from the history of the Roman–Persian Wars of Late Antiquity, Sisauranon.[2]
The castle may have given its name to the region of Tur Abdin.[5]
References
- Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
- Comfort 2009, p. 322.
- Comfort 2009, pp. 322–323.
- Comfort 2009, pp. 25–26, 31.
- Keser-Kayaalp 2018, p. 1531.
Sources
- Comfort, Anthony Martin (14 May 2009). Roads on the frontier between Rome and Persia: Euphratesia, Osrhoene and Mesopotamia from AD 363 to 602 (Ph.D.). University of Exeter.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Keser-Kayaalp, Elif (2018). "Tur 'Abdin". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1530–1531. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)