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The conquest beyond the Euphrates was completed some twenty years later by Septimus Severus. On the pretext that several client princes had supported the governor of Syria, Pescennius Niger, his rival for the imperial throne in 193 ce, Severus undertook in 195 ce a campaign against Edessa and its neighboring principalities. Starting in 195 ce, he annexed a large part of the principality of Edessa which, together with others (Batnai, Anthemousia), formed the new province of Osrhoene. Abgar VIII kept his title and his ownership of Edessa and its surroundings. A new campaign in 198 ce led Severus to Ctesiphon (in January of 198 ce) and to Hatra, which resisted but nevertheless entered into an alliance with Rome. A Mesopotamian province was thus created to the east of Osrhoene, with Nisibis as its capital, and legions were stationed at Rhesaina and then Singara. Simultaneously, Severus cut Syria into two provinces, Coele Syria to the north and Syria Phoenice to the south, most likely in a move to diminish the power of the provincial governor.