Читать книгу A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East онлайн

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When Diocletian ascended to power, Rome governed a total of six provinces in the Near East: the three Syrias (Coele, Phoenice, and Palaestina), Arabia, and the two provinces beyond the Euphrates, Osrhoene and Mesopotamia. All of these provinces had suffered greatly from the wars with the Persians, as well as the internal struggles between competitors for the empire, especially the most northern provinces. The ascension of Diocletian marked a change in these two domains. Firstly, despite the difficulties in the early part of his reign, the unity of the empire was reestablished, which put an end to the civil wars. Secondly, an attack against the empire (296 ce) by the Persian Narses I sparked a vigorous retaliation from Caesar Galerius in Mesopotamia, who captured Narses’s wives, children, and treasure (297 ce). Diocletian forced the Sasanian sovereign to accept the Peace of Nisibis (298 ce), in which Narses ceded five districts, establishing the Tigris river as the border between the two empires; inaugurating a long period of peace for Roman Syria, the peace treaty lasted until 337 ce.