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Odaenathus' Sasanian Campaign

The Sasanian campaign of Odaenathus took place during the evacuation of the Sasanian forces from devastated Roman territories. Its importance is disputed: while some sources say it was a total defeat for the Persian forces during their withdrawal from Roman territories,[1] others say it was a skirmish[2] or a minor incident turned by Roman historians and their modern successors into repeated routings of Shapur by an ally of Rome.[3]

Historical context

Prelude

In the East of the Roman empire, the Kingdom of Palmyra took over from Rome the government of the provinces of Asia minor, of Syria and Egypt, defending them from the attacks of the Persians, first with Odaenathus (261–267), appointed by Gallienus "Corrector orientis" in 264 (?),[4]) and then with his secessionist widow, Zenobia (267–271).[5]

Casus belli

a relief cut into rocks depicting a man on horseback and two men, one standing and the other bowing in front of the horse rider
Bas relief depicting the triumph of Shapur I over Valerian.

Faced with Shapur I's campaign,[6] the Roman emperor Valerian marched against the Persian monarch but was defeated near Edessa in late spring 260 and taken prisoner.[7][8] The Persian emperor then ravaged Cappadocia and Cilicia, and claimed to have captured Antioch on the Orontes and Caesarea Cappadocia after a strenuous defense.[9] However, there is no proof that Shapur I entered the central areas of northern Syria; he seems to have moved directly west into Cilicia.[6][10] Taking advantage of the situation, Fulvius Macrianus, the commander of the imperial treasury, declared his sons Quietus and Macrianus Minor as joint emperors in August 260, in opposition to Valerian's son Gallienus. At first Fulvius Macrianus showed loyalty to Gallienus.[11][11] Fulvius Macrianus took Antioch on the Orontes as his center and organized the resistance against Shapur I; he dispatched Balista, his praetorian prefect, to Anatolia.[11] Shapur I was defeated in the region of Sebaste at Pompeiopolis, prompting the Persians to evacuate Cilicia while Balista returned to Antioch on the Orontes.[12][11][13] Balista's victory was only partial: Shapur I withdrew east of Cilicia, which Persian units continued to occupy.[14] A Persian force took advantage of Balista's return to Syria and headed further west into Anatolia.[11] According to the Historia Augusta, Odaenathus was declared king of Palmyra as soon as the news of the Roman defeat at Edessa reached the city.[15] It is not known if Odaenathus contacted Fulvius Macrianus and there is no evidence that he took orders from him.[16]

Forces in the field

Odaenathus's army

Odaenathus-controlled territories in the middle east.

Odaenathus assembled the Palmyrene army and Syrian peasants, then marched north to meet the Persian emperor, who was returning to Persia.[17][16] Zosimus wrote that Odaenathus's army, with which he fought Shapur I in 260, probably aiding the Romans during the Battle of Edessa,[18] included his own Palmyrene troops and remnants of Valerian's Roman legions.[19] Troops based there might have been loyal to Gallienus and thus have chosen to join Odaenathus.[20]

The peasant element in the army was mentioned in the writings of later historians, such as the fourth century writers Festus and Orosius;[21] the latter called the army of Odaenathus "manus agrestis syrorum",[19] leading the historian Edward Gibbon to portray Odaenathus' troops as a "scratch army of peasants". The historian Richard Stoneman rejected Gibbon's conclusion, arguing that the success of the Palmyrenes against Shapur I and the victories achieved by Zenobia following her husband's death, which brought Syria, Egypt and Anatolia under Palmyrene authority, can hardly be described an ill-equipped, untrained peasant army.[21] It is more logical to interpret agrestis as denoting troops from outside the urban centres, and thus, it can be concluded that Odaenathus levied his cavalrymen from the regions surrounding Palmyra where horses were normally bred and kept.[22]

The campaign

Initially Odenathus tried to form an alliance with the Persian ruler Shapur I, but when his gifts were scornfully rejected by the latter, Odaenathus understood that his only option was to embrace the cause of Rome against the Persians. The state of neutrality that had made the fortune of the Kingdom of Palmyra was changed in favor of an active military policy, which quickly led to its ruin, while giving fame to its ruler. For these successes Odaenathus was appointed by Gallienus "corrector totius Orientis" (with high jurisdiction over a good part of the eastern Roman provinces).[23]

The Roman counter-offensive led to Macrianus (procurator arcae et praepositus annonae in expeditione Persica) to gather at Samosata[16][24] what remained of the Roman army in the East, while the praetorian prefect, Ballista, managed to surprise the Persians near Corycus in Cilicia and push them back as far as the Euphrates.[9][16]

When two usurpers, the military tribune Titus Fulvius Junius Quietus and his brother Macrianus Minor, claimed the throne of the Roman Empire that year, Odaenathus sided with Gallienus, son of the late emperor Valerian. He in fact attacked and executed the usurper Quietus to Emesa. The enterprise was appreciated by Gallienus to the point of conferring upon him the titles of "imperator" and "dux romanorum", basically recognizing at the same time a royal authority of the prince of Palmyra over the province of Syria. Odaenathus then ordered a strong levy within the ranks of his army, to restore its strength in view of an imminent Roman-Palmyrene offensive in Persian territory. However, while Quietus and Balista were in Emesa, the inhabitants killed Quietus as Odaenathus approached the city,[20] while Balista was captured and executed by the King in autumn 261.[25][26]

Then, Odenathus destroyed the Jewish city of Nehardea, 45 kilometres (28 mi) west of the Persian capital Ctesiphon,[27][28][29] as he considered the Jews of Mesopotamia to be loyal to Shapur,[30] with some sources claiming Odaenathus' destruction of Nehardea in 259 was in support of Valerian.[31] By late 262 or early 263, Odaenathus stood outside the walls of the Persian capital Ctesiphon.[32]

The exact route taken by Odaenathus from Palmyra to Ctesiphon remains uncertain; it was probably similar to the route Emperor Julian took in 363 during his campaign against Persia.[33] If he did use this route, Odaenathus would have crossed the Euphrates at Zeugma then moved east to Edessa followed by Carrhae then Nisibis. Here, he would have descended south along the Khabur River to the Euphrates valley and then marched along the river's left bank to Nehardea.[33] He then penetrated the Sassanian province of Asōristān and marched along the royal canal Naarmalcha towards the Tigris, where the Persian capital stood.[33]

Once at Ctesiphon,[34] Odaenathus immediately began a siege of the well-fortified winter residence of the Persian kings; severe damage was inflicted upon the surrounding areas during several battles with Persian troops.[32] The city held out and the logistical problems of fighting in enemy territory probably prompted the Palmyrenes to lift the siege.[32]

The campaign resulted in the restoration of the Roman lands.[35] (Contrary to the account of the Historia Augusta, there is no proof that Odaenathus occupied Armenia.[36] However, Dura-Europus and other Palmyrene posts south of Circesium, such as Anah, were not rebuilt.[37] Odaenathus sent the captives to Rome, and by the end of 263 Gallienus assumed the title Persicus maximus ("the great victor in Persia")[38] and held a triumph in Rome.[39] At the end of the campaign, then:

«Odaenathus did not fail to show respect towards Gallienus. In fact, he sent him the satraps he had captured, almost to allow him to insult them and exalt himself. When these were brought to Rome, Gallienus celebrated the triumph (in 264).» (translated from Latin).

— Historia Augusta, Gallieni Duo, 10.4.
Coinage of the year
Image Value Front Back Dates Weight and diameter Catalogue
Antoninianus GALLIENVS AVG, head of Gallienus with radiate crown to the right, the bust with draping and armour; PAX FVNDATA, a trophy of arms with two Sassanid prisoners at its feet; a palm in exergue. 264 / 265 to celebrate the Roman-Palmyrene armies of Odenathus who had managed to reach the Sassanid capital Ctesiphon. 3.51, minted in Antioch; RIC, Gallienus, V pt. 1, 164; RSC 73; Göbl 738b.

Consequences

The Roman Empire at the centre, with the Gallic Empire to the west, the Kingdom of Palmyra to the east.
See also: Kingdom of Palmyra and Roman–Palmyrene War of 272–273

During the consolidation of imperial power in the East, Odaenathus laid the foundations for the establishment of an independent kingdom in Palmyra from Rome. It was only after Odaenathus' assassination in 267 AD,[40] which took place in either Anatolia or Syria,[41][42] that this project came to fruition with his widow, Zenobia, which in the following years also managed to occupy Roman Egypt[43] and part of Asia Minor. The new emperor Aurelian in 272 managed to reconquer the lost territories in the East, where the Kingdom of Palmyra of Queen Zenobia had replaced the Roman Empire to counter the power of the Sasanians.

References

  1. ^ Blois, Lukas De (1976). The Policy of the Emperor Gallienus. BRILL. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-04-04508-8.
  2. ^ Southern 2008, p. 59.
  3. ^ Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2025-04-01. When the Persian army spread itself too widely over the Roman East and lost its cohesion, Šāpur evacuated the devastated areas and set out for home, laden with booty and a large number of deportees. He marched through eastern Cilicia and northern Mesopotamia arriving at his capital Ctesiphon, probably in late 260. Part of his baggage train was lost during a raid by Palmyrene Arabs under their sheikh Odenathus. This "minor incident of uncertain date" (Sprengling, pp. 108-109), has been turned by Roman historians and their modern successors (Felix, pp. 809 with literature) into repeated routings of Šāpur by an ally of Rome who "if not restoring Rome's honor did profoundly damage and disgrace" the Persian king (Nöldeke, p. 32 n. 4). But, as Henning (1939, p. 843 [= 1977, p. 621]) has explained: "The transport through the desert of a very great number of prisoners besides the Persian army was a difficult enterprise; the fact that Šāpur succeeded in this (as proven by the presence of the provincials in Susiana) shows sufficiently how much the usual accounts of the exploits of Odenathus against the Persians on their desert march are exaggerated."
  4. ^ Historia Augusta, Gallieni Duo, 10.1.
  5. ^ Rémondon 1975, p. 82.
  6. ^ a b Millar 1993, p. 166.
  7. ^ Ando 2012, p. 167.
  8. ^ Potter 2004, p. 255.
  9. ^ a b Grant 1985, p. 231.
  10. ^ Dignas & Winter 2007, p. 23.
  11. ^ a b c d e Drinkwater 2005, p. 44.
  12. ^ Watson 2004, p. 29.
  13. ^ Dodgeon & Lieu 2002, p. 57.
  14. ^ Southern 2008, p. 58.
  15. ^ Dignas & Winter 2007, p. 159.
  16. ^ a b c d Southern 2008, p. 59.
  17. ^ Smith II 2013, p. 177.
  18. ^ Potter 2004, pp. 255–257.
  19. ^ a b De Blois 2014, p. 191.
  20. ^ a b Southern 2008, p. 60.
  21. ^ a b Stoneman 1994, p. 107.
  22. ^ Nakamura 1993, p. 138.
  23. ^ In these years the borders of Odenathus' dominions extended from the Taurus Mountains in the north to the Arabian Gulf in the south, now including Cilicia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia.
  24. ^ Hartmann 2001, pp. 139, 144.
  25. ^ Dodgeon & Lieu 2002, p. 77.
  26. ^ Hartmann 2001, pp. 144, 145.
  27. ^ Dodgeon & Lieu 2002, p. 61.
  28. ^ Dodgeon & Lieu 2002, p. 370.
  29. ^ Hartmann 2001, p. 169.
  30. ^ Dubnov 1968, p. 151.
  31. ^ De Blois 1976, p. 2.
  32. ^ a b c Hartmann 2001, p. 172.
  33. ^ a b c Hartmann 2001, p. 171.
  34. ^ Historia Augusta, Gallieni Duo, 10.6.
  35. ^ De Blois 1976, p. 3.
  36. ^ Hartmann 2001, p. 174.
  37. ^ Hartmann 2001, p. 173.
  38. ^ Inscriptions AE 2006, 1762, AE 1895, 17, AE 1909, 68, IRT 927 and CIL VIII, 22765.
  39. ^ Southern 2008, p. 71.
  40. ^ Southern 2008, p. 77.
  41. ^ Southern 2008, p. 78.
  42. ^ Ando 2012, p. 172.
  43. ^ Zosimus, Historia nova, I, 44.

Sources

Primary or ancient sources

Second or modern sources