Diyarbakir (Amida), AD 502-503

AD 502-503
The second siege of Amida came almost 150 years later. That century and a half had largely been a peaceful one. The Persians seemed satisfied with the new territory gained after Julian's death and contented themselves with only interfering in Armenia. This new found peace was aided by a series of crises that affected the Persian empire. This time it was their turn to come under barbarian attack, and a series of monarchs were defeated by the Hephthalites who invaded the eastern regions of the empire from their territory in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The most disastrous campaign was that of Peroz. Defeated in one encounter he was forced to leave his young son Kavad as hostage with the Hephthalite king. Unwilling to let this humiliation go he broke his oath and returned to Hephthalite territory where at Herat he was tricked into leading a cavalry charge across concealed pits and killed along with most of his army. His son Balash was able to piece together a new government in Ctesiphon, but this brought him into conflict with his remaining brothers. Kavad, who had been released by this point, fled to the Hephthalites and was able to convince them to support him in his efforts to take the throne from his brother. With their army backing him seizing his kingdom was easy. While Peroz had maintained favorable relations with the Romans, who had even supported him in his campaigns against the nomads reasoning that they did after all threaten both sides (the Huns were considered the kin of the Hephthalites), Kavad with his huge debts to the Hephthalites found himself strongly in need of funds but with little use for the minimal Roman support or peace. And their lands were a rich and very tempting way to rebuild his kingdom's wealth.

Diyarbakir (Amida), AD 359

Diyarbakir is a bustling city in the southeastern part of Turkey. Located about 80 kilometers north of the Syrian border, it is the capital of Diyarbakir province and the unofficial capital of Turkish Kurdistan. As you might imagine that doesn't make it the safest place to be right now, although when I went the Kurdish PKK still had a truce with the Turkish government and Daesh had yet to execute any (proven) attacks on Turkish soil. I got in and out just in time too. Nine days after I left the city a Daesh suicide bomber killed 32 youth activists in Suruç (in Şanlıurfa province about 200 km to the west) and shortly after that the PKK murdered three policemen in Diyarbakir in revenge. Now the entire region seems poised to begin a new wave of violence as Turkey takes advantage of the chaos to their south to crack down on their Kurdish problem, all in the name of fighting extremism. Yay.

So what made Diyarbakir worth the risk? The old city of Diyarbakir contains a nearly complete set of circuit walls that have survived with few modifications from the late Roman period. More impressive considering this fact is the city's classical antecedents. Once upon a time it was the city of Amida (even today the city is often called Amed in Kurdish). The capital of the province of Mesopotamia, this city produced many important figures but is most famous for undergoing two well-recorded sieges during late antiquity. These sieges are so well recorded in fact that in conjunction with the surviving city walls it is possible to actually identify many of the features in them. For that reason what follows will be a description of the sieges themselves as illustrated by the surviving remains. Due to space constraints this section will only cover the first siege under Constantius and Shapur II while the second will cover the siege under Anastasius and Kavad.

Thessalonika

Thessaloniki isn't exactly a city you're likely to visit for fun. Most people who go there do so because it is a convenient stopping off point for visiting places in northern Greece and has the second major airport in Greece. As such it seems somewhat unfair to criticize it for being a grungy mess because it isn't supposed to be anything else. Basically Thessaloniki is Athens without the Parthenon.

Corinth

 

There isn't very much at Corinth worth seeing. The Romans wiped this place clean in 146 BC and they did a pretty thorough job of it. The city was rebuilt later but I believe it was in a different location since I didn't see any Roman or Byzantine remains here. Certainly by the time of the fourth crusade the Acrocorinth (the big cliffs there in the background) was the main stronghold in the area.

Mistra

COMING SOON

 

Nicopolis

This is the classical city of Nicopolis. We didn't even know this place existed until we drove past it. The name means Victorious city. That's abut all I know.

Ravenna

COMING SOON

Ravenna was where we started having problems. To be honest, at this point most of these problems were my fault. The early morning trains (6 or sooner) are the cheapest ones and so I had us getting them every time we changed cities. You do that and you need a rest afterwards or you're good for nothing at all. Even with a full night's sleep it's hard to pull off. Even if we had to pay more it might have been worth getting later trains. Given the state of the train services it might have been better if we'd spent more time in fewer spots. Believe me, you'll be hearing more about the train system later. MUCH more. Anyway, we got to the train station in Pisa by about five. It was just down the street from our hotel. The ticket booths weren't open so we had to use the automated ones which was where we hit our first problem. There is an app for the iPhone that is essential for anyone brave or foolish enough to risk the Italian rail services. It's called iTreni and is the only time that prices, stops and times show up in the same place. It told us to get the 5:39 to Florence and then transfer to a train going to Ravenna. The ticket booth did not list this as an option. So the first ticket we brought had us making three stops at three different stations before we reached Ravenna. I should of held firm on Florence because we couldn't find a train going to the first station listed so we bought new tickets to Florence and hoped that the app was right about the transfer. Once on the train we relaxed until a ticket collector came by and told us that we needed to stamp our tickets before we left the station. The charge for not doing so was €40. Each. Anyone who's ever taken a train in Italy and knows what to expect may want to skip the next paragraph because it is essentially a giant rant about the Italian rail system.

Italy has the worst public transport 'system' that I have ever seen. It is a mass of incomprehensible gibberish so bad that even the Italians can't understand it. The stamped tickets was only the first of many problems we had with Italian trains. Charging €40 for a mistake that everyone is bound to make at least once is obscene. Worst of all is that there is no warning about it in advance. Admittedly, I don't speak Italian but there were no big signs over the machine or stamper or even on the ticket. Nothing to make it obvious that there was something that needed to be done before the ticket could be used. The yellow boxes where you stamp them are small and actually hidden away. I had wondered if we needed to validate tickets but there was nowhere obvious to do so so I assumed that the tickets themselves were enough. But no, the yellow boxes are hidden away out of plain sight where no one will find them unless they know what they're looking for. The French have a similar system but unlike the Italians you cannot get through to your train unless you've stamped your ticket. Their machines are impossible to miss. There is also a very small number of machines at each station which means that when one is broken (and they often are) you have to go to the opposite side of the station to validate them. Evil. It doesn't get better from there. The costs for different locations depends entirely on the company that runs the train. There is no centralized system. This would not normally be a problem except that when you buy the ticket there is no company listed on it. You can use it on any train going that way. Unless you know which train is cheapest, something impossible to find without iTreni or a very good grasp of Italian, you will be charged the additional amount when they check your ticket. The costs also vary depending on the time. Again, there's no way to know how much unless you're psychic or have access to an internet connection. The train companies are not always listed, the platforms vary, and the stations are mazes. To buy a ticket you wait in one of two lines, the purpose of which is not clear to me. They seem to be divided up by the company running them but it is rarely clear from that exactly which one you want. Even finding the ticket booths can sometimes be a problem. There is no one there who can help you. The Italians get by this by sleeping at the train station until their trains arrive! We saw a large number of people waiting on top of blankets and cushions. All told the Italian system reamed us for about €150 each in fines and missed tickets alone, and we did everything right and arrived to every train station at least an hour early. Avoid using public transport in Italy if at all possible!

Athens

Athens has some really wonderful sights and some really seedy areas. I find that a lot of foreign cities are like that, but what separates Athens (and Greece) is how difficult it is to tell when you're passing from one to the other. The difference between a nice safe section and a dangerous section can often be only a few feet. First off, Greek cities look really run down. Greeks don't put as much effort into maintaining cities as the Americans and British do. Even street cleaning and trash disposal is largely neglected. Areas like the Parthenon are different because of the number of tourists visiting but even there you can expect to see trash lying around on the ground. I don't think that this is a money issue. Even the areas that have money don't look fancy. Presentation is not a strong feature of Greek culture. It just isn't a big deal for them. While it becomes easier to tell the areas apart after spending some time there you should still expect to see druggies passed out on the street, homeless people, and random gangs of people wandering the streets. At least until you figure out which areas to avoid. Generally, the areas around the Acropolis are pretty safe but if you go north too far past Omonia Square you're on your own. Again, the lack of care means that all Athens looks pretty seedy, but unless you stay in your hotel room you're gonna have to face it sooner or later.