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.

Cardiff

Lincoln (Roman)

I already have a page for Lincoln but since that time I only dealt with the medieval sections (ie: the cathedral and castle) while this time I saw the Roman bits I felt that they could be safely divided in two. After all, that trip was almost two years ago.

Shrewsbury

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Wroxeter

 
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Hadrian's Wall, Part VIII (South of the Wall)

Hadrian's Wall wasn't just maintained by the forts on the wall. There were a large number of forts to the south keeping it supplied and ferrying troops where needed. The majority of these are not usually seen on a Wall trip since they are located several miles away from the path and need a full day trip to reach them. Some are ones I haven't been to but intend to before my time here is up. I could have listed most of these as separate trips and I visited several at the same time I walked the wall, but it made more sense to split the wall into wall forts, supply forts, and forts north of the wall. Some of these are linked to days on the wall since they are so close and the journey was the same. For example, we stayed the night in Corbridge yet it is listed separately here. So you can follow the links to see what else is around in that area and what we did for the rest of the day.