HALL OF DURA-EUROPOS
This city of Dura-Europos
is situated close to the Syrio-Iraqi frontier. It stands in a strategic
position of great natural strength on a rocky plateau. For this reason, it
has attracted the attention of the Ammorite ,Arabs, the Aramaeans and the
Assyrians who made it an important defensive centre.
The word Dura is believed
to be Aramaen. At the beginning of the Hellenistic Age, this strategic
position soon developed from a strong fortress to an important city and was
given the name
of Dura-Europos. The foundation of the city is attributed
to the Macedonian General Nicator Seleucus. It was once a city of military
and commercial character. On the one hand it constituted. in fact, a border
fortress and on the other hand a big market
on the caravan routes heading for Antioch the then
capital of Syria.
After Arsaces. King of
Parthia had liberated his country from the Seleucids domination, the rule of
the Parthian began in Dura in 247 B.C. Those Parthians , who considered
themselves the
heirs of the Achemenids , took advantage of this dispute
between the Seleucids and the Patolomies and began to expand their empire.
When Pampey put an end to
the reign of the Seleucids in Syria in 64 B.C., Dura-Europos was under the
rule of the Parthians. The Romans could conquer the city later on in 165
A.D. and used it as a stronghold on the eastern most frontier of the Empire.
The Emperor Septimius Severus could attack Ctesiphon , capital of the
Parthians , from Dura in 199 A.D.
When the Arab Kingdom
of Palmyra came into existence as a force having a
military and economic importance in the Orient , Dura was used as a fortress
to protect Palmyra’s growing commerce. When Shapur tried to attack the Arab
Kingdom of Palmyra, he was beaten back by the Palmyrene
Arab troops who inflicted serious losses upon him.
The Romans themselves recognized the heroism of the Palmyrene Arab cavaliers
particularly their leader Hayran, son of Uzaynath.
It was the Sasanians who
captured and destroyed this city shortly after 256 AD, so that their
enemies might not use it as a starting point in
their attack on their dominions once more. Dura thereupon succumbed to the
desert. Its ruins were known to the learned world only in 1920. The
excavations began actually in this site in October, 1922, where sixteen
temples relating to the different religions of
that period were brought to light.
Synagogue of Dura-Europos
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