Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

12 The first Sasanian–Byzantine War 101
Pharazman left Edessa and went down and settled in Amida, and he would go out
to those who were building and assist them.
Marcellinus Comes a. 518
Dārā, a city of this kind, founded in Mesopotamia.
Dārā, which is a certain estate situated 60 miles south of the city of Amida and
15 miles west of the town of Nisibis paid its proceeds to the church of Amida.
The emperor Anastasius thus bought the buildings of this modest village for a
fixed sum, 127 with the intention of founding a city there, and he immediately
sent first class craftsmen there and gave instructions for it to be built. He then
put Calliopius, 128 later patrician of the city of Antioch, in charge of this project.
Undoubtedly with admirable perception this man marked out a hill adjacent to a
plain by creating a furrow with a light hoe – in order to place the foundations –
and on all sides he guarded it with the strongest walls, which were built up to this
zone. He also included a river, which is called Cordissus 129 from the estate next to
which it originates and winds its way murmuring along; at the fifth milestone it
divides the same hill and the new city, gliding forward and forming a mouth on
both sides. 130 After it had been decorated with further public buildings, he allowed
the city to keep the previous name of the village. 131 The huge watch-tower of this
city, which was constructed in an elevated location and was a continuation of the
walls, was a tower called the ‘Herculean tower’ and looked up to Nisibis to the east
and back to Amida to the north of it. 132
The Latin author Marcellinus Comes (Count Marcellinus), 133 who among
other works wrote a chronicle covering the years 379 to 518, mentions the
proximity of Dārā to the two most important cities Amida and Nisibis
and thus points to the special geographical location of the city within the
border area between the Byzantine and the Sasanian Empires, which must
have been crucial for the emperor’s decision to choose Dārā in particular as
the location for a powerful fortification. Dārā’s city walls and watch towers,
which are still visible today (figs. 13–14), attest to the impressive strength
of this late antique fortification. 134
127 As the Church of Amida was the official owner, the emperor had to purchase the village Dārā from
her.
128 On Calliopius see Croke 1984: 86–8.
129 The easy access to water supply must have been a further reason for choosing this particular place
for the fortification.
130 On the river Cordissus and its position within the city see the detailed account given by Proc. Aed.
ii.2.1–7; BP viii.7.7; see also Whitby 1986a: 739 and Croke 1984: 84.
131 The city was in fact renamed Anastasiopolis; cf. Croke 1984: 84–5.
132 On this tower see Croke 1984: 85–6; John of Ephesus mentions it in his account of the siege of
Dārā by Xusrō I in the year 573.
133 On the author and his work see Croke 2001; for an English translation and commentary see Croke
1995.
134 See in particular Croke and Crow 1983: 143–59; Isaac 1992: 254–5; Gregory 1997: C6.