Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

28 Economy and trade 197
for the parts of the Tigris that were under Roman control, 124 and these
must have been a consequence of the increased significance of the Tigris
for trade. However, as the ravines created by the course of the river become
very narrow, hardly any transport of goods would have been possible above
the Roman camps Castra Maurorum 125 and Bezabde. 126 Moreover, along
this part of the Tigris the extremely barren mountain ridge of the Tūr
‘Abdīn (Mons Masius) to the West must have impeded regular trade so
that goods going upstream must have been taken no further than Bezabde,
most likely only to Castra Maurorum, from where they would have been
transported along the southern edges of the Tūr Abdīn to Nisibis.
In light of these topographical premises Nisibis, which was located
in the northern Mesopotamian plain on the upper reaches of the
Chabōras/Chabūr, 127 almost inevitably became the new centre for long
distance trade. 128 There were then several routes on which goods could be
transported from Nisibis to Syria, via Edessa and Zeugma for example.
In contrast to the ‘caravan cities’ Hatra and Palmyra the Roman colonia
Nisibis, which was also the seat of the Roman governor of the province
of Mesopotamia, was no longer the guarantor for an extended network
of traffic but a huge trans-shipment centre. The Expositio totius mundi et
gentium confirms the city’s exceptional role.
Expositio totius mundi et gentium 22 (p. 156, ed. Rougé)
Mesopotamia, however, has many different cities of which I shall name but the
most exceptional ones. There are, then, Nisibis and Edessa, which possess the best
men in every respect, both clever merchants and good hunters. Above all they are
wealthy as well as equipped with all sorts of goods. For they acquire their goods
directly from the Persians, sell them throughout the entire Roman Empire and then
engage in trade with the goods they purchase there, except for bronze and iron
because it is not permitted to sell bronze and iron to enemies. 129 These cities, which
will always remain standing through the wisdom of the gods and the emperor and
124 On the location of Castra Maurorum see Ball 1989: 7–18 and 2003: 18–19.
125 Ball 2003: 80–1.
126 For a long time it has been suggested that Bezabde was located in the Turkish–Syrian border area
close to Cizre; see Lightfoot 1983: 189–204; for new surveys locating Bezabde 13km further north
see Algaze 1989: 248–52 and 1991: 191–2.
127 On the course and navigability of the Chabōras/Chabūr see Tardieu 1990: 103–35.
128 Also important because of its geographic location was Singara, a point of intersection between the
course of the upper Chabōras/Chabūr towards the Tigris and along the route from Hatra to Nisibis;
on Singara see Oates 1968: 97–106 and Kessler 1980.
129 For the export embargo on aeramentum et ferrum see also Herodian iv.18; Dig. xxxix.4.11; Cod. Iust.
iv.53.1 (4); on further export embargos ibid. iv.41.1–2 and iv.63.2.