Geoffrey Greatrex (2005). Byzantium and the East in - Kaveh Farrokh

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N 0 The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian 0 100 miles Land over 1000 metres Mediterranean Sea CAPPADOCIA Taurus Mountains Antioch 200 km River Orontes Beroea Apamea Damascus SYRIA Gabbulon Strata Strata Diocletiana Diocletiana Zeugma Melitene Hierapolis Palmyra map 15. Northern Mesopotamia and adjacent regions River Euphrates Batnae Edessa Barbalissos Sura Sergiopolis Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 EUPHRATESIA Satala Constantia Amida Resaina/Theodosiopolis Carrhae OSRHOENE SOPHANENE Callinicum Syrian Desert Zenobia certain resources (such as gold), but the Caucasus range itself provided a barrier against the incursions of the foreign peoples of the north. 46 Control of the region thus conferred many benefits, and throughout the fifth and sixth centuries the two powers struggled to gain the upper hand. For the most part, the Persians were more successful, consistently dominating the eastern Caucasus and at times extending their power as far as the Black Sea. But it consequently fell to them to guard the passes across the mountains and to protect the region (and their 494
ARMENIA Citharizon Monocarton Tur Abdin Solachon Byzantium and the East in the Sixth Century Martyropolis Dara Thannuris Khabour (Nymphius) Batm an Circesium Cepha Nisibis Jebel Sinjar Theodosiopolis ARZANENE Singara Bezabde Lake Van CORDUENE River Tigris River Euphrates PERSARMENIA ZABDICENE Nineveh Greater Zab Lesser Zab Irbil Perozshapur River Tigris Artaxata Dvin Lake Urmiah Kirkuk (Karka de Beth Selok) Ctesiphon River Diyala Dastagerd Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2006 River Araxes Zagros Mountains own lands in northern Iran) from invasions, an onerous and expensive task. Frequently they turned to the Romans for financial or military assistance; rarely did they receive any, since the Roman emperors were well aware that the Persians were more vulnerable to such incursions than they were. 47 The main obstacle to Roman and Persian ambitions, however, lay not in invasions from the north, but in the nature of the terrain itself and its inhabitants. Neither power was ever able to subjugate the region (or indeed any part of it) entirely, despite strenuous efforts. The physical geography of this mountainous region militated 495
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Geoffrey Greatrex (2005). Byzantium and the East in - Kaveh Farrokh

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