Dara (Mesopotamia)

Dara
Δάρας (in Greek)

Ruins of rock-cut building in Daras
Shown within Turkey
Alternate name Daras, Anastasiopolis, Iustiniana Nova
Location Oğuz, Mardin Province, Turkey
Region Mesopotamia
Coordinates 37°10′40″N 40°56′28″E / 37.17778°N 40.94111°E / 37.17778; 40.94111Coordinates: 37°10′40″N 40°56′28″E / 37.17778°N 40.94111°E / 37.17778; 40.94111
Type Settlement
History
Builder Anastasius I
Founded 505
Abandoned After 639
Periods Late Antiquity
Events Battle of Dara

Dara or Daras (Greek: Δάρας) was an important East Roman fortress city in northern Mesopotamia on the border with the Sassanid Empire. Because of its great strategic importance, it featured prominently in the Roman-Persian conflicts of the 6th century, with the famous Battle of Dara taking place before its walls in 530. The former (arch)bishopric remains a multiple Catholic titular see. Today the Turkish village of Oğuz, Mardin Province, occupies its location.

History

Foundation by Anastasius

During the Anastasian War in 502–506, the Roman armies fared badly against the Sassanid Persians. According to the Syriac Chronicle of Zacharias of Mytilene, the Roman generals blamed their difficulties on the lack of a strong base in the area, as opposed to the Persians, who held the great city of Nisibis (which until its cession in 363 had served the same purpose for the Romans).[1]

Therefore, in 505, while the Persian King Kavadh I was distracted in the East, Emperor Anastasius I decided to rebuild the village of Dara, only 18 kilometres westwards from Nisibis and just 5 km from the actual border with Persia, to be "a refuge for the army in which they might rest, and for the preparation of weapons, and to guard the country of the Arabs from the inroads of the Persians and Saracens".[1] Masons and workers from all over Mesopotamia were gathered and worked with great haste. The new city was built on three hills, on the highest of which stood the citadel, and endowed with great storehouses, a public bath and water cisterns.[1] It took the name Anastasiopolis (Greek: Ἀναστασιούπολις) and became the seat of the Roman dux Mesopotamiae.

Reconstruction by Justinian

Remains of the cisterns

According to Procopius, the hasty construction of the original walls resulted in poor quality, and the severe weather conditions of the region exacerbated the problem, ruining some sections. Thus Byzantine Emperor Justinian I was compelled to undertake extensive repairs to the city, afterwards renaming it Iustiniana Nova.[2] The walls were rebuilt and the inner wall raised by a new storey, doubling its height to about 20 m (66 ft). The towers were strengthened and raised to three stories (ca. 35 m) high, and a moat dug out and filled with water.[3]

Justinian's engineers also diverted the nearby river Cordes towards the city by digging a canal. The river now flowed through the city, ensuring ample water supply. At the same time, by means of diverting its flow to an underground channel which exited 65 km (40 mi) to the north, the garrison was able to deny water to a besieging enemy, a fact which saved the city on several occasions.[4] To avert the danger of flooding, which had already once wrecked large parts of the city, an elaborate arch dam was built to contain it,[5] one of the earliest known of its kind.[6] In addition, barracks were built for the garrison, and two new churches were constructed, the "Great Church", and one dedicated to St Bartholomew.[7]

Later history

The city was later besieged and captured by the Persians in 573-574, but was returned to the Romans by Khosrau II after the Roman-Persian treaty in 590. It was taken again by Khosrau in 604-05 after a nine-month siege, recovered again for the Roman Empire by Heraclius. Finally captured in 639 by the Arabs, the city then lost its military significance, declined and was eventually abandoned.

Modern history

Dara became the site of massacre during the Armenian Genocide. According to some reports, the cisterns were filled with the bodies of slaughtered Armenians from Diyarbakır, Mardin, and Erzurum in the spring and summer of 1915.[8]

Ecclesiastical history

(Arch)Bishopric

The new city became the seat of a Christian bishop and was at first a Metropolitan see, with three suffragans : Rhesaina (also called Theodosiopolis), Rhandus and Nasala.[9]

Its first bishop was Eutychianus, who took possession in 506. His successor, Thomas, was deposed in 519 for his opposition to the Council of Chalcedon and died in 540. Mamas was removed in 537. Stephanus took part in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553.

After the 7th-century Arab conquest, Dara became the seat of Jacobite bishops.[10][11]

In the 10th century Dara lost its Metropolitan rank, which passed to its former suffragan Rhesaina.[12]

No longer a residential bishopric, Dara is now listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see, both Latin and in particular for the Syriac Catholic Church, which, though of Jacobite tradition, is in full communion with the Holy See.[13]

Titular Latin see

The diocese was nominally restored in the 15th century as the Latin Catholic titular bishopric of Dara.

As such, it has the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank :

In 1925 it was renamed and Promoted as Metropolitan Titular archbishopric of Dara.

It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents of that (highest) rank :

Titular Syrian Catholic see

Established as Titular bishopric of Anastasiopolis, suppressed without incumbent, restored in 1979 as titular bishopric of Dara Syrorum (just Dara in Curiate Italian).

It has had the following incumbents, of both the lowest (episcopal) and intermediary (archiepiscopal) ranks :

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Zacharias of Mytilene, Syriac Chronicle, Book VII, Chapter VI
  2. ↑ Procopius, De Aedificiis, II.1.11-13
  3. ↑ Procopius, De Aedificiis, II.1.14-21
  4. ↑ Procopius, De Aedificiis, II.2
  5. ↑ Procopius, De Aedificiis, II.3.16-21
  6. ↑ Smith 1971, pp. 54f.; Schnitter 1987a, p. 13; Schnitter 1987b, p. 80; Hodge 1992, p. 92; Hodge 2000, p. 332, fn. 2
  7. ↑ Procopius, De Aedificiis, II.3.26
  8. ↑ Kevorkian, Raymond (2011). The Armenian Genocide: a Complete History. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. pp. 364, 375, 378.
  9. ↑ Echos d'Orient X, 1907, pp. 144-145
  10. ↑ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 997-998, and 1427-1430
  11. ↑ Raymond Janin, v. Dara in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIV, Paris 1960, coll. 83-84
  12. ↑ Echos d'Orient X, 1907, p. 96
  13. ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 879

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Arch dam

External links

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