Carrhae
Carrhae, located in present-day southeastern Turkey, is an ancient city in northern Mesopotamia situated near the Bilechas River, a tributary of the Euphrates. Historically significant, it is associated with the patriarch Abraham from Jewish tradition, who is said to have lived there during his migration. Carrhae was a prominent provincial capital within the Assyrian Empire, known for its temple dedicated to the moon-god Lunus (Sin), and later became a military and commercial hub under various empires, including the Seleucid and Parthian empires.
The city is perhaps best known for the catastrophic defeat of Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus in 53 BC during his invasion of Parthian Mesopotamia, where he faced the Parthian noble Surena. This pivotal battle led to significant Roman losses and the eventual death of Crassus. Carrhae later came under Roman control during the reigns of emperors Trajan and Lucius Verus, receiving various honors and colonial status. Over centuries, it continued to be a center of cultural and political significance, enduring through the rise and fall of empires, including the Sassanian Persians and the Muslim conquest in 629 AD. Today, archaeological efforts have revealed much about Carrhae's historical landscape and its religious significance, with structures like a basilica and a mosque built upon ancient pagan temples.
Carrhae
(Haran; now Altibaşak)
A city in northern Mesopotamia (now the southeastern region of Asiatic Turkey), twenty-five miles southwest of Edessa (Urfa), near the river Bilechas, a tributary of the Euphrates. According to Jewish tradition, the patriarch Abraham lived at Haran in the course of his migration from Ur to Canaan. It possessed a famous temple of the moon-god Lunus (Sin) and was a provincial capital of the Assyrian empire, serving as a fortress and important commercial center. Under the Seleucid dynasty it possessed a Macedonian military colony, and subsequently passed within the boundaries of the Parthian empire.
When the Roman triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus invaded Parthian Mesopotamia in 53 BC, Carrhae was the scene of his catastrophic defeat by `Surenas,’ a Parthian noble of the Suren family whose personal name has not come down to us. Learning that the Parthians were upon him, Crassus formed his men into a square, which was overwhelmed by showers of arrows discharged with various trajectories. Abandoning 4,000 wounded, Crassus withdrew to Carrhae, but was compelled by his desperate troops to go out and negotiate with the enemy, who killed him at Sinnaca nearby. About 10,000 Romans escaped, but more than 30,000 were captured or killed.
Carrhae was temporarily recovered by Trajan (AD 114–17), to form part of a new Roman province of Mesopotamia, and then again by Lucius Verus, the colleague of Marcus Aurelius (162–65). It was probably at the latter date that the city was granted colonial status (under the name of Lucia Aurelia). Then the city received additional honors (under the designation of Antoniniana) from Caracalla—who was murdered, however, while on his way there to worship at the temple of Lunus (217). Carrhae, of which another title was Philoromaios, lover of the Romans, continued to issue coinage—apart from a brief Parthian reoccupation under Maximinus I (235–38)—until Gordian III (238–44). After the Sassanian Persians has taken over the Parthian empire, Diocletian's Caesar Galerius was severely defeated by them in the neighborhood of the city (296) but completely reversed the situation by a subsequent victory. The fortress fell to the Moslems in 629. Coins of imperial date depict the tripartite shrine of a celestial deity, presumably Lunus; and an early Christian basilica, the Great Mosque, and the present citadel were all built on the sites of pagan temples. The site has recently been elucidated by surface investigations and recovery excavations.