Euphratensis Explained

Native Name:
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἐπαρχία Εὑφρατησίας
Common Name:Euphratensis
Subdivision:Province
Nation:the Byzantine Empire
Era:Late Antiquity
Capital:Cyrrus or Hierapolis Bambyce
Image Map Caption:Diocese of Orient circa 400, showing Euphratensis
Year Start:c. 341
Event1:Division of the empire by Theodosius I
Date Event1:395
Year End:7th Century
Event End:Muslim conquest of the Levant
Today:Syria
Turkey
S1:Rashidun Caliphate

Euphratensis (Latin for "Euphratean"; Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Εὑφρατησία, Euphratēsía), fully Augusta Euphratensis, was a late Roman and then Byzantine province in Syrian region, part of the Byzantine Diocese of the East.

History

Sometime between 330 and 350 AD (likely), the Roman province of Euphratensis was created out of the territory of Coele Syria along the western bank of the Euphrates.[1] It included the territories of Commagene and Cyrrhestice. Its capital was Cyrrus[2] or perhaps Hierapolis Bambyce.[1] It remained within the Byzantine Empire following the 395 division of the empire by Theodosius I.

The province is listed in the Laterculus Veronensis from around 314.

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox saints Sergius and Bacchus were supposedly martyred in the city of Resafa in Euphratensis, and the city was later renamed Sergiopolis. Other cities in the province were Samosata and Zeugma.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Alexander . Kazhdan . . Oxford University Press . 1991 . 978-0-19-504652-6 . 748.
  2. Edmund Spenser Bouchier, Syria as a Roman Province, 1916, p. 155