Nisibis

“ NISIBIS (Nasibina in the Assyrian inscriptions) , an ancient city and fortress in the north of Mesopotamia, near the point where the Mygdonius (mod. Jaghjagha) leaves the mountains by a narrow defile. The modern Nezib or Nasibin consists of some 4000 inhabitants, largely Jews, who pay tribute to the Shammar Bedouins. The neighbourhood, we are informed by Arab writers, was at one time richly wooded, but is now somewhat marshy and unhealthy. ”

“ At Nisibis, again, upon the very frontier of Persia, appeared another very remarkable personage, known as the Great Jacob or Great St. James. Taking (says his admiring biographer, Theodoret of Cyra) to the peaks of the loftiest mountains, he passed his life on them, in spring and summer haunting the woods, with the sky for a roof, but sheltering himself in winter in a cave. His food was wild fruits and mountain herbs. ”

“ Having thus established his superiority in the field, the Roman general, though he could not attack Nisibis with any prospect of success, was able to adopt other offensive measures. He advanced in person a day’s march beyond Nisibis, and captured the fort of Sisauranon. Eight hundred Persian cavalry of the first class were made prisoners, and sent by Belisarius to Byzantium, where they were despatched by Justinian to Italy, where they served against the Goths. Arethas, the chief of the Saracens who fought on the side of Rome, was sent still further in advance. ”

“ There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but, as Nisibis was situated within their own dominions, and as they were masters both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects of an internal law rather than of a foreign treaty. To render them more effectual, some stipulations were probably required on the side of the king of Persia, which appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his dignity, that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them. ”

“ The corpse of Julian was transported from Nisibis to Tarsus, in a slow march of fifteen days; and, as it passed through the cities of the East, was saluted by the hostile factions, with mournful lamentations and clamorous insults. The Pagans already placed their beloved hero in the rank of those gods whose worship he had restored; while the invectives of the Christians pursued the soul of the Apostate to hell, and his body to the grave. One party lamented the approaching ruin of their altars; the other celebrated the marvellous deliverance of their church. ”

“ But Fame (being alway the most rapid bearer of bad news) , outstripping these couriers, flew through the different provinces and nations; and above all others struck the citizens of Nisibis with bitter sorrow when they heard that their city was surrendered to Sapor, whose anger and enmity they dreaded, from recollecting the havoc and slaughter which he had made in his frequent attempts to take the place. ”

“ Josh. xix. 20 Kh. el Beida (?) * 6 A town of Issachar, named between Kishion and Remeth. Possibly the ruin el Beida = ‘white,’ at north limit of the plain of Esdraelon. (Mem. I. 309; Sh. V.) —Conder. [p. 3] ABRONAH (Ebronah) Num. xxxiii. 34, 35 Not identified — ACCAD Gen. x. 10 Nisibis (??) — One of the cities in the land of Shinar. Nisibis, a city on the Khabour river at the north-east part of Mesopotamia, and midway between Orfa and Nineveh, is generally believed to occupy the ancient site. ”

“ With the Emperor absent and the Roman power weakened by civil war, Vologases swept rapidly northward through Mesopotamia. Nisibis was saved only by the desperate defense of Laetus, who was besieged within the city, and even Armenia may have been retaken. ”

“ Nisibis was then abandoned by its Christian inhabitants; and Ephraim finally settled at Edessa, and took up his abode as a “Solitary” in a cell on the “Mount of Edessa”—a rocky hill close to the city, where many anchorites sought retreat. Here he rose into repute as a teacher, and a champion against heresy ”

“ Though his men suffered considerably from the scarcity and badness of the water, yet he seems to have found no great difficulty in reducing Mesopotamia once more into subjection. Having brought it completely under, and formally made Nisibis the capital, at the same time raising it to the dignified position of a Roman colony, he caused his troops to cross the Tigris into Adiabene, and, though the inhabitants offered a stout resistance, succeeded in making himself master of the country. The Parthian monarch seems to have made no effort to prevent the occupation of this province. ”

“ Hymn I. was indubitably composed while the siege was still urgent; Hymns I. and III. immediately after the deliverance; Hymns IV.–XII. deal with the fortunes of the city and country in a troubled time of invasion that succeeded; the rest (XIII.–XXI.) treat of the four successive Bishops of Nisibis under whom Ephraim lived—Jacob, Babu, Valgesh, and Abraham. The last-named is not elsewhere recorded except by Elias of Nisibis, but the death of Valgesh is known to have occurred in 361. ”

“ And Belisarius, seeing that Nisibis was exceedingly strong, and having no hope regarding its capture, was eager to go forward, in order that he might do the enemy some damage by a sudden inroad. Accordingly he broke camp and moved forward with the whole army. And after accomplishing a day's journey, they came upon a fortress which the Persians call Sisauranon. There were in that place besides the numerous population eight hundred horsemen, the best of the Persians, who were keeping guard under command of a man of note, Bleschames by name. ”

“ The Osrhoeni and Adiabeni having revolted were besieging Nisibis: defeated by Severus they sent an embassy to him after the death of Niger, not to beg his clemency as wrongdoers but to demand reciprocal favors, pretending to have brought about the outcome for his benefit. It was for his sake, they said, that they had destroyed the soldiers who belonged to Niger's party. Indeed, they sent a few gifts to him and promised to restore the captives and whatever spoils were left. ”

“ He seems at some time in his life to have assumed the name of Jacob, and is so entitled in the colophon to a MS. of A.D. 512 which contains twelve of his homilies. Hence he was already by Gennadius of Marseilles (before 496) confused with Jacob, bishop of Nisibis; and the ancient Armenian version of nineteen of the homilies has been published under this latter name. But (1) Jacob of Nisibis, who attended the council of Nicaea, died in 338; and (2) our author, being a Persian subject, cannot have lived at Nisibis, which became Persian only by Jovian’s treaty of 363. ”

“ But if the enemy engage with us here and we conquer them, I have great hopes, fellow officers, of capturing the city. For while our antagonists are fleeing a long way, we shall either mingle with them and rush inside the gates with them, as is probable, or we shall anticipate them and compel them to turn and escape to some other place, and thus render Nisibis without its defenders easy of capture for us. ”

“ But of this celebrated personage no writings are recorded, nor was he a Persian, [6] but a native of Nisibis (in his time a city of the Roman Empire) , in 338, seven years before the completion of the treatises in question. As Jacob of Nisibis is thus too early to be the author of them, so, on the other hand, Jacob of Sarug, whom Assemani suggested in correcting the mistake of Gennadius, [7] is too late; for he was not born till more than a century after the date of the last Demonstration. ”

“ Nisibis in Mesopotamia, Antioch; Rhagae (Rai) in Media, Europus. In some cases the old name was left unchallenged, e.g. Thyatira, Damascus and Samaria. Even where there was no new foundation the older cities of Phoenicia and Syria became transformed from the overwhelming prestige of Hellenic culture. In Tyre and Sidon, no less than in Antioch or Alexandria, Greek literature and philosophy were seriously cultivated, as we may see by the great names which they contributed. The process by which Hellenism thus leavened an older city we may trace with peculiar vividness in the case of Jerusalem ”

“ The five provinces beyond the Tigris, which had been ceded by the grandfather of Sapor, were restored to the Persian monarchy. He acquired, by a single article, the impregnable city of Nisibis; which had sustained, in three successive sieges, the effort of his arms. Singara, and the castle of the Moors, one of the strongest places of Mesopotamia, were likewise dismembered from the empire. It was considered as an indulgence, that the inhabitants of those fortresses were permitted to retire with their effects ”

“ Battheus, Eusebius, Barges, Halas, Abbos, Lazarus, who attained the episcopal dignity, Abdaleus, Zeno, and Heliodorus, flourished in Nisibis, near the mountain called Sigoron. When they first entered upon the philosophic career, they were denominated shepherds, because they had no houses, ate neither bread nor meat, and drank no wine ”

“ Born probably between 415 and 420 he imbibed Nestorian doctrine from Ibas at the Persian school of Edessa, but was driven out in 457 on the death of his master, and went to be bishop of Nisībis. In a succession of missionary journeys he succeeded, partly by persuasion and partly (if his enemies are to be believed) by violence, in attaching to Nestorianism nearly all the Christian communities of Persia, with the exception of Taghrīth, which was always strongly Monophysite. ”

“ The school of Edessa, which in 489 was again broken up by the Greek emperor, Zeno, was transferred to Nisibis, and in that place continued for several centuries to be an important centre of theological learning, and especially of biblical studies. ... In the sixth century the Nestorians had established churches from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea, and had preached the Gospel to the Medes, the Bactrians, the Huns, and the Indians, and as far as the coast of Malabar and the island of Ceylon. ”

“ He therefore resolved to leave a sufficient guard in the places near the Tigris, to prevent the Persians from taking advantage of the army accompanying him by the other route into their dominions, and thus pillaging Nisibis and all that quarter without opposition. He therefore thought it prudent to leave in that country eighteen thousand men under the command of Sebastianus and Procopius, while he himself crossed the Euphrates with the main body of his forces in two divisions. ”

“ The next day the Persian camp was taken, and a rich booty fell into the hands of the conquerors, besides a number of standards. The remnant of the defeated army found a refuge within the walls of Nisibis. Later in the year Comentiolus recovered to some extent his tarnished laurels by the siege and capture of Arbas, whose strong situation in the immediate vicinity of Martyropolis rendered the position of the Persian garrison in that city insecure, if not absolutely untenable. ”

“ Yet such was his ill faith that when he sent a plenipotentiary to conclude the pact at Constantinople, he commissioned him to attempt the capture of Dara, while on his way, by a stratagem. But for the wariness of the inhabitants of that fortress, the emissary would have gained admission with a large retinue, fired the houses in the night, and opened the gates to the army of Nisibis, which was to lie in waiting outside the walls. ”

“ Accordingly, having joined to the remainder of an army that still remained in the country many of his own troops, he attacked Sapor with great boldness; and having taken several cities belonging to the Persians, he retook Nisibis also, which Sapor had formerly taken, and ravaged it at the same time. Then advancing, not once merely, but a second time, as far as Ctesiphon, he blocked up the Persians in their fortifications, and rendered them content to save their wives, their children and themselves, while he disposed of the pillaged country at his pleasure. ”

“ One day whilst he was journeying along the road he found a number of men who were laying out and covering for burial a man who was not dead, and they asked the saint to give them cloths wherewith to swathe him, but the saint by his prayer made the dying man to live. When the men came back and found the dead man [alive] , they entreated him, and repented, and he healed them. And the virtues and the righteousness of this saint becoming known, the priests chose him to be Bishop of the city of Nisibis. ”

“ The example of the massacres of the palace diffused a spirit of licentiousness and sedition among the troops of the East, who were no longer restrained by their habits of obedience to a veteran commander. By the prudence of Constantius, who, from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately hastened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually restored to a sense of duty and discipline; but the season of anarchy had permitted Sapor to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy several of the mo st important fortresses of Mesopotamia. ”

“ Reviving a favorite policy of Oriental rulers from very remote times, he transported these captives to the extreme eastern parts of his empire, where they might be of the greatest service to him in defending his frontier against the Scythians and Indians.
It is not really surprising, though the historian of the war regards it as needing explanation, that no attempt was made to relieve Singara by the Romans. The siege was short; the place was considered strong; the nearest point held by a powerful Roman force was Nisibis, which was at least sixty miles distant from Singara. ”