Rome and the East
itself appears in the papyrus as ‘‘Orhai the fortified city which is the mother
of all the cities of Mesopotamia’’ (’RHY B’RS MDYNT’ DYT’ ’M’ DMDYNT’
KLHYN DBYT NHRYN).
The restoration thus certainly occurred a couple of years earlier than
had previously been supposed. It did not last long. As we saw, the Syriac
deed of sale from Dura-Europos shows that Edessa was again acoloniain
... But in fact colonial status had reappeared, and the king had dis-
appeared, even earlier. For the Syriac document which Teixidor designated
B is dated .., year of Gordian, Seleucid year , and year ‘‘of the
liberation of the renowned Edessa Antonina Colonia Metropolis Aurelia
Alexandria’’ (DḤRWR’ D’NTWNYN’ ’DYS’ NṢYḤT’ QLWNY’ MTRPWLS
’WRLY’ ’LKSNDRY’)—therefore exactly as in the deed of sale of the fol-
lowing year.^183
Inevitably therefore, the results of modern discussions of this tangled se-
quence of events now require radical revision.^184 Some of the ‘‘colonial’’ coins
of Edessa under Gordian III may indeed date to after the restoration, and
coins of the reign of Decius (..–) also haveΚΟΛ ΕΔΕΣΣΑ. Some
time not long after that coining will have ceased, along with that of all the
other cities of the Greek East.
The colonial constitution of the city continued, however. The Syriac
martyr act of Shmona and Guria, relating events which seem to have oc-
curred in.., gives a dating (para. ) by thestratēgia(B’SṬRṬYGWT’) of
Abba and Abgar; while the closely related martyr act of Habib the deacon,
describing comparable events which perhaps date to.., gives a similar
local dating (para. ) as ‘‘in thestratēgia[B’SṬRṬGWT’] of Julius and Barak.’’
But this narrative also, like the record of the flood of.., represents
‘‘superintendents’’ of the city (ŠRYR’ DMDYNT’, para. ), who play a role in
the persecution, reporting Habib’s activities to ‘‘the governor’’ (HGMWN’—
ἡγεμών, i.e.,praeses).^185 The standard Greek equivalent term forduumvir,stra-
. See Teixidor, ‘‘Un document syriaque de fermage de ap. J.-C.,’’Semitica–
(): –; cf. Brock and Aggoula (n. ). This document is reprinted as P in Drijvers
and J. F. Healey (n. ), app. I. Note the reconstruction of the dating mentioned in n. .
. See, e.g., R. Duval,Histoire d’Édesse(), –; A. R. Bellinger and C. B. Welles,
‘‘A Third-Century Contract of Sale from Edessa in Osrhoene,’’YCS (): –; E. Kir-
sten, ‘‘Edessa,’’RACIV (), –, on cols. –. For an excellent discussion of the
varied accounts (and names and dates of the kings) in the chronicles, and their relation to
the Syriac contract, see H. J. W. Drijvers, ‘‘Hatra, Palmyra and Edessa,’’ANRWII. (),
–.
. For these texts, and translation, see F. C. Burkitt,Euphemia and the Goth(), –
.