MESOPOTAMIA. Nisibis. Philip II (247-249). Ae.

Obv : AVTOK K M IOVΛI ΦIΛIΠΠOC CЄB.
Laureate and cuirassed bust left.

Rev : IOV CЄΠ KOΛΩ NЄCIBI MHT.
Statue of Tyche seated facing, with ram leaping right, head left, above; all within tetrastyle temple below which half-length river-god Mygdonius swims to right.
SNG Copenhagen 242; BMC 17-19.

Condition : Good very fine.

Weight : 9.70 gr
Diameter : 25 mm

Since it was the only main trade center in the Nisibis region, it had the distinction of being a city where the two great powers of the period, the Roman and Sassanid states, faced each other on the border due to its geostrategic importance. Although the city was well fortified, it occasionally changed places between the two sides. After the Romans expanded their borders to the Upper Tigris Valley and Mesopotamia, this time they caused the East-West conflict to emerge against the Sassanids. As a border city, Nusaybin was an important connection point not only economically and socio-culturally but also militarily. Until it surrendered to the Sassanids in 363, it was not only the headquarters center of the Roman leadership (dux Mesopotamiae) in Mesopotamia, but also the forward concentration point of the mobile forces of the Eastern Armies Command (magister militum per Orientem). The Parthians represented Eastern power until the emergence of the Sassanids in 224. Ardashir I or Shapur I, together with the fresh energy of the Sassanid dynasty, conquered Nisibis in 238 or 241. Gordianus II captured it, but it came back under Sassanid control in 244. Nisibis and its region were annexed to the Roman Empire in 298 as a result of the agreement made with Narseh. It was besieged three times, especially during the reign of Constantius II, in 337, 346 and 350, but Shapur II was unable to capture it. After the defeat of Julian in 363, it was returned to the Sassanids.