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The Roman Frontier in Northern 'IraqAuthor(s): David OatesSource: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 122, No. 2 (Jun., 1956), pp. 190-199Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute ofBritish Geographers)

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1790848 .Accessed: 24/05/2011 14:46

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THE ROMAN FRONTIER IN NORTHERN'IRAQ

DAVID OATES

INthe years immediately before the last war the late Sir Aurel Stein carried out

archaeological surveys in Northern 'Iraq, a preliminary report of which appearedin this Journal.1 During the summer months of the last two years I have beenprivileged to continue and extend this undertaking, with the aid of Stein's ownunpublished material, and of grants from the Stein-Arnold Fund of the BritishAcademy. I must express my gratitude to the Council of the Academy and thetrustees of the Fund for their generous support, and also to the British School ofArchaeology and the Directorate-General of Antiquities in 'Iraq * for unfailingassistance in the field. This paper summarizes a lecture delivered before the BritishAcademy, giving an interim report on the work, the problems it presents and themanner in which they may be solved. It deals largely in generalities, for two reasons:the two centuries of Roman occupation were a mere episode in the history of thecountry itself, and cannot be adequately studied without a knowledge of thelimitations which three thousand years of civilization imposed upon the newcomers;and secondly, the territory forms no natural part of the Roman Empire, and if weare to understand the reason or the technique of its occupation, we must takeaccount of contemporary geographical and political considerations.Northern 'Iraq is geographically the centre of the Middle East, and it is onlynecessary to visit Mosul, its modern capital, and hear four native languages spokenin the streets, to realize the complexity of its inheritance. It was also one of thegreat original centres of civilization and, in its maturity, the reservoir of wealth andmanpower which, for six centuries, fed the Assyrian Empire, centred about thegreat cities of Assur, Nineveh and Nimrud. But the very greatness of the Assyriancapitals tempts us to think of Assyria in terms of cities, and to ignore the country?side, the network of towns and villages, of minor roads and great highways, fromwhich their power was drawn. It is perhaps unnecessary to labour the point thatan ancient city ultimately depended for its luxury in peace and its strength in warnot, like a modern state, on its industries, but on the land and peasantry outside itsgates; and it is interesting to calculate the vast area that was necessary to support apopulation of 60,000 at Nimrud or twice as many at Nineveh.2 But the prosperityof the countryside was not equally dependent on the existence of its cities; providedthat there was some authority to save it from the perils of anarchy, it was probablybetter that the authority should not maintain its courts and recruit its armies nearat hand. In fact, accustomed as we are to regard the fall of Nineveh in 612 b.c. asthe cataclysm that ended an era, we forget that it may have been, in local terms, thekilling of the white elephant.

Very probably there were periods of anarchy and destructive invasion. Post-Assyrian settlement on sites such as Nimrud is discontinuous, but there is consider?able evidence that the pattern of the countryside established in Assyrian timescontinued without significant change down to, and even after, the Islamic conquest.The great cities were, it is true, deprived of their artificial importance and assumedthe status that their local position justified. Nimrud became quite a small town,though large enough to inspire Xenophon to ask its name in passing 3; the great* Under the direction of H. E. Dr. Naji al Asil.

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50 O , , ? CTESIPHONl-^????%Fig. i. Syria and Parthia c. a.d. 200

ROADSOURSEURVEYEDUNSURVEYEDPEUTINGEROADTATIONSOTHERARGEITES OCASTELLAMILESTONESKilometres

Fig. 2. Northern 'Iraq in the Roman period

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