Making Mesopotamia: Geography and Empire in a Romano-Iranian Borderland Impact of Empire Roman Empire, c. 200 B.C.–A.D. 476 Edited by Olivier Hekster (Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) Editorial Board Stephane Benoist Angelos Chaniotis Lien Foubert Anne Kolb Luuk de Ligt Elio Lo Cascio Bernhard Palme Michael Peachin Francisco Pina Polo Rubina Raja Christian Witschel Greg Woolf VOLUME 32 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/imem Making Mesopotamia: Geography and Empire in a Romano-Iranian Borderland By Hamish Cameron LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: SECVRITAS PVBLICA – Securitas seated left holding globe in right and resting left on side of throne. Reverse of Silver Denarius of Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Laodicea ad Mare, AD 198. ANS 1944.100.18.51581. American Numismatic Society. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Cameron, Hamish (Hamish Robert), author. Title: Making Mesopotamia : geography and empire in a Romano-Iranian  borderland / by Hamish Cameron. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2019] | Series: Impact of empire :  Roman Empire, c. 200 BC–AD 476, ISSN 1572-0500 ; volume 32 |  Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2018047724 (print) | LCCN 2018052392 (ebook) |  ISBN 9789004388635 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004388628 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Iraq—Historical geography. | Iraq—Description and  travel—Sources. | Geography, Ancient, in literature. | Imperialism in  literature. | Latin literature—History and criticism. |  Borderlands—Rome—History. | Borderlands—Iran—History—To 1500. |  Rome—Relations—Iran. | Iran—Relations—Rome. Classification: LCC DS70.63 (ebook) | LCC DS70.63 .C36 2019 (print) |  DDC 935/.064—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047724 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1572-0500 isbn 978-90-04-38862-8 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-38863-5 (e-book) Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. To Margaret, Jack, Max, Horace and Jean, iucundissimi maiores ⸪ Contents Acknowledgements ix List of Maps xi A Note on the Maps xiI 1 Introducing the Borderland 1 1 What is a Borderland? 2 2 Where is the Mesopotamian Borderland? 7 3 A Borderland Emerges 15 4 Who “Made” Mesopotamia? 38 5 Outlining the Narrative 42 Part 1 Tradition and Narrative 2 Knowing 47 1 Strabo’s Sources 48 2 Pliny’s Sources 63 3 Ptolemy’s Sources 70 4 Spatial Measurement 75 5 Hellenistic Knowledge 80 3 Naming 82 1 Strabo’s Assyria 83 2 Pliny 97 3 Claudius Ptolemy 106 4 The Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium 109 5 Ammianus Marcellinus 111 6 Labels and Limits 124 4 Narrating 128 1 Strabo 129 2 Pliny the Elder 152 3 Ptolemy 176 4 Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium 183 5 Ammianus 186 6 Narrating Topologically 191 7 Narrating Imperially 196 viii Contents 5 Moving 202 1 Skenitai 203 2 Gordyaians 214 3 Arranging People 215 4 Hellenistic Migration 222 5 Viewing Space 223 6 Individual Mobility 227 Part 2 Movement and Power 6 Carrying 231 1 Long-distance Trade 232 2 Strabo and the Euphrates Route 236 3 Northern Routes 248 4 Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium 255 5 Desert Routes 259 6 North-South Routes 270 7 Local Routes 273 8 Representing Mesopotamian Trade 279 7 Ruling 281 1 Roman Power in the Borderland 281 2 Representing Power 302 3 Imperial Space 316 4 Mesopotamia as a Frontier 321 8 Epilogue: Connecting 325 1 Globalisation and Networks in the Mesopotamian Borderland 325 2 The Conceptualisation of the Mesopotamian Borderland 327 Bibliography 331 Geographical Index 356 Index of Ancient Authors 362 General Index 373 Acknowledgements Although this work is a Strabonic kolossourgia in neither scope nor length, I can, at least, safely claim that parts of this book were composed further in the north, west and south than Strabo’s pen or pistis. The journey began in New Zealand, at the Classics Department of the University of Canterbury, where the initial training and encouragement of Alison Griffith, Victor Parker, Enrica Sciarrino, Robin Bond, Graham Zanker and Tim Parkin inspired a love of Classical history and culture which still lives within these pages. The journey they encouraged has been arduous but rewarding. The volume itself began as a dissertation at the University of Southern California. Little did I know at the time how many disparate graduate seminars would converge to an interest in space, networks and boundaries. This book would not exist without the guidance of my dissertation committee: Claudia Moatti worked with me on every stage of the project; her valuable criticism shaped it for the better. Kevin Van Bladel’s expertise on the languages and cultures of my study area was invaluable. Christelle Fischer-Bovet’s meticu- lous comments on chapter drafts kept the dissertation’s future life as a book in mind at all times. Greg Thalmann and Ramzi Rouighi asked probing ques- tions, threatened more, and advocated kindness to my future readers through- out. I could not have chosen a more supportive committee for my dissertation process, both academically and personally. I hope the work I delivered is wor- thy of the quality of that support. Thanks also to Jason Glenn of the History Department and the faculty of the USC Spatial Sciences Institute, especially Karen Kemp, Darren Ruddell, Jennifer Swift and John Wilson. Thanks are owed to my other academic homes. Substantial portions of at least two dissertation chapters were written in the library at Victoria University of Wellington and presented to the faculty in their Classics Department sem- inar series. The entire manuscript was revised and shaped during a Visiting Professorship at the University of Cincinnati. Thanks to Kathleen Lynch and the rest of the welcoming and supportive faculty, librarians and graduate stu- dents. Thanks especially to Duncan MacRae for wise advice, mentorship and wordsmithing from the doorway. The finishing touches came amidst my won- derful colleagues and students at Bates College, especially Lisa Maurizio and the library and curricular computing staff. The global process of this work’s creation gave me ample time to ponder the correspondences between ancient and modern mobility and granted me new insights into aspects of the produc- tion of ancient geographical literature far beyond the confines of my subject matter.