{{Short description|Fortress of the Roman Empire}} {{Infobox military installation | name = Rhabdion | native_name = | partof = <!-- for elements within a larger site --> | location = | country = | image = File:Travels in Kurdistan - 3. Hatem Tai Castle (ancient Sisauronon).png | alt = | caption = Sketch of Hatem Tai Castle by John George Taylor (1865) | type = Fortress | coordinates = {{Coord|37|12|38|N|41|36|44|E}}<ref name="DARE">{{Cite DARE|34751}}</ref>{{sfn|Comfort|2009|p=322}} | map_type = Turkey | map_relief = yes | map_caption = Site within modern Turkey | built = <!-- {{Start date|YYYY}} --> | used = <!--{{End date|1946}} --> | builder = | materials = | height = <!-- height of tallest part, not above sea level --> | length = <!-- for border fences or other DMZs --> | fate = <!--changed from demolished parameter--> | condition = | battles = Roman–Persian Wars | events = }} '''Rhabdion''' ({{langx|el|Ῥάβδιον|translit=Rhábdion}}) was a Late Antique fortress of the Roman Empire, located on the Tur Abdin plateau to the northeast of Nisibis on the border with the Sasanian Empire. The fortress was later known as ''Qalʿat Haytham''{{sfn|Brunner|2021|p=49}} and is now identified with '''Hatem Tai''', a fortification ({{Langx|tr|kalesi|lit=castle}}) in south-eastern Turkey.{{sfn|Comfort|2009|p=322}}<ref name="DARE"/>
==History== It was probably built, along with Amida (Diyarbakır) and Cepha (Hasankeyf), by the emperor Constantius II ({{reign|337|361}}).{{sfn|Comfort|2009|p=322}} According to the ''Life of Simeon of the Olives'', a certain Demetrius was ordered to build the castle in 350/351 AD and hence the fortress was also known as Demetrius' castle.{{sfn|Comfort|2017|p=215}}After the cession by the emperor Jovian ({{reign|363|364}}) of the five Transtigritine provinces and some border forts to the Sasanian Empire under Shapur II ({{Reign|309|379}}) as a result of the Persians' victory in Julian's Persian War, Rhabdion became the easternmost Roman frontier outpost, perhaps even ''de facto'' exclave in Persian territory, since the only road to it appears to have been from the south, passing across the plain by the Persian-controlled city of Nisibis.{{sfn|Comfort|2009|pp=322–323}}{{sfn|Keser-Kayaalp|2018|p=1531}}
The Hatem Tai ''kalesi'' was visited in the early 1860s by John George Taylor, then British consul in Diyarbakır, who sketched its outline in his ''Travels in Kurdistan'' (''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society'', Vol. 35, 1865).{{sfn|Comfort|2009|pp=25–26, 31}} At the time, the Hatem Tai ''kalesi'' was identified with another ancient fortress known from the history of the Roman–Persian Wars of Late Antiquity, Sisauranon.{{sfn|Comfort|2009|p=322}}
The ''kalesi'' may have given its name to the region of Tur Abdin.{{sfn|Keser-Kayaalp|2018|p=1531}}
==References== {{sfn whitelist|CITEREFKeser-Kayaalp2018}} {{reflist|2}}
==Sources== *{{cite journal |last1=Brunner |first1=Kyle |title=Chapter 3. Simeon of the Olives and his World: Life on the Khabur Basin during the early Islamic period |journal=The Life of Simeon of the Olives |date=31 December 2021 |pages=47–78 |doi=10.31826/9781463243470-005|isbn=978-1-4632-4347-0 }} * {{cite thesis |last1=Comfort |first1=Anthony Martin | title=Roads on the frontier between Rome and Persia: Euphratesia, Osrhoene and Mesopotamia from AD 363 to 602 |publisher=University of Exeter |date=14 May 2009 |hdl=10036/68213 |type=Ph.D. |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10036/68213 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Comfort |first1=Anthony |title=Fortresses of the Tur Abdin and the confrontation between Rome and Persia |journal=Anatolian Studies |date=2017 |volume=67 |pages=181–229 |doi=10.1017/s0066154617000047}} * {{Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|title=Tur ‘Abdin|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/abstract/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4874|first=Elif|last=Keser-Kayaalp|pages=1530–1531}}
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Category:Byzantine fortifications in Turkey Category:Former populated places in Turkey Category:Roman–Sasanian Wars Category:Byzantine sites in Turkey Category:Mesopotamia (Roman province) Category:Tur Abdin