DICHŌR

 

DICHŌR, city conquered by Šāpūr I (240-70) during his second campaign against Rome in 253 (252, according to Balty), as recorded in his inscription atKaʿba-ye Zardošt(Parth. l. 7: dykwl, Gr. l. 16). The exact location in northern Syria or southeastern Asia Minor has not yet been established. Martin Sprengling’s identification (pp. 95-96, pl. 2 l. 13) of the city with Diacira, mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus (24.2.3.; Talmudic Ihi Dakira), modern Hīt on the Euphrates in Iraq, is untenable; that of Ernest Honigmann with Zevkir, south of Gaziantep in Turkey, is speculative. This uncertainty underscores the fact that the routes followed by the Sasanian army, or parts of it, cannot yet be reconstructed with certainty.

 

Bibliography:

M. Back,Die sassanidischen Staatsinschriften, Acta Iranica 18, Tehran and Liège, 1978, p. 302.

J.-C. Balty, in Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Paris, 1987, pp. 213-41.

W. Ensslin, “Zu den Kriegen des Sassaniden Schapur,” Sb. Bayer. Akad. der Wissenschaften. Phil.-hist. Kl. 5, 1947, p. 103 and n. 1.

P. Gignoux, Glossaire des inscriptions Pehlevies et Parthes, p. 51 and n. 58.

F. Grenet, in Notes et monographies techniques 23, Paris, 1988, pp. 133-58.

E. Honigmann, in Académie Royale de Belgique. Classe des Lettres 47/4, 1953, pp. 154-55.

E. Kettenhofen, Die römisch-persischen Kriege des 3. Jahrhunderts n. Chr., TAVO, BeihefteB 55, 1982, pp. 74-77.

A. Maricq, ʿʿRes Gestae Divi Saporis,ʾʾ Syria 35, 1958, p. 311; repr. in Classica et Orientalia, Paris, 1965, p. 53.

D. S. Potter, Prophecy and History in the Crisis of the Roman Empire, Oxford, 1990, pp. 46-47, 290-308.

M. Sprengling, Third Century Iran. Sapor and Kartir, Chicago, 1953.

(ERICH KETTENHOFEN)

(Erich Kettenhofen)

Originally Published: December 15, 1995

Last Updated: November 28, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 4, p. 387