GINDAROS

 

GINDAROS, present-day Jendīres, a town in the ancient region of Cyrrhestike in Syria (Strabo, Geography 16.2.8; Pliny, Natural History 5.19.81; Theodoret in the 5th century calls it a village; cf. Honigmann, 1923, p. 191). Here Pacorus, the Parthian crown prince, was defeated and killed by the Roman commander Ventidius Bassus in the year 38 (Debevoise, pp. 118-19; Karras-Klapproth, pp. 121 f.; cf. Schippmann, p. 43). During the second campaign of Šāpūr I (240-70) against the Romans, the city was captured in 253 (252 according to Potter et al.) by the Sasanians (Šāpūr’s inscription at Kaʿba-ye Zardošt, Mid. Pers., l. 8: gndlswy; Parth., l. 6: gndrws; Gk., l. 14; cf. Huyse, I, pp. 30-31). This occurred during the advance of a group from the Euphrates region toward Antioch, the Syrian capital. It is uncertain whether the advance was made from Hierapolis or (more probably) from Zeugma.

 

Bibliography:

M. Back, Die sassanidischen Staatsinschriften, Acta Iranica 18, Tehran and Liège, 1978, p. 300.

H. R. Baldus, Uranius Antoninus: Münzprägung und Geschichte, Antiquitas 3/11, Bonn, 1971, p. 234.

N. C. Debevoise, A Political History of Parthia, New York, 1968.

R. Dussaud, Topographie historique de la Syrie antique et médiévale, Paris, 1927, pp. 195-96, 229.

Ph. Gignoux, Glossaire des inscriptions pehlevies et parthes, pp. 22, 51.

E. Honigmann, “Historische Topographie von Nordsyrien im Altertum,” Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 46, 1923, p. 191, no. 197.

Idem, Recherches sur les Res Gestae Divi Saporis, Brussels, 1953, p. 164.

Ph. Huyse, Die dreisprachige Inschrift Sabuhrs I. an der Kaʿba-i Zardušt, Royal Inscriptions with Their Parthian and Greek Versions, Corpus Inscr. Iran., part 3/1, 2 vols., London, 1999, I, p. 125.

E. Kettenhofen, Die römisch-persischen Kriege des 3. Jahrhunderts n. Chr.nach der Inschrift Šāhpuhrs I. an der Kaʿbe-ye Zartošt, Wiesbaden, 1982, pp. 59-60.

M. Karras-Klapproth, Prosopographische Studien zur Geschichte des Partherreiches, Bonn, 1988, pp. 121-22.

A. Maricq, “Res Gestae Divi Saporis,” Syria 35, 1958, p. 309; repr. in Classica et Orientalia, Paris, 1965, p. 51.

F. Millar, The Roman Near East 31 B.C.-A.D. 337, Cambridge and London, 1993, pp. 231-32.

D. S. Potter, Prophecy and Historyin the Crisis of the Roman Empire, Oxford, 1990, p. 304.

K. Schippmann, Grundzüge der parthischen Geschichte, Darmstadt, 1980.

M. Sprengling, Third Century Iran: Sapor and Kartir, Chicago 1953, p. 90.

(Erich Kettenhofen)

Originally Published: December 15, 2001

Last Updated: February 9, 2012

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