Battle of Misiche: Difference between revisions

| image = GordianFile:Sasanian IIIAsoristan -and Palazzoits dei Conservatori - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016 (3)surroundings.jpgsvg

| caption = SculpturePeroz-Shapur (Misiche) on the border of [[Gordian IIIAsorestan]], commander on the Roman side(Mesopotamia)

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| map_type = Iraq

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| result = Sasanian victory<ref>[{{cite book| url = https://books.google.frcom/books?id=Afl-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=battle+of+misiche%2F&sourcepg=bl&otsPA144| title =0uxndK3ncp&sig The Persians| isbn =X4R-KzyuIQqwJxPFFFqpxP6LujY&hl 9781134359844| last1 =fr&sa Brosius| first1 =X&ved Maria| date =0ahUKEwib28rqqIDaAhWQDOwKHVmJAUQQ6AEIZjAI#v=onepage&q=battle%20of%20misiche&f=false/ The18 Persians]April 2006}} "Shapur I had to expect a military reaction from the Romans. For them, the loss of these cities warranted a counteroffensive and the emperor Gordian III commanded an army against Shapur I, regaining both Nisibis and Carrhae. But he suffered a major defeat in a battle at Misiche, north of Ctesiphon, in 243."</ref>

*[[Philip the Arab]] paid 500,000 denarii to the Sasanian Empire and cedes Armenia and Mesopotamia to them<ref>Aurelius Victor, ''Liber de Caesaribus'', 27.[{{cite web| url = http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/victor.caes.html#27| title = 7-8]}}; Sibylline Oracles, XIII, [{{cite web| url = http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/sib/sib13.htm| title = 13-20]}}<br />* Frye (1968), 125; Southern (2001), 235</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/shapur-i|title = Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica}}</ref>

| combatant2 = [[Roman Empire]]<br />[[Goths]]<br />[[Germania|Germans]]

| commander2 = [[Gordian III]] {{KIA}}<br />[[Philip the Arab]]<br>[[Gaius Julius Priscus]]

The '''Battle of Misiche''' ([[Koine Greek|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Μισιχή}}), '''Mesiche''' ({{lang|grc|Μεσιχή}}), or '''Massice''' ({{lang-pal|𐭬𐭱{{lrm}}𐭩{{lrm}}𐭪{{lrm}}{{lrm}}{{lrm}}{{lrm}}}} mšyk; {{lang-xpr|𐭌{{lrm}}𐭔{{lrm}}𐭉{{lrm}}𐭊{{lrm}}}} mšyk) (dated between January 13 and March 14, 244 <span style="font-size: 10px;">AD.</span><ref name=Potter/>) was fought between the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanians]] and the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] in Misiche, [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{cite journal| url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/ad-bsoas-xiv-512-n-6/B054DC5C6581EAFB7F2F663F8E15FBDE| title = Βεσήχανα πόλις: ad BSOAS., XIV, 512, n. 6 {{!}} Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies {{!}} Cambridge Core| journal = Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies| date = June 1953| volume = 15| issue = 2| pages = 392–393| doi = 10.1017/S0041977X00111176| last1 = Henning| first1 = W. B.| s2cid = 183942874}} </ref>

The initial war began when the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] Emperor [[Gordian III]] invaded the [[Sasanian Empire]] in 243 AD. His troops advanced as far as Misiche. The location of that city (or maybe a district) is conjectural,<ref>[[Ernst Herzfeld]] counters [[Michael Rostovtzeff|Rostovtzeff]]'s view that it was in [[Assyria]], writing "But Sas[anian] [[Asuristan]] is [[Babylonia]]..., and Mesiche is Pliny's Masice, the point on the [[Euphrates]] in the measurements of the [[Bematist]]s." Herzfeld, ''The Persian Empire: Studies in Geography and Ethnography of the Ancient Near East'' (F. Steiner, 1968), p. 219.</ref> but is placed at modern [[Anbar (town)|Anbar]].{{Sfn|Frye|1983|p=125}}

The Roman sources never admitted the defeat.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Potter|first1=David S.|title=The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395|date=2014|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=9781134694846|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hGuGAgAAQBAJ&lpgpg=PT232|language=en}}</ref> The contemporary and later Roman sources claim that the Roman expedition was entirely or partially successful, but the emperor was murdered after a plot by [[Philip the Arab]].<ref>This version of the events is accepted by Christian Körner, ''Philippus Arabs, Ein Soldatenkaiser in der Tradition des antoninisch-severischen Prinzipats'', Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2002.</ref> However, some scholarsrecent thinksources speculate that the Sasanian victory must not be invented and reject Philip's plot as the ultimate reason of Gordian's death. While some sources claim that it isn't likely that Gordian died during the battle, as Shapur's inscription claims,<ref name=Potter>David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay AD180-395, p.234-235</ref><ref>Michael I. Rostovtzeff, p.23</ref> others state he died on the battlefield.<ref>[{{cite book| url = https://books.google.frcom/books?id=MG2hqcRDvJgC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=siege+of+nisibis+252+sassanian+victory%2F&sourcepg=bl&otsPA22| title =o8M5vgLnSl&sig=MkrZAcE4vttfBSFLY4yljPyl3mw&hl=fr&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=siege%20of%20nisibis%20252%20sassanian%20victory&f=false/ Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity: Neighbours and Rivals]| isbn = 9780521849258| last1 = Dignas| first1 = Beate| last2 = Winter| first2 = Engelbert| date = 13 September 2007}}, "They probably intended to get as far as the Sasanian capital Ktesiphon but at the beginning of the year 244, Shapur I scored a decisive victory against the Roman army at Misik. Gordian III died in battle"</ref><ref>[{{cite web| url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/shapur-i/| title = Encyclopaedia Iranica]}} "It is understandable that Roman national pride transferred the responsibility of the defeat, in which Gordian III became the first Roman emperor to lose his life on enemy battlefield, to Philip. On the other hand, the feeling of the Sasanian triumph was immortalized in several rock-reliefs of Šāpur I, and the victory at Misiḵē was mentioned by a boastful Šāpur as the single military event within this first campaign."</ref> Some sources mention a cenotaph of the murdered emperor at Zaita, near Circesium of [[Osroene]] (some 400&nbsp;km north of Misiche).<ref>[[Ammianus Marcellinus]], ''Res Gestae, 23.5.7</ref><ref>[[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]], ''Nova Historia'', book 3</ref> The confusion of the sources about the expedition and the death of the emperor makes it possible that, after the defeat, Roman army was frustrated enough to get rid of the teenage emperor.<ref name=Potter/>

The third tradition, reported in 6th century by John Malalas and three more eastern historians in 9th to 12th century, specifies that Gordianus crushed his thigh falling off his horse in battle and died of his injury, Malalas further specifying that he died on the way back.

Gordian's successor, [[Philip the Arab]], was proclaimed emperor of Rome and made peace with Shapur. The next major clash between the two empires took place in 252, when Shapur defeated a large Roman force at the [[Battle of Barbalissos]] and successfully invaded [[Syria]] and part of [[Anatolia]].

[[Category:240s conflicts|Misiche]]

[[Category:History of Al Anbar Governorate]]