Sunday, July 7, 2024

 Greetings all,


In the news, the discovery of a 5th century Byzantine church in the ancient city of Carrhae (now Harran in modern Turkey):


Carrhae had a lot of Roman history, most of it bad.  This was the site of the Battle of Carrhae where Crassus suffered one of the worst defeats in Roman history. It was later taken for Rome under Septimius Severus. The Emperor Caracalla was later murdered here. Later the Emperor Julian stopped here on his way to Persia to consult the Oracle of Luna. The omens were bad and he went anyway. The city actually remained pagan until the 11th century.

This Byzantine church must have had a hard time of it, and certainly must have suffered under the pagan and Islamic mix which held the city from 640 AD onward. 

-Marcus Cassius Julianus 

www.byzantiumnovum.org

 



 

No comments:

Post a Comment