Battle of Resaena

The Battle of Resaena or Resaina, near present-day Ceylanpınar, Turkey, was fought in 243 between the forces of the Roman Empire, led by the Emperor Gordian III and the Praetorian Prefect Timesitheus against the Sasanian Empire's forces during the reign of Shapur I.^[1] The Romans were victorious.^[1]

Battle of Resaena
Part of Roman-Persian Wars
Date 243 Location Resaena, Mesopotamia (Ras al-Ayn, Syria) Result Roman victory[1]
Belligerents
Roman Empire	Sasanian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Gordian III Timesitheus	Shapur I[2]

Background

See also: Fall of Hatra

The battle was fought during a campaign ordered by Emperor Gordian III to reoccupy the cities of Hatra, Nisibis,^[1] and Carrhae. These territories had been conquered by Shapur and his father, Ardashir I, when the Roman Empire plunged into the Crisis of the Third Century, a conflict among several pretenders to the imperial throne.^[1]

Aftermath

Following this victory, the Roman legions recovered Nisibis and Singara, and advanced by way of the Khabur to the Euphrates, intending to take Ctesiphon. However, Gordian's army was defeated at the battle of Misiche in 244^[3] and the Roman Emperor was either killed during the battle^[4] or assassinated afterwards.^[5]

Notes

1. A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, ed. Spencer C. Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2010), 147.
2. Elliott, S. (2023). Legacy of rome: How the Roman Empire shaped the modern world. History Press Limited, The.
3. Maria Brosius, The Persians, (Routledge, 2006), 144.
4. The Sasanians, Richard N. Frye, The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 12, The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337, ed. Alan Bowman, Peter Garnsey, Averil Cameron, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 468.
5. Trevor Bryce, Ancient Syria: A Three Thousand Year History, (Oxford University Press, 2014), 265.

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