Sisauranon

Sisauranon, Sisauronon (Greek: Σισαυράνων), Sisaurana, or Sarbane was a Sasanian fortress city in the province of Arbayistan, located to the east of Nisibis at the edge of the north Syrian plain.^[2] It was situated near the border with the Byzantine Empire.^[2]

Sisauranon
Şirvan, Turkey
Sisauranon
Coordinates	37.1126°N 41.62805°E / 37.1126; 41.62805[1]
Type	Fortress
Site information
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Battles/wars	Roman–Persian Wars Siege of Sisauranon (541) Siege of Sisauranon (589) during the war of 572–591

History

Sisauranon is mentioned by Procopius in the 6th century. On linguistic grounds, it is identified with the way-station Sarbane in the 5th-century Tabula Peutingeriana, and with the modern site of Sirvan on the Turkish–Syrian border, whose name probably derives from the ancient settlement.^[3][4] The site is also variously mentioned as Sarbanon (τὸ Σαρβανῶν) in Theophanes the Confessor, Sisarbanon (τὸ Σισαρβάνων) in Theophylact Simocatta, and Sisara in Ammianus Marcellinus, as well as the variant forms of Sisaurion (Σισαύριον), Sisabranon (Σισαβράνων), Isauranon (Ἰσαυρανῶν) in various manuscripts of Procopius.^[5] The locality of Sambure in the Ravenna Cosmography may also refer to the same site.^[5]

The fortress passed into Sasanian hands in 363,^[6] and thereafter played a role in safeguarding the western Sasanian frontier against the Roman-Byzantine Empire.^[7] In 541, during the Lazic War, the Byzantine general Belisarius took over the fortress as its commander Bleschames and 800 Sasanian cavalrymen defected due to lack of supplies;^[2] they fought alongside the Byzantines in the Gothic War. In 589 during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591, general Comentiolus captured it once again.^[2]

Sisauranon is also mentioned under the name Sīrwān in the eight century hagiography Life of Simeon of the Olives, where the Simeon and his nephew David meet the Persian military general Shahrbaraz at the fortress.^[8] Sīrwān is referred to both in the Life of Simeon as well as in the Ecclesiastical History of Pseudo-Zacharias as a ‘city’ (mdittā) rather than a fort, making it more likely that Sisauranon was a complex village settlement rather than a simple military fortress. After the collapse of Sassanian control over the region during the Muslim conquest, the military function of Sisauranon disappeared and the village likely incorporated the fort into its fabric.^[9] According to the Life of Simeon and the Mujādalat Abī Qurrā, the Syriac dayrā taḥtāytā (the 'Lower Monastery') was build attached to the village.^[10]

Location

The fort lies on an artificial mound, some 545 m high, possibly of Bronze Age origin. As late as 2006, some of the fort's walls were still extant on the site, but the remains of Roman roads reported in 1927 appear to have vanished.^[11] Despite the small area of the present-day remains, which indicate a small fort, Procopius calls the site a πόλισμα, indicating the existence of a small civilian settlement.^[12] The plain around the fort was known as ‘the Roman Field’ (ho rhōmaiōn agros) and is crossed by many streams coming from Mount Izla.^[13]

The Roman fortress of Rhabdion (modern-day Hatem Tai Kalesi, Turkey) is located on the steep slope just 6.5 kilometers to the north-west of Sisauranon.^[2][14] In the 19th century, it was erroneously identified as Sisauranon.^[15]