Eastern Mediterranean 242: Gordian III’s Persian War

Following his Persian campaign, Severus Alexander headed north to face a Germanic incursion, but was killed by his mutinous troops in 235, sending the Roman Empire into the 50-year period of instability known as the Crisis of the Third Century. Taking advantage of Roman weakness, Sasanian Persia captured Hatra, capital of the Roman-aligned Kingdom of Araba, in 240 or 241. From Hatra, the Persians invaded the Roman Empire itself, leading the 17-year-old Gordian III—the sixth Roman emperor since Severus Alexander—to rally his troops and declare war in 242.

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Main Events

233? Tanukhid Kingdom ▲

In the early 3rd century the Arab confederation of the Tanukhids and Azadites emerged from the desert fringes of what is now Iraq and Syria to seize large tracts of modern Jordan from local tribes. Here they founded the Tanukhid Kingdom, which would dominate the region—and help their Roman allies secure their Arabian desert frontier—for much of the next 150 years. in wikipedia

? ?? 234–19 Mar 235 Severus Alexander’s Germanic War ▲

Shortly after the end of his Persian War, Severus Alexander received news that Germanic tribes had crossed the Rhine and Danube and were ravaging the countryside. In 234 traveled to Mogontiacum (Mainz) and built a boat-bridge across the Rhine to face the Alemanni, but with the arrival of winter decided to buy them off instead of risking battle. Outraged, the legions revolted under Maximinus Thrax in March 235, killing both Alexander and his domineering mother Julia Mamaea. in wikipedia

241? Fall of Hatra ▲

In the late 230s Shah Ardashir I of Persia consolidated nearly 50,000 troops around Hatra, capital of the Kingdom of Araba, and constructed massive siege works consisting of more than 12 km of circumvallation and contravallation walls (longer than those used by the Romans at Jerusalem and Masada in 70 and 73 AD combined). After a two- or four-year siege—during which it received almost no help from its Roman allies—Hatra finally capitulated to Ardashir and his heir Shapur some time between 12 April 240 and 1 April 241. Following this, Araba was absorbed into the Persian Empire and Hatra abandoned. in wikipedia

241?–242 Ardashir I’s capture of Nisibis ▲

Some time between 235 and 241—but probably after the fall of Hatra (240/241)—Shah Ardashir I of Persia took advantage of Roman instability following Maximinus Thrax’s seizure of power to make a renewed invasion of Roman Mesopotamia. This time Ardashir and his son and heir, Shapur I, successfully captured Nisibis, after a siege of under a year. The Persians then advanced into the neighboring province of Osrhoene, seizing the important cities of Carrhae and Edessa, before advancing to the outskirts of Antioch by 242. in wikipedia