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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24718904, member: 128351&quot;]According to Ammian, the emperor Julian in 363 marched with his army on the right bank of the Euphrates, leaving Circesium (Busayra), crossing the Euphrates (Ammian says the Khabur, a small river, but it was obviously the Euphrates), and walking in the direction of Dura Europos (then a field of ruins, totally destroyed in 256). Then : &quot;<i>Setting out from there we came to a place called Zaitha, which means &quot;Olive tree.&quot; Here we saw, conspicuous from afar, the tomb of the Emperor Gordianus, of whose deeds from early childhood, his successful campaigns, and his treacherous murder we have spoken at the appropriate time.</i>&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>For Ammian, a former military of Syrian origin, Gordian had been treacherously murdered, he had no doubt about it. This could always be a mere rumor or prejudice, but Gordian was buried in Zaitha, this is a fact, in a large monument &quot;conspicuous from afar&quot;. &quot;<i>When Julian had there, in accordance with his native piety, made offerings to the deified emperor, and was on his way to Dura (a deserted town), he saw a troop of soldiers in the distance and halted</i> (...)&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>After this ceremony, Julian made a speech to his troops. For him, no doubt, Gordian had been murdered in the very place he was buried : &quot;(...) <i>the younger Gordianus, whose monument we just looked upon with reverence, would have come back with equal glory, after vanquishing the Persian king and putting him to flight at Resaina, had he not been struck down by an impious wound inflicted by the faction of Philippus, the praetorian prefect, and a few wicked accomplices, in the very place where he now lies buried. But his shade did not long wander unavenged, for as if their deeds were weighed in the scales of Justice, all who had conspired against him perished by agonising deaths</i>.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>After this speech the army resumed its walk to Dura for two more days. </p><p>The Zaitha monument has not been discovered. Pierre Leriche, who has been excavating Dura Europos before the Syrian civil war, said he thought he had probably found it, but did not give further details. The distance between Busayra and Dura is 53 km in a straight line. If we follow Ammian, Zaitha must have been on the right bank, nearer from Circesium (Busayra) than from Dura. </p><p><br /></p><p>This huge monument could be the core of the later islamic fortress of Rahba, near Mayadin, 16 km due south from Busayra, overlooking the Euphrates valley. Medieval Arabs considered it marked the boundary between al-&#039;Iraq and ash-Sham, and in Ammian&#039;s account we see that Julian considered he was in enemy territory south of Zaitha... </p><p><br /></p><p>So, what about Gordian? Shapour does not say he killed Gordian, he just says that the Romans were defeated in Misikhe and that Gordian was killed. That does not rule out the possibility of Gordian being murdered by his own men. On his investiture and triumphal reliefs he sometimes represents his horse trampling Gordian&#039;s dead body, but not always, and particularly not on the post-260 famous Naqsh-i Rustam relief, just near his long inscription... Such a representation is purely conventional : in Taq-e Bostan there is an investiture relief of Shapur II on which he is trampling the emperor Julian&#039;s dead body. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1580966[/ATTACH] </p><p>But we know for sure what happened to Julian: he was fatally wounded at the battle of Samarra but his body was never desecrated by the enemy. He was evacuated to his camp, and died from his wounds after delivering a last long philosophical speech. </p><p><br /></p><p>There have been three versions of Gordian&#039;s death : killed by the Persians, assassinated by Philip, or falling from his horse and breaking his thigh. One thing may be considered relatively sure : Gordian was buried at Zaitha, south of Circesium, on the right bank of the Euphrates. </p><p><br /></p><p>The battle of Misikhe is ignored by all Roman sources, and is mentioned by Shapur&#039;s trilingual inscription only. We can rule out any lies from Shapur : telling the truth is the unquestionable duty of all Persian nobleman and the inscription was carved on a sacred place, where all Persian noblemen who had fought this war could read it. But this battle was not decisive : Shapur did negotiate with the new emperor Philip, which means that Philip had still enough forces to deter the Persians to carry on. And if Philip paid an important ransom for the Roman prisoners, he did not handle back the cities retaken from Shapur before Misikhe. Shapur made no territorial gains in this war... </p><p><br /></p><p>It is probable that Gordian had recklessly advanced to Misikhe with only a part of his army, that the Persians attacked and captured many Romans, and Gordian was either mortally wounded (falling from his horse, as said by Malalas and Zonaras), or assassinated during his retreat by mutinous soldiers who held him responsible of the food shortage (and the lost battle)? It is also possible that some soldiers hated him now because he was abandoning their comrades taken by the enemy : the first thing that Philip made as soon as he was emperor was to free the prisoners... But Gordian did not die in Misikhe, the Persian king did not ritually desecrate his dead body, he died in Zaitha near Circesium (Busayra) and was buried by his successor Philip in a conspicuous monument.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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