ABSTRACT
From the time of Pompey’s establishment of the province of Syria in c.65 BC, the Euphrates came to symbolize a boundary between Roman and Parthian interests in the Near East.1 On a number of occasions over the next 130 years meetings between senior Roman officials or members of the Imperial family and Parthian representatives were held on the Euphrates, confirming its status during this time as a boundary. During this time, however, there is no evidence for Roman fortifications within the vicinity of the Euphrates, and the river was crossed on many occasions by both Roman and Parthian forces. The Euphrates appears to have played the role of a symbolic boundary between Roman and Parthian interests up to the early Flavian period. Initially the status of the river as a symbolic boundary applied more to its northerly section as it flows from north to south, but during the Augustan period there is some evidence to suggest that it came to include the middle Euphrates in its south-easterly flow towards Mesopotamia.2
