ABSTRACT
The culmination of military and political developments on the middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Palmyra in the second century AD came during the reigns of the Severan emperors. We have already seen that Mesopotamia was established as a two-legion province under Septimius Severus and that Palmyra’s garrison grew from an auxiliary ala to a cohort during his reign. On the middle Euphrates, new fortifications were constructed, such as that at Kifrin, while at Dura Europos the army camp and the garrison were enlarged towards the end of the first decade of the third century AD. A consequence of the formal extension of Roman power in Mesopotamia and also at Palmyra was the increased presence of Roman soldiers and fortifications along a considerable stretch of the middle Euphrates and Khabur river valleys. This probably began earlier than the Severan period; however, it was during the reign of Septimius Severus and his sons that this presence was expanded and intensified.
