ABSTRACT
Setting the historical stage is necessary to understand imperial dynamics in the region of the Euphrates and Tigris. The Roman army interacted with the local population on several different levels, from official campaigns to private disputes. A completely different approach is found starting from the Trajanic period, when for the very first time a large-scale Roman military intervention is attested. To illustrate the problems faced when attempting to reconstruct the nature of Trajan’s impact on Mesopotamia, one need only look to the west. There is far less evidence concerning Verus’ campaigns in the East against the Parthians than for other military campaigns in the region. Eventually, the consequences of the Parthian campaigns of Lucius Verus were substantially different from those of Trajan’s war. The literary sources concerning Septimius Severus’ wars against the Parthians are more or less as informative as those regarding prior Roman campaigns in the East.
