ABSTRACT
A significant improvement in the understanding of the relationships between cities and villages in Roman Mesopotamia comes from the evidence of the papyri found at Dura Europos, as well as the so-called papyri from the Euphrates region. In terms of social stratification, the major cities tended to be populated by “globally” oriented societies that define themselves through broader value systems. The location of the ancient city of Nisibis, close to the troubled modern border between Syria and Turkey, rules out any possibility of extensive archaeological investigations. The archaeological context of the city is little known, and the accounts of the sieges, the battles, and the life in these ancient times are the only information we have about the capital of the provincia Mesopotamia. The available limited clues for the garrisoning of the Roman army in Mesopotamia between the Severan period and the 4th c. ce makes the data from Singara stand out in terms of relevance and context.
