Samsat

The city of Samosata was founded sometime before 245 BC on the previous Neo-Hittite site of Kummuh by the Orontid king of Sophene, Sames I.[10] He may have founded the city in order to assert his claim over the area, a common practice amongst Iranian and Hellenistic dynasties, such as Cappadocia, Pontus, Parthia and Armenia.[11] The city was built in a "sub-Achaemenid" Persian architectural form, similar to the rest of Orontid buildings in Greater Armenia.[12] Naming cities such as Samosata (Middle Persian *Sāmašād; Old Persian *Sāmašiyāti-) the "joy of" or "happiness of" was an Orontid (and later Artaxiad) practice that recalled the Achaemenid royal discourse.[13] Samosata served as one of the most important royal residences of the Orontid kings of Sophene.[14]

Coin of Hadrian from Samosata

Like other early-Orontid royal residences, Samosata experienced a sudden shift in its architectural style under the Orontids of Commagene due to their close involvement in the Greco-Roman world.[15] During this period, Samosata was most likely populated by a variety of peoples, descended from Syrians/Arameans/Assyrians, Neo-Hittites, Armenians, and Persians.[16] Samosata was amongst the places where its ruler Antiochus I Theos (r. 70–31 BC) founded sanctuaries that contained inscriptions about his cult as well as reliefs of his dexiosis with Apollo-Mithras.[17] In 73 AD, Samosata as well as the rest of Commagene was incorporated into the Roman Empire. It may have been during this event that the Syriac letter of Mara bar Serapion was composed. The letter makes mention of an Aramaic-speaking elite in Samosata that studied Greek literature and Stoic philosophy.[18] Under the Roman emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138), Samosata was given metropolis status along with Damascus and Tyre.[19]

Roman legions were later placed in Samosata to discourage the Sasanian Empire (224–651) from attacking it. In 260, it was the first city that was sacked by the Sasanian emperor Shapur I (r. 240–270) following his capture of the Roman emperor Valerian (r. 253–260). Shapur I is known to have had coins minted in the same fashion as the Roman antoninianus, which he may have taken from the material used in the mint of Samosata.[20]

It was at Samosata that Julian II had ships made in his expedition against Shapur II, and it was a natural crossing-place in the struggle between Heraclius and Chosroes in the 7th century.

Samosata was the birthplace of several renowned people from antiquity such as Lucian (c. 120-192) and Paul of Samosata (fl. 260).

Depiction of the Byzantine attack on Samosata in 859, from the Madrid Skylitzes

The Arabs conquered Commagene from the Byzantines in 640. Safwan bin Muattal, a sahabi and commander during the Muslim conquests, was buried in Samosata. In June 966, Samosata was the venue of an exchange of prisoners between the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas and his Muslim foe Sayf al-Dawla.[21]

Warfare in the 13th century devastated Samosata. Rukn ad-Din Sulayman Shah II of the Anatolian Seljuks captured Samosata in 1203. The Anushtegins conquered and looted the town in 1237. The Mongol Emperor Hülagü Khan conquered Samosata in 1240 and the Beylik of Dulkadir conquered the town as well.

Samosata was temporarily absorbed into the Ottoman Empire by Bayazid I in 1392, and in 1401 it was destroyed by Timur. In 1516, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I recaptured it for the Ottomans who renamed it Samsat. It lost its old importance in the Ottoman administration and became the centre of a sanjak.

During Turkey's republican period, the population of the town decreased. In 1960, Samsat was made a district center and connected to the province of Adıyaman.

The city of Samsat was evacuated from the old settlement on 5 March 1988 due to the construction of the Atatürk Dam. A new location for the settlement was announced through Law No. 3433 on 21 April 1988. The historical Samsat was submerged in 1989 as the dam created the Atatürk Reservoir. The new town was built beside the new waterline by the Turkish government to house the displaced residents.

Samsat, which was moved to the new location, was destroyed by an earthquake on 2 March 2017. The city was largely rebuilt afterwards.[22][23]

In the Christian martyrology, seven Christian martyrs were crucified in 297 in Samosata for refusing to perform a pagan rite in celebration of the victory of Maximian over the Sassanids: Abibus, Hipparchus, James, Lollian, Paragnus, Philotheus, and Romanus. Saint Daniel the Stylite was born in a village near Samosata; Saint Rabbulas, venerated on 19 February, who lived in the 6th century at Constantinople, was also a native of Samosata. A Notitia Episcopatuum of Antioch in the 6th century mentions Samosata as an autocephalous metropolis (Échos d'Orient, X, 144); at the synod that reinstated Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople (the Photian Council) of 879, the See of Samosata had already been united to that of Amida, present-day Diyarbakır.[24] By 586, the titular of Amida bore only this title,[25] meaning the union took place between the 7th and the 9th centuries. Earlier bishops included Peperius, who attended the Council of Nicaea (325); Saint Eusebius of Samosata, a great opponent of the Arians, killed by an Arian woman (c. 380), honoured on 22 June; Andrew, a vigorous opponent of Cyril of Alexandria and of the Council of Ephesus.[26]

Chabot gives a list of twenty-eight Syrian Miaphysite bishops.[27] The Syrian bishopric probably lapsed in the 12th century.[28] Samosata is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees, but no further titular bishops have been appointed for that eastern see since the Second Vatican Council.