Dura-Europos in the context of "Shapur I"

Mithridates II (also spelled Mithradates II or Mihrdad II; Parthian: 𐭌𐭄𐭓𐭃𐭕 Mihrdāt) was king of the Parthian Empire from 124 to 91 BC. Considered one of the greatest of his dynasty to ever rule, he was known as Mithridates the Great in antiquity.

Mithridates II was crowned king after the abrupt death of his predecessor Artabanus I. Inheriting a declining empire that was reeling from military pressure in both the east and west, Mithridates II quickly stabilized the situation in Mesopotamia by gaining the allegiance of Characene, and subduing the insurgent Kingdom of Elymais and also the Arabs, who had continuously raided Babylonia. Mithridates II was the first Parthian king to extend Parthian rule into the Caucasus, where the kingdoms of Armenia, Iberia, and possibly Caucasian Albania became Parthian vassal states. To the east, he defeated and conquered the nomadic tribes in Bactria who had killed both of his predecessors. Sakastan was also reconquered, which was given as a fiefdom to the House of Suren. In 114/113 BC, he seized Dura-Europos in Syria from the Seleucids, and by 95 BC, the northern Mesopotamian kingdoms of Adiabene, Gordyene, and Osrhoene had acknowledged his authority. Under Mithridates II, the Parthian Empire reached it's zenith and extended from Syria and the Caucasus to Central Asia and India. It was under Mithridates II that the Parthian Empire for the first time established diplomatic relations with Rome and Han China.

Parthian art was Iranian art made during the Parthian Empire from 247 BC to 224 AD, based in the Near East. It has a mixture of Persian and Hellenistic influences. For some time after the period of the Parthian Empire, art in its styles continued for some time. A typical feature of Parthian art is the frontality of the people shown. Even in narrative representations, the actors do not look at the object of their action, but at the viewer. These are features that anticipate the art of medieval Europe and Byzantium.

Parthian sites are often overlooked in excavations, thus the state of research knowledge in Parthian art is not complete. The excavations at Dura-Europos in the 20th century provided many new discoveries. The classical archaeologist and director of the excavations, Michael Rostovtzeff, realized that the art of the first centuries AD from Palmyra, Dura Europos, and also in Iran as far as the Greco-Buddhist art of north India followed the same principles. He called this art style Parthian art.

The Dura-Europos synagogue was an ancient Jewish synagogue discovered in 1932 at Dura-Europos, Syria. The synagogue contained a forecourt and house of assembly with painted walls depicting people and animals, and a Torah shrine in the western wall facing Jerusalem. It was built backing on to the city wall, which was important in its survival. The last phase of construction was dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 CE, placing it among just a handful of synagogues from antiquity discovered and unequivocally identified by archaeologists. It was unique among the many ancient synagogues that have emerged from archaeological excavations as the structure was preserved virtually intact, and it had extensive figurative wall-paintings, which in 1932 still came as a considerable surprise to scholars. The synagogue remains, including the murals, are now preserved in the National Museum of Damascus.

Dura-Europos was a small garrison and trading city on the river Euphrates, and usually on the frontier between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Parthian and finally the Sassanid Empires of Persia. It changed hands at various points but was Roman from 165 AD. Before the final Persian destruction of the town in 256–257 AD, parts of the synagogue which abutted the main city wall were apparently requisitioned and filled with sand as a defensive measure. The city was abandoned after its fall and never resettled, and the lower walls of the rooms remained buried and largely intact until excavated. The short measure of time during which it was used ensured that it would have limited impact upon Jewish or Christian art. The excavations also discovered very important wall-paintings from places of worship of Christianity at the Dura-Europos church. In addition, there were wall paintings edifying Mithraism, and fragmentary Christian texts in Hebrew.

Al-Salihiyah (Arabic: الصالحية; also spelled Salhiyé) is a town in eastern Syria, administratively part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, located on the western bank of the Euphrates River, south of Deir ez-Zor. Nearby localities include al-Asharah, Mayadin and al-Muhasan to the north and Hajin and al-Jalaa to the south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Salihiyah had a population of 4,471 in the 2004 census. The village is located just next to the site of ancient Dura-Europos.

The siege of Dura Europos took place when the Sasanians under Shapur I besieged the Roman city of Dura-Europos in 256 after capturing Antioch.

Dura-Europos was an important trading center in Roman Syria. It may or may not be the same as the "Doura" recorded in Shapur I's inscriptions. The town was in Sasanian hands for some time after its fall, and was later abandoned. Intact archaeological evidences at Dura provide details of the Roman presence there, and the dramatic course of the siege. The garrison was determined to resist the siege, and the Sasanians employed a variety of siege warfare techniques to defeat them. Archaeological evidences suggest that the garrison at Dura-Europos was mixed, composed of Cohors XX Palmyrenorum (which is known more than the others), vexillations from Legio IV Scythica Valeriana Galliena, III Cyrenaica, XVI Flavia Firma, and other cohorts, including Cohors II Paphlagonum Galliana Volusiana and possibly Cohors II Equestris. The relationship between these forces are uncertain. XX Palmyrenorum was certainly based in Dura-Europos, and may have been an "inferior" contingent of the garrison relative to the legionaries. The numbers of the legionaries are unknown.

The scutum (Classical Latin: [ˈskuːt̪ʊ̃]; pl.:scuta) was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC.

The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of the hoplite phalanx of the Greeks to the formation with maniples (Latin: manipuli). In the former, the soldiers carried a round shield, which the Romans called a clipeus. In the latter, they used the scutum, which was larger. Originally, it was oblong and convex, but by the first century BC, it had developed into the rectangular, semi-cylindrical shield that is popularly associated with the scutum in modern times. This was not the only kind the Romans used; Roman shields were of varying types depending on the role of the soldier who carried it. Oval, circular and rectangular shapes were used throughout Roman history.