SAMOSATA (Eau6vara, -arum, Ptol. v. 15 § r 1 ;

See also:

• STRABO (born c. 63 n.c.)

Strabo xvi. 749)  , called in Arabic literature Sumeisat,l is now represented by the village of Samsat, occupying a corner of the ancient site . On a broad plain 1500 ft. above sea-level, Samosata practically marks the place where the mountain course of the Euphrates ends (see MESOPOTAMIA) . When the water is high enough it is possible to descend in a kelek in one day to Birejik . The rocky banks contain many ancient cave-dwellings . The stele found there and published by Humann and Puchstein (Reisen in Kleinasien u . Nord-Syrien, Atlas, plate xlix . 1-3) shows that it was at an early time a Hittite centre, probably marking an important route across the Euphrates: whether or not it was the place where later the Persian " royal road " crossed the Euphrates, in Strabo's time it was connected by a bridge with a Seleucia on the Mesopotamian side, and it is now connected by road with Severek and Diarbekr and with Rakka, connecting further, through Edessa and Harran, with other eastward routes . The Hittite sculptured object referred to above 1 Not to be confused, as Yaqut remarks, with Shamshat, the classical Arsamosata (Ptol. v . 13).shows influences of an Assyrian type (P . Jensen, Hittiter u . A rmenier , 1898, 13) ; but no cuneiform text referring to Samosata by name seems yet to have been published . Kummukh, however, the district to which it belonged, was overrun by early Assyrian kings .

In consequence of revolt it was made an Assyrian

province in 708 B.C . When the Assyrian empire passed through the hands of Babylon and Persia into those of the successors of Alexander, Samosata was the capital of Kummukh, called in Greek Commagene . How soon it became a Greek city we do not know . Although its ruler Ptolemy renounced allegiance to Antiochus IV. the dynasty of Iranian origin which ruled at Samosata, described by Strabo (l.c.) as a fortified city in a very fertile if not extensive district, allied itself with the Seleucids, and bore the dynastic name of Antiochus . There, not long after the little kingdom was in A.D . 72 made a province by the Romans, and its capital received the additional name of Flavia (Suet . Vesp . 8; Eutrop . 8 . 19), the celebrated Greek writer Lucian the Satirist was born in the and century (see LUCIAN), and more than a century later another Lucian, known as the Martyr, and Paul called " of Samosata." The remains of a fine aqueduct that once brought water from the Kiakhta Chai, which begins some 6 m. above the town, are probably of the 3rd century A.D . (Geog . Journ. viii .

323) . Under

Constantine Samosata gave place as capital of Euphratensis to Hierapolis (Malal . Chron. xiii. p . 317) . It was at Samosata that Julian had ships made in his expedition against Sapor, and it was a natural crossing-place in the struggle between Heraclius and Chosroes in the 7th century . Mas`udi in the loth century says it was known also as Karat at-Tin (" the Clay Castle ") . It was one of the strong fortresses included in the county of Edessa (q.v.) . In the 13th century, according to Yaqut, one of its quarters was exclusively inhabited by Armenians . It is now a Kurdish village, which in 1894 consisted of about zoo houses, three of which were Armenian (Geog . Journ. viii . 322) .