Roman Edessa offers a comprehensive and erudite analysis of the ancient city of Edessa (modern day Urfa, Turkey), which constituted a remarkable amalgam of the East and the West. Among the areas explored are:the cultural life and antecedents of EdessaEdessene religionthe extent of the Hellenization at Edessa before the advent of Christianitythe myth of an exchange of letters between a King Abgar and Jesus.
List of figures, Preface, Acknowledgements, Abbreviations, Introduction, 1 The earliest Edessa, 2 The coming of Rome, 3 From kingdom to province, 4 A king in Rome’s service, 5 A ‘Golden Age’?: the culture of pre-Christian Edessa, 6 Early Christianity and Edessan culture, 7 Conclusion, Appendix: Numismatic notes, Notes, Bibliography, Index
