Siege and destruction

The new Sasanian empire soon proved to be highly capable in war. By the 250s the 'Persians' threatened Rome's grip on Syria. Dura suddenly found itself a dangerously exposed imperial outpost as Iranian armies raided as far as the Mediterranean, capturing cities, causing panic, and abducting populations. They seem to have occupied Dura briefly around 252-3, but it was swiftly back in Roman hands. The restored garrison began preparations against an anticipated siege, creating the massive earthworks which would incidentally preserve so much of the city's remains. The Sasanians attacked, in or around 256. Fighting was long and ferocious, but eventually the city fell.

Dura's dramatic death throes have been reconstructed entirely through the archaeological remains of the siege, left undisturbed at the abandoned city; no ancient historical account survives. Most of the evidence came from the western defences, which had been strengthened with the great earth rampart which enveloped many buildings and artefacts.

The Sasanian assault was massive, multi-pronged, and showed full mastery of all aspects of ancient siege warfare. It involved great engineering works which indicate the fighting lasted for weeks, perhaps months. They tried to break through the walls, attacking the Palmyrene Gate, but failed. They tried to go over the walls, by building a great siege ramp near the south wadi, but the Roman defenders undermined it.

The most extraordinary remains from the siege--unparalleled in the archaeology of ancient warfare--came from around Tower 19, where the Sasanians tried to make a stretch of the city wall collapse outwards, so that a column of troops could charge through the breach into the city. The Romans tried to stop the Sasanians undermining the wall by digging a counter-mine to capture their tunnel. However, in the underground contest the Romans were beaten. We know this because, when excavated in the 1930s, the counter-mine was still full of dead Roman soldiers with all their equipment. They were most likely victims of a Greek mine-warfare stratagem know to the Romans and adopted by the Sasanians: a smoke generator. Burning crude oil and sulphur (both found in the mine), this would have been an early form of 'chemical warfare'.* Having thwarted the Roman intervention, the Sasanians completed and set fire to their mine as planned.

Yet here they failed, for the wall simply sank into the ground, but stayed upright. The great earth and mudbrick glacis enveloping it did their job. There was no breach for the Sasanians to charge into the city. The floors of Tower 19 itself collapsed, sealing a remarkable array of Roman military equipment--a painted wooden shield, some complete horse-armours--to add to the astonishing discoveries from the mine.

We do not know for sure how the Sasanians finally broke into the city, but once they did, Dura’s fate as a city was sealed. The fighting proceeded street by street, the garrison making a last stand in the military base area, where unburied bodies would tell the tale.

* James, S.T. 2011. 'Stratagems, combat and "chemical warfare" in the siege-mines of Dura-Europos,' American Journal of Archaeology 115: 69–101.