TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > At the interface - The frontier Regions
- Southern boundary northern half of Mesopotamian plain – northern across Taurus range and Black sea but Armenian kingdom affects this as does.
- M main region political boundary never corresponds with cultural division, similarly in Armenia even common religion did not stop differing provinces.
- Aramiac dialect common in M and Fertile Crescent – does not mean ethnic homogeneity – Jewsish, Arabian all sorts. No means religious homogeneity -Zoroastrian in RE and Christians in SM (more than Zs).
- See increasing importance of region with build up of troops from early stage – Romans also develop own ties with Arab clientele as Arab form own groups – v effective raiders.
- Frye – defence of northern Mesopotamia never relied continuous line of defences - Frye no sign of structure – character of zone of transit, concentration of resources in well-situated cities. SP hardly provided structure either.
- John of Ephesus states frontier closed during war – implies relatively easy access during peacetime. Millar – Eastern Frontier dictated positioning of soldiers and officials but hardly affected attitudes or movements of people on either side.
- Why cross? Christian in Persia want to go to important religious sites – Jerusalem etc + shrines at Edessa etc = Persian schooling – theological problems stop this later on – Medical education carriers on – Khurso I shows preference from Roman trained medics
- Interchange letter and people between Christian and Jewish communities frequent.
- Some commercial interchange across border of M – goods from China and India into Roman Empire.
- Permeability and interaction in this region
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