Siege of Amida
| Siege of Amida | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Roman-Persian Wars | |||||||||
 Shapur II, conqueror of Amida, along with Shapur III |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Eastern Roman Empire | Sassanid Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Count Aelianus † Sabinianus Ursicinus |
Shapur II Grumbates Antoninus Urnayr |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Legio V Parthica (garrison force) Legio XXX Ulpia Legio X Fretensis Superventores, Praeventores Comites Sagittarii (Household mounted archers) Legions from Gaul loyal to Magnentius |
Sassanid army Xionites Gelani Albani Segestani |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Most defenders, some citizens, some refugees from countryside | circa 30,000 Persian dead | ||||||||
The Siege of Amida took place when the Sassanids, under Shah (king) Shapur II besieged the Roman city of Amida in 359.
In this battle Ammianus Marcellinus, a historian of Greek origin from Antioch, was a Roman army officer; he described the siege in his work (Res Gestae).
When Shapur II took control of the Sassanid Empire he sought to regain old territories previously lost to the Roman Empire. After crushing the Arabs in the south, he moved east to deal with nomadic forces, the most prominent being the Xionites. Following a prolonged struggle from (353-358) the Xionites were forced to conclude a peace, and their king, Grumbates, accompanied Shapur II in the war against the Romans. In 358 the Romans had failed to dissuade Shapur from attacking Mesopotamia, so the next year Shapur decided to invade. Shapur started the western campaign in 359.
Emperor Constantius II had increasingly been doubting the loyalty of general Ursicinus. As a result, he did not give him command of the Roman forces in the East, and instead gave it to Sabinianus. As news of the Persian invasion spread, the civilian population of the region began to panic:
"Dispatch riders were sent at once to Cassian, the general of Mesopotamiam and Euphronius, then governor of the province, with orders to compel the country folk [farmers] to move with their families and all their to places of safety. Carrhae was to be evacuated immediately, because of the weakness of its fortifications, and the whole country set on fire (see:scorched earth), to deprive the enemy of a source of fodder."
In the panic which followed, several Roman legions chaotically escaped the Persian advance to the safety of Amida. These included the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix and the Legio X Fretensis.
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