Samosata, meaning "sun", was an ancient city whose ruins still exist at the modern Turkish city of Samsat . Located in southeast Turkey on the upper Euphrates River, it was fortified so as to protect a major crossing point of the river on the east-west trade route. It also served as a station on another route running from Damascus, Palmyra, and Sura up to Lesser Armenia and the Euxine (Black) Sea.

Most likely of Hittite origin, it was incorported into the Assyrian Empire in 708 BC. Later it served as the capital for the Hellenistic kingdom of Commagene from circa 160 BC until it was surrendered to Rome in 72 CE.

Samosata was the birthplace of Lucian (c. 120-192 CE), a famous comic writer of antiquity, whose Trips to the Moon is sometimes called the first space novel, as well as 80 works which have survived to this day.

Samosata was also the birthplace of Paul of Samosata, the third leader of the Elkasites, an order of Essene Gnostics, who lived in the mid 3rd century CE.

In the Christian martyrology , seven Christian martyrs were crucified in 297 in Samosata for refusing to perform a pagan rite in celebration of the victory of Maximian over the Persians: Abibus, Hipparchus, James, Lollian, Paragnus, Philotheus, and Romanus.

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.

In February, 1098, the emir Baldoukh , attacked by Baudouin of Antioch, cut his army to pieces there. In 1114 it was one of the chief quarters of the Muslims hostile to the Count of Edessa, to whom it succumbed, but was recaptured by the Muslims about 1149.

External links

• Information on Ancient Samosata
• Samosata in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Historical information about Samosata
• Martyrs of Samosata
• 1911 encyclopedia entry on Samosata