Hatra was an ancient city in what is now Iraq. It was known as Hatra in Persian and al-Hadr in Arabic, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions.
Hatra may have been built by the Assyrians or possibly in the 3rd or 2nd century BC under the influence of the Seleucid Empire, but there is no reliable information on the city before the Parthian period. It flourished under the Parthians, during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, as a religious and trading center.
It became an important fortified frontier city and withstood repeated attacks by the Roman Empire. It repulsed the sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199), and defeated the Persians at the battle of Shahrazoor in 238, but fell to the Persia's Sassanid Empire of Shapur I in 241 and was destroyed.
Hatra may have been built by the Assyrians or possibly in the 3rd or 2nd century BC under the influence of the Seleucid Empire, but there is no reliable information on the city before the Parthian period. It flourished under the Parthians, during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, as a religious and trading center.
It became an important fortified frontier city and withstood repeated attacks by the Roman Empire. It repulsed the sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199), and defeated the Persians at the battle of Shahrazoor in 238, but fell to the Persia's Sassanid Empire of Shapur I in 241 and was destroyed.
Modern location: Ruins
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