Rhabdion

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Rhabdion (Greek: Ῥάβδιον) was a fortress from late antiquity that belonged to the Roman Empire. It stood on the Tur Abdin plateau, northeast of Nisibis, on the border with the Sasanian Empire. It is also known as Qalʿat Haytham (Haytham’s fortress) and later as Hatem Tai; it is in what is now southeastern Turkey. Some sources call it Demetrius’ castle, after a builder named Demetrius.

The fortress was probably built during the reign of Emperor Constantius II (337–361), along with nearby fortresses Amida (Diyarbakır) and Cepha (Hasankeyf).

According to the Life of Simeon of the Olives, a commander named Demetrius was ordered to build the castle in 350/351 AD, which is why it was sometimes called Demetrius’ castle. After Emperor Jovian (363–364) ceded five Transtigritine provinces and some border forts to the Sasanian Empire following Julian’s Persian War, Rhabdion became the easternmost Roman frontier outpost. It may have been effectively an exclave, since the only road to it ran from the south through Persian-controlled territory near Nisibis.

In the early 1860s, the Hatem Tai fortress was visited by John George Taylor, the British consul in Diyarbakır, who sketched it. At that time it was thought to be Sisauranon, another ancient fortress known from Roman–Persian wars. The fort’s name may have given the Tur Abdin region its name.