Editing Urfa (section)

====Roman rule====
Abgar the Great died in 212 and was succeeded by [[Abgar IX]], also called Severus as a sign of Roman influence. Abgar IX only reigned for a year – in 213, he was summoned to Rome by the emperor [[Caracalla]], who then had him murdered. In 214, Caracalla made Edessa a Roman colony, officially ending any autonomy the city had. A son of Abgar IX, known as Ma'nu IX, appears to have been nominally a king until 240; he received an embassy from India in 218, during the reign of [[Elagabalus]], but he did nothing else of note. The monarchy seems to have been restored to power at some point – and Abgar IX was apparently king until 248, when the emperor [[Philip the Arab]] had him banished after Edessa rebelled.<ref name="Ball 2000"/>{{rp|91}}

In 260, the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] emperor [[Shapur I]] defeated the Romans in the [[Battle of Edessa]] and captured the emperor.<ref name="Lieu 1997"/> However, either Shapur never actually captured the city or he only held it for a very short time – it is not listed among the cities he captured in his inscription on the [[Ka'ba-ye Zartosht]], and in the aftermath of the battle he had to bribe Edessa's garrison to let his army pass unmolested.<ref name="Lieu 1997"/>

As a result of [[Diocletian]]'s reorganization of the empire in 293, a state-run factory was built at Edessa to make weapons and equipment for the soldiers stationed along the border.<ref name="Lieu 1997"/> In 298, after [[Galerius Maximianus]]'s victory over the Sasanians, Edessa was made capital of the new province of Osrhoene.<ref name="Lieu 1997"/> It served as a military base in the Mesopotamian ''[[limes (Roman Empire)|limes]]'', although it was secondary to Nisibis in that system.<ref name="Lieu 1997"/>