Dura
τὰ Δούρα
Dura
1.
(τὰ Δούρα, Plb. 5.5; Amm. Marc. 20.5, 6), a fortified castle in Assyria, on the left bank of the Tigris. It still bears the name of Dúr or Dura. (Lynch, R. G. I.. vol. ix. p. 447; Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 469.)
2.
(Δοῦρα, Isid. Char. p. 4; Zosim. 3.14; Amm. Marc. 23.5), a place in the N. of Mesopotamia, at no great distance from Circesium and the Euphrates, at which, according to Zosimus, the military monument to Gordian was elected. Ammianus differs from him in this, stating that Gordian's tomb was at Zaitha, a few miles distant. Eutropius and Rufus Festus state that the monument was 20 M. P. from Circesium. Zosimus is therefore, in all probability, correct. Isidorus states that Dura was built by the Macedonians, and was called EUROPUS as well as DURA NICANORIS. It may be doubted whether the passage in Polybius (5.48) does not refer to the Assyrian town of this name. The same remark applies to the reference in Stephanus, who simply refers to the 5th book of Polybius, in which both places are mentioned. [V]
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.