Abgar VIII of Edessa, also known as Abgar the Great, was a Syriac king of Osroene. It was maintained also that Abgar the Great should be regarded as Abgar IX, however, according to A. R. Bellinger and C. B. Welles, the assertion is incorrect1.
Abgar the Great was most remembered for his reputed conversion to Christianity in about 200 AD23.
Upon his death in 212 AD1,Abgar the Great was succeeded by his son Abgar IX surnamed Severus in contemporary Roman fashion. Though Abgar Severus was summoned with his son to Rome in 213 AD and murdered at the orders of Caracalla2. A year later Caracalla ended the independence of Osroene and incorporated it as a province into Roman Empire.
References
^ ab Segal, J.B. (2005). Edessa: The Blessed City. Gorgias Press LLC, 14. ISBN 1593331932.
^ ab Ball, Warwick (2000). Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. Routledge, 91. ISBN 0415113768.
^ Shahid, Irfan (1984). Rome and the Arabs: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Byzantium and the Arabs. Dumbarton Oaks, 47. ISBN 0884021157.
