 Ephrem was born around the year 306 in the city of Nisibis, Mesopotamia (modern Nusaybin, Turkey), then-recently acquired by Rome.Internal evidence from Ephrem's hymnody suggests that both his parents were part of the growing Christian community in the city, although later hagiographers wrote that his father was a pagan priest.Numerous languages were spoken in the Nisibis of Ephrem's day, mostly dialects of Aramaic.