Ephrem was born around the year 306 in the city of Nisibis (modern Nusaybin, Turkey), in the Roman province of Mesopotamia, that was recently acquired by the Roman Empire. 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. In those days, religious culture in the region of Nisibis included local polytheism, Judaism and several varieties of the Early Christianity. Majority of population spoke Aramaic language, while Greek and Latin were languages of administration. The city had a complex ethnic composition, consisted of ""Assyrian, Arabs, Greeks, Jews, Parthians, Romans, and Iranians"".