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Palmyra and the East*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Henri Seyrig
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Extract

Although Palmyra is mentioned in several cuneiform texts, the oldest of which go back to the time of Sargon I of Assyria, it seems to have remained a mere village until the middle of the first century B.C. Its sudden growth to the size of one of the largest towns in the East coincides with the moment in history when the demand for oriental luxuries began to grow in Rome and its dominions, and it was due to the clever policy of its merchants and camel-riders who knew how to keep order in the desert between their town and the great factories and warehouses of Lower Mesopotamia. From that time caravans were able to cross the Syrian desert instead of skirting it, and the transit brought huge profits to the Palmyrenes. The desert therefore, whose barren waste, to our European eyes, would easily seem a barrier, was no such thing in reality, but acted on the contrary as a link with Mesopotamia, very much in the same way as the sea connected Venice by her merchant ships with the harbours of the Levant. Indeed, a comparison of Palmyra with the great commercial cities of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Venice, Antwerp, Bruges, Lisbon, etc.), is one that in several respects helps us to understand its sudden and great prosperity, as well as its sudden decline. From the day when Aurelian put an end to Palmyra's command of the wilderness, the roads of commerce had to change, the caravans again resorted to the Euphrates route around the desert, and the fortunes of Aleppo and Chalcis began to rise.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 1-2 , November 1950 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Henri Seyrig 1950. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

This paper was read at the Joint Meeting of the Greek and Roman Societies held in Oxford, August, 1948.

References

1 The earliest mention of Palmyra seems to be on tablet from Kültepe, naming a certain Puzur-Ishtar of Tadmur, about the time of Sargon I early 2nd. millennium): Eisser, G. and Lewy, J., ‘Die altassyr. Rechtsurkunden von Kültepe,’ in Mitt, der Vorderas. Ges. xxxv, 1930, 18, no. 303Google Scholar; cf. I. Gelb, Hurrians and Subarians (Oriental Inst. of Chicago Univ., 1944) 61, and Lewy, J., Hebr. Union Coll. Annual xix, 1946, 432Google Scholar. Palmyra is also mentioned in two unpublished letters from Mari (time of Hammurabi), as Mr. André Parrot kindly informs me. On more recent texts in cuneiform, see E. Dhorme, Rev. bibl. 1924, 106 f.

2 On these developments, see mainly Cumont, F., Fouilles de Doura-Europos (1922–3) Paris, 1926, Atlas, pl. XXXI–XXXVIIIGoogle Scholar.

3 Appian., Bell. civ. v, 9, 39; cf. Syria XXI, 1940, 334.

4 Goldmann, W., Palmyr. Personennamen (Leipzig, 1935)Google Scholar; J. Cantineau, Gramm. du palmyr. épigraphique 149 f.

5 Baudissin, W. W., Adonis und Esmun (1911) 319, n. 1Google Scholar; cf. Syria xiv, 1933, 241.

6 Syria XIII, 1932, 266 f.; XXII, 1941, 169 f.

7 Syria XVIII, 1937, 46.

8 Pfister, R., Nouveaux Textiles de Palmyre (Paris, 1937), 27Google Scholar: L62.

9 Syria XVIII, 1937, 17 f., 35.

10 J. de Morgan, Numism. de la Perse pl. xi, 11 and 12; Petrowicz Coll., in Catal. Naville (Ars Classica 1926) XII, pl. 66.

11 Syria XXI, 1940, 305 f.

12 Syria XVIII, 1937, 18 f.

13 Ingholt, H., Berytus v, 1938, pl. XXXVII, 1Google Scholar; XLIII, 2; L, 1, etc.

14 Cantineau, J., Inventaire des inscr. de Palmyre, fasc. ix (1933), 1Google Scholar.

15 de Jerphanion, G., Les églises rupestres de Cappadoce (Paris, 1934Google Scholar), Album 111, pl. 156.

16 For a discussion and bibliography see Syria XVIII, 1937, 37 f.

17 Syria XXII, 1941, 161.

18 CI Sem. II, 3913, ll. 128–130 (transl.): ‘quod attinet ad aereas imagines, statuas, decretum est ut exigantur tanquam aes, et solvat imago ut dimidium oneris, et duae imagines ut onus.’

19 Wood, R., The Ruins of Palmyra (London, 1753), pl. xxxvGoogle Scholar; Wiegand, Th. and others, Palmyra (Arch. Inst. d. deutsch. Reiches, Abt. Istanbul, Berlin, 1932) pl. 17, 37Google Scholar, etc.

20 Godard, A., Athar e Iran II, 1937, 285Google Scholar f.; Sir Stein, Aurel, Geogr. Journal XCII, 1938, 324Google Scholar. For a comparison with Palmyrene statues see Syria xx, 1939, 177 f.

21 Ingholt, H., Berytus II, 1935Google Scholar, especially pl. XXVII (cf. Syria XVIII, 1937, pl. iv).

22 Syria XXI, 1940, 277–328.

23 J. Vogel, Sculpture de Mathura pl. XXII; cf. pl. XXIII a and b; LI b; LII a; L. Bachhofer, Frühindische Plastik pl. XCIX c.

24 See, for instance, the Assyrian capital: Hall, H. R., Babyl. and Assyr. Sculpt, in the Brit. Mus. (Paris, 1928) pl. XLIIIGoogle Scholar. For further references: Syria XXI, 1940, 317, n. 1. More recently, E. Herzfeld has published the Parthian pseudocorinthian capital discovered at Istakhr near Persepolis, also without an abacus (Ars Islamica ix, 1942, fig. 51) and cf. his Archaeological Hist, of Iran (Schweich Lectures of the Brit. Acad., 1934) 49 f.

25 L. Bachhofer, Frühindische Plastik pl. XXVIII (Barhut), pl. xxxv (Bodh Gaya), pl. LXXIV (Mathura). The two first examples are considerably earlier than the rise of Palmyra.

26 Syria XXII, 1941, 258 f.

27 e.g. Periplus maris erythr. 27, 38, 41, etc.; cf. Mélanges Cumont (Ann. de l'Inst. de phil. et d'hist. orient, et slaves VI) Brussels, 1936, 397 f.; W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India (1938) 232 f., 320 f.

28 Strabo XVI, 2, 5 (p. 750).

29 Tacit., Ann. VI, 42.

30 Plutarch, Crass. 32.

31 Humann, K. and Puchstein, O., Reisen in Kleinasien und Nordsyrien (Berlin, 1890) pl. xxxvGoogle Scholar f.

32 Syria xx, 1939, 183 f.