^{page 158 note 1} e.g. Lewis, N. and Reinhold, M., Roman Civilization: a Sourcebook II. The Empire (2nd ed., 1966), pp. 329–32Google Scholar; Jones, A. H. M., A History of Rome through the Fifth Century II (1970), no. 106 (pp. 238–40)Google Scholar.

Short titles are used in the text and footnotes as follows: Ant. Syr. III. 38 for Seyrig, H., ‘Inscriptions grecques de l'agora de Palmyre, 4: Rapports de Palmyre avec la Mésène, la Susiane et les Indes’, Antiquités Syriennes III. 38 (1946), 196–207Google Scholar (= Syria 22 (1941), 252–63), inscriptions cited by number; Inventaire for Cantineau, J., Inventaire des Inscriptions de Palmyre I–IX (1930–1933)Google Scholar: fasc. x (1949) is by J. Starcky.

^{page 158 note 2} Economic Survey IV (1938), pp. 250–4, correctly put under the heading ‘municipal accounts’: as too by Lewis and Reinhold, op. cit., p. 329.

^{page 158 note 3} e.g. Abbott, and Johnson, , Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire, p. 410Google Scholar; ‘Palmyra, in the midst of a desert, had no other revenue except that which she derived from her position as a waystation on the trade-route to the Orient’ (my italics: contrast below, pp. 162 f.): A. H. M. Jones, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 238; ‘with these revenues Palmyra was a very wealthy city, as its magnificent ruins amply demonstrate’, and similarly in his The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (1937), p. 267 (unchanged in the second edition of 1971, pp. 265–6).

^{page 158 note 4} Seyrig, , ‘Le Statut de Palmyre’, Syria 22 (1941), 155–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar (= Ant. Syr. III. 36 (1946), 142–61) is fundamental: see esp. at 161 (148). Also Seyrig, , JRS 40 (1950), at 4Google Scholar; Rey-Coquais, J.-P., ‘Syrie romaine, de Pompée à Dioclétien’, JRS 68 (1978), at 55, n. 151Google Scholar; Drijvers, H. J. W., ‘Hatra, Palmyra, und Edessa’, in Temporini, H., Haase, W. (edd.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II. 7 (1977), 837–63, at 842Google Scholar.

^{page 158 note 5} See in addition to the wealth of specialized material cited in the following notes, Rostovtzeff, M. I., Caravan Cities (1932), chaps, IV–VGoogle Scholar; Starcky, J., Palmyre (1952)Google Scholar and in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplément VI (1960), cols. 1066–1103; Richmond, I. A., ‘Palmyra under the Aegis of Rome’, JRS 53 (1963), 43–54;Google ScholarMichalowski, K., Palmyra (1970)Google Scholar; and Iain Browning's useful general account, Palmyra (1979).

^{page 158 note 6} Wood's publication, recording a visit of 1751, has been reproduced in reduced format (Gregg International: Farnborough, Hants, 1971).

^{page 159 note 7} Ward-Perkins, J. B., ‘Severan art and architecture at Lepcis Magna’, JRS 38 (1948), at 70–1Google Scholar, citing also Antioch, Apamea, Damascus, Jerusalem; see also his Roman Imperial Architecture ² (1981), at 358–60, and, on Apamea, Baity, J. Ch., Guide d'Apamée (1981), 46 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 159 note 8} van Berchem, D., ‘Le plan de Palmyre’, Palmyre: Bilan et Perspectives: Colloque Strasbourg 1973 (1976), at 168–70Google Scholar emphasizes the importance of this area, which was enclosed by the early walls.

^{page 159 note 9} Ed. Frézouls, E., ‘Questions d'urbanisme palmyrénien’, Palmyre: Bilan et Perspectives, 191–207Google Scholar; Seyrig, , ‘L'arabisme de Palmyre’, Syria 47 (1970), 87–92Google Scholar. See further below, p. 169.

^{page 159 note 10} Seyrig, , JRS 40 (1950), 1Google Scholar; Starcky, , Palmyre, 26–30Google Scholar, and in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Suppl. VI, at cols. 1078 f. Confirmation from archaeological research at the site of the temple of Bel: R. du Mesnil du Buisson, CRAI 1966, 181–7.

^{page 160 note 11} The etymology of the name and the confusion of Tadmor of Chronicles with Tamar (in the Judaean wilderness) of the corresponding passage of I Kings (9. 18) are discussed in great detail by Starcky, , Dictionnaire de la Bible, Suppl. VI, cols. 1066–76Google Scholar (summarized at 1075 f.). It has been suggested that the names Tadmor and Palmyra are identical, linked through the consonantal shifts (P)t → P and d → 1 (cf. Starcky, 1087). If so, neither word (and in any case this is true of ‘Tadmor’) has anything to do with palm-trees. For Roman coins of Tiberian date countermarked with Palmyrene ‘T’ and ‘Π’ (for Tadmor and Palmyra), see below, n. 22.

^{page 161 note 12} Richmond, , JRS 53 (1963), 48Google Scholar.

^{page 161 note 13} Du Mesnil du Buisson, CRAI 1966, 170–1, cf. D. van Berchem, CRAI 1970, 231–7 (Tiberius); Bowersock, G. W., JRS 63 (1973), 137Google Scholar (Vespasian). But see now Gawlikowski, M., Le Temple Palmyrénien (Palmyre VI, 1973), 16Google Scholar, and ‘Les défenses de Palmyre’, Syria 51 (1974), 231–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rey-Coquais, , JRS 68 (1978), 51Google Scholar. Independently of Gawlikowski, Crouch, Dora P., ‘The Ramparts of Palmyra’, Studia Palmyrénskie VI–VII (1975), 6–44Google Scholar, describes (at 31 f.) the construction of the southern wall (KK¹ on Map 1) as ‘a typical Hellenistic walling method’.

^{page 161 note 14} Gawlikowski, , Syria 51 (1974), at 235Google Scholar, cf. 240. Commenting on Crouch (op. cit. at 46), Gawlikowski again remarks that ‘the limited defensive qualities of the ramparts, built in mud-brick and only 2 40 m. wide, without advancing towers, suited a limited objective of keeping the desert nomads off the town and its gardens … It could not possibly be effective against a regular army prepared for siege’. It seems unnecessary to postulate, with Gawlikowski and Crouch, a date after 41 B.C. for their construction.

^{page 162 note 15} AE 1933, 205; cf. Bowersock, , ‘Syria under Vespasian’, JRS 63 (1973), at 133Google Scholar. Note also the appearance at Palmyra of the tribe Claudias (CIS II, 4122).

^{page 162 note 16} Bowersock, , ‘A Report on Arabia Provincia’, JRS 61 (1971), at 230 f.Google Scholar, and now his Roman Arabia (1983), esp. chaps, VI and VII. Bowersock is especially good (at 129–37) on the later relations between Zenobia's Palmyra and the Arabs.

^{page 162 note 17} Schlumberger, D., ‘Bornes frontières de la Palmyrène’, Syria 20 (1939), 43–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Place-names here and in Map 2 are given in their French transliterations, as used by Schlumberger and others, and often on modern large-scale maps.

^{page 162 note 18} Schlumberger, , La Palmyrène du Nord-Ouest (1951): conclusions at 129–34Google Scholar.

^{page 162 note 19} Schlumberger, , ‘Bornes frontières …’ at 64 (AE 1939, 180Google Scholar) and ‘Les fouilles de Qasr el-Heir el-Gharbi (1936–8): rapport préliminaire’, Syria 20 (1939), 195–238 and 324–73Google Scholar. Summary of history of the site at 360–6.

^{page 163 note 20} Teixidor, J., ‘Deux inscriptions palmyréniennes du Musée de Bagdad’, Syria 40 (1963), 33–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Compare the desert pastoralism near the Euphrates mentioned below, n. 62. Cf. also n. 42.

^{page 163 note 21} Syria 20 (1939), 361, n. 2; and cf. Bowersock, , Roman Arabia, at 129 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 164 note 22} CIS II, 3924–5 (Inventaire IX, 6a, b), cf. Inventaire IX, 11 (A.D. 24); IX, 1 (dedication on 6 Nisan = April 32). In the proceedings of the International Numismatic Convention on Greek Imperials (Jerusalem, 1983), C. J. Howgego calls attention to S.C. series bronze coins of Tiberius countermarked with both Palmyrene ‘T’ and ‘Π’ (for Tadmor and Palmyra): to be assigned to ‘the context of increased Roman influence in the area following the expedition of Germanicus’.

^{page 164 note 23} Strabo's description of Nabataean royal drinking-parties may shed more light on the occasion: ‘no one drinks more than eleven cupfuls (of wine), each time using a different golden cup’ (16. 4. 26)!

^{page 165 note 24} Rostovtzeff, , ‘Les inscriptions caravanières de Palmyre’, Mélanges Glotz II (1932), 793–811Google Scholar.

^{page 165 note 25} Inventaire X, 124 shows the same man descending with a caravan from Palmyra to Vologesias, and CIS II, 3933 records another journey in that direction. See esp. Seyrig, Ant. Syr. III. 38, 196–207.

^{page 165 note 26} Hansman, John, ‘Charax and the Karkheh’, Iranica Antiqua 7 (1967), 21–58Google Scholar—with identification of the sites.

^{page 165 note 27} Nodelman, S. A., ‘A preliminary history of Characene’, Berytus 13 (1960), 83–121Google Scholar, with illustration of the coinage. ‘Spasinou’ commemorates the name of its second-century B.C. eparch and king Hyspaosines (c. 160-after 121): Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6. 139, with Nodelman, 91.

^{page 166 note 28} Maricq, A., ‘Vologésias, l'emporium de Ctésiphon’, Syria 36 (1959), 264–76:Google Scholar against, Chaumont, Marie-Louise, ‘Etudes d'histoire parthe, III: Les villes fondées par les Vologèse: (a) Vologesocerta et Vologésias’, Syria 51 (1974), 77–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

^{page 166 note 29} Ant. Syr. III. 38, at 204.

^{page 166 note 30} Ant. Syr. III. 38, no. 23 (Inventaire x, 96), cf. JRS 40 (1950), 6.

^{page 166 note 31} Ghirshman, R., ‘L'île de Kharg dans le Golfe Persique’, CRAI 1958, 261–8, at 265 ff.Google Scholar, and (with more illustration) Revue Archéologique 1959, 70–7, at 75 ff. The ship relief is most accessible in Malcolm Colledge, The Art of Palmyra (1976), p. 76 and Pl. 103.

^{page 166 note 32} ibid. no. 21 bis (Inventaire x, 38). On King Meeredates (i.e. Mithradates), known also from coin issues of 143/4, see Nodelman, op. cit. (n. 27), 112–14. For Thilouana as Tilmun or Tilwun (Gr. Tylos), modern Bahrain, see Herzfeld, Ernst, The Persian Empire: Studies in Geography and Ethnography of the Ancient Near East (ed. Walser, G., 1968), 62 fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 166 note 33} ibid. no. 22 (Inventaire x, 114); see esp. Le Rider, G., Suse sous les Séleucides et les Parthes: les trouvailles monétaires et l'histoire de la ville (Mémoires de la Mission Archéologique en Iran 38, 1965), 426–9Google Scholar. The kings of Elymene controlled Susa from c. A.D. 45 and struck coins there from c. 75.

^{page 167 note 34} Cf. the fragment from the agora noted by Seyrig, Ant. Syr. III. 38, 169: … Σ]οαδον Β[ωλιαδος…, with the Palmyrene [… S'WD]W BR BL[YD' …]; Inventaire X, 56. A private dedication to Soados, by his ‘friend’ Iarhai son of Ogeilu, was published by Gawlikowski, , Berytus 19 (1970), 65–7Google Scholar (temple of Bel, south portico).

^{page 167 note 35} See the description of the site by Poidebard, A., ‘La voie antique des caravanes entre Palmyre et Hit au II^e siècle ap. J.-C.’, Syria 12 (1931), 101–5Google Scholar and Pl. XXV (followed by the publication by R. Mouterde of the inscription translated above).

^{page 167 note 36} C. Quintius Certus Publicius Marcellus held office in 130/1 to 134/5; Rey-Coquais, J.-P., JRS 68 (1978), 64–5Google Scholar.

^{page 168 note 37} Museum Helveticum 13 (1956), at 220–5. On the nature of the tribes, Schlumberger, D., ‘Les quatre tribus de Palmyre’, Syria 48 (1971), 121–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar; D. van Berchem, Palmyre: Bilan et Perspectives (above, n. 8), at 170–3—the latter associating the four ‘main’ tribes with a reorganization of the city under Roman government. On the sanctuaries, Gawlikowski, op. cit. (n. 13), 48–52.

^{page 168 note 38} Gawlikowski, M., Syria 48 (1971), 412–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar, publishes and discusses an inscription of Septimius Haddudan, senator, son of Septimius ‘Ogeilû Maqqai, who helped the troops of Aurelian after his capture of Palmyra and was high priest of the temple of Bel: obviously a direct descendant (grandson?) of the Ogeilos of the text translated above.

^{page 168 note 39} Ingholt, at 282, discusses the Palmyrene version and its interpretation; cf. Starcky, J., Syria 40 (1963), at 51–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

^{page 168 note 40} viz. Manilius Fuscus (attested in 194) and Venidius Rufus (attested in 198); J.-P. Rey-Coquais, op. cit. (n. 36), 66.

^{page 168 note 41} Cantineau, J., ‘L'inscription de 'Umm es-Salâbih’, Syria 14 (1933), 178–80Google Scholar. See also Dunant, Chr., Le Sanctuaire de Baalshamin III, no. 51 (p. 65)Google Scholar for a dedication at Palmyra by ‘the cavalrymen of the detachment of Gamla and of ‘Ana’ (after A.D. 188).

^{page 169 note 42} Starcky, J., ‘Une inscription Palmyrénienne trouvée près de l'Euphrate’, Syria 40 (1963), 47–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Ingholt, H., ‘Varia Tadmorea’, Palmyre: Bilan et Perspectives (above, n. 8), at 127Google Scholar, n. 144, translates the phrase ‘to the limits of the territory’ as ‘with the head of the archers’; but Sebastian Brock has advised me that the Palmyrene variant required to give this meaning is very unlikely. The same observation would apply to the inscription of the ‘reapers’ mentioned above (pp. 162 f. and n. 20).

^{page 169 note 43} Starcky, op. cit. at 53–5, cf. Ingholt, op. cit. 126 f.; ‘[the strategoi] were not archons, who sometimes went out for caravan duty, but an integral part of the Palmyrene militia, presumably its military leaders’. In the inscriptions of pastoralists near the Wadi Hauran mentioned below (n. 62) the title strategos may however be tribal (‘sheikh’), as in OGIS 616: ἐθνάρχου, στρατηγοῦ νομάδων. See for this and other refs., Bowersock, Roman Arabia, 131 with n. 35.

^{page 169 note 44} Cumont, F., Fouilles de Doura-Europos (1926)Google Scholar, Introduction, XL; L–LI.

^{page 169 note 45} Doura-Europos never recovered from its sack by the Sasanians in the mid-250's, and the Arab city of Hatra was long deserted by 363, cf. Amm. Marc. 25. 8. 5, ‘vetus oppidum in media solitudine positum, olimque desertum’.

^{page 169 note 46} Will, E., ‘Marchands et chefs de caravanes à Palmyre’, Syria 34 (1957), 262–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

^{page 169 note 47} On which see esp. Seyrig, , Syria 47 (1970), 87–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Teixidor, J., The Pantheon of Palmyra (Études Préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 79, 1979), 78 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 170 note 48} As strongly emphasized in much recent work, for example Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire 284–602: a Social, Economic and Administrative Survey (1964), 769 ff.Google Scholar, and Finley, M. I., The Ancient Economy (1973), 56–60, 131Google Scholar.

^{page 170 note 49} Keith Hopkins (summarizing the views of Jones and Finley), in Peter Garnsey, Keith Hopkins, Whittaker, C. R. (edd.), Trade in the Ancient Economy (1983), xiiGoogle Scholar.

^{page 170 note 50} ’The economic life of the towns of the Roman Empire’ in his The Roman Economy: Studies in Ancient Economic and Administrative History (ed. Brunt, P. A., 1974), 53Google Scholar.

^{page 170 note 51} ibid. 55.

^{page 170 note 52} Jones, as cited above, n. 48, and Finley, The Ancient Economy, chap, II, e.g. at 41 f. See also, on the question of status, the remarks of d'Arms, John, Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome (1981), chap. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

^{page 171 note 53} Crouch, Dora P., ‘A note on the population and area of Palmyra’, Mélanges de l'Université Saint Joseph 47 (1972), 241–50Google Scholar.

^{page 171 note 54} Glueck, Nelson, Rivers in the Desert: the exploration of the Negev (1959), 195 ffGoogle Scholar. At 211 the continuation of these cities' trading activities is made dependent on their further development of agriculture, while Bowersock, , Roman Arabia, 21Google Scholar, writes of overland commerce as ‘the basis of their [sc. the Nabataeans'] prosperity and their sedentarization’. Avraham Negev on the other hand (op. cit. in following note, at 639) sees agricultural developments as a compensation for declining trade. I would doubt this, and in any case it is not applicable to Palmyra.

^{page 171 note 55} Negev, A., ‘The Nabataeans and the Provincia Arabia’, in Temporini, H., Haase, W. (edd.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II. 8 (1977), at 631–3Google Scholar (Mampsis), 633–5 (Nessana, Sobata, Elusa).

^{page 171 note 56} Crouch, Dora P., ‘The water system of Palmyra’, Studia Palmyrénskie VI–VII (1975), 151–86Google Scholar. Relatively little is known of the houses of Palmyra, though see Stern, H., Les mosaïques de la maison d'Achille et de Cassiopée à Palmyre (Inst. jr. Arch, de Beyrouth CI, 1977)Google Scholar—behind the temple of Bel, third century.

^{page 171 note 57} Crouch, ‘Water system’, at 160 ff. (listing the various sources) and in her ‘Use of aerial photography at Palmyra: a photo essay’, Berytus 22 (1973), 71–106Google Scholar, fig. 2. On foggaras and their construction, Fisher, N. B., The Middle East: a Physical, Social and Regional Geography (7th ed., 1978), 36 fGoogle Scholar. For their use in sub-Saharan Numidia, Baradez, J., Fossatum Africae; recherches aériennes sur l'organisation des confins Sahariens à l'époque romaine (1949), Pl. 169 and p. 192Google Scholar (near Badès). They are also found in Tripolitania.

^{page 171 note 58} Fisher, op. cit., 37 notes the case of Teheran. It was observed by Crouch, ‘Water system’, 155, that the water of Efqa becomes less unpalatable if allowed to stand for a while in porous jars, to allow some evaporation of the sulphurous fumes. Efqa now irrigates the southern part of the oasis.

^{page 171 note 59} Crouch, ‘A note on the population’, etc. (above, n. 53). 247; Rowton, M. B., ‘The woodlands of ancient Western Asia’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 26 (1967), 261–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. at 273. King Ashurbanipal of Assyria marched from the Euphrates to the region of Damascus, through ‘dense forest and high trees’ (Rowton, 274)Google Scholar.

^{page 172 note 60} The Periplus Marts Erythraei (tr. and comm. by Schoff, W. H., 1912), §36Google Scholar, gives among imports from India to the Persian Gulf copper, sandalwood, teak-wood, blackwood (sisam), ebony; and in §39 as exports from Barbaricum in India costus, bdellium, lycium (varieties of spices and drugs), nard, turquoise, lapis lazuli, ‘Seric’ (dyed) skins, cotton, silk yarn, indigo.

^{page 172 note 61} Here and in what follows, plain numbers refer to the Greek text of the Palmyra tariff, numbers with P. to the Palmyrene text.

^{page 173 note 62} As vividly illustrated by the group of Aramaic and Safaitic inscriptions of A.D. 98 (year 409), recording how one Zebida led a party, of mixed Palmyrene and Arabic nomenclature, to ‘pitch their tents’, ‘pasture their animals’ and build enclosures in the wadi Rijelat Umm-Kubar near its confluence with the wadi Hauran, about 50 km. south-west of Haditha on the Euphrates. The inscriptions (found in situ) also mention a (tribal rather than Palmyrene?) strategos and (by supplement) the ‘gods of T[admor]’: Sufar, Fuad, ‘Inscriptions from Wadi Hauran’, Sumer 20 (1964), 9–25Google Scholar, reported with some amendments by Teixidor, J., ‘Bulletin d'Epigraphie Sémitique’, in Syria 44 (1967), 187CrossRefGoogle Scholar f.

^{page 174 note 1} Palmyrene Nisan, April. Year 448 (= A.D. 137) is calculated by the Seleucid era.

^{page 174 note 2} The Palmyrene adds here ‘grandson of Mokimos’. For the Palmyrene names mentioned, see Stark, J. K., Personal Names in Palmyrene Inscriptions (1971), at 75, 95, 105 f.Google Scholar, 96, 86, 100.

^{page 174 note 3} βουλῆς νομίμου ἀγομένης, i.e. a regular meeting laid down by law; contrast the extraordinary meeting of SEG IV, 512; βουλῆς ἀγομέ[νης κατ᾿ (?)] άλλο μέρος, in the sense of ‘outside the normal routine’.

^{page 174 note 4} The contract was put out by the council for tender by individuals to act as tax collectors. For a reference made by a legatus pro praetore of Syria to one such contract, see lines 152 ff. (P. 75–8).

^{page 174 note 5} The dekaprotoi were a board of municipal officials, found very widely in eastern cities, concerned with the exaction of local (and perhaps later also some central) taxation and the supervision of certain financial transactions of a city. See Jones, A. H. M., The Greek City, 139Google Scholar, and for a full presentation of the evidence and discussion, Turner, E. G., Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 22 (1936), 7–19Google Scholar. Teixidor's translation of the Palmyrene text is at this point at variance with the unproblematic Greek version, and I am unconvinced by his suggestion of a Latin original.

^{page 175 note 6} The ‘new law’, I(b) in the translation, is set out in lines 1–93 of the Greek inscription (P. 1–62). The ‘first law’ then follows, in three main sections: 2(a) the old tariff, as agreed before the governor Mari(a)nus, abbreviated and in an extremely fragmentary state of survival (94–120; P. 63–73); 2(b) an edict on the acceptance of sureties by the contractor and a definition of his legal powers (121–49; there is no Palmyrene equivalent of this section); 2(c) a long edict, of the legatus pro praetore C. Licinius Mucianus (A.D. 66–9), which itself includes references to the old law, and to previous pronouncements of Roman officials (150–237; P. 74–151). There is naturally repetition between the new and old laws, but also some differences of phraseology. The word for ‘tax-collector’ is regularly δημοσιώνης in the new law and in section 2(a) and 2(b) of the old law, but τελώνης in 2(c), the proclamation of the legatus pro praetore (cf. 160, 185, 231), except at the very end (236). Different Palmyrene words are used for ‘prostitutes’ (ἑταῑραι) in new and old laws respectively (P. 45; 126, cf. below, n. 39). It will be clear that I am opposed to the interpretation of Piganiol, A., ‘Observations sur le tarif de Palmyre’, Rev. Hist. 195 (1945), 10–24Google Scholar, followed by de Laet, S., Portorium: Étude sur l'organisation douanière chez les romains, surtout à l'époque du Haut-Empire (1949), at 357 f.Google Scholar, according to which the tariff is inscribed in strict chronological order, Mucianus’ proclamation (2(c)) being its latest section. This raises many problems, not least why the ‘new law’, against the intention of this passage of the decree, was in this case never inscribed at all.

^{page 175 note 7} The Palmyrene text has simply ‘Temple of Rabaseire’. Rabaseire (Rab asĩrẽ) was a god of the underworld, cf. Chabot ad loc. (CIS 11. iii, p. 58), and his temple was situated near the south-eastern corner of the agora (CRAI 1966, 176–7).

^{page 175 note 8} The function of the syndics (σύνδικοι) was to act as legal representatives of the city in relation to its private citizens and to the imperial government, cf. Digest III. iv. 1. 1, comparing the legal rights of collegia to those of cities; ‘proprium est ad exemplum rei publicae habere res communes, arcam communem et actorem [legal agent] sive syndicum, per quern tamquam in re publica, quod communiter agi fierique oporteat, agitur fit’. The Egyptian evidence, though later, is relevant, making it clear, for example, that the office was a civic liturgy, and suggesting that there might be two syndics, as in P. Oxy. 2673; cf. Bowman, A. K., The Town Councils of Roman Egypt (1971), 46–52Google Scholar.

^{page 175 note 9} The word translated here by ‘exchange’ is in the Palmyrene text a transcription (LMN') of the Greek λιμήν, ‘harbour’, well attested as a loan-word in early Syriac in the broader sense of ‘mart, emporium’; cf. Brock, S., Abh. Akad. Gött. Wiss. 96 (1975), 83 fGoogle Scholar. This broader sense seems also to be implied by Digest L. xvi. 59, ‘“portus” appellatus est conclusus locus, quo importantur merces et inde exportantur …’. The precise sense relevant here derives from portus as used to denote a place where a portorium was exacted; so the Zarai tariff of A.D. 202 is a lex portus (CIL VIII, 4508), and there was a place 35 miles SW of Sitifis in Mauretania known as ‘Ad Portum’ (Tab. Peut. 11, 3/4 Miller). The Greek equivalent, λιμήν, is given by the bilingual inscription, ILS 7193. See also Rostovtzeff, M., Yale Classical Studies 3 (1932), 79–81Google Scholar.

^{page 175 note 10} For the pretended etymology of Tadmor, assimilated with Semitic tamar, ‘date-palm’, see above, p. 160 and n. 11. The city acquired the name Hadriana and its citizens were called Hadrianopolitae (Steph. Byz., p. 498), after Hadrian's visit there in ?130. For this, and the implications for the status of Palmyra, now a civitas libera, cf. Seyrig, ‘Le Statut de Palmyre’, 164 f. and 171 f. (Ant. Syr. III. 36, 151 f., 158 f.).

^{page 175 note 11} The interpretation here depends on the Palmyrene version, itself incomplete. However, ‘[not]’ seems required by the logic and is a possible supplement for the space in the Palmyrene text, line 4. Teixidor, at 246, has ‘slave, sold in the city or exported’.

^{page 176 note 12} On ‘veteran slaves’, cf. Digest XXXIX. iv. 16. 3, ‘sunt autem veterana, quae anno continuo in urbe servierint: novicia autem mancipia intelleguntur, quae annum nondum servierint’.

^{page 176 note 13} The usual Palmyrene formulation is ‘he (the purchaser) will give’. Dittenberger regularly prints the supplement πραάξει, ‘he will exact’ for categories of goods exported (cf. lines 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, etc.) but according to the facsimile the word did not usually stand in the inscription, except at 31, and perhaps 53.

^{page 176 note 14} Unguent or perfume, what the Authorized Version of the New Testament calls ‘ointment’ (Greek μύρον, Palmyrene ‘aromatic oil’) was, as Pliny states in his discussion of the subject (Hist. Nat. 13. 19), best kept in alabaster vessels. At Mark 14. 3 a woman anoints Jesus' head with ‘an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious’ (ἀλάβαστρου μύρου νάρδου πιστικῆς πολυτελοῦς), which the disciples claim could have been sold for 300 denarii to give to the poor (cf. Pliny, Hist. Nat. 13. 15 for the price level). Jesus’ reply that the woman had come to anoint him for burial (μυρίσαι μου τὸ σῶμα εἰς τὸ ἐνταφιασμόν) reveals one of its uses. Luke 7. 46 shows the distinction between ‘unguent’ and ordinary ‘oil’; Jesus says to Simon the Pharisee ‘my head with oil (ἐλαίῳ) thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment’ (μύρῳ). Again it was contained in alabaster (v. 37).

^{page 176 note 15} In the figures that follow, as in 9–15 above, it appears that one denarius is allowed for the beast of burden, whether camel or donkey (cf. lines 92 and 194–5 ror unloaded camels). After this deduction in each case, it will follow that camel-loads are charged twice as much as donkey-loads, and imports twice as much as exports, e.g. in lines 19–31 the net figures are 24: 12, 12: 6 and 6: 3 respectively. See Février, , Essai sur l'histoire politique et économique de Palmyre (1931), 40 fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 176 note 16} The content of this entry is entirely supplied from the Palmyrene version (P. 34–5).

^{page 177 note 17} Presumably per month, on the basis of line 83, a similar tax on trade.

^{page 176 note 18} ‘General stores’, ‘bazaars’, in Greek παντοπωλείων, is represented in Palmyrene (P. 53) by a direct loan-word, PTPLY. The lacuna in the text leaves it unclear whether these establishments are to be identified with or distinguished from the ‘workshops’ (ἐργαστηρίων) of line 80.

^{page 177 note 19} The precise relationship of σκυτικῶν (to do with leather, more precisely with shoemaking) with παντοπωλείων is also unclear. Liddell & Scott, s.v. σκυτικός, take the words together as meaning ‘shoeshops’, but this seems unduly to restrict the meaning of παντοπωλείων (cf. P. Oxy. 520. 1).

^{page 177 note 20} Greek μετάβολοι, Palmyrene ‘who come and go’; the precise meaning is difficult, but a contrast seems to be made between traders who operate from stores and workshops and those who have no fixed place of trading; cf. P. 139 an apparently similar passage in the old law.

^{page 177 note 21} In Greek τὸ ίκανόν, ‘sufficient’; in Palmyrene, ‘the tax remains unfixed’ (P. 57).

^{page 177 note 22} The Palmyrene adds here (P. 58) ‘which are in the city’. One would of course expect water to be expensive at Palmyra, but the high level of this figure has often been commented on. Dessau, , Hermes 19 (1884), 522Google Scholar supposed it was the sum payable by caravan leaders for access to the water for their animals (cf. Pliny, Hist. Nat. 12. 65), and these may well have been among the users; to whom one might add the owners of private baths and commercial premises rather than individuals, for it seems impossible that each individual citizen of Palmyra, or even each head of household, can have paid 800 denarii p.a. Teixidor, at 250 f., thinks persuasively of irrigation rights; though his translation of P. 58, ‘à l'administration des deux sources d'eau …’, is not consistent with the Greek version.

^{page 178 note 23} On the form of the name, Marinus or Marianus, and the transcription HYGMWN', see below, n. 28. It is unclear whether the contract was determined by the governor or simply laid before him for approval. The latter is more likely, but in either case the intervention of the Roman authorities in the affairs of the city is undeniable, cf. Seyrig, op. cit. (p. 175 above, n. 10), 159 (146). There is a problem, in that no known legatus of Syria bore the name Marinus (Rey-Coquais, J.-P., JRS 68 (1978), 625Google Scholar gives the list). Marinus may be seen as the acting deputy of an absent governor, such as P. Aelius Lamia (c. 23–32) whom Tiberius never permitted to go to his province (Tacitus, Ann. 6. 27 and Seneca, Ep. 12. 8 on the legionary legate Pacuvius ‘qui Syriam usu suam fecit’); and governors not uncommonly died in office, cf. Syme, R., ‘Governors dying in Syria’, ZPE 41 (1981), 125–44Google Scholar, esp. (on Marinus) 131: ‘a legionary legate functioning in default of a consular’, with possible opportunities under Tiberius and in 49–51. At Historia 31 (1982), 482, Syme wonders about P. Valerius Marinus, designated consul by Galba (for 69) but deferred by Vitellius; cf. PIR ² M 285. If this were the man and he were to be found in the east (his earlier career is not known), opportunities to act for the governor existed in 63 and 67.

^{page 178 note 24} Presumably double the amount at dispute.

^{page 178 note 25} παρὰ τῷ ἐν Παλμύροις τεταγμενῳ—presumably a Roman, not a Palmyrene official; Seyrig, op. cit. p. 175 above, n. 10), 159 (146) suggests that he was a military officer. An inscription also published by Seyrig, Ant. Syr. III. 38, no. 13 reveals the presence at Palmyra in the second century of a legatus Augusti et curator (πρεσβευτὴς Σεβαστοῦ καὶ λογιστής), but it is unlikely that such an official already existed in the mid-first century, which must be the approximate date of this edict (cf. n. 28 below).

^{page 178 note 26} ‘In a public place’, i.e. by auction, or possibly, ‘for the benefit of the public treasury’. ‘Without fraud or malice’, χωρὶς δόλου πο[νηροῦ], is the Latin legal expression sine dolo malo, defined at Digest IV. iii. 1.2, ‘dolum malum esse omnem calliditatem fallaciam machinationem ad circumveniendum fallendum decipiendum alterum adhibitam’.

^{page 178 note 27} Λιμένος (139), again in the broader sense discussed on p. 175 above, n. 9. Dittenberger's puzzlement at this point (OGIS 629, n. 91) is unnecessary. The ‘water’ ([πη]γῶν ὑδάτων Καίσαρος) has nothing to do with any supposed ‘harbour’.

^{page 179 note 28} Seyrig, op. cit. (p. 175 above, n. 10), 165–7 (152–4), convincingly sees in the Palmyrene GYS [……]QYNS HYGMWN' a reference to Gaius [Licinius Mu]cianus, legatus of Syria in 67–9; … QYNS can serve as a transliteration of either ‘-cinus’ or ‘-cianus’. HYGMWN' is a transliteration of Greek ἡγεμών, ‘governor’. Line 151 of the Greek text has ἀντι[στράτηΥος, for legatus pro praetore.

^{page 179 note 29} Alkimos is presumably an earlier tax contractor whose contract had been approved by the then legatus of Syria.

^{page 179 note 30} The reading ἰτα[λικόν, ‘Italian’, for Dittenberger's πά[ντα, ‘all’ or ‘every’, is secured by the Palmyrene version. Germanicus Caesar was in the east with special powers in A.D. 18–19 (see above, p. 164). Statilius was perhaps a Roman procurator in Syria (as PIR S 588), or possibly the Roman official of lines 129–30.

^{page 179 note 31} Greek κέρμα (cf. OGIS 484. 18), the small bronze coin of the Palmyrene district. Another expression for small local coin was λεπτὸς χαλκός or simply λεπτόν, the ‘widow's mite’ of Luke 21.2.

^{page 179 note 32} Sc. the existing law in the time of the legatus pro praetore whose pronouncement this is.

^{page 179 note 33} i.e. to and from villages in the territory of Palmyra; see above, p. 162.

^{page 179 note 34} Pine kernels were widely used in cooking: see the index to Apicius: the Roman Cookery Book, by Barbara Flower and Elisabeth Rosenbaum (1958), 229.

^{page 179 note 35} Cf. above, lines 92 f. G. Domitius Corbulo was legatus pro praetore in Syria under Nero, c. 60–3 (PIR ² D 142). Barbarus, like Statilius in line 182, was possibly procurator in Syria (as PIR ² B 48), or the Roman official stationed in Palmyra (p. 165 above, n. 25).

^{page 180 note 36} Ingholt, H., ‘Varia Tadmorea’, Palmyre: Bilan et Perspectives, 105 f.Google Scholar, suggests the translation ‘as to the leaders of the camels, they have already paid their dues [sc. to the imperial customs]: they [sc. the local collectors] should not levy a tax’. This would be consistent with, and indeed make explicit, the distinction between the municipal tariff and the Roman imperial customs tax levied on the caravans, but there are technical objections, pointed out to me by Sebastian Brock, to Ingholt's rendering of Palmyrene GLDY' as ‘leaders’. Teixidor, at 242, agrees on camel skins.

^{page 180 note 37} Lit. ‘they have deleted/renounced them because they do not exact tax’. Teixidor's tr., ‘ils ont desavoué qu'on n'exige plus la taxe’ gives the opposite sense, but the Greek version does not support his division of the text here.

^{page 180 note 38} ‘Grasses’ may mean ‘fodder’, or possibly ‘vegetables’. Chabot restored the following phrase to yield ‘fallen leaves’ (convertible into fodder) but the text is extremely uncertain and better left without restoration.

^{page 180 note 38} The Palmyrene equivalent of the Greek ἑταιρῶν, ‘prostitutes’ (line 203; cf. also lines 75 ff. in the ‘new law’, where the Palmyrene has a closer equivalent to ἑταῖραι).

^{page 180 note 40} The taxes are to be exacted at the specified rates per month, as in the new law; cf. above, lines 75 ff., and n. 17.

^{page 180 note 41} ‘Statues’, a Greek loan-word in the Palmyrene, is apparently to be taken in apposition with ‘bronze images’. The statues were no doubt commissioned from makers elsewhere for public display in their city by Palmyrene notables: Seyrig, , JRS 40 (1950), 4Google Scholar.

^{page 180 note 42} This seems a necessary expansion of the Palmyrene, which reads literally, ‘let an image pay half the weight, and two images the weight’.

^{page 180 note 43} i.e. in the agora or forum—so as to exert some control over the sale and make it possible to collect the tax. The area south and south-west of Palmyra is a large sebkha, or salt-flat, and it is in this region that the salt was collected (cf. Map 2).

^{page 180 note 44} The text here is extremely uncertain. An alternative reading gives a Palmyrene transcription of the Greek word ἡγεμονία, which might be used for ‘province’ (as is ἡγεμών for governor; cf. above, n. 28). Palmyrene practice would then be established ‘as in [the province]’; cf. the reference to practice in ‘the other cities’ in the Greek version, line 193. But there is no reason to suppose that Palmyra was not itself part of the province, and Teixidor, at 245, supports the interpretation given here, citing new photographic evidence for the word ‘law’, NM[WS'], on the inscription.