position of Palmyra as an intermediate state between the two
great powers of Rome and Parthia was recognized and carefully
watched. The splendid period of Palmyra (A.D. 130–270), to
which the greater part of the inscribed monuments belong,
started from the overthrow of Petra (A.D. 105), which left
Palmyra without a competitor for the Eastern trade. Hadrian
treated the city with special favour, and on the occasion of his
visit in A.D. 130, granted it the name of Hadriana Palmyra
(הדרינא תדמר NSI. p. 322). Under the same emperor the
customs were revised and a new tariff promulgated (April,
A.D. 137), cancelling the loose system of taxation “by custom”
which formerly had prevailed.[1] The great fiscal inscription,
which still remains where it was set up, gives the fullest picture
of the life and commerce of the city. The government was
vested in the council (βουλή) and people (δῆμος), and administered
by civil officers with Greek titles, the proedros (president),
the grammateus (secretary), the archons, syndics and dekaprōtoi
(a fiscal council of ten), following the model of a Greek municipality
under the Roman Empire. At a later date, probably
under Septimius Severus or Caracalla (beginning of 3rd century).
Palmyra received the Jus italicum and the status of a colony;
the executive officials of the council and people were called
stratēgoi, equivalent to the Roman duumviri (NSI. Nos. 121, 127);
and Palmyrenes who became Roman citizens began to take
Roman names, usually Septimius or Julius Aurelius, in addition
to their native names.
It was the Parthian wars of the 3rd century which brought Palmyra to the front, and for a brief period raised her to an almost dazzling position as mistress of the Roman East. A new career of ambition was opened to her citizens in the Roman honours that rewarded services to the imperial armies during their frequent expeditions in the East. One house which was thus distinguished had risen to a leading place in the city and before long played no small part in the world’s history. Its members, as we learn from the inscriptions, prefixed to their Semitic names the Roman gentilicium of Septimius, which shows that they received the citizenship under Septimius Severus (A.D. 193–211), presumably in recognition of their services in connexion with his Parthian expedition. In the next generation Septimius Odainath or Odenathus, son of Hairan, had attained the rank of Roman senator (συγκλητικός, Vogüé No. 21, NSI. p. 285 M.). conferred no doubt when Alexander Severus visited Palmyra in A.D. 230–231; his son again, Septimius Hairan, seems to have been the first of the family to receive the title of Rās Tadmor (“chief of Tadmor”) in addition to his Roman rank (NSI. No. 125); while his son—the relationship, though nowhere stated, is practically certain—the famous Septimius Odainath, commonly known as Odenathus (q.v.), the husband of Zenobia, received even higher rank, the consular dignity (ὑπατικός) which is given him in an inscription dated A.D. 258, in the reign of Valerian (NSI. No. 126). The East was then agitated by the advance of the Parthian Empire under the Sassanidae, and the Palmyrenes, in spite of their Roman honours and their Roman civilization, which did not really go much below the surface, were by no means prepared to commit themselves altogether to the Roman side.[2] But Parthian ambitions made it necessary for the Palmyrenes to choose one side or other, and their choice leaned towards Rome, both because they dreaded interference with their religious freedom and because the Roman emperor was further off than the Persian king. In the contests which followed there can be no doubt that the Palmyrene princes cherished the idea of an independent empire of their own, though they never threw over their allegiance to the Roman suzerain until the closing act of the drama. Their opportunity came with the disaster which befell the Roman army under Valerian (q.v.) at Edessa, a disaster, says Mommsen, which had nearly the same significance for the Roman East as the victory of the Goths at the mouth of the Danube and the fall of Decius; the emperor was captured (A.D. 260) and died in captivity. The Persians swept victoriously over Asia Minor and North Syria; not however without resistance on the part of Odenathus, who inflicted considerable losses on the bands returning home from the pillage of Antioch. It was probably not long after this that Odenathus, with a keen eye for his advantage, made an attempt to attach himself to Shapur I. (q.v.) the Persian king;[3] his gifts and letters, however, were contemptuously rejected, and from that time, as it seems, he threw himself warmly into the Roman cause. After the captivity and death of Valerian, Gallienus succeeded to a merely nominal rule in the East, and was too careless and self-indulgent to take any active measures to recover the lost provinces. Thereupon the two leading generals of the Roman army, Macrianus and Callistus, renounced their allegiance and proclaimed the two sons of the former as emperors (A.D. 261). During the crisis Odenathus remained loyal to Gallienus, and was rewarded for his fidelity by the grant of a position without parallel under ordinary circumstances; as hereditary prince of Palmyra he was appointed dux Orientis, a sort of vice-emperor for the East (A.D. 262). He started promptly upon the work of recovery. With his Palmyrene troops,[4] strengthened by what was left of the Roman army corps, he took the offensive against Shapur, defeated him at Ctesiphon, and in a series of brilliant engagements won back the East for Rome. During his absence at the wars, we learn from the inscriptions (A.D. 262–267) that Palmyra was administered by his deputy Septimius Worod, “procurator ducenarius of Caesar our lord,” also styled “commandant,” as being Odenathus’ viceroy (ἀργαπέτης, NSI. Nos. 127–129). Then in the zenith of his success Odenathus was assassinated at Homs (Emesa) along with his eldest son Herodes (A.D. 266–267). The fortunes of Palmyra now passed into the vigorous hands of Zenobia (q.v.), who had been actively supporting her husband in his policy. Zenobia seems to have ruled on behalf of her young son Wahab-allath or Athenodorus as the name is Graecized, who counts the years of his reign from the date of his father’s death. Under Odenathus Palmyra had extended her sway over Syria and Arabia, perhaps also over Armenia, Cilicia and Cappadocia; but now the troops of Zenobia, numbering it is said 70,000, proceeded to occupy Egypt; the Romans under Probus resisted vigorously but without avail, and by the beginning of A.D. 270, when Aurelian succeeded Claudius as emperor, Wahab-allath was governing Egypt with the title of “king.” His coins of 270 struck at Alexandria bear the legend v(ir) c(onsularis) R(omanorum) im(perator) d(ux) R(omanorum) and display his head beside that of Aurelian, but the latter alone is styled Augustus. Meanwhile the Palmyrenes were pushing their influence not only in Egypt but in Asia Minor; they contrived to establish garrisons as far west as Ancyra and even Chalcedon opposite Byzantium, while still professing to act under the terms of the joint rule conferred by Gallienus. Then in the course of the year A.D. 270–271 came the inevitable and open breach. In Palmyra Zenobia is still called “queen” (βασίλισσα, NSI. No. 131; cf. Wadd. 2628), but in distant quarters, such as Egypt, she and her son claim the dignity of Augustus;
- ↑ The full text, both Greek and Palmyrene, with an English translation, is given in NSI, pp. 313–340. The tariff should be compared with the Greek Tariff of Coptos A.D. 90 (Flinders Petrie, Koptos, pp. 27 sqq.) and the Latin Tariff of Zarai (Corp. inscr. lat. viii. 4508).
- ↑ For the general history of the Period see Persia: History, A. § viii., “The Sassanian Empire.”
- ↑ Petrus Patricius. Fragm. hist. graec. iv. 187.
- ↑ The Palmyrene archers were especially famous. Appian mentions them in connexion with M. Antony’s raid in 41 B.C. (Bell, civ. v. 9). Later on a contingent served with the Roman army in Africa, Britain, Italy, Hungary, where grave-stones with Palmyrene and Latin inscriptions have been found; see Lidzbarski, Nordsem epigr. p. 481 seq.; Ephemeris, ii. 92 (a Latin inscription of the time of Marcus Aurelius), and NSI. p. 312. The South Shields inscription, now in the Free Library of the town, was found in the neighbouring Roman camp; it is given in NSI. p. 250. The Palmyrene soldier who set it up was no doubt an archer. Jewish tradition had reason to remember these formidable Palmyrenes in the Roman armies; according to the Talmud 80,000 of them assisted at the destruction of the first temple, 8000 at that of the second! Talm. Jerus. Taanith, fol. 68 a, Midrash Ekha, ii. 2. For other references to Palmyra (called Tarmod) in the Talmud see Neubauer Géogr. du Talm. 301 sqq.
