human and historical aspects of Christianity against the emotional and mystical.
From apostolic times both Greek and Aramaic were used in Christian worship. After Antioch's rise to a position of leadership in the Greek-speaking part of Syria, Edessa began to rise to a corresponding position in the Aramaic (Syriac) - speaking world. This city was the earliest seat of Christianity in Mesopotamia and the cradle of Syriac literature, which began there probably late in the second century with Syriac versions of the Bible.
The penetration of Christianity into the farthest parts of the Roman empire and its final triumph over all Greco- Roman cults and oriental rivals was but one phase of the Syrianizing process that was going on, the religious phase. The other phases were economic, social and political. Meanwhile, Romanizing processes were operating in the opposite direction. Romanization decreased as distance from Rome increased. In Syria there were too few Italian residents to act as foci for Latin culture. Those were mostly government officials who collected taxes, decided important lawsuits, attended games and festivals but continued to be treated as outsiders. But from the outset the emperors bestowed on native residents of such colonies as Beirut and Baalbek Roman citizenship, which gave them a favoured position among the provincials. By grant or treaty other cities which were not colonies received citizenship or special privileges. Tarsus was among these, enabling Paul to claim Roman citizenship and 'appeal unto Caesar'. 'Divide and rule' was a standard Roman political technique applied to prevent the different cities or communities from clubbing together against Rome. In 212 Caracalla bestowed full Roman citizenship on practically all free residents of the provinces, Syria included. Rome was thus well on the way to solving the knotty problem of moulding a cluster of different nationalities into a single entity, moderately uni- form in culture, economically prosperous and politically loyal.
