southern Arabia and India, perfumes and drugs, oils and unguents all passed through Syria by caravan, leaving prosperity in their wake.. Syrian imports were less romantic — pottery, papyrus and dried fish exceeding silk, jewels and spices in quantity if not in value.
The general aspect of country life in Roman Syria did not radically differ from the earlier pattern. The land was studded with thousands of villages inhabited mostly by peasants living on the produce of the vineyards or farms. No traces of serfdom can be found among these villages ; nor is there record of the presence of public slaves doing menial labour. Little or no money was spent for education, public health or charity. With the peasants lived village specialists — carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers and shopkeepers. These villages were as little affected by the Romanizing process as they had been by the Hellenizing process. The villagers, especially those far removed from urban centres, tenaciously clung to their traditional ways of life. Ancient rites and customs persisted unchanged.
Above the peasantry stood the native aristocracy, owners of large land-holdings or flocks of sheep and goats. The members of this class were also leaders in religious affairs. The caravan cities, coastal towns and Greco-Roman colonies housed the rich merchants and industrialists as well as the government officials. The majority of this leisure class devoted themselves to sports, amusements and social func- tions. The climatic conditions and traditional concepts of life, however, made for temperate habits ; and the sense of family loyalty, a most precious element in the legacy of the patriarchal age, never lost its hold upon the people. It is still a living force there.
In the Hellenized or Romanized cities and in the coastal towns amusements were those of the ordinary Greco-Roman type — wrestling, chariot racing, musical competition and theatrical performances. Dromedary racing was popular in the districts bordering the desert. Hunting was the favourite
