The frescoes of Palmyra and of Dura are significant in the history of art. They help bridge the gap between the ancient Semitic art of Assyro-Babylonia and Phoenicia and early Christian art. Through them may be traced the beginnings of oriental influences over Greco-Roman paint- ings, thus preparing the way for the advent of Byzantine art. The Palmyrene pantheon comprised an assortment of deities from Syria, Arabia, Babylonia and Persia. Chief among these was Bel, a cosmic god of Babylonian origin who was accompanied by solar and lunar deities.
In addition to such Arab cities as Palmyra and Damascus — less important in Roman times than it had formerly been and would again be — and such Greek cities as Antioch and Latakia, northern Syria had two important Roman cities : Beirut and Baalbek. Of the maritime cities Beirut was the only one important for reasons other than the commercial and industrial activity which characterized and enriched Sidon and Tyre. As a Roman veterans' colony and a garrison town it became an isle of Romanism in a sea of Hellenism. Jewish kings eager to ingratiate themselves with Roman emperors by bestowing gifts on the colonies made it the recipient of many material favours, featuring a sumptu- ous theatre for musical and dramatic performances and a lavish amphitheatre for gladiatorial combats and circus games. The city was more justifiably distinguished, how- ever, as the seat of the most renowned provincial school of Roman law, remaining throughout the Roman period a Mecca for the best legal minds of the eastern provinces.
Baalbek (Heliopolis), like Beirut, was both a veterans' colony and a garrison town, but was less Roman and more Semitic. The fame of this city rested on its great temple, which housed a gold statue of Hadad, a Semitic deity called by the Romans Jupiter Heliopolitanus, and a smaller temple honouring his consort Atargatis. The ruins of these temples, the smaller of which is the best preserved and most richly ornamented ancient building in all Syria, surpass any others
