ROMANS AND SEMITES
All geographical and traditional Syria was incorporated by Pompey in 64 B.C. into a single province, with Antioch as capital. Arab dynasts were allowed to remain, but their authority was restricted to their original domains and they paid annual tribute. The Nabataean king, however, kept Damascus for a lump sum of money. Judaea was left a subject state within the framework of the province of Syria, but the cities with a Greek constitution which the Jews had added to their domain were restored to their former status and granted internal freedom under provincial governors. Ten of these cities then formed a league known as Decapolis, of which all but Scythopolis lay east of the Jordan. Antioch, Gaza and other colony-cities were also given autonomy and placed under provincial governors.
Map of classical Syria
was slain in battle in the Syrian Desert south of Harran ; his army was cut to pieces.
Crassus' able treasurer and successor, Cassius, realized that this crushing defeat put all Syria in jeopardy and hastened to prepare for the coming invasion, which did not materialize until the year 51. At the head of two legions the proconsul took his stand in Antioch ready to offer determined resistance. Sensing a lengthy siege, the Parthians retired along the Orontes and ultimately withdrew from all Syria. The incursion, however, left its effect in the resur- gence of several local dynasts, many of whom favoured the Parthians.
With civil war raging in Rome and the whole realm in a condition of unrest and instability, Syria rapidly reverted to the confused anarchy in which Pompey had found it as a result of the ineffectiveness of the later Seleucids. Arab chiefs in the north and east, Nabataeans and Jews in the south, robbers in Lebanon and Cilicia and pirates along the Phoenician coast disdained the power of distant Rome. Trade, already disrupted by the successive Armenian and Parthian invasions, came to a virtual standstill. A brief visit by Julius Caesar in 47 B.C. and four years under the irresponsible Mark Antony (40-36) brought no improve- ment. A major Parthian incursion dislodged the Romans from the entire province with the exception of Tyre ; they regained control only slowly and with difficulty.
During Mark Antony's tenure the Maccabean family was replaced by that of Herod, a nominal Jew of Idumaean origin who established himself as king at Jerusalem in 37 B.C. and maintained power until his death thirty-three years later. Herod promoted Roman as against national interests and succeeded, where the Seleucids had failed, in forcibly making of Judaea a passable imitation of a Hel- lenistic realm. He mercilessly crushed all opposition to his despotic rule and left a pacified kingdom to his sons, but in a.d. 6 it was restored to the direct rule of Roman governors.
Meanwhile a rising Roman general, Octavian, had van- quished Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the naval battle of Actium (31 B.C.), had passed through Syria and been welcomed by provincials desperately longing for a stable government and had received from the Roman senate the rank of emperor and the title Augustus Caesar. During Augustus's imperial rule Syria was fully incorporated into the Roman provincial system, under which native com- munities suffered but little restriction in the exercise of their autonomy. They retained their own religion, language and customs. The Romans took upon themselves the responsi- bility for their protection, afforded by garrison legions of Italian troops. In lieu of military service tribute was exacted from the native population. The Roman governors, who exercised general supervision over provincial affairs, were normally appointed for short periods and received no pay, but made themselves wealthy by farming out taxes and other oppressive methods.
By the time Augustus became emperor, the Romans and their subject peoples had virtually harmonized the Greek and Latin civilizations. Greek remained the cultural language of the eastern provinces and Aramaean the ver- nacular, but Latin became the official language of adminis- tration. The Greeks were weak on the political and organizational side, which was exactly where the Romans were strong. The Romans were rather poor in the artistic and philosophic field, where the Greeks were rich. Thus did Hellenism, strengthened and enriched under the Roman aegis, continue its sway over Syria. Under Roman protec- tion the land remained secure from c barbarian' peril ; Syrian Greek city life, with its characteristic political forms, round of festivities, amusements and intellectual exercise, moved on as before. Such local dynasties as were suffered by the mighty Romans to persist — in Judaea, Petra, Palmyra and elsewhere — had by this time all acquired a strong Hel- lenistic tinge.
As a frontier province bordering on Parthia, the only serious rival and formidable foe of Rome, Syria was con- stituted an imperial province of which the emperor himself was the titular proconsul. As such it was placed under a legate, always of consular rank, whose term of office lasted from three to five years. Its governorship, with that of Gaul, was the most honourable and highly prized that the empire could confer. Syria in the east, like Gaul in the west, was a central seat of military control. The governor was assisted by an adequate staff among whom the pro- curators stood high as collectors of state revenue. The col- lection was made either directly or through tax farming. Under the legate's control was a strong military force of four legions, consisting in the early empire almost entirely of Italian troops. The legate of Syria was responsible for the security of Roman possessions throughout south-western Asia.
The local communities lived under a variety of govern- ments. The Greco-Macedonian colonies kept their own magistrates under whom were a senate and a popular assembly. The Phoenician city-states likewise retained their traditional oligarchical systems, and the Aramaean com- munities of the interior continued in control of their internal affairs as before. The Arabs of Horns and the Biqa were ruled by their own princes, while on the desert frontier, where the nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life was still the rule, the tribe was the social unit and the patriarchal form of administration was maintained. In Judaea the high priest, no longer a king, acted as head of the community and was nominated by the Jewish aristocracy. Throughout Rome displayed a remarkable flexibility in its dealings with these diverse communities and their leaders.
Behind this diversity of organization and control was a measure of ethnic and cultural similarity far beyond any- thing that had prevailed before. All Syrians were by this time fully Semitized and were mingling and hence becoming more and more homogeneous. Phoenicians and Aramaeans, Arabs and Jews, Macedonians and Greeks — all could be found in any city of Syria, where ancient antagonisms con- sequently faded away. From this mingling the Romans kept somewhat aloof, unmindful of the culture of the provincials whom they ruled. They planted few colonies, of which the most important were a settlement of veterans at Beirut and another at Baalbek, both destined to become vital centres of Roman culture. But inevitably the chief Roman interest in Syria was to use it as a base against Parthia and to exploit its resources. The Syrians manifested but little interest in the Roman military campaigns except when their own safety was threatened.
The performance of Roman administration in such a province as Syria, which had a civilization as high as the Roman though differing in character, was not as successful or brilliant as in such half-civilized provinces as Spain or Gaul. In Syria the Greek settlements, Phoenician cities and Judaean towns, with their developed social, intellectual and economic life and their schools of art, philosophy and literature, found but little to borrow from Rome. To them Latin literature remained of no interest. But the Arabs, whether speaking Arabic or — like the Ituraeans, Idu- maeans and Nabataeans — Aramaic, responded differently. Among them, east of Anti-Lebanon and of settled Trans- jordan, Roman colonies were set up, each starting with a nucleus of Italian settlers around which others were grouped, and developing into special communities.
After reducing insurgent Petra in a.d. 105 Trajan annexed the regions east and south of the Dead Sea and incorporated them into the empire as the province of Arabia. With Syria as the focus of Roman power in the Near East, Roman administration established a chain of posts along the fringe of the desert to protect the more settled and civilized areas. The forts were often garrisoned with auxiliaries recruited from friendly tribes. The transversal road from east to west, connecting the cities of the Tigris and Euphrates with those of the Mediterranean and passing through Palmyra, cut across this territory, bisecting the caravan route from Arabia to Damascus. Political security and the improvement in communications promoted a tend- ency towards settled life on the part of nomadic or semi- nomadic communities. Urbanization was a cardinal point in Roman policy.
In brief, it may be claimed that the chief service which Roman administration rendered the Syrian province was immunity from civil disturbances and protection against external enemies. Incidentally it opened up a wider market, a world market before it. In the first century of imperial rule Syrian recovery from the depression into which it had sunk as a result of foreign and civil wars was rapid. The province found itself an integral part of an empire that stretched from the Atlantic and the North Sea to the Euphrates and from the Rhine and the Danube to the Sahara. Under the shelter of imperial arms order and peace prevailed ; security from brigandage and piracy was established. Parthian and Arabian incursions were checked. Strategic passes, like the Cilician, were well guarded. A network of well-drained roads, an outstanding achievement of administrative and engineering skill, knit all parts of the empire into a relatively compact unit. Augustus instituted a postal service which brought the central government into closer contact with its provincial agents. Trade was stimu- lated. The curve of prosperity tended upward again. After a.d. 70 the entire Roman state enjoyed a long period of immunity from serious civil disturbances. From a.d. 96 to 180 it was fortunate in having an unbroken succession of worthy emperors beginning with Nerva and ending with Marcus Aurelius. Under them Roman Syria attained its widest extent and greatest prosperity.
The sense of security, the extension of the road system and the creation of a new world trade stimulated economic production beyond anything hitherto known. Prosperity was reflected in a higher standard of living and the appear- ance of new towns. The increased population of greater Syria must in the second century have reached the all-time high of 7,000,000. The whole Orontes valley, today partly desert, must have been intensely cultivated, as Roman en- gineering skill lifted the river water and distributed it to the fields, where improved ploughs helped produce better crops. Even Transjordan, now mostly desert, abounded in grain and grapes, as well as date palms and olive trees. The fertility of the Hawran plateau became proverbial. From a country of shepherds it was transformed into one of cities and villages. The entire region was dependent on the use of reservoirs in which the irregular but sometimes heavy rainfall was collected. The degree of prosperity attained by this region under the Romans was never again approached even under the Umayyad caliphs.
Syrian gardening was a pleasant feature of ancient Roman civilization. It goes back to early Semitic beginnings which grew out of the widespread fruit, flower and herb cultivation dependent solely upon summer irrigation. Given an impetus under Persian rule, Semitic gardening technique was perfected under the Romans. It was applied not only on a private but also on a public scale, as exemplified in the sacred grove of Daphne. The flowery retreats which attended the Mediterranean civilization and were repre- sented in Antioch, Damascus and Jerusalem became a proto- type of the pleasure gardens that spread as far as Moorish Granada. Even today water is still handled as an artistic motif in the flowing jets emitting a veil-like spray in the courtyards of Damascus.
All aspects of Syrian agriculture and all districts pro- spered. Grain constituted the principal nourishment. In addition to the staple cereals rice, which requires artificial irrigation, was cultivated spasmodically along the coast. The commonest adjunct to cereal food was a leaf vegetable. Meat was not in regular demand except among the rich. Of the legumes lentils, beans, kidney beans, chick-peas, vetch and lupin were widely cultivated. Onions, leeks and garlic were relished by the poor. Of the spices coriander, mustard, anise, cumin, ginger and mint flourished in Syria, as did mushrooms, cabbage and radishes. Non-food plants included henna, lilies and papyrus, as well as flax, cotton and hemp for use in making cloth.
The production of dyes in the textile manufacturing districts of Sidon and Tyre seems to have continued under the Romans. Phoenician purple was held everywhere in high esteem. Syria was, with Egypt, the main source of linen goods for the empire, and among the best sources of leather, for tanning which sumac leaves were used, as they are today. All industry was hand production which, lacking machinery and the experimental outlook, remained virtu- ally static. Other Syrian exports included medicinal and aromatic plants, as well as wines popular throughout the whole ancient world. Mineral products comprised asphalt from the Dead Sea region, cinnabar and orpiment for paint- ing, amber, alabaster from Damascus and gypsum. Stone and chalk quarries existed near Antioch. Copper was mined in several localities, largely by slaves under govern- ment supervision. Sidon was especially noted for its bronze and its glass, including the newly invented blown-glass vessels.
Commerce provided the main source of wealth. The richest cities of the Roman Near East were such com- mercial centres as Petra, Palmyra and the Phoenician coast towns. By and large the traders were natives of Syria, though Italians and Greeks competed briefly. Commerce remained as individualistic as industry, with even partner- ships rare. Trade in slaves continued to flourish. Insolvent debtors forfeited their persons to their creditors, and pro- fessional slave traders seized unwary adults, kidnapped infants and bought unwanted ones. Incense and spices from 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 sport of the well-to-do, with bears, antelopes, gazelles and wild boars as the quarry. The combination of gymnasium and hot bath, which emerged under the Seleucids, continued to attract patrons. Syrians soon became noted as entertainers—actors, ballet dancers, flute players, circus performers, buffoons, wrestlers and jockeys. Troupes of these entertainers toured the provinces, and were available for hire for banquets and festal occasions.
Antioch and its suburb Daphne were particularly notorious for luxurious and dissolute living and for the magnificence of their public structures and private villas, as well as for the abundant fresh water so precious in that dry land. Since Seleucid days Daphne had been the scene of the greatest celebration of games in Syria. A wealthy Antiochene senator under Augustus willed his fortune to the establishment of a thirty-day Daphnean festival comprising dances, dramatic performances, chariot races, athletic and gladiatorial contests. Women participated in some of these performances, and the festival—and Daphne itself—became proverbial for licentiousness.
Proud, turbulent and satirical, the Antiochenes were noted for their mastery of the art of ridicule. They evidently could not forget that theirs was once a royal city, and stood ready to side with any pretender whom the Syrian army put up. With the emperors who sojourned in their city they invariably quarrelled. Hadrian withdrew from the city the right of coinage, Marcus Aurelius the right of assembly; Septimius Severus transferred the primacy of Syria to Latakia. Emperors bestowed titles and rights upon a city as a reward for good behaviour; they withdrew these privileges as a punishment for disloyalty. In A.D. 115 the city suffered one of the most violent earthquakes on record, and in 260 it was captured and burned by the Persian shah Shapur I, but it recovered from both catastrophes in short order.
Other prosperous cities of Roman Syria included the Seleucid colonies of Latakia and Apamea and the cities under native aristocracies such as Horns, Damascus, Edessa and Palmyra. Each of the latter group was the centre of a petty state, among which that of Palmyra became formidable. This caravan city had grown up around a spring in the Syrian Desert, a natural stopping-place for trade between Seleucid and Roman Syria to the west and Parthian Mesopotamia to the east. Its isolated location in the heart of the desert put it beyond the easy reach of Roman legions and of Parthian cavalry, and its Arab politicians shrewdly exploited its strategic situation between the two great rivals, keeping the balance of power and profiting by neutrality. By playing one adversary against the other, they maintained the independence of their city as a buffer state.
Palmyrene chiefs secured safe-conducts for passing caravans from desert sheikhs; guides led those caravans through the barren region; mounted archers protected them against bedouin raids; and the city imposed heavy duty on each article of merchandise as it passed through its gates. The commodities comprised some of the necessities and many of the luxuries of the classical world. They did not differ much from those which had passed through Petra: wool, purple, silk, glassware, perfumes, aromatics, olive oil, dried figs, nuts, cheese and wine. The greater part of the Mediterranean trade with Persia, India and China was then handled by Palmyrenes. Industry and even agriculture flourished alongside commerce. The result was the growth of Palmyra into one of the richest cities of the Near East.
Gradually its mud huts were replaced by limestone houses. Wide streets were laid out, with the main one leading to the sanctuary of Bel. The streets were lined with colonnades, and the city assumed the aspect of a prosperous Greco-Roman town. It was not easy for the desert city to preserve full sovereignty in face of the growing ascendancy of the empire on its west. By the start of the Christian era Palmyra must have acknowledged the suzerainty of Rome, but it maintained its independence. Trajan incorporated it in the province he created in 106, and its dependent cities such as Dura-Europos also became vassals of Rome. As such Palmyra and its satellites entered upon a fresh period of prosperity lasting for over a century and a half. Roman roads connected Palmyra with Damascus, capital of inland Syria, and with the cities of the Euphrates.
It was not until the late third century that Palmyra began to play a conspicuous part in international affairs. By then a new and energetic Persian dynasty had replaced the old Parthian. This was the Sasanid, which lasted from A.D. 227 to the rise of Islam. In 260 the Sasanid army under Shapur I defeated the Roman legions near Edessa and captured the emperor Valerian. Udaynath of Palmyra rushed to his rescue with a mixed army of Syrians and Arabs, defeated the Persians and pursued them to the walls of Persepolis, but was unable to liberate Valerian, who died in captivity. Udaynath's loyalty to the new emperor Gallienus was rewarded in 262 by recognition as imperial commander over the eastern part of the empire. The empire was then in a feeble and confused state, with the whole barbarian world falling upon it in Europe as well as Asia. In the zenith of his success Udaynath was murdered together with his heir under mysterious circumstances. Of hardy and athletic physique, he had excelled in those pastimes and virtues prized highly by Arabs. His munificence manifested itself in elaborate and spectacular banquets, in patronizing religious festivals and in gifts of oil for public baths.
As a historical figure, however, he was eclipsed by his ambitious and beautiful widow Zenobia. Under her the Palmyrene state attained the proportions of a real empire, extending over Syria, part of Asia Minor, northern Arabia and even lower Egypt, where in 270 her army established a garrison at Alexandria. In 271 she declared Palmyra's full independence. Rome's reaction was swift and effective. The emperor Aurelian reduced the Palmyrene garrisons in Asia Minor and then proceeded against Syria. Antioch, which was pro-Roman, offered little opposition; Homs, whose people harboured jealousy because of the primacy claimed by Palmyra, was occupied after some resistance. Zenobia and her outmanœuvred heavy cavalry retired to Palmyra, which Aurelian besieged. Zenobia fled but was overtaken, and Palmyra had no choice but to surrender. The conqueror despoiled it of its rich fabrics and precious ornaments, some of which were taken to embellish the new sun temple at Rome. The populace was punished only to the extent of the imposition of a fine and a Roman governor with a body of archers. As he was returning to Rome, Aurelian heard of a fresh uprising in Palmyra resulting in the murder of his governor and the overpowering of his garrison. He rushed back, took the city by surprise, destroyed it and put its inhabitants to the sword. Zenobia was taken to Rome where, in gold chains, she was made to grace the triumphal entry of Aurelian into his capital (274). Palmyra fell into insignificance and obscurity; as its people relaxed their grip on the desert, the desert overcame them. The remains of its colonnade and triumphal arch stand today as the most imposing sight in the desert, attracting lovers of antiquity from all over the world.
The Palmyrene was a peculiar culture, a blend of Syrian, Greek and Persian elements. The original inhabitants were doubtless Arabian tribes who adopted in their speech and writing the prevalent Aramaic tongue. The bulk of the population remained Arab though mixed with Aramaeans. Native inscriptions do not date earlier than 9 B.C., when the city was on its way to becoming a prosperous caravan centre. The only known Palmyrene of high intellectual calibre was the pagan philosopher Longinus, teacher of Porphyry, adviser of Zenobia and one of Aurelian's victims.
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 bequeathed from Roman days, not excluding those at Rome itself. The whole temple complex, still visible at a great distance, rests on an artificial terrace formed by a huge understructure of vaults. Aside from the huge size of the stone blocks in the walls and the colossal magnitude of the pillars, it is the wealth of detail in ornamentation and the figure work in the friezes that constitute the most im- pressive feature of the surviving structures.
Cities of a variety of types were scattered throughout southern Syria. There were the old Philistine cities along the coast — Gaza, Ascalon, Jaffa and Acre — , all of which by this time had become Hellenized. There were Herodian foundations such as Tiberias and Caesarea, a few Roman colonies like Nablus (Neapolis), the league of 'ten cities' (Decapolis) in the interior, and of course Jerusalem; but n<pne of them had the importance at this time that the northern and central cities did.
Still farther south, Petra was flourishing under the early emperors. The most beautiful façade and the impressive theatre belong to this period, as do other picturesque struc- tures of the incredible * rose- red city, half as old as time'. Politically, the Nabataeans promptly accepted the role of ally to Rome. Their kingdom attained its height under the long and prosperous rule of Harithath IV (9 B.C.-A.D. 40), who continued the process of Romanization. His realm included southern Palestine and Transjordan, south-eastern Syria and northern Arabia, where Nabataean caravans utilized well-policed wadi routes to by-pass Decapolis and bring Arabian goods to the markets of Syria. After this king a gradual decline set in, and not much is known of the last rulers of Nabataea. Damascus passed into Roman hands, probably under Nero, and other outlying holdings went the same way. Just what happened in that fateful year 105-106 which resulted in the overthrow of this border Syro-Arab state and its annexation by imperial Rome is not determined. Rome had already absorbed all the petty Romans and Semites kingdoms of Syria and Palestine and was getting ready to cross swords with Parthia. Nabataea was brought into the empire as part of the province of Arabia, trade routes shifted, and Petra was relegated to the limbo of history until re- discovered as a modern tourist attraction.
The cultural remains of Roman Syria, from Baalbek to Petra, are indeed largely architectural ; the other visual arts marked time, while hardly any Syrian contribution to Latin literature is worth mention, save possibly that of the philologist Probus of Beirut (fl. A.D. 60). Probus produced critical versions of Vergil and Horace. The sole noteworthy addition to Greek literature was the work of the Jewish historian Josephus, our principal authority for the history of Syria under the early empire. In the field of geography a significant contribution was made by Marinus of Tyre, the first to substitute maps mathematically drawn according to latitude and longitude for those based merely on itineraries. He thus was the founder of scientific geography and pre- cursor of Ptolemy. A northern Syrian, Lucian of Samosata, composed an important source work on the religion of Roman Syria, The Syrian Goddess, and the first dialogues between the dead, an oft-imitated satirical device.
In the domain of philosophy, particularly of the Neo- Platonic type, Syrian thinkers rendered no mean contribu- tion. This was in line with Seleucid tradition, but now Sidon and Tyre were outstripped by Apamea, where Numenius founded Neo-Platonism (though the credit usually goes to Plotinus). Numenius's fame was surpassed by that of Porphyry, who edited Plotinus's works and was himself the most learned and prolific of the Neo-Platonists. Most of his works, including a treatise against Christians, were publicly burned in 448, long after his death in 305.
As Apamea made its mark in philosophy, Beirut made its in jurisprudence, thanks to the school of Roman civil law which flourished there from the early third to the mid-sixth century. Beirut was a creative intellectual centre, more Roman than Greek, successfully attracting a galaxy of brilliant students and professors who made of the academy a university and spread its fame far and wide. Legal training was then a prerequisite for holding a government office. Two names shed lustre on the academy and have been immortalized in the Code of Justinian: Papinian, whose legal erudition guided by intellectual honesty and integrity of character made him a model jurist, and Ulpian, extracts from whose perspicuous writings form about one- third of Justinian's Digest. Through the copious extracts from their writings both jurists exercised abiding influence on the systems of Europe.
Certain pieces of Syrian literature, written in barbarous Greek in the early Roman imperial period, however, have had a more enduring and far-reaching influence than all the Greek and Latin classics put together. These were, of course, the Gospels and other early Christian writings.
With the details of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, a son of a Jewish carpenter, who according to Tacitus 'had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius', this history cannot properly concern itself. That some of his followers took pains to record the teachings and doings of their master, producing the Gospels, is a minor footnote to literary history, though it proved to be of im- measurable import to all subsequent history, political, social and intellectual. No extraordinary event reported of Jesus' life — virgin birth, astral association, miracle performance, crucifixion, descent to the underworld, reappearance, exalta- tion to heaven — lacks its parallel in earlier Near Eastern religious mythology. Hardly a teaching of his was not anticipated by Hebrew prophets or other early Semitic teachers. Even his emphasis on love of God and of man and on the relation between faith and ethical living were not unprecedented, though no precursor expressed himself so memorably, or so wholeheartedly practised what he taught.
The unique original contribution of primitive Syrian Christianity lay in its message, universal rather than pro- vincial or national, spiritual instead of ritualistic and ceremonial, unselfish and other-worldly as opposed to this- worldly, full of hope for the poor and the weary, the outcast and, above all, the sinful who would repent and seek re- demption. Unlike heathen religions, it touched the inmost springs of conduct and conviction. Thus the new faith, buttressed by the dogmatic certainty and missionary zeal of its early adherents, was evidently able to satisfy spiritual and social demands which enlightened people everywhere must have been making — unsuccessfully — on their tradi- tional religions. Slowly but surely it spread throughout the empire, developing effective institutions and techniques, con- verting Jews and pagans and inevitably attracting official opposition and sporadic persecution.
Through the efforts of Paul and the early Christian Fathers, many of whom — Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Origen and others — had Syrian connections, Christianity was so Hellenized as to make it palatable to Greeks and Romans, and was provided with a plethora of doctrine and a host of martyrs. It outdistanced all its competitors including the state cult of emperor- worship, the ancient mystery religions and their youngest and most popular rival Mithraism, the Gnostic sects and the local fertility deities, which in Syria meant chiefly Hadad and Atargatis. Early in the fourth century under Constantine it was adopted as the official religion of the Roman state. In this development the church at Antioch had been the headquarters from which Paul and other early missionaries had set out and to which they had reported if they returned. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70 it became the capital of Christendom, exercising a limited jurisdiction over other sees, and bishops met there frequently in councils. Antioch also gave its name to a school of theology which flourished in the late Roman and early Byzantine eras, stressing the 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.
Of the numerous Syrian communities the Jewish was the least responsive to Romanizing stimuli. The aristocracy was already Hellenized. The Sadducees, who represented the aristocratic party and monopolized the offices, received sup- port from Rome. The Pharisees, who represented the commonalty, adhered to strict orthodoxy and aimed at liberation. Because of the strict monotheism of their religion the Jews had been treated since Pompey's days as a privileged community. Under the emperors they were exempt from military service and the obligation of the imperial cult. They were not required to participate in the sacrificial worship of the Roman ruler. As they maintained their policy of exclusiveness and isolationism, they nourished their national feeling. This led to clashes which broadened into national rebellion in A.D. 66-70 under Nero and in 132-134 under Hadrian. These two rebellions resulted in the final breach between Jews and Christians and in endur- ing disaster to the Jewish society. It was after the first that Titus destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple. More than a million Jews are estimated to have perished then, many of them in the amphitheatre battling one another or wild beasts. Judaea as a political state ceased to exist, and the Jews became a stateless, homeless people. Judaism decayed with its adherents, as its narrow national basis and certain features of its ritual rendered it unacceptable to other peoples. One last spark of life appeared in 132, when the Jewish banner of revolt was unfurled by a mysterious leader, Simon Bar Kokba. But Hadrian crushed the rebel- lion and turned Jerusalem into a Roman colony called Aelia Capitolina. More than half a million more Jews reportedly died in this futile uprising.
Syrian influence at Rome penetrated to the throne when the purple fell to Septimius Severus (A.D. 193-211), a Punic-speaking African general whose wife was a remarkable Syrian lady named Julia Domna, daughter of a priest of Elagabal at Horns. She is described as having great beauty, intellectual power and political and literary ability, and as collaborating with her husband in the conduct of state affairs. After his death in battle she attempted to wield control over her sons Caracalla and Geta, who succeeded their father as co-emperors. But in 212 Caracalla had Geta murdered in his mother's arms in her own apartment; Julia herself received a wound in her hand trying to shield her son. She stood by, helpless, as Caracalla continued his blood-stained career, killing some twenty thousand persons including the jurist Papinian. She was put in charge of his correspondence and the state papers. Her salon included Papinian 5 s successor Ulpian, the Greek physician Galen, the Roman historian Dio Cassius and other notable thinkers. After Caracalla's death in 217 she committed suicide, not from grief but because she could not face retirement to private life.
The Syrian dynasty did not end, however, for the imperial power was soon captured by her younger and abler sister Julia Maesa for her grandsons Elagabalus (21 8-2 2 2) and Alexander Severus (222-235). Elagabalus was a priest of the Baal of Horns, whose sacred black stone accompanied him to Rome, and whose worship became for a few years supreme in the empire. Alexander, at his accession a lad of thirteen under his mother's control, was the last and best of this Syrian dynasty. He sent the black stone back to Horns, forbade the worship of himself while alive, put down court luxury, lightened taxes, raised the standard of the coinage and encouraged art and science. After recovering Meso- potamia from the Persians, he was killed in a mutiny in 235. Another Syrian, called Philip the Arab, was enthroned in 244, presided in 248 at the ceremonies commemorating the thousandth birthday of Rome and fell victim to a mutiny in 249, ending Syrian influence at court. His coins depict the great temple of Heliopolis.
Syrian economic penetration in the Latin provinces was manifested by the number of commercial settlements which, especially in the second and third centuries, sprang up along all the coasts of the Mediterranean and inland on the trade routes. The islands of Delos and Sicily, the ports of Naples and Ostia, the cities of Lyons and Aries were especially favoured. Syrian ships once again dotted the sea and the old Phoenician energy, adaptability, love of lucrative trade and ability to make bargains and close large and small deals were reactivated.
As importers Syrian merchants monopolized a great deal of the trade of the Latin provinces with the Levant; as bankers they had no rivals. Wines, spices, grain, glassware, fabrics and jewellery were their chief commodities. Wherever Syrian merchants settled, there they established their temples. As carriers of the Christian religion these merchants and Syriac-speaking colonists, soldiers and slaves were no less enthusiastic than as carriers of pagan cults. Their influence on its development in the West was manifest in the direction of asceticism, monasticism and a more emotional form of worship. Devotion to the cross and its adoption as a religious emblem were other Christian elements introduced by Syrians into Europe. In Rome their colony was strong enough to furnish the church with a number of popes, two of whom achieved canonization.
During the third century, while Syrian religious and economic influences were penetrating Latin as well as Greek provinces, all was not well with the empire. Its cultural homogeneity was being fragmented by resurgent provincial patriotisms. Its prosperity was being wrecked by exorbitant taxes unjustly apportioned. Its security was being undermined by protracted civil wars and repeated foreign invasions. Its tottering intellectual and spiritual pillars were subjected to the onslaught of new waves of Christian ideas. A new culture and state, the Byzantine, were emerging to replace those of Rome.