Palmyra (ancient world)
Palmyra, an ancient city located in central Syria, was historically significant due to its strategic position in an oasis along the trade routes between Syria and Mesopotamia. With origins dating back to the Palaeolithic era, Palmyra developed into an urban center by approximately 2300 BCE and gained prominence in the early centuries of the Common Era, particularly in the third century as a hub for caravan trade and military defense. The city came under Roman control during the reign of Germanicus between 14-17 CE and later flourished as a Roman colony, known for its unique blend of Greco-Syrian and Semitic cultures, evident in its architecture and religious practices.
Palmyra's architectural marvels included temples dedicated to deities such as Bel and Baalshamin, extensive colonnaded streets, and an impressive theater. During the 3rd century, under the leadership of Septimius Odenathus and later his widow, Zenobia, Palmyra briefly asserted its independence and expanded its territories. However, the city was eventually conquered by Emperor Aurelian in the 270s CE, leading to its decline.
In modern times, Palmyra was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980, but it faced significant destruction during the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS, which targeted its cultural heritage. This tragic history highlights the ongoing challenges of preserving ancient civilizations amidst contemporary conflicts.
On this Page
Palmyra (ancient world)
A city in the Syrian desert, that derived prosperity from its position in an oasis—containing two wells—on the principal route between Syria and Mesopotamia; the place also had access to an adjacent winter tributary of the Euphrates. Occupied since Palaeolithic times, Palmyra had assumed urban proportions by about 2300 BCE, and was subsequently mentioned in early Assyrian texts and Babylonian documents from Mari.
The township, containing a mixed Amorite, Aramaean and Arab population, rose to prominence once again in the third century, policing the desert road and presiding over caravan traffic. Antony reputedly attempted to capture Palmyra in 41, but it was not incorporated into the Roman province of Syria until Germanicus took this step in 14–17 CE, granting the city, at the same time, numerous privileges. Vespasian built a road linking the oasis to Sura on the Euphrates in 75, and Palmyra, occupied by a strong Roman garrison, received the name of Hadriana from Hadrian (129). A tax law of 137 has survived in Greek and Palmyrene texts. The city was awarded the status of Roman colony by Caracalla (211), after it had become part of Severus' new province of Syria Phoenice. Henceforward many of its famous formations of mounted archers were stationed not far from their own city, constituting important elements in the imperial forces that lined the Parthian frontier.
When Parthia was superseded by the more formidable Sassanian Persian power (223–226), the role fulfilled by Palmyra in the imperial defence system became even more indispensable, and under a local Arab prince, Septimius Odenathus, it played a major part on the world stage. When the Sassanian monarch Sapor (Shapur) I overran Rome's eastern provinces and captured the emperor Valerian (260), Odenathus (after his initial approach to the invader had been rebuffed) supported the Romans, inflicting a severe defeat on Sapor and twice threatening his capital Ctesiphon. These successes confirmed Odenathus' virtually autonomous control of Rome's eastern armies and provinces. Valerian's son Gallienus rewarded him with the titles of Corrector of the Whole Orient, Leader (dux) of the Romans, and Imperator: and as a challenge to the Persians, he even permitted him to call himself King of Kings, or turned a blind eye when he did so.
After Odenathus and his eldest son had been murdered in 267, his talented and learned widow Septimia Zenobia, employing the Greco-Syrian scholar Cassius Longinus as her chief minister, set out to establish a totally independent Palmyrene empire. Seizing Egypt (late in 270) and most of Asia Minor, she ruled over territories extending from Mesopotamia almost as far as Europe. She also bestowed the rank of Augustus upon her son Vaballathus Athenodorus (who had inherited his father's title of Corrector), and herself assumed the title of Augusta, as coins and inscriptions show. But efforts to reconcile Aurelian to this situation failed, and the emperor moved east, recapturing Asia Minor and Egypt and defeating the queen's leading general Zabdas outside Antioch and Emesa (Homs) in 272. Palmyra itself fell into his hands, rebelled, and was captured again in the next year, and Zenobia walked in golden chains in his Triumph, subsequently obtaining a Roman pension and a villa at Tibur (Tivoli). Her city Palmyra was devastated, and relapsed into a desert village, until Diocletian (284–305) restored its role as an important fortified base in his province of Phoenice Libanensis.
The culture of Palmyra formed a bridge between west and east. Certain of the trappings of its architecture and costume assumed a Greco-Syrian character, whereas its vigorous styles of painting and sculpture were most closely oriented toward Parthian and Sassanian Babylonia. Local cults were almost entirely Semitic. The city's principal temple, dedicated to Bel, dating from 32 CE and rebuilt in the course of the second century, was a curious asymmetrical building standing in a huge precinct following a traditional Syrian plan of which extensive remains survived into the twenty-first century. The shrine of Baalshamin, dedicated in 132, replaced a temple constructed a century earlier. Later excavations also revealed many features of a temple of Allat that was reconstructed in the second century and restored after suffering damage in Aurelian's capture of the city. A copy of Phidias' statue of Athena Parthenos was found on this site. A sanctuary of a deity named Nabo, begun in the later first century, was still under construction in 146.
A wide colonnaded street, linked most of the monuments, and terminated in a funerary temple outside the city gate. The street was spanned by triumphal and four-way arches and adjoined by shops, an apsed nymphaeum (fountain house), a banqueting hall, and a grand exedra (semicircular portico). A large agora or caravanserai, dating from the later years of the first century, was adorned by more than two hundred statues. The theater, of similar date, was surrounded by a semicircular colonnaded court; beside it stood the senate house, with seats likewise arranged in a semicircle. A second avenue runs below the so-called Camp of Diocletian, which has now been revealed as a huge colonnaded military complex dating from that emperor's reign. Beyond this group of buildings, arranged round a courtyard, was a further group of imposing edifices, identified as sections of the royal palace—which were subsequently, it would seem, rearranged and reconstructed by resident Roman commanders to suit their own needs. Other third-century houses revealed impressive mosaic pavements.
Diocletian's ramparts, replacing earlier walls and enclosing an eight-mile perimeter, were furnished with rectangular and semicircular bastions. Cemeteries surrounding the city display numerous burial places, both overground and underground. Graves of the former type imitate towers and houses; an underground tomb was reconstructed in the local museum.
In 1980 much of the Palmyra site was designated as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Due to the volatility in the region after the outbreak of civil conflict in Syria in 2011 and the subsequent rise of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also known as Islamic State or ISIL), UNESCO placed the site on its list of world heritage locations in danger in 2013. In May 2015 ISIS began an offensive in the region, leading museum curators in Palmyra to remove some artifacts to storage in Damascus before the terrorists took control of the site. ISIS subsequently used Palmyra as a public execution site, with its victims including the former chief of antiquities in the city. ISIS also began a campaign to destroy many of Palmyra's structures, beginning with religious sites such as the Temple of Bel and the Temple of Baalshamin but also including secular monuments such as the Arch of Triumph. UNESCO condemned the actions as a war crime. In November 2015 Russian aircraft reportedly bombed ISIS positions in Palmyra, but the amount of further destruction caused was uncertain.
Bibliography
McGirk, Tim. "Syrians Race to Save Ancient City's Treasures from ISIS." National Geographic. National Geographic Soc., 10 July 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Mullen, Jethro, and Schams Elwazer. "ISIS Destroys Arch of Triumph in Syria's Palmyra Ruins." CNN. Cable News Network, 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
"Russian Warplanes Bomb IS Positions in Palmyra." BBC News. BBC, 2 Nov. 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
"Site of Palmyra." World Heritage Convention. UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
Wieseltier, Leon. "The Rubble of Palmyra." Atlantic. Atlantic Monthly Group, 4 Sept. 2015. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.