Palmyra

PALMYRA. - Oasis and ancient city in the Syrian desert, an important center of the trade route that led from the East, through the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates, to Syria and thence to the Mediterranean. To this position P. owed the great prosperity it enjoyed in the first three centuries of the Christian era, for the most part within the sphere of Rome's influence.

The origin of the name is not certain. To the Semitic forms Ta-ad-mar (Assyrian), Tadhmār (Hebrew: II Par. 8, 4), Tadmur (Arabic) correspond the Greek Παλμύρα, Latin Palmyra. Two explanations are given for this fact: a) the Greco-Latin form derives from the Semitic through its assimilation by assonance to tāmār (Hebrew: "palm"); b) the Greco-Latin form derives directly from the Semitic, with alteration of certain consonants (t > p; d > l). The first explanation is supported by the biblical case of I Reg. 9, 18, in which hēthlōh Tāmār corresponds to the qērē Tadhmār, but is hindered by the fact that there are no palms at P. (to this objection it is replied, however, that the linguistic fact may have occurred far from the city); the difficulty of the second explanation consists in the notable alteration of the term.

The oldest mention of P. known thus far is found in an inscription of Theglathphalasar I (late 12th-early 11th century B.C.), in which mention is made of "Ta-ad-mar which is in the land of Amurru" (cf. E. Dhorme, Palmyre dans les textes assyriens, in Revue biblique, 33 [1924], pp. 106-108).

Debated is the biblical passage II Par. 8, 4, in which the founding of Tadhmār is attributed to Solomon. According to some (cf. J. G. Février [v. bibl.], pp. 3-4), this passage is a simple correction of the parallel I Reg. 9, 18, in which, as was said above, the hēthlōh gives that the king built Tāmār, a locality in Judea (to the contrary, cf. E. Dhorme, op. cit., pp. 106-107, who insists on the qērē: Tadhmār).

PALMIRA. - Temple of Bel. The esplanade is occupied by the Arab village. On the right, the Sanctuary." fetchpriority="high" />

One must wait until 41 B.C. for another mention of P., this time from a classical source: Appian (Bell. civ., V, 9) relates that Antony plundered the city, alleging as his reason its ambiguous attitude between the Romans and the Parthians.

Around the same period there are the two oldest inscriptions in the Palmyrene language, recently discovered (cf. J. Starcky, Les inscriptions palmyréniennes les plus anciennes, in Actes du XXI Congrès intern. des orient., Paris 1949, pp. 111-14): one of them is dated to 44 B.C. Toward the beginning of the 1st century A.D. the Palmyrene inscriptions, many of which are bilingual (with Greek), increase in number; they continue down to 274 (the last one so far discovered bears precisely this date: cf. J. Cantineau, Tadmorea, in Syria, 19 [1938], p. 163), amounting to many hundreds (the most recent, coming from H. Seyrig's excavations in the years 1939-40, have been published by J. Starcky, Inventaire... [v. bibl.]). The script in which the inscriptions are written is of the Aramaic type; so too is the language (v. ARAMAICA, LINGUA), which may be defined as a continuation of ancient Imperial Aramaic (Reichsaramäisch), into which elements of Eastern Aramaic subsequently infiltrate (cf. J. Cantineau, Grammaire du palmyrénien épigraphique, Cairo 1935; F. Rosenthal, Die Sprache der palmyrenischen Inschriften und ihre Stellung innerhalb des Aramäischen, Leipzig 1936). Alongside the direct sources, the growing reports of the classical writers are added for the reconstruction of the history of P. from this period onward, culminating, for the war between Zenobia and Aurelian, in the Greek Zosimus and the Latin Vita Aureliani.

The city's persistence in an intermediate situation between Rome and the Parthians is attested in the course of the 1st century A.D. by a passage of Pliny the Elder (Hist. nat., V, 88). At the same time it emerges from the inscriptions that there was an internal organization on a tribal basis; the names of the tribes, like those of individuals, are predominantly Arab: the result is an Arab substratum, or at any rate an Arab element of the population, onto which the Aramaic element, documented by the language, is grafted.

Probably (cf. J.-G. Février [v. bibl.], pp. 19-24) the annexation to Rome took place around 114, on the occasion of Trajan's expedition against the Parthians. There followed a change in the internal constitution, which became similar to that of the Greek cities of the Empire. Power was divided between the senate (βουλή) and the people (δῆμος): membership in the latter depended probably on a property qualification, which replaced the tribal principle. The senate was presided over by a πρόεδρος; executive power belonged to two ἄρχοντες, who in the 3rd century changed their name to στρατηγός; financial administration was exercised by the δεκάπροται, together with the ἄρχοντες and the αὐδίκαι. At the beginning of the 3rd century, it emerges from a passage of Ulpian (D. 50, 15, 1) that P. is a colony iuris Italici: but it is difficult to say for how long.

The emperor Hadrian, who visited P. in 129, was probably the author of a series of concessions of economic autonomy to the city, which expressed its gratitude to him by taking the epithet of Hadriana. This emerges, among other things, from an important Greek-Palmyrene inscription of 137 A.D. (Corpus inscriptionum Semiticarum [v. bibl.], II, III, no. 3913), in which the city called itself Hdrjn' Tdmr. The inscription contains a list of customs tariffs issued by the βουλῆ, without any apparent intervention by the Roman governor.

Within the Roman orbit, the commerce of P. flourished more and more; the end of the Nabataean Kingdom (106 A.D.) had, moreover, removed every competitor from it. The long peace that reigned in the 2nd century A.D. between Rome and the Parthians favored this development; as for the few expeditions of the period, P. contributed to them with its troops, particularly the archers, of whom inscriptions found in various parts of the Empire give evidence.

The advent of the Sāsānids in Persia (226 A.D.) and their occupation of the mouths of the Tigris and the Euphrates marked a harsh blow for the commerce of P.: the caravan transit route shifted toward the north, going up by way of Nisibis and Edessa toward Antioch. P. nevertheless reacted, in union with Rome: it took part in the expedition (230) of Alexander Severus, who established his headquarters there; it intervened after the defeat of Valerian at the hands of Shapur I (260) and decisively defeated the Persians. The author of this victory was Odaenathus (Udajnat), who soon extended his authority over Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia and perhaps Armenia, assuming the title of king. When he fell victim to a palace conspiracy (267), together with his firstborn son Herod (his identification with the Worād of the inscriptions is debated), he was succeeded by his second son Vaballathus (Waballāt) under the guardianship of his mother Bat Zabbāj, in Greek Zenobia. The power of P. advanced further: in 270 the general Zabda occupied Egypt; it was probably he himself who subsequently invaded Asia Minor, conquering Ancyra in Galatia and laying siege to Chalcedon.

Rome could not look without concern upon this growing expansion: Aurelian, who ascended the throne in 270, first concluded, in that same year, a convention with P.; but when, in the following year, Vaballathus assumed the title of Caesar Augustus and minted coinage only in his own name, thereby formally disavowing the authority of Rome, Aurelian made war on him and, descending through Asia Minor, obtained decisive victories at Antioch and at Emesa, conquered P. and captured Zenobia (272). A subsequent revolt was put down and led to the sacking of the city.

Thus ends the independent history of P.: defeated militarily, and above all deprived of its function as a commercial base, it declined into a village, first under the Romans and then, from 634, under the Arabs.

Corpus inscriptionum Semiticarum, II, III, Paris 1926; cf. also: J. Cantineau, Inventaire des inscriptions de Palmyre, I-IX, Beirut 1930-33; vol. X is by J. Starcky, Damascus 1949; R. Du Mesnil du Buisson, Inventaire des inscriptions palmyréniennes de Douro Europe, 2nd ed., Paris 1939. Further bibl. and information on the most recent discoveries in S. Moscati, Bibliographie sémitique, which appears periodically in Orientalia.

Sabatino Moscati

PALMYRENE DEITIES

In the pantheon of Palmyra, which is somewhat composite and contains divine figures of diverse origin and is therefore eminently syncretic, two large groups of deities can be distinguished, different from the remaining gods: the deities of Arab origin and those that form a group around the figure of the city's principal god, Bèl; these are either of Canaanite origin or come from Babylonia. The other gods are mainly Syrian.

Among the deities of the first group, great veneration was enjoyed by the goddess Allāt, a divine figure of the sky, beneficent, one of the good deities, identified with the Athena of the Greeks, depicted with a scepter in her hand, a nimbus and an eight-pointed star; she has also been identified with the planet Venus. The god Azizu, the strong one, precedes the chariot of the Sun; he is a warrior and warlike god, but also beneficent; he often forms a pair with Monimos, who instead follows the Sun. Azizu is the morning star; he has been assimilated to Ares; together with Arṣu, the evening star, he is called a rewarding, merciful, beneficent god; he is conceived as a boy, puer. It has been held that the name of Arṣu was nothing but a translation of Monimos in the sense of benefactor. Arṣu would therefore be identical with Monimos. Of the god Ṣa' al-Qawm = the protector of the people, it is said that he is good and does not drink wine, but his cult does not seem to have had deep roots at Palmyra. Of Arab origin is perhaps also the god Gad, Fortune, called in Greek Tyche and placed in relation with a blessed spring and further conceived as the protective genius of the individual. The Tyche of Palmyra was later assimilated to Atargatis. The god Bèl, the Bèlos of the Greeks, is the central divine figure of the most important group, of the θεοί πατρόμι, the most powerful god of the city, the Lord par excellence. From this god Bòl should be distinguished, though he was later confused with him. Bèl is a solar god and has been assimilated to Zeus. Sometimes he is depicted between Jarhibòl and 'Aglibòl, his paredri. The wife of Bèl was Bèltis, his messenger Malakbèl. Jarhibòl was also a solar god, to whom the Efka spring was consecrated, and he is sometimes named together with 'Aglibòl = bull or calf or chariot of Bòl, also of a solar character. Šamās was the god of the sun, propitious and one of the national gods. Atargatis was the paredra of Malakbèl; Semia was a female divinity. Nabù, Nanai and Tammūz, of Babylonian origin, were also worshiped. Bèlsamin was the god of the sky. Sadrafa, Σατράπης, was a beneficent god.

The Palmyrenes often did not give a particular name to their gods, but preferred certain epithets, which could be applied to various deities. Thus mention is made in the inscriptions of a good, merciful, rewarding god, lord of the god, or blessed be his name forever, without knowing precisely which deity is meant.

Giuseppe Furlani