PALMYRA is an ancient city in South central Syria, 210km/130mi North East of Damascus.
The name Palmyra, meaning "City of Palm trees," was conferred upon the city by its Roman rulers in the 1st century CE; Tadmur, Tadmor, or Tudmur, the pre-Semitic name of the site is also in use.
The city of Palmyra is mentioned in tablets dating from as early as the 19th century BC. It attained prominence in the 3rd century BC when a road through it became one of the main routes of East-West trade.
The city of Palmyra was built on an oasis lying approximately halfway between the Mediterranean Sea (West) and the Euphrates River (East), and it helped connect the Roman World with Mesopotamia and the East.
The language of Palmyra was Aramaic, a Semitic language that was originally spoken by the ancient Middle Eastern people known as Arameans. It was most closely to Hebrew, Syriac, and Phoenician and was written in a script derived from the Phoenician alphabet. By the 8th century BC Aramaic had become accepted by the Assyrians as a 2nd language. The mass deportations of people by the Assyrians and the use of Aramaic as a means of communication between populations speaking vernaculars (lingua franca) by Babylonian merchants served to spread the language, so that in the 7th and 6th centuries BC it gradually supplanted Akkadian as the lingua franca of the Middle East. Aramaic subsequently became the official language of the Achaemenian Persian dynasty (539-330BC) though after the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek displaced Aramaic as the official language throughout the former Persian empire.
Aramaic dialects survived into Roman times, however, particularly in Palestine and Syria. Aramaic had replaced Hebrew as the language of the Jews as early as the 6th century BC. Certain portions of the Scripture (Daniel and Ezra) are written in Aramaic, as are the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds.
Among the Jews, Aramaic was used by the common people, while Hebrew remained as the language of religion and government and of the upper class.
JESUS and the Apostles are believed to have spoken Aramaic, and Aramaic-language translation of the Scripture circulated in their time. In the early centuries CE, Aramaic divided into East and West varieties. West Aramaic dialects include Nabataean (formerly spoken in parts of Arabia), Palmyrene (spoken in Palmyra), Palestinian-Christian, and Judeo-Aramaic. West Aramaic is still spoken in a small number of villages in Lebanon. Aramaic continued in wide use until about 650CE, when it was supplanted by Arabic.
The Palmyrene Aramaic contained two systems of writings -a monumental script and a Mesopotamian cursive that reflected the city's position between East and West. The great bilingual inscription known as the Tariff of Palmyra and the inscriptions carved below the statues of the great caravan leaders reveal information on the organization and nature of Palmyra's trade. The Palmyrenes exchanged goods with India via the Persian Gulf route and also with such cities as Coptos on the Nile River, Rome, and Doura-Europus in Syria.
The city of Palmyra, although autonomous for much of its history, came under Roman control by the time of the emperor Tiberius (14-37CE). After visiting the city (129CE), the emperor declared it "free city"(civitas libera), and it was later granted by the emperor Carcalla the title of "colonia," with exemption from taxes. The city thus prospered, and the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE were the great age of Palmyra and its extensive trading activities, despite obstacles that interrupted caravan trade with the East and also in the face of instability around the Roman-controlled Mediterranean.
When the Sasanids, an ancient Iranian dynasty evolved by Ar'Dashir I in years of conquest (208-224 CE), overthrew the Parthians, they created an empire that was constantly changing in size as it reacted to Rome and Byzantium to the West and to the Kushans and Hephthalites to the East. They supplanted the Parthians in Persia and Southern Mesopotamia (227CE) and the road to the Persian Gulf was soon closed to Palmyrene trade. At the time of Shapur (241-272CE), the empire stretched from Sog'Diana and Iberia (Georgia) in the North to the Mazun region of Arabia in the South; in the East it extended to the Indus River and in the West to the Upper Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys.
A revival of Iranian nationalism took place under Sasanian rule. Zoroastrianism became the state religion, and a various times followers of other ideologies suffered official persecution. The government was centralized, with provincial officials directly responsible to the throne, and roads, city buildings, and even agriculture were financed by the government. Architecture took grandiose proportions, such as the palaces at Ctesiphon, Firuzabad and Sarvestan. The most striking relics of Sasanian art are its rock sculptures carved on abrupt limestone cliffs. Also its metalwork and gem engraving became highly sophisticated.
The Romans were force to set up the personal rule of the family of Septimius Oda'Enathus at Palmyra.
He was appointed governor of Syria Phoenice by the emperor Valerian (253-260CE), but it was apparently his son, the emperor Galli'Enus, who conferred on Oda'Enathus the title of "governor of all the east"(corrector totius Orientis). Both Oda'Enathus and his eldest son were assassinated at the command of Oda'Enathus' 2nd wife, Zenobia, who took control of the city and became an effective leader. Under her rule, the armies of Palmyra conquered most of Anatolia (Asia Minor) in 270CE, and the city declared its independence from Rome. The Roman emperor Aurelian, however, regained the city in 272CE and razed Palmyra the following year.
The city of Palmyra remained the chief station on the 'strata Diocletiana,' a paved road that linked Damascus to the Euphrates, but in 634CE it was taken by Khalid ibn al-Walid in the name of the 1st Muslim caliph, Abu Bakr. After that, its importance as a trading centre gradually declined.
The principal deity of the Arameans of Palmyra was Bol (equivalent to Baal). Bol soon became known as Bel by assimilation to the Babylonian god Bel-Marduk. Both gods presided over the movements of the stars. The people associated Bel with the sun and moon gods, Yarhivol and Aglibol, respectively.
Another heavenly triad formed around the Phoenician god Baal Shamen, the "lord of heaven," more or less identical with Hadad, West Semitic god of storms, thunder and rain, the consort of the goddess Atargatis. He was represented as a bearded deity, often holding a club and thunderbolt and wearing a horned headdress. The Bull was its symbolic animal as of the Hittite deity Tehub, who was identical with him.
The ruins at Palmyra clearly reveal the network plan of the ancient city. Along the principal East-West street, a double portico is ornamented with 3 nymphs, usually associated with fertile, growing things. To the South are the agora, an open space that served as a meeting ground, the Senate House, and the theatre.
In May 2015 the group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant took control of Palmyra. In March 2016 the Syrian army retook Palmyra with support from Russia and Iranian forces. The city fell back into ISIL's control in December 2016 while Syrian government forces and their allies were fighting rebels in Aleppo. ISIL fighters destroyed ancient monuments and aerial photographs showed that the theatre had been significantly damaged and the Tetrapylon -a square monument consisting of 4 groupings of 4 columns each- had been demolished.
