Inter duo Imperia
Description
Palmyra - in the Roman imperial period, the marvel of the Syrian Desert was situated at the crossroads of the intercontinental long-distance trade, in a political and cultural twilight between the East and the West: inter duo imperia , "between the two empires", according to Pliny the Elder. How accurate is Pliny's description of the oasis of Tadmur? How strongly was Roman influence felt in the city of Bel - and how did it develop over the centuries? What was the significance of trade? And how did the close interaction between sedentary and nomadic populations shape society in the oasis? The authors revisit the textual and material evidence on and from Palmyra in the light of recent research, spanning five centuries of Near Eastern history.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Preface
- I. Inter duo imperia. The Palmyrenes between East and West (Michael Sommer)
- Palmyra as a trading hub
- Palmyra's symbolic patchwork
- Palmyra's institutions
- II. Oasis-polis. Tadmur-Palmyra as a Greek city in the Roman world (or not) in five episodes (Ted Kaizer)
- Introduction
- Pre-Roman Palmyra
- Episode 1: the early stages of Palmyra's integration into the Roman world
- Episode 2: the long heyday of Palmyra's glorious civilization
- Episode 3: Palmyra as a Roman colonia
- Episode 4: a King of Kings in charge (but still a Roman colonia)
- Episode 4a: the immediate aftermath of Zenobia's defeat
- Episode 5: late-antique Palmyra
- Conclusion
- III. Gateway Tadmur. The beginnings of Palmyra's long-distance trade (Michael Sommer)
- 'The Hellenistic City'
- From Seleucid to Parthian and Roman: shifting patterns of exchange
- Inter duo imperia: Palmyra as a gateway
- IV. Palmyra. Marginal agriculture in a marginal landscape? (Jørgen Christian Meyer)
- V. Palmyrene merchants and the Red Sea trade (Matthew A Cobb)
- Palmyrene merchants in Egypt
- Palmyrenes in southern Arabia and on Socotra
- Palmyrene participation in the Egyptian-Red Sea trade: explanatory factors
- Conclusion
- VI. The rise of the merchant princes? Scale, status, and wealth in Palmyrene trade (Eivind Heldaas Seland)
- A caravan city?
- Palmyrene trade
- Elite involvement
- Merchants in Palmyra
- The rise of new elites
- VII. On the edge of empire. Elite representation and identity building in Roman Palmyra (Ann-Christine Sander)
- Palmyrene caravan inscriptions and elite status
- Sources of power according to the caravan inscriptions
- Imagining Palmyra's elite: camels, horses and warriors
- Conclusion
- VIII. ?e????a p???µata. Persians, Romans and Palmyra in Zosimus' historiography (Georg Müller)
- Zosimus' historiographic technique
- Zosimus' Palmyra
- Palmyra
- The Persians
- The Roman Empire I - nationalities and loyalties
- The Roman Empire II - emperor and charisma
- Summary
- IX. The political powers and Syria. War aims, scenarios and perspectives for a country in civil war (Alexander Will)
- The stage
- Russia
- Turkey
- Israel
- United States and European Union
- Perspectives
- Contributors
- Bibliography
- List of illustrations
- Index locorum
- General index
