ABSTRACT
At the time of Germanicus, Palmyra was an important place at the fringe of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire as a pluriverse of identities rested on three imaginary pillars: citizenship, paideia and the civilizing mission of Rome. They made this Empire unique and gave it a duration which was hardly to be ever met by any other state. For Mommsen, Romanization is the "masterpiece of the imperial age in global history." Three levels of Romanization correspond, roughly, to the three constitutive narratives: legal Romanization to citizenship, linguistic-cultural Romanization to mythology, Romanization of material culture to the civilizing mission. The bulk of the political business was not dealt with by the emperor in Rome, but by the local administration. In the cities, or in their absence, in groups such as tribes, important decisions were taken: judgments were passed, laws were made, financial matters were ruled, and civic cults were organized.
