ABSTRACT
The Roman general, Pompey, became the first of the budding late Republican leaders to rise to prominence through campaigning in the east. Damascus, nominally a Seleucid city, benefited enormously in terms of prestige and economic role from Rome’s intervention. Though a self-governing city within Provincia Syria – the largest in southern Syria – it seems to have had a Roman prefect stationed there. Damascus was theoretically still a self-governing entity in Roman territory but in practice the arrangement was more complicated. Damascus had become a base for Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s eastern operation during Antony’s campaign against the Parthians. The Roman administrative headquarters was also most likely located in the area long associated with the palaces of the rulers of Damascus. The Greek hippodrome north of the Barada was retained under the Romans and nearby were other facilities including burial grounds today covered by the expanding city.
