ABSTRACT
This chapter is entitled in a way which suggests that for a time Syrians ruled the empire. Natives of Syria occupied the imperial throne for most of the generation between 218 and 249, in the persons of the Emperors Elagabalus, Alexander Severus, and Philip the Arab. The preceding generation of rulers, the Severan emperors between 193 and 217, were also in part Syrian – Iulia Domna, from Emesa, was the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus and the mother of Emperors Geta and Caracalla – and the succeeding generation after Philip the Arab included several Syrian usurpers, culminating with the family of Zenobia of Palmyra and Uranius Antoninus of Emesa. In studying the entry of Syrians into the Roman administrative system, therefore, it is possible to locate the approximate beginnings of the movement by locating the earliest entrants. The accession of Septimius Severus in 193 brought a new influx, but they were mainly members of his wife's Syrian family.
