ABSTRACT
Palmyra is situated to the east of Syria, on the edge of the fertile crescent that links Syria and the coast with Mesopotamia in the east. On the breakup of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, it fell into a sort of no man’s land, between Syria with its Hellenistic and Hellenised cities, for which Rome accepted the administrative responsibility and incorporated them into a province, and Mesopotamia which, although retaining Greek elements, was now part of
the oriental Parthian kingdom. The great advantage for Palmyra was that it marked the beginning of a short-cut cross-desert trade route to the Euphrates and Mesopotamia, and was thus in a position to exploit the trade that passed between the two political systems, particularly the importation into the Roman Empire of spices and other valuable commodities from the east, a trade which had to satisfy what was obviously a developing Roman market. Palmyrene traders were able to cross into Mesopotamia and the Parthian kingdom, and certainly established trading posts in Mesopotamia itself, particularly at the head of the Persian Gulf, from which the sea routes led to India. The transhipment, despite frontiers, was probably easier and safer than the voyage round Arabia. Probably early in the first century AD Palmyra was incorporated into the Roman province, and was thus part of the Roman Empire, but the trade links were still with the east, Aramaic remained the principal language, and the city was still poised between the Classical and the eastern world. A Roman garrison and some Roman administration were introduced, and the city now received the official Roman name of Palmyra, by which it is generally known. Yet local life, and especially religion, retained a strong, non-Roman tradition.
