viii. 4, and in the native inscriptions, it is called Tadmor, and
this is the name by which it is known among the Arabs at the
present day (Tadmur, Tudmur).[1] The site of Palmyra lies
150 m. N.E. of Damascus and five days’ camel journey from
the Euphrates, in an oasis of the Syrian desert, 1,300 ft. above
sea-level. At this point the great trade routes met in ancient
times, the one crossing from the Phoenician ports to the Persian
Gulf, the other coming up from Petra and south Arabia.
The earliest mention of Palmyra is in 2 Chron. viii. 4, where Solomon is said to have built “Tadmor in the wilderness”; 1 Kings ix. 18, however, from which the Chronicler derived his statement, reads “Tamar” in the Hebrew text, with “Tadmor” in the Hebrew margin; there can be no doubt that the text is right and refers to Tamar in the land of Judah (Ezek. xlvii. 19; xlviii. 28). The Chronicler, we must suppose, altered the name because Tadmor was a city more familiar and renowned in his day, or possibly because he wished to increase the extent of Solomon’s kingdom. The date of the Chronicler may be placed about 300 B.C., so Palmyra must have been in existence long before then. There is reason to believe that before the 6th century B.C. the caravans reached Damascus without coming near the oasis of Tadmor; probably, therefore, we may connect the origin of the city with the gradual forward movement of the nomad Arabs which followed on the overthrow of the ancient nationalities of Syria by the Babylonian Empire (6th century B.C.). The Arabian tribes began to take possession of the partly cultivated lands east of Canaan, became masters of the Eastern trade, gradually acquired settled habits, and learned to speak and write in Aramaic, the language which was most widely current throughout the region west of the Euphrates in the time of the Persian Empire (6th–4th century B.C.). It is not till much later that Palmyra first appears in Western literature. We learn from Appian (Bell. civ. v. 9) that in 42–41 B.C. the city was rich enough to excite the cupidity of M. Antonius (Mark Antony), while the population was not too large to save itself by timely flight. The series of native inscriptions, written in Aramaic, begins a few years after; the earliest bears the date 304 of the Seleucid era, i.e. 9 B.C. (Cooke, North-Semitic Inscriptions No. 141＝Vogüé, Syrie Centrale No. 30a); by this time Palmyra had become an important trade-post between the Roman and the Parthian states. Its characteristic civilization grew out of a mixture of various elements, Arabic, Aramaic, Greek and Roman. The bulk of the population was of Arab race, and though Aramaic was used as the written language, in common intercourse Arabic had by no means disappeared. The proper names and the names of deities, while partly Aramaic, are also in part unmistakably Arabic: it is suggestive that a purely Arabic term (faḥd, NSI. No. 136) was used for the septs into which the citizens were divided.
Originally an Arab settlement, the oasis was transformed in the course of time from a mere halting-place for caravans to a city of the first rank. The true Arab despises agriculture; but the pursuit of commerce, the organization and conduct of trading caravans, cannot be carried on without widespread connexions of blood and hospitality between the merchant and the leading sheiks on the route. An Arabian merchant city is thus necessarily aristocratic, and its chiefs can hardly be other than pure Arabs of good blood. Palmyra also possessed the character of a religious centre, with the worship of the Sungod dominating that of inferior deities.
The chief luxuries of the ancient world, silks, jewels, pearls, perfumes, incense and the like, were drawn from India, China and southern Arabia. Pliny (N. H. xii. 41) reckons the yearly import of these wares into Rome at not less than three-quarters of a million of English money. The trade followed two routes: one by the Red Sea, Egypt and Alexandria, the other from the Persian Gulf through the Syro-Arabian desert. The latter, when the Nabataean kingdom of Petra (q.v.) came to an end (A.D. 105), passed into the hands of the Palmyrene merchants. Their caravans (συνοδίαι) travelled right across the desert to the great entrepots on the Euphrates, Vologesias, about 55 m. south-east of Babylon, or Forath or Charax close to the Persian Gulf (NSI. Nos. 113–115). The trade was enormously profitable, not only to the merchants but to the town, which levied a rigorous duty on all exports and imports; at the same time formidable risks had to be faced both from the desert-tribes and from the Parthians, and successfully to plan or convoy a great caravan came to be looked upon as a distinguished service to the state, often recognized by public monuments erected by “council and people” or by the merchants interested in the venture. These monuments, a conspicuous feature of Palmyrene architecture, took the form of statues placed on brackets projecting from the upper part of the pillars which lined the principal thoroughfares. Thus arose, beside minor streets, the imposing central avenue which, starting from a triumphal arch near the great temple of the Sun, formed the main axis of the city from south-east to north-west for a length of 1240 yards, and at one time consisted of not less than 750 columns of rosy-white limestone, each 55 ft. high.
Local industries do not seem to have been important. One of the chief of them was the production of salt from the deposits of the desert;[2] another was no doubt the manufacture of leather; the inscriptions mention also a powerful gild of workers in gold and silver (NSI. No. 126); but Palmyra was not an industrial town, and the exacting fiscal system which drew profit even out of the bare necessaries of life—such as water, oil, wheat, salt, wine, straw, wool, skins (see Tariff ii. b, NSI. pp. 315 sqq.)—must have weighed heavily upon the artisan class. The prominent townsmen were engaged in the organization and even the personal conduct of caravans, the discharge of public offices such as those of stratēgos, secretary, guardian of the wells, president of the banquets of Bel, chief of the market (see NSI. Nos. 114, 115, 121, 122), sometimes the victualling of a Roman expedition. The capable performance of these functions, which often involved considerable pecuniary sacrifices, ensured public esteem, honorary inscriptions and statues; and to these honours the head of a great house was careful to add the glory of a splendid tomb, consecrated as the “long home” (lit. “house of eternity,” cf. Eccles. xii. 5) of himself, his sons and his sons’ sons for ever. These tombs, which lie outside the city and overlook it from the surrounding hills, a feature characteristically Arabic, remain the most interesting monuments of Palmyra. Some are lofty towers containing sepulchral chambers in stories;[3] others are house-like buildings with a single chamber and a richly ornamented portico; the sides of these chambers within are adorned with the names and sculptured portraits of the dead. As a rule the buildings of Palmyra do not possess any architectural individuality, but these tombs are an exception. The style of all the ruins is late classic and highly ornate, but without refinement.
The rise of Palmyra to a position of political importance may be dated from the time when the Romans established themselves on the Syrian coast. As early as the first imperial period the city must have admitted the suzerainty of Rome, for decrees respecting its custom-dues were issued by Germanicus (A.D. 17–19) and Cn. Domitius Corbulo (A.D. 57–66). At the same time the city had by no means surrendered its independence, for even in the days of Vespasian (A.D. 69–79) the distinctive
- ↑ How the name Palmyra arose is obscure. The Greek for a palm is φοῖνιξ, and the Greek ending -yra could not have been affixed to the Latin palma. Schultens (Vita Sal., Index geogr.) cites Tatmur as a variant of the Arabic name; this might mean “abounding in palms” (from the root tamar); otherwise Tadmor may have been originally an Assyrian name. See Lagarde, Bildung der Nomina, p. 125 n.
- ↑ “The soil of this marsh [east of Palmyra] is so impregnated with salt that a trench or pit sunk in it becomes filled in a short time with concentrated brine, the water of which evaporates in the intense sunshine and leaves an incrustation of excellent salt.” Post, Narrative of a Second Journey to Palmyra in Pal. Expl. Fund’s Qtly. St. (1892), p. 324.
- ↑ One of these tomb-towers, called Kasr eth-Thuniyeh, is 111 ft. high, 3312 ft. square at the base, 25 ft. 8 in. square above the basement; it contains six stories and places for 480 bodies. Opposite the entrance within is a hall with recesses for coffins and a richly panelled ceiling; underneath is an immense vault.
