Palmyra Introduction
(February 28, 2024) Map showing Palmyra within the major ancient trade routes.
Palmyra (modern Syrian city of Tadmor) used to be an important link in the trading network known as the silk connecting east and west. It became a part of the Roman empire between 0 and 100 CE but it was treated as an autonomous province. A branch of this trade into Egypt was siphoned off from Tyre by Herod the Great building the port town of Caesarea Maritima. This new trade route passed through the new custom's town of Capernaum where Jesus lived. Jesus would have been exposed to the magical practices promoted by the Palmyra temple.
(March 9, 2024) Photo shows the final version of the Palmyra temple complex as seen in 2010 before it was mostly destroyed by the Islamic state in 2015. This final version was probably built during the early Roman empire era (100-200 CE). It earliest stages were built between 200 and 270 BCE. Its archaeological texts show it promoted the magical motion powers first promoted by the Phoenicians in contrast to the more agriculturally relavent life powers.
Palmyra (modern Syrian city of Tadmor) used to be an important link in the trading network known as the silk connecting east and west. It became a part of the Roman empire between 0 and 100 CE. After visiting the city around 129, the emperor Hadrian declared it a “free city” treating it as a buffer state against the Parthians. With the decline of the Parthians and rise of the Sassanian threat the city was granted the title of colonia and exempted from many taxes by the emperor Caracalla (198-217 CE).
In the 260s with its now semi-independent army, the Palmerian King Odaenathus defeated the Sasanian emperor Shapur I. Rome attempted to regain control of an expanding Palmyra by appointing a governor. Instead this led to rebellion by Shapur's successor, queen regent Zenobia, Under her rule, the armies of Palmyra conquered most of Anatolia (Asia Minor). In 270 the city declared its independence from Rome. The Roman emperor Aurelian regained Anatolia in 272 and razed Palmyra the following year. The city restored by emperor Diocletian at a reduced size. The Palmyrenes converted to Christianity during the fourth century and to Islam in the centuries following the conquest by the 7th-century Rashidun Caliphate.