guy Posted September 4, 2019 Report Share Posted September 4, 2019 (edited) Here is an excellent article about ancient Palmyra by Paul Veyne. This article first came to my attention in Lapham's Quarterly (Winter 2017: Home). This is an outstanding publication that each quarter collects works by mostly famous articles on a single theme. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/home/oasis-palmyra Quote Without a doubt, our visitor would have seen a great deal to shake his sense of normalcy. In the Roman Empire, or rather the Greco-Roman Empire, everything was uniform: the architecture, houses, written language, clothing, values, authors, and religion, from Scotland to the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates, and the Sahara, at least among the elite. Palmyra was a city that felt, by contrast, dangerously close to Persian civilization, the great enemy of Rome, and to even more remote places. Quote The Palmyrenes were able to build a commercial empire from what might have been merely transport services. They bought and then resold what they were transporting; traders were part of the caravans. What is more, some of them armed the ships on the Red Sea, thereby competing with their Egyptian rivals. Palmyra was not just a caravan city; it was a merchant republic. One can only grieve the destruction of the ancient Palmyrene antiquities and other historic treasures. guy also known as gaius Edited November 2, 2021 by guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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