Inter duo Imperia

Palmyra between East and West

Michael Sommer

• Verlag: Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH
• Jahr: 2020
• Auflage: 1
• eBook-ISBN:
  9783515127769
• Thema: Geschichte
• Thema: Altertum

Palmyra – in the Roman imperial period, the marvel of the Syrian Desert was situated at the crossroads of the intercontinental long-distance trade, in a political and cultural twilight between the East and the West: inter duo imperia, "between the two empires", according to Pliny the Elder. How accurate is Pliny's description of the oasis of Tadmur? How strongly was Roman influence felt in the city of B?l – and how did it develop over the centuries? What was the significance of trade? And how did the close interaction between sedentary and nomadic populations shape society in the oasis? The authors revisit the textual and material evidence on and from Palmyra in the light of recent research, spanning five centuries of Near Eastern history.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Contents
• Preface
• I. Inter duo imperia. The Palmyrenes between East and West (Michael Sommer)
• II. Oasis-polis. Tadmur-Palmyra as a Greek city in the Roman world (or not) in five episodes (Ted Kaizer)
• III. Gateway Tadmur. The beginnings of Palmyra’s long-distance trade (Michael Sommer)
• IV. Palmyra. Marginal agriculture in a marginal landscape? (Jørgen Christian Meyer)
• V. Palmyrene merchants and the Red Sea trade (Matthew A Cobb)
• VI. The rise of the merchant princes? Scale, status, and wealth in Palmyrene trade (Eivind Heldaas Seland)
• VII. On the edge of empire. Elite representation and identity building in Roman Palmyra (Ann-Christine Sander)
• VIII. Μείζονα πράγματα. Persians, Romans and Palmyra in Zosimus’ historiography (Georg Müller)
• IX. The political powers and Syria. War aims, scenarios and perspectives for a country in civil war (Alexander Will)
• Contributors
• Bibliography
• List of illustrations
• Index locorum
• General index