The Plateau Zone West of G St

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Wall Painting ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
City Wall ◽  
Base Area ◽  
The Third ◽  
Military Community ◽  
Roman Military ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Temple

One of the first structures explored at Dura in 1920, this temple (or perhaps better, sanctuary: Buchmann 2016, 116) was subsequently completely excavated but never fully published. Preliminary accounts were written by the excavators (Cumont 1926, 29–41; PR 2, 11–12, 67–9 (Pillet), PR 4, 16–19 (Pillet); Rostovtzeff 1938, 68–75 and pl. VI) and it has been much discussed since (Downey 1988, 105–10 for overview and references; Dirven 1999, 326–49 for the Palmyrene evidence; Leriche et al. 2011, 28). It remained a temple through the Roman period, apparently no part of it other than, presumably, the upper levels of city wall Tower 1 being used for secular military purposes. However, its continued existence in the farthest corner of the military base, and its attested use for worship by the Roman military community, demand discussion here. Indeed one of the very first military discoveries was the Terentius wall painting on the N wall of the temple’s room A, depicting a Roman military sacrifice by cohors XX Palmyrenorum before a triad of its national deities and the Tychai of Dura and Palmyra (Pl. I; Breasted 1922; Cumont 1923; Breasted 1924, 94–101, pl. XXI). Cumont consequently called the sanctuary the ‘Temple of the Palmyrene Gods’ (Cumont 1926, 29). In recent decades it has been more usually known as the ‘Temple of (i.e. Palmyrene) Bêl’, following Rostovtzeff (1938, 51), although in Parthian times it was probably dedicated to Zeus (Welles 1969, 63; Millar 1998, 482; Kaizer 2002, 122). No evidence indicates Palmyrene worship in the Parthian-era temple (Dirven 1999, 327–8). There is no consensus on the name for the sanctuary, so I follow MFSED’s ‘Temple of Bêl’ (Leriche et al. 2011, 28; also now Kaizer 2016b, 37–41). Described as laying in ‘J3/5’ by the Yale expedition, it actually lies N of these blocks in an area MFSED has labelled J9 (Leriche et al. 2011, 28–30). During the third century when the temple lay within the Roman base area, it did become the focus of Palmyrene cults, likely ‘related to Palmyrene soldiers or people associated with them’ (Dirven 1999, 328).

Why Was the Base Where It Was, and As It Was?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
City Wall ◽  
The Third ◽  
Open Ground ◽  
Face Saving ◽  
Saving Measure ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

In the foregoing, it was argued that the unitary base area seen in the third century, encompassing the entire N part of the city from the W defences almost to the River Gate, resulted from expansion and coalescence of two later-second-century nuclei, one near the Temple of Bêl, the other focused on the Citadel. Subsequently, presumably increasing Roman troop numbers at Dura led to takeover of the far N part of the intramural area, linking up the military holdings. But why did it start as two nuclei? When Roman power became permanently established over Dura c.165, and a decision was made to station Palmyrene symmachiarii there, while the Realpolitik may have been that these were proxy forces holding the city for Rome, the option of sending in troops from a long-standing friend of Dura may have been chosen as a face-saving measure for the Durene elite. The Palmyrenes were likely presented as defending the newly ‘liberated’ city from Arsacid interference. Under such circumstances, a less obtrusive, peripheral location would have been appropriate. The zone around the Temple of Bêl appears at the time to have comprised only partially built-up city blocks offering open ground, with more free space along the city wall to accommodate the Palmyrene force with minimal disruption to civic life. The temple plaza also offered a ready-made military assembly space. It is further possible that the Palmyrenes attested in Arsacid Dura—visiting traders and soldiers, and resident expatriates—already tended to congregate in or use this zone, around the temple which, at least later, would become especially associated with Palmyrene Bêl. With subsequent arrival of regular Roman troops, and the proposed enrolling of the Palmyrene archers as the nucleus of the nascent cohors XX, the NW cantonment was then probably expanded as it was developed into a Roman auxiliary base. With regard to the inner wadi/Citadel zone, it was suggested above that the incoming Romans would have taken over the great inner stronghold by default, as part of the defensive circuit. They also used the flat wadi floor in its shadow as a campus.

Changes in Urban and Sacred Landscapes of Memphis in the Third to the Fourth Centuries ad and the Eclipse of the Divine Apis Bulls

2018 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-204
Author(s):  
Nenad Marković
Keyword(s):  
Economic Capital ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Gradual Decline ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Administrative Practice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Military

Memphis served as a main royal residence and the military, administrative, and economic capital of Egypt for much of its history. The city’s gradual decline had begun already under the Ptolemies, whose true capital was at Alexandria, and important changes in administrative practice during the Roman period diminished its traditional status further. The god Ptah and his earthly manifestation, the divine Apis bull, certainly continued to enjoy both religious and socio-political importance until the first decades of the third century ad at the latest, as will be discussed in the article. Given the fragmentary and haphazard nature of surviving evidence on the site, it is almost impossible to trace a coherent history of traditional Memphite cults beyond this date. This article aims to discuss the decline of the divine Apis bulls in the context of broader historical developments of the third to the fourth centuries ad.

The Plateau Zone East of G St

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
City Wall ◽  
Base Area ◽  
Early Approach ◽  
Open Ground ◽  
Roman Military ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

The N end of the city’s plateau zone E of G St, bounded by the N wadi, the river cliff, and the head of the inner wadi, comprising the remotest corner within the walls, also became part of the Roman military quarter. Here, as across the whole N part of the city, the stratigraphy is shallow, rarely deeper than a metre, with bedrock showing in places. Surface indications and magnetometry suggest that much of the region had been built up in pre-Roman times, although there may have been areas of open ground. The street grid had been substantially laid out here, especially H St which ran to the N city wall, but E of this line it seems partly to break down. In particular, in the nominal areas of projected block positions X1–X8, 10th St actually curved off-grid to the S, probably preserving the line of an early approach road to the N end of the Citadel before the stronghold was separated from the plateau by a great quarry and rebuilt. This far N region was presumably mostly residential before AD 165, except for two known sanctuaries beside H St: the so-called Dolicheneum in X7, and a temple of unknown dedication in X9. Under Roman rule it became dominated by insertion of the massive residence known as the ‘Palace of the dux ripae’, here referred to as the Roman Palace. Closures of both G and I Sts on the N side of 10th St, by the building of Roman structures across them, indicates that the zone N of this line became a military enclosure. This was accessible from the civil town only via an entrance on H St, and from the W part of the base area on the plateau, already enclosed by a boundary along the W side of G St, via a smaller entrance on the diverted line of ‘12th St’ at the N-most point of block E3. Within the re-entrant to the continuous base perimeter created by the G St and 10th St lines, more blocks appear to have been taken over by the military.

Letters from High to Low in the Graeco-Roman Period

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Clarysse
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
The Third ◽  
Total Lack

In this chapter, papyrus letters sent from superiors to their inferiors are studied on the basis of test cases ranging across the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt, from the third century BCE to the third century CE. This correspondence is drawn from four archival groups of texts: the archive of Zenon; the letters of L. Bellienus Gemellus and the letters of the sons of Patron; and the Heroninus archive. The letters are usually short, full of imperatives, and characterized by the absence of philophronetic formulae. Recurrent themes of the correspondence are urgency, rebukes, orders, and interdictions, and there is an almost total lack of polite phrases.

‘At last Roman, at last restored to the true light of Empire’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrastos Omissi
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Military ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter begins by considering what made the late Roman state distinctive from the early Empire, exploring the political developments of the later third century, in particular the military, administrative, and economic reforms undertaken by the tetrarchs. It then explores the presentation of the war between the tetrarchy and the British Empire of Carausius and Allectus (286‒96), taking as its core sources Pan. Lat. X, XI, and VIII. These speeches are unique in the panegyrical corpus, in that two of them (X and XI) were delivered while the usurpation they describe was still under way, the third (VIII) after it was defeated. In this chapter, we see how the British Empire was ‘othered’ as piratical and barbarian, and how conflict with it helped to create the distinctive ideology of the tetrarchy.

How Did the Base Work?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Brick Wall ◽  
City Wall ◽  
Base Area ◽  
Routine Basis ◽  
Base Boundary ◽  
Four Blocks ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City

We now consider how the military base area operated, as a zone where a large number of people lived and worked on a routine basis. On one hand, to function it required the affordances of its internal communications, connections with the civil town, and access to roads, river, and lands beyond the walls; on the other, there was a need for surveillance and control of activities within the base, and of movements across its boundary. The most obvious part of the base boundary (Plate XXII) is the substantial mud brick wall ploughed across four blocks from the city defences just S of Tower 21, and blocking Wall, A, C, and D Sts, with a gate established at B St. How the S boundary was defined E of D St has always remained an issue. If it was necessary to build a wall at the W end, why was this not simply continued all the way to, e.g., the S end of the Citadel? Across blocks F7 and F5 it seems that the boundary of the military zone simply comprised party walls between military and civilian-occupied structures. The same was true within block B2, by the Citadel, although the boundary probably comprised building frontages along Lower Main St. On the plateau, as the camp wall may have been a subsequent local enhancement, except where the amphitheatre formed part of it, the boundary may generally have comprised the rear walls of military-held houses lining the S side of 8th St—probably all properties from the city wall to H St. The course of the boundary along the W side of the inner wadi is unknown, but the base is suggested, as along 8th St, to have incorporated at least all properties lining the S side of the Wadi Ascent Road, if not encompassing all blocks on the wadi slope—in which case the boundary here may rather have comprised property frontages on K St. The base area was split by site topography into two major zones, the flat plateau, and the N branch of the inner wadi around the Citadel. Each was further subdivided.

The Wadi Zone Campus, Citadel, and C3 Bath

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Major Area ◽  
Military Base ◽  
Open Ground ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Military Control ◽  
The Military ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple ◽  
And Training

From the junction of H and 8th Sts, which gave access to the twin main axes of the military base zone on the plateau, H St led S to the bulk of the civil town and ultimately to the Palmyrene Gate, the steppe plateau W of the city, and the roads W to Palmyra and NW up the Euphrates to Syria. The fourth side of the crossroads followed a curving course SE, down into the inner wadi, then snaking through the irregularly laid-out old lower town to the now-lost River Gate, portal to the Euphrates and its plain. Of most immediate significance is that the Wadi Ascent Road also linked the plateau military zone with what can now be seen as another major area of military control, in the old Citadel, and on the adjacent wadi floor. The N part of the wadi floor is now known to have accommodated two military-built temples, the larger of which, the A1 ‘Temple of the Roman Archers’, was axial to the long wadi floor, which in the Roman period appears to have comprised one of the largest areas of open ground inside the city walls. This is interpreted as the campus, or military assembly and training ground, extension of which was commemorated in an inscription found in the temple. In 2011, what is virtually certainly a second military temple was found in the wadi close by the first, built against the foundation of the Citadel. This is here referred to as the Military Zeus Temple. Behind the Temple of the Roman Archers was a lane leading from the Wadi Ascent Road to the N gate of the Citadel. It helped define a further de facto enclosure, effectively surrounded by other military-controlled areas and so also presumed to have been in military hands. The Citadel itself, while in Roman times already ruinous on the river side due to cliff falls, still formed part of the defences. Moreover the massive shell of its Hellenistic walls now also appears to have been adapted to yet more military accommodation, some of it two storeys or higher.

The Roman Road-Station at Thenadassa (Ain Wif)

1982 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 73-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Mattingly
Keyword(s):  
Initial Phase ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
The Third ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
The Military ◽  
New Evidence

AbstractA reappraisal of the Roman period ruins at Ain Wif has been made following the identification there of traces of defensive walls. These walls are interpreted as being the robbed-out remains of a Roman fortlet and possibly also a tort on the same site. Two phases of military occupation were also evident in modern drain trenches being cut across the site and are attested epigraphically for the military bath-house by the spring. Ceramic evidence from the site suggests that the initial phase lies within the second century, whilst the Severan occupation, known from an inscription to begin early in the third century, represents a second phase. The previous view of the site as an undefended road-station, with a military presence only under the Severan emperors is no longer tenable. Moreover, the new evidence indicates that there was some measure of military organisation in the hinterland of the Emporia prior to the accession of Septimius Severus at the very end of the second century AD. The importance of the site also lies in its large civilian and indigenous population who continued to occupy the site long after the military had departed.

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