Figure 23.1 The so-called Khazneh (“Treasury”) tomb at Petra. © T. Kaizer.
Figure 23.2 The Monumental Gate and the so-called Great Temple in the civic center of Petra. © D.F. Graf.
Figure 24.1 The central colonnade and the arch at Palmyra, viewed from the temple of Nebu. © T. Kaizer.
Figure 24.2 The temple of Bel at Palmyra. © T. Kaizer.
Figure 25.1 Plan of Dura-Europos, drawn by A.H. Detweiler, with labels added by J.A. Baird. Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
Figure 25.2 View from the citadel of Dura-Europos over the Euphrates. © T. Kaizer.
Figure 25.3 Head of Zeus Megistos from Dura-Europos. Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
Figure 27.1 The great iwans in the central temple complex at Hatra. © T. Kaizer.
Figure 28.1 Rock drawing with Safaitic inscription, “By ʾghsm son of Shmt is [the drawing of] the oxen pulling the plough.” Photograph courtesy of the Badia Epigraphic Survey in 2017, see APSI 1 in OCIANA.
Figure 30.1 Roman roads in Syria and Mesopotamia. © B. Isaac.
Figure 30.2 Roman roads in Judaea and Arabia. © B. Isaac.
Figure 31.1 Political map of the Roman Near East, 30 bc. © A.J.M. Kropp.
Figure 31.2 Petra, Qaṣr al-Bint and its temenos, view to the east from el-Ḥabīs. © A.J.M. Kropp.
Figure 31.3 Arsameia, hierothesion, relief slab at “Sockel III,” depicting dexiosis between Antiochos I (69–36 bc) and Artagnes Herakles Ares. H 270 cm. © M. Blömer.
Figure 31.4 Herod Agrippa I (ad 37–44). Bronze coin (24 mm, twice enlarged) minted in Caesarea Maritima in ad 42/3. Agrippa and his brother Herod of Chalcis cuirassed standing either side of togate central figure (Claudius) and crowning him/Two hands clasping each other, inscription in two concentric circles “Covenant between king Agrippa and Caesar Augustus and the Senate and the people of Rome, friendship and alliance.” The drawing is a reconstruction based on what can be gleaned from the seven known specimens. Drawing: © A.J.M. Kropp. Photo: Hendin 2010: no.1248, courtesy of D. Hendin.
Figure 32.1 Palmyrene relief of camels used by armed escorts, Palmyra Museum. © T. Kaizer.
Figure 36.1 Tower-tombs at Palmyra. Two of the earliest tower-tombs on hilltops are visible in the back (center and right side). © T. Kaizer.
Figure 36.2 Necropolis at Tyre. The backsides of the tombs with raised sarcophagi are visible in the front of this photo. They flanked the road that ran to the centrally placed arch. © T. Kaizer.
Figure 37.1 Eye-stele from Petra. Now in the National Museum of Amman. © D.F. Graf.
Figure 37.2 Madbah High Place, Petra. © E.B. Williams Reed.
List of Maps
I The Hellenistic and Roman Near East
II The Decapolis
III Commagene and Osrhoene
IV The Phoenician coast and its hinterland
V Judaea, the Palestinian coast, the Galilee, Idumaea, and Samaria
VI The Nabataean kingdom
Contributor Biographies
Julien Aliquot is researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, in Lyon. In the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée (HiSoMA unit), he has led the project of the “Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie” since 2017. He is the author of Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie 11: Mont Hermon (2008), La vie religieuse au Liban sous l’Empire romain (2009), and Inscriptions grecques et latines du Musée national de Beyrouth (2016, with Jean-Baptiste Yon). He also has co-edited La Phénicie hellénistique (2015) and Sources de l’histoire de Tyr (two volumes, 2011 and 2017). His current focus is on the epigraphic corpora of Beirut (Lebanon) and Northeast Jordan.
J.A. Baird, PhD, FSA, is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of History, Classics, and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her work has focused on the Roman Middle East, and she has published on ancient graffiti, urbanism, housing, as well as archaeological photography, archives, and the history of archaeology. Her books include Ancient Graffiti in Context (co-edited with Claire Taylor, Routledge, 2011), The Inner Lives of Ancient Houses: An Archaeology of Dura-Europos (Oxford University Press, 2014), and Dura-Europos (Bloomsbury, 2018).
Janine Balty Dr habil., honorary researcher at the Centre belge de recherches archéologiques à Apamée de Syrie. She is author of La mosaïque de Sarrîn (Osrhoène), Beyrouth-Damas-Amman (Bibliothèque archéologique et historique CXI), Paris 1990 and of Mosaïques antiques du Proche-Orient. Chronologie, Iconographie, Inter-prétation, Besançon-Paris 1995. She has published widely on the archaeology and history of Apamea-on-the-Orontes (Syria) and on classical iconography (portraits, sarcophagi, mosaics), in various periodicals.
Apostolos Bousdroukis is a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (UMR 7041, Archéologie et Sciences de l’Antiquité) in Paris. He is the author of the forthcoming monograph D’Alexandre à Kanishka. Rencontres interculturelles dans l’Orient hellénistique, romain et arsacide (MDAFA, Mémoires de la Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan). His scientific interests include the history and institutions of the Hellenistic and Roman Near and Middle East and the cross-cultural encounters between Greek and indigenous populations.
Kevin Butcher is Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick. He is author of Roman Syria and the Near East (2003); Small Change in Ancient Beirut (2003); Coinage in Roman Syria (2004); co-author of The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage (2014); editor of Debasement: Manipulation of Coin Standards in Pre-Modern Monetary Systems (2019); and has published widely on numismatics, monetary history, and ancient sites in the Near East. He is currently principal investigator on a European Research Council Advanced Grant Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean.
Kimberley Czajkowski is a Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh. Her research primarily focuses on the legal history of the Roman Near East, though she also has broader interests in the history of the Jewish people, Roman law, and ‘Romanization’. She is the author of Localized Law: the Babatha and Salome Komaise Archives (2017) and co-editor of Law in the Roman Provinces (2020).
Lucinda Dirven is Professor by Special Appointment of Ancient Religions at the Radboud University, Nijmegen. She studied art history and history of religions and comparative religion at the University of Leiden, where she obtained her PhD which was published in 1999 as The Palmyrenes of Dura-Europos. A Case Study of Religious Interaction (Brill). Her research concentrates on the Roman and Parthian Near East (especially Dura, Hatra, and Palmyra) on the one hand and the religious influences of these regions on the Roman West on the other hand. Currently, she is finishing a catalog on the sculptures from Hatra and is preparing the final report on the mithraeum of Dura-Europos, together with Matthew McCarty (University of British Columbia).
Peter M. Edwell is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches and teaches on the relationship between the Roman and Sasanian empires and in the area of Late Antiquity more broadly. He is the author of Between Rome and Persia (2008) and Rome and Persia at War (2020), both published by Routledge. He is also part of the project Crises of Leadership in the Eastern Roman Empire funded by the Australian Research Council.
Yaron