The Roman Near East: 31 BC-AD 337 (Carl Newell Jackson Lectures)

618 Pages·1995·224.57 MB·English

by  Fergus Millar

THE R O M AN
NE AR EAST
31 BC - AD 337
• • •
F E RG US MI H AR
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
C A M B R I D G E, M A S S A C H U S E T TS
L O N D O N , E N G L A ND
Copyright © 1993 by tlıe Prcsidenr and Fcllovvs of Haıvard Collcge
Ali rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amcrica
Founl» printing, 200i
'fhis book has been snpported by a grant frora thc National Endovvment
for thc Humanitics, an independent federal agenıy.
Libtary of Congress (ZattiIogirıg-in-Pı/blicalion Dala
Mi Har, Fcrgus.
'Ihe Roman Near East, 31 B.C.-A.D. 337 / Fergus Millar.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical rcfcrcnccs and indcx.
ıSBN 0-674-77885-5 (cloth)
ISBN 0-674-77886-3 (pbk.)
1. Middlc F.asr—History—To 611.
2. Romc—History—30 B.C. -476 A.D.
I. Tîrlc.
Ds62.25.Mj3 I99J
919-4—<i«o
93-18174
CİP
For Susanna

CONTENTS
Preface xi
Abbreviations xxi
PROLOGUE: IN SEARCH OF THE ORIENT
I. EMPIRE
THE BRIDGEHEAP ANO THE DEPENDENT
KINGDOMS, 31 BC-AD 74 2
2.1. From t)>e Batlle of Actium to the Deatb of Herod
the Great 27
2.2. From the Deatb of Herod the Great to the F.tıd
of Tiberius' Reigtt 43
2.3. From the Reign of Gaius to the Outbreak
of the Jeıvish \Var 56
2.4. The Jeu/ish War and Its Aftermath 70
IMPERIALISM AND EXPANSION, AD 74-195 8
}.ı. Vespasian: A Neıv Near Eastern Empire 80
3.2. Trajan: Fjcpansion and Rearrangement in the
Southern Near East 90
3.3. The Roman Presence, ad i i4-161 99
3.4. Emperors and Pretenders in the Near East from Lucius Verı ts
to Septimiııs Severus: 1 'be Conquest of Mesopotamia 111
4. ROME AND MESOPOTAMIA: FROM PARTHIA
TO PHRSIA 127
4.1. The Severan Near East as a Military Structure 127
4.2. Emperors on Campaigtt, frortt Caracalla
to Philip the Arab 141
4.3. Shapur's Inuasions and the Ernpire
of Palntyra, ad 252—273 159
5. THE TETRARCHY AND CONSTANTINE 174
$.x. The Tetrarchy: Persian Wars and Fortifıed Lines 174
j.2. The Near East in the Tetrarchic Ernpire, ad 284-312 190
5.3. Licinius and Constantine, ad 313—337: Retrospect frotn
a Christianised Empire 207
II. REGIONS AND COMMUNITIES
(,. COMMUNAL AND CULTURALIDENTITIES 225
7. THE TETRAPOLIS AND NORTHERN SYRIA 236
7. z. The Geographical Context 23 6
7.2. Local Cult-Centres: Ilierapolis and Dol i ebe 242
7.3. Vıllages and Rural Temples 250
7.4. The Majör Cities: Aparnea 256
8. THE PHOENICIAN COAST AND ITS HLNTERLAND 264
8.1. History and Geography 264
8.2. Phoenicia: The Southern Region 267
8.). The Northern Coastline and Its Hinterland 270
8.4. The Majör Cities: liyblos and Berytus 274
#.5. Sidon and Tyre 285
9. EASTERN SYRIA PHOENICE: MOUNTAIN, OASIS
AND STEPPE 296
9.1. Geographical Cotmections 296
9.2. Emesa and Elagabal 300
9.3. Damascus and Its Region 310
9.4. Palntyra 319
ıo. FROM JUDARA TO SYRIA PALAESTINA
io.i History, Religion and Geograplry 337
10.2. Judaea before the First Revolt 351
10.3. Fronı the First Jeıvish Revolt to the Second 366
10.4. Syria Palaestina 374
11. AR ABI A 387
IM. Regions and Cultures 387
11.2. The Kingdom of Nabataea 400
11.3. The Decapolis in the First Century 408
11.4. The Neıv Province of Arabia 414
z 1. j. The Nomadic Presence 418
12. THE EUPHRATES AND MESOPOTAMIA 437
12.1. Geograplry, Cullure and Language 437
12.2. Dura-Europos in the Parthian Period 445
n.3. The Middle Euphrates and the Corning of Ronıe 452
12.4. Roman Dura-Europos 467
12. j. Edessa as a Kingdom and Roman Colony until the Middle
of the Third Century 472
12.6. Social and Religious Currents in the Fourth Century 481
13. EPILOGUE: E AST AND \VEST 489
13.1. East? 489
13.2. West? 523
Appendix A. The Inscriptioııs of the Tctrarchic Larıd-Surveyors 535
Appendix B. Documcnts fronı the Bar Kochba War 545
Appcndix C. Materials for the History of Roman Edessa and
Osrhocne, AD 163-337 553
Maps 563
I. The Near East: Areas Covered by Maps 11-XII 565
II. The Roman Near East: Main Sites and Geographical
Features 566
III. Northıvestern Syria and Mount Anıanus 567
IV. The Phoenician Coast and Western Syria Phoenice 568
V. The Central Syrian Steppe, Palmyra and the Euphrates 569
VI. Judaea/Syria Palaestina, Western Arabia 570
VII. Southeastern Syria Phoenice, Northern Arabia 571
VIII. Petra and South-Central Arabia 572
IX. Arabia, ıvith Sinai, the Red Sea and the Hedjaz 573
X. Eastern Syrta, the Euphrates and Westertı Mesopotamia 574
XI. Central Mesopotamia and Mons Masius 575
XII. The Eastern Syrian Steppc and the Middle Euphrates 576
General Index 577
Index of Literary Sources 586
Index of Documencs 587
PREFACE
The subject of this book can hc dcfincd in threc diffcrcnt ways: geographi-
cally, chronologically and linguistically. in geographical tcrms I mean by 'thc
Roman Near East' ali those areas vvhich lie between the Taurus Mountains
and Egypt, and vvhich werc, or came to bc, undcr Roman rule. The rcgioıı
concerned overlaps the territories of eight modern states: Turkcy, Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. To the west it is of coursc
boundcd by thc Mcditcrrancan, and to thc north, somcvvhat less clearly, by
Mount Amanus and the foothills of the Taurus. To the cast and south thc
eventual limits of Roman military occupation did not correspond vvith any
ver)' definite geographical boundaries. The middlc Euphrates, vvhich for long
served as a symbolic boundary bctwccn thc empires of Romc and of Parthia,
ceascd to do so in the course of the second ccntury. With that great change, to
which I will come back maııy times, the Roman Empire in the east expanded
dccisivcly beyond thc Mcditcrrancan seaboard, with conscquences of im-
mense significance. By the end of the third century Roman control extended
to, and in some not very clear sense beyond, the upper-ıniddle Tigris. In thc
south-wcst of thc arca, similarly, thc Roman military presence has left traccs
in part but not ali of the Hedjaz, thc barren mountain-range running along
the eastern side of the Red Sea. What seems to be thc furthermost Roman
outpost here is Medain Saleh, a little över 300 km north of Medina.
Thc arca concerncd thus rep resents a largc scction of thc Fcrtilc Crcsccnt;
its definition as fertile refleets the fact that ali of it shades off into what is
often callcd desert, but is in fact at almost ali points not desert but a flat,
largcly dry and often very stony steppe, in placcs colourcd dark-grey or black
from thc prcscncc of volcanic rock. To emphasise the fact that thc zonc along
whose ınargins a great üne of Roman roads and forts, from the Red Sea to
the Tigris, evcntually strecched was not a 'desert' of saııd-dunes, I have conısis-
tently used the word 'steppe'. How we should understand the mutual rela-
tions of the Roman govemraent, the settled population and the pcoplcs of the
steppe—sksnitai ('tent-dwellcrs'), nomades, Arabes, or Saraceni—is precisely
one of the major problems which the book attenıpts to confront.
In chronological terms, as its sub-titie indicates, the book starts from the
moment of the battlc of Actium and ends with the death of Constantine. It
might reasonably have begun a little further back, with the arrival of Pora-
pey's forces in Syria in the mid-6os BC. But the comp!ex narrativc of events
in the late Republic wou!d have either taken up too much space or failed to
reveal much about the Near East itself, or most probably both. But somc
evidence, above ali from Strabo's Geography, which relates to that period has
been used.
Similarly, it could have bcen rcasonable to end with the treaty of 298 or
299 which gave Rome firm control of the upper-middle Tigris; 01; eveıı nıore
reasonably, to take as the terminal point the moment whcn, after the death
of Julian in 363, Jovian was forced to cede Nisibis and the eastern part of the
Mesopotamian shelf to the Persians. As it is, the book deliberately stops just
vvhen two related but separate major developments in rcligious history began;
first, the formal rccognition of the Christian Church by Constantine, and the
construction of churches as visible, public features of the urban landscapc;
and second, something of perhaps equal significancc in the cvolution of Chris-
tianity: the ascctic movement, which so far as the Roman Near East is cotı-
cerned began simultaneously in the south-western corner of the region,
around Gaza, and in its north-eastern cortıer, around Nisibis, both in the early
years of the fourth century.
Long ago, I imagined that I might vvrite a social history of the Near East
which wou!d cover the vvhole period from Alexander to Mahomct. But the
Hellenistic period has its own problems, which I tricd to explore in a chapter
in A. Kuhrt and S. Shcrwin-White, Hellenism in the East (1987). As for the
period of precisely three cennıries from the death of Constantine to the firit
Islamic conquests, that must represent a major challengc for someone else.
For a book on these ccnturies vvould have to embrace the great conflicts vvith
Sasanid Persia which broke out again in the sixth century, and of course pro-
vidcd the contcxt of the Islarnic invasions of the seventh; late paganisra and
the definitive Christianisation of the region; the great Christological contro-
versies and the flowering of Syriac Christian literatüre; the beginnings of Ar-
menian Christian literatüre; pagan and Christian Antioch as a major political
and cultural centrc; Judaism—ineluding the compilation of the 'Jerusalem'
Talmud, contacts with Babylonia, and influcncc in the Hedjaz in the time of
Mahomet; the Samaritans as an important community, capable of major re-