Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Framing the Narrative
Chapter 2: Tribes and Tribalism
Chapter 3: The Growth of Community
Chapter 4: Mapping Social Identities
Chapter 5: The Civic Institutions of Palmyra
Chapter 6: The Palmyrene Diaspora
Chapter 7: The Palmyrene Empire: A Crisis of Identity
Chapter 8: Retrospect and Broader Implications
Bibliography
Index
Andrew M. Smith II is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University.
"This significant book presents a stimulating discussion of the way
in which the unique local identity of Palmyra, the famous caravan
city in the Syrian steppe, found expression in the Roman period.
Its focus is both on the city's peripheral location, between Rome
and Parthia, and on its own internal development as a community.
Smith makes an important contribution to the on-going debate on
Palmyrene tribalism, the city's role in the long-distance trade and
its
position in the frontier zone, and the identity of Palmyrenes
abroad. The book will doubtless help in granting Palmyra its
rightful place in the center of modern scholarship on the Classical
world."
--Ted Kaizer, Durham University
"Andrew Smith provides a nuanced analysis of the Palmyrene social
and cultural identity, and the means by which individuals
self-identified as Palmyrene maintained their distinctive culture
on the challenging frontier between Parthia and Rome. Inscriptional
and archaeological evidence illuminate this rare example of a
tribal society that integrated countryside and city." --John Peter
Oleson, University of Victoria
"An admirable study of Palmyra in the first through third centuries
A.D. ...[Smith] draws richly and expertly on the epigraphical
legacy of the Palmyrenes, not only in Syria but in Italy, Egypt,
and Yemen." --The Classical Journal Online
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