Syrian Influences in The Roman Empire To AD 300 1st Edition John D. Grainger Available All Format
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Syrian Influences in the
Roman Empire to AD 300
The study of Syria as a Roman province has been neglected by comparison with
equivalent geographical regions such as Italy, Egypt, Greece, and even Gaul. It was,
however, one of the economic powerhouses of the empire from its annexation until
after the empire’s dissolution. As such it clearly deserves some particular consider-
ation, but at the same time it was a major contributor to the military strength of the
empire, notably in the form of the recruitment of auxiliary regiments, several dozens
of which were formed from Syrians. Many pagan gods, such as Jupiter Dolichenus
and Jupiter Heliopolitanus, Dea Syra, and also Judaism, originated in Syria and
reached the far bounds of the empire. This book is a consideration, based on original
sources, of the means by which Syrians, whose country was only annexed to the
empire in 64 BC, saw their influence penetrate into all levels of society from private
soldiers and ordinary citizens to priests and to imperial families.
John D. Grainger
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 John D. Grainger
The right of John D. Grainger to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Grainger, John D., 1939– author.
Title: Syrian influences in the Roman empire to AD 300 /
John D. Grainger.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017013025| ISBN 9781138071230 (hardback :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315114774 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Syria—History—To 333 B.C. | Rome—History—
Empire, 30 B.C.–476 A.D. | Rome—History, Military—30 B.C.–476 A.D. |
Rome—Army—History. | Syria—Religion—History. | Rome—
Religion—History.
Classification: LCC DS96 .G74 2017 | DDC 939.4/305—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017013025
ISBN: 978-1-138-07123-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-11477-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Introduction 1
7 Civilians 216
Egypt 216
Asia Minor 219
Greece and Thrace 220
The northern frontier 221
Italy 221
Africa and Spain 222
Britannia 223
Summary 223
8 Concentrations 226
Egypt 226
Africa, Numidia, and Mauretania 229
Asia Minor 232
Greece 233
Moesia and Thrace 234
Dacia 235
Dalmatia 236
Italy 237
Pannonia 240
Raetia and Noricum 241
Germania 241
Hispania and Gallia 242
Contents vii
Britannia 243
Summary 244
Bibliography 255
Index 261
Map, Figure, and Tables
Map
1 Syria: gods, lands, and legions 12
Figure
2.1 The Severan dynasty 27
Tables
4.1 The stations of the legions 63
4.2 The auxilia of Syria – alae 70
4.3 The auxilia in Syria – cohortes 71
Abbreviations
Syria became a Roman province by the acts and decisions of Cn. Pompeius
Magnus in 64 BC. Over the next century and a half, the original province became
enlarged in size, its borders were expanded, and it was changed in its composition
as it absorbed a variety of cities and kingdoms. By AD 106, when Nabataea, the
last of the client kingdoms, was formally annexed, it had proved to be adminis-
tratively necessary to organise the region into three separate provinces: Judaea
(Palestine), Arabia (east of the Jordan Valley, mainly the former Nabataean
kingdom), and Syria (from Damascus north to the Taurus Mountains). Yet this
triple-land was essentially a single unit, geographically and socially, just as Gallia
and Hispania were clearly distinct and single geographical units, even though
always divided into separate provinces – three again in each case.
Syria was one of the great sources of wealth in the Roman Empire, and was
a prime source of soldiers, goods, gods, and merchants. This was also the case
elsewhere, of course, but the concentration of all these elements in one area was
unique. It is the object of this book to look at these matters, at the influences
of Syrians in and on the empire, because the projection of Syrian soldiers and
their gods and their practices throughout the Roman Empire had a profound
effect on it. The whole process could, in effect, be considered one of internal
colonisation by Syrians of the Roman Empire, except that it was less a movement
of individuals and more one of influences, though it also involved the physical
removal from Syria of large numbers of young Syrian men who were posted to
all parts of the empire as defending soldiers. This idea of Syrian ‘expansion’ is,
perhaps, not a concept with which most students of the ancient world may be
familiar. So the aim of this study is to examine the participation of Syria and
Syrians in the Roman Empire, and the influence this had on that empire.
As a geographical region Syria was comparable with Italy, Spain, Gaul, or Asia
Minor in importance, though in size it was smaller than any of these. And yet its
influence on the life of the empire was out of all proportion compared with these
and was infinitely greater than any of them. Italy was, of course, the source of the
manpower and the commanders who had created the Republican empire and
had conquered the Mediterranean basin. But from the first century AD onwards
the power of Italy’s influence steadily declined. After AD 98 the emperors came
from Spain and Gaul and Africa for the next century and more – and then for a
2 Introduction
short time from Syria – and the imperial administrators were increasingly likely
to come from a land other than Italy. Spain and Gaul contributed in the form of
taxes, slaves and soldiers, as did Anatolia. Greece had faded in influence – apart
from its history and its language and culture, of course. Egypt was never more
than the source of imperial taxes, with some religious influence here and there.
Syria, however, was a greater source of wealth in terms of commerce than
many other provinces; it was a major producer of wine and olive oil, although,
since it does not seem to have exported these goods seriously to Italy, this has
not been widely noted; it was a source of military manpower as much as either
Gaul or Spain; and it produced more gods than any other place. Egypt sent Isis,
Osiris, and Serapis into the empire, just as Greece sent Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo,
and others; but Syria sent into the empire the gods of Jerusalem and Arabia
and Phoenicia, Jupiter Dolichenus, Jupiter Heliopolitanus, Dushares of Arabia,
Adonis of Phoenicia, and Yahweh, and Atargatis, and still more. These spread
throughout the empire and eventually changed it profoundly. In the end one of
these gods, the much-altered Yahweh of Jerusalem, captured the whole empire
in the name of Christ.
The object here, therefore, is to track these various influences and effects as
part of a consideration of the participation of Syria and Syrians in the life of the
empire, and of its limitations. We may begin at the top of society, with the infil-
tration of Syrians into the administration of the empire, and eventually to its very
head as the emperors of the Severan dynasty (Chapter 2). Syria was the major
military base in the eastern empire, and had a role in all the wars conducted by
Rome against enemies in the eastern regions – Syrians, Armenians, Parthians,
and other Romans (Chapter 4). The soldiers recruited into the army (and the
fleet) were one of the foundations of that rise and can be estimated and located
relatively easily, and the recruitment and spread of these Syrian soldiers can be
followed throughout the empire, from southern Egypt to Scotland (Chapter 5).
The merchants of the great Syrian cities created and channelled wealth into the
empire and into the cities, though precision in detailing their activities is dif-
ficult because they were not so addicted to recording their presence as others
(Chapter 7). The gods of Syria spread their messages out of the cities and vil-
lages to the empire’s farthest boundaries: Syrian gods were worshipped on the
extreme northern borders of the empire (just as Syrian soldiers formed garrisons
there), on the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus in far Britannia (Chapter 6). This
part is, like the soldiers, and in part because they were often linked, relatively
straightforward.
This survey can be conducted in two ways, topical and geographical, and,
to see their proper effects, both will be employed. Each individual element –
soldiers, emperors, the country as military base, the soldiers, its gods, and so
on – will be examined in relation to the empire as a whole; then each region
of the empire will be examined, more briefly, to discover the exact extent and
profundity and permanence of that Syrian influence upon it. The central aim
is to estimate the full effect of Syrian participation throughout the rest of the
empire. The Roman poet Juvenal objected to the presence of Syrians in the
Introduction 3
city of Rome, claiming that the Orontes was emptying into the Tiber; it is a
scathing comment, and his accuracy is questionable, but he was not wrong to
see that Syria and Syrians were having a powerful effect.1 Just how powerful
this was, however, is more difficult to estimate, and a mere complaint by an
irascible Roman is not sufficient.
The timeframe for all this will be from (and in some cases before) the incor-
poration of Syria and its various appendages into the empire between 64 BC and
AD 106, until about AD 300. This latter limit is necessary because shortly after
that date all these matters and effects were swamped by the overwhelming vic-
tory of Christianity – a Syrian religion, note – and the historical questions to
be asked change utterly.
Note
1 Juvenal, Satire 3, 61–80, though he refers to his targets as ‘Greek’.
1 Roman Syria
The Syrian scene
The land
It is necessary to begin with Syria itself. This is a remarkable land, much divided
by mountains and rivers and steep valleys, but with a long history going back
to the initial invention of farming after the Ice Age, and a language which has
changed slowly through the centuries, but was always understood throughout
the whole land – the development from the earliest written material to modern
Arabic is continuous, and the language probably originated among the earliest
settled inhabitants at the end of the Ice Age.1 Living in a country which was
frequently politically divided and often conquered, Syrians were resilient and
tough, and much attached to their land, their language, and their gods. The
Roman period in its history was relatively short and to a large extent on balance
it was benign in its effects, but the Syrians largely disdained full participation
in the empire’s life; they exported rather more, socially and economically, than
they imported.
In the Roman period and before, then, Syria was the land which was bounded
by the Mediterranean coast on the west, the Sinai Desert on the south, and the
Amanus and Taurus Mountains on the north; to the east the boundary was the
Euphrates River and the edge of the deserts of Syria and Arabia; in the northeast
beyond the Euphrates the plains and hills of Mesopotamia between that river
and the Tigris – called in Arabic ‘al-Jazirah’, ‘the island’ – provided a wide pas-
sageway from east to west – or, in Roman terms, from west to east, between the
northern mountains and the desert to the south. None of the frontiers was sealed
or impermeable, or can even be delineated easily by a line on the map (other
than the coast), but these are clear enough to be going on with.
The name ‘Syria’ is an abbreviation of ‘Assyria’, used by the Greeks of the
Archaic Age when the Assyrian Empire ruled the region.2 But Assyria could
only hold on to Syria by destroying its cities and killing and deporting its
people, and its successors as rulers of the region, the Babylonian and Persian
Empires, were content to let the land moulder on in poverty and rural self-
sufficiency. By the time Alexander the Great campaigned through Syria it had
only just begun to recover from this brutal and neglectful treatment over the
previous four centuries – though he had to fight repeatedly to gain control
Roman Syria: the Syrian scene 5
of it, in the sieges of Tyre and Gaza in particular, and of other fights as well:
armed resistance to his rule came from other inhabitants of the Lebanese hills,
and at Samaria. His eventual successor as ruler of north Syria, Seleukos Nika-
tor, for purposes of his own, sowed a multitude of cities across north Syria,
while Seleukos’ contemporary and enemy, Ptolemy, controlled the south, the
Phoenician and Palestinian areas; as a result of their mutual hostility, and of
that between their successors, the region became well-fortified with new cit-
ies. The two dynasties repeatedly fought each other, but the land developed
over the next couple of centuries as an urbanised region, in a process of wealth
creation and repopulation which was unprecedented for the time and made
Syria one of the major prizes in the Roman progress of conquest around the
Mediterranean basin and beyond.3
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