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And finally I remind the reader again of the evidence of the coins discussed above. It shows that in A.D. 254-256, both the civil population and the soldiers of Dura were well provided with Roman currency, that is to say lived in this respect its normal life. Connected commercially with Persia, Dura in these years stood in normal relations with the Roman Empire and certainly was not cut off from Syria which, as the coins show, provided Dura with its currency.66

The evidence yielded by Dura as regards the last years of its existence is of first class importance. The facts which show that Dura in and after A.D. 253 lived a normal life and that it was not besieged before A.D. 256 apparently contradict the results of my previous investigation, which tended to prove that the first invasion of Syria by Shapuhr, in which a place of the name Dura - without doubt our Dura and not an unknown place of the same name - was captured, was identical with what I took to be the first invasion of Syria by Shapuhr, described by our literary sources and assigned by Zosimus and the author of Orac. Sib. XIII to the first half of the year A.D. 253. Apparently either my identification is wrong and what Shapuhr describes as his first invasion of Syria is not the campaign of Shapuhr described in our literary sources, or else the date assigned to this first invasion by Zosimus and the Orac. Sib. XIII must be changed from A.D. 253 to A.D. 256.

Neither of these alternatives is acceptable to me. After all that I have said about it, it appears to me very probable that Shapuhr's Barbalissus expedition, the expedition in the course of which Dura was captured, is identical with the invasion of Syria by Shapuhr of our literary evidence, in which Antioch was taken by the Persians for the first time. If we separate these two expeditions we involve ourselves in innumerable and insurmountable difficulties.

Nor is the second alternative acceptable. It contradicts the testimony of Zosimus and Orac. Sib. XIII and it is irreconcilable with reliable documentary evidence, I mean the testimony of coins. I have mentioned above that, according to Alföldi, the mint of Antioch was in continuous uninterrupted operation from A.D. 254 to A.D. 258/9. If

in Pehlevi on jars found in the ruins of the praetorium of the dux, see Dura Rep. IX. The jar with the figure of Shapuhr and the sherds with Pehlevi inscriptions may of course be interpreted as connected with the short occupation of Dura by the Persians in A.D. 253 (suggested below, P. 53). But no such interpretation is valid for the Pehlevi inscriptions of the synagogue.
66. Another less conclusive but probable testimony to normal conditions prevailing in the civil life of Dura in the years of the rule of Valerian may be derived from a curious inscription painted in red and black letters on the walls of the diwan of a private house in the region of the Agora not far from the Roman camp (H. Immerwahr, Dura Rep. IX, i). The text is unique and the interpretation of it therefore difficult. But it appears that the inscription contained a kind of registration of the members of a grex or caterva of minor entertainers (inclu-

   

ding a large number of girls). The group came to Dura from Zeugma, apparently attracted to Dura by the large garrison stationed in the city. Its appearance in Dura might have happened with the encouragement and material support of the military authorities who might have been anxious, in the disturbed times of the fifties of the 3rd cent. A.D. to keep the garrison of Dura well amused and cheerful. Unfortunately the inscription is not dated. But since some fragments of it were found in perfect condition of preservation it is fair to suggest that this ephemeral business document, painted immediately after the settlement of the caterva in the house, may be assigned to the time shortly before the end of Dura, perhaps to one of the last years of Dura's existence. I may add that Mr. Immerwahr, guided by several considerations, is inclined to assign the inscription either to A.D. 153 or 256.

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