[Previous][Contents][Next]
arms, a conventional figure. These and other reasons led me to explain the scene as a sacrifice of a Roman officer to the victorious god of Palmyra in the presence of Odenath on the occasion of his visit to Dura, which took place after his great victories over Shapuhr soon after the capture of Valerian and the invasion of Syria by Shapuhr. My tentative interpretation of the drawing has been accepted by A. Alföldi (Berytus, V, p. 77) and used by him for the reconstruction of events after the battle of Edessa. I must confess however that my interpretation of the drawing needs one substantial correction. The drawing cannot be assigned to the time after A.D. 260. Professor F. E. Brown drew my attention to the obvious fact that the northern side of the court of the Azzanathkona temple was found so well preserved with its wealth of papyri, inscriptions, and drawings because it was buried during the siege of A.D. 256 under the embankment, of which I spoke above. It remained buried until we excavated it. There can be no question therefore of assigning the drawing to the alleged visit of Odenath to Dura, supposed to be re-occupied by a detachment of the Roman army soon after the battle of Edessa, a re- occupation which left no traces in Dura and is in itself improbable. And yet I maintain my interpretation of the drawing as commemorating a victory of Odenath over the Persians, a victory which was of great importance to Dura and to its garrison. Such a victory may have been that of Odenath during his first expedition against the Persians, which took place in A.D. 253 and which made it possible for the Roman garrison of which the nucleus was a Palmyrene unit - the cohors XX Palmyrenorum - to reoccupy Dura after the short occupation of it by the Persians. It is probable that on his way back after his expedition down the Euphrates Odenath paid a visit to Dura and was greeted as saviour and liberator by the Roman garrison which had just returned to Dura. No wonder that the sacrifice performed at this occasion was to Jarhibol, the Sol Invictus of Palmyra, and at the same time the god protector of the XXth Palmyrene cohort.77

After the re-occupation of Dura by the Roman garrison the city lived for three years longer its normal life and probably resumed its relations with the Sassanian Empire. I have shown it above. Did the Romans anticipate a new attack of Shapuhr on the Euphrates limes? Information on the military life of Dura in A.D. 254-56 is almost completely lacking. We have no means of ascertaining what was the composition of the

77. One may of course suggest that the figure of the Palmyrene horseman does not represent necessarily a Palmyrene military leader. It may be interpreted as representing one of the prominent citizens of Dura, say the strategos of the city or perhaps a god. The sacrifice would be in the first case a joint sacrifice to the Palmyrene god of the garrison and the city of Dura. This interpretation I do not regard as very probable. Was the strategos of Dura in Roman times a military and not a strictly civil officer? Have we the right to suppose that Dura -a Roman fortress with a considerable garrison - had a municipal militia in the style of Palmyra? No traces of it     are found in the documents of Dura. Why should a messenger of victory precede the horseman and gold coins be strewn under the feet of his horse? Why should he appear on horseback? All these questions, to which I have no acceptable answer, prevent me from regarding this interpretation of the drawing as more probable than that suggested above. My interpretation of the drawing does not exclude the possibility of the population of Dura being in part mobilized and armed by the Romans during the last siege, a possibility suggested by the comparatively frequent finds of weapons in the private houses of Dura and discussed lately by Prof. A. R. Bellinger (Classical

[Previous][Contents][Next]
Created by the Digital Documentation Center at AUB in collaboration with Al Mashriq of Høgskolen i Østfold, Norway.

990203 PN - Email: hseeden@aub.edu.lb