The RomanColoniaeof the Near East tēgos, had thus taken firm root in the political structure of the city. But there
does not seem to be any later Syriac literature relating to Edessa which shows
that same structure continuing.
That ends the list of the exoticcoloniaeof Mesopotamia; none, incidentally,
not even Nisibis, is referred to as acoloniaby either Ulpian or Paulus. For
Ulpian, Palmyra, ‘‘situated near barbarousgentesandnationes,’’ was perhaps
exotic enough. His set of examples ofcoloniae(Dig. , , ) was written
under Caracalla (..–); as for Paulus, the transmitted text of his enu-
meration (, , ) seems ambiguous as to whether Caracalla was still alive at
the moment of writing or not. At any rate neither makes any reference to the
colonial foundations of the reign of Elagabal (..–), or later, a final
phase of which even less is known, and which may be summed up briefly
here. In very few cases is there any intelligible historical context for the grant
of colonial status. But since, of course, this status was already widespread
in the region, further grants may not require much explanation. Moreover,
with the s we are approaching even closer to the period when city mint-
ing and then the ‘‘epigraphic habit,’’ never so developed here as for instance
in North Africa or western Asia Minor, came wholly or largely to an end.
It seems that it was under Elagabal that Sidon became acolonia. Perhaps
surprisingly, its colonial coinage is consistently in Latin: AUR PIA SID COL
MET under Elagabal; COL AU(r) P(ia) METR SID, sometimes with AETER-
NU(m) BENEFI(cium), or COL AUR PIA MET SID under Severus Alexan-
der (..–).^186 There are no inscriptions to attest the new status. But
by a fortunate accident there is a papyrus of.., in which a pancratiast
records that he had been victorious in the ‘‘sacred iselastic oecumenical peri-
porphyran isolympian contest’’ἐν[κο]λωνίᾳΣιδονίων πόλει.^187 The nature
of the contest is entirely Greek; but none the less its Roman status is part of
the formal titulature of the city. It is also interesting to see this and other
evidence for the continuation of city athletic (and theatrical) festivals in the
period of the crisis of the Empire. But no further evidence is available to
illuminate the life of Sidon as acolonia.
It was also under Elagabal that the little-known city of Arca or Caesarea
ad Libanum, situated at the northern end of the Mount Lebanon chain, was
granted the rank ofcolonia. In this case the explanation seems simple, for it
.BMC Phoenicia, lxxxvii–cxvi, –. See N. Jidejian,Sidon through the Ages().
Dr. Howgego suggested to me that both legends and style may be due to the influence of
Berytus.
.Sel. Pap. II, no. .