Rome and the East
[ἔκτι]σεν Λούκιος
[...]λῷου τοῦζπυ´
[.. du]arum gub
[.. pecun]ia sua
[Polli]one II et Apro II cos.
QBY’ ’LN TR[Y’]
’NṬNYS Q[LSṬRṬS]The issues raised by these six inscriptions are of remarkable interest and com-
plexity. In the earliest ( and ), although the Latin comes first and the Greek
second, the Palmyrene text is considerably fuller, and the others are sum-
maries of it. Inscription certainly comes from a tomb, and in it the promi-
nent Palmyrene Hairan (who also reappears in ) lists his forefathers for five
generations; the earliest, Taimai, ought thus to have been born at some time
around the end of the second century.., that is the earliest period to which
the evidence relating to Palmyra takes us back. These male ancestors evi-
dently belonged to the ‘‘tribe’’ of the ‘‘sons of Mita,’’ while Hairan’s mother
came from the ‘‘sons of Gadibol’’; the nature of these groupings is a com-
plex question which will not be pursued here.^21 From the epigraphic point of
view it is more significant that the Greek supplies a translation for TDMRY’
DY MN PḤD BNY MYT’, namelyΠαλμυρηνὸςφυλῆςΜειθηνῶν, and that
this translation is then transliterated, without alteration of grammar, into
the Latin version. This is the earliest attested use of Latin by a native Palmy-
rene, and might be taken as a piece of exhibitionism by a prominent citizen
in the early period of Roman domination.
Inscription is also from a tomb. But in this case it is quite uncertain
whether it reflects a degree of attachment to Graeco-Roman culture by a
native Palmyrene or the presence of an immigrant Greek who is already in
possession of the Roman citizenship. If he is a Palmyrene, these names are
unique there,^22 and he also claims no place in Palmyrene society, nor, in the
Greek and Latin texts, any specific position. But in the slightly fuller Palmy-
rene text he records a position described as MKS’, which in the customs law
appears in the Palmyrene text as the equivalent of ‘‘whoever has contracted
for the collection [of the tolls]’’ in the Greek text. It does not however fol-
low that he is a Romanpublicanus. The contractors mentioned in the customs
law are collecting tolls for the city, even if under the terms of regulations
. See D. Schlumberger, ‘‘Les quatre tribus de Palmyre,’’Syria (): , and cf.
M. Gawlikowski,Le temple palmyrénien(), chap. .
. See J. K. Starck,Personal Names in Palmyrene Inscriptions().