Jews and Others
Arabia are not represented. But the claim that there is a common language is
unambiguous, as is, in the context, the use ofdialexisto refer to variations of
pronunciation. There may also have been variations of dialect (in vocabulary
or grammar), but no claim as precise as that is made by Theodoret. The ref-
erence is to spoken language, and there is certainly no allusion to variations
in script.
The non-Greek ethnicities which Theodoret envisages are therefore, on
the one hand, a set of regional groupings, defined by Roman provincial ter-
ritories (one of them,Syroi, being used in the specific sense of inhabitants of
Syria Prima and Secunda), and on the otherSyroiin a wider sense, namely
all those using the relevant language. Are we then confronted with an eth-
nicity, or nationality, which could be seen, by the persons concerned or by
others, as distinct from, or opposed to, that attaching to ‘‘Greeks’’?
As indicated already, there is nothing to suggest the existence, anywhere
within the Near Eastern provinces, of any political formations which were
non-Greek, or ‘‘Syrian,’’ in ideology or official language, and this is true even
of the main cities of the primary area of Syriac Christian culture, Osrhoene
and Mesopotamia (further evidence might of course disprove this generali-
sation, just as we would not necessarily have assumed that Syriac would have
been in use for legal transactions in Osrhoene in the mid-third century, as is
now shown by the three remarkable Syriac parchments of around..).^24
The fact that theChronicle of Edessa, which lists events in the history of the
cityupto.., is in Syriac,^25 does not show that in the period with which
we are concerned the city had used Syriac as its official language. The oppo-
site is indeed implied by the two fourth-century Syriac martyr acts which
recount events in Edessa in the Tetrarchic period, and which reveal a city
whose public vocabulary is Greek.^26
Was there nonetheless a ‘‘Syrian’’ section of society, or a recognisable
Syrianethnos, even if one which existed within political and communal struc-
tures which were predominantly Greek? It is Theodoret again who casts the
most light on this question. Speaking of Ephraim, in the course of giving a
list of the most prominent representatives, both Greek and Latin, of ortho-
. Listed with references in Cotton, Cockle, and Millar (n. ), nos. , , and .
See now H. J. W. Drijvers and J. F. Healey,The Old-Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene
(), app. I, P, P, and P.
. For the Chronicle, see L. Hallier,Texte und UntersuchungenIX (), and F. Millar,
TheRomanNearEast,..–..(), – and app. C. The text is also reprinted in
F. Rosenthal, ed.,An Aramaic HandbookII. (), –. English translation by J. B. Segal,
Edessa: ‘‘The Blessed City’’(), –.
. Millar (n. ), – and app. C.