Jews and Others
myrene inscriptions from Dura, which continues into the Roman period, is
only one aspect of a range of evidence showing a Palmyrene presence along
the various routes across the steppe from the city to the Euphrates and along
the river itself.^18 We might be tempted to think of the evidence from Dura
written in that variety of Semitic script which is normally labelled as ‘‘Pal-
myrene’’ as being better described as simply that characteristic of the wide
desert zone embracing the Euphrates. But in fact some items unambiguously
name Palmyra (TDMWR); and it is better to accept that in a quite signifi-
cant sense Dura, while part of the Parthian Empire, did also come within the
Palmyrene zone of influence. By the early first century..at least, Palmyra
itself was clearly within the sphere of Roman control. So it was more than
a mere parallel in the pace of urban development which linked Dura to the
Mediterranean world of the Roman Empire.
Thirdly, the two inscriptions of the s..are very significant in that,
like the vast majority of dated documents from Dura, both are dated by the
Seleucid era beginning in October ..The Palmyrene one dates from
(Seleucid) year and the Greek from . As was later to be the case with
Syriac documents and literary texts, the now defunct Seleucid Empire lived
on in Dura through the use of its era. Though the subject of this paper is the
culture of ‘‘Parthian’’ Dura rather than its political relationships, it is worth
asking briefly how we would in fact know, on the basis of the evidence from
the site itself, that Dura actually had indeed been under the Parthian kings.
The evidence is in fact quite limited. There are no sculptures, reliefs, or wall
paintings representing any of the Parthian monarchs, and there is no trace of
any institutions for their cult (by contrast, we have already noted a priest of
Seleucus Nicator who was in post in..; and we will see later a sculptural
representation of him dating from the Parthian period). The only images
of these kings from the site are those on the coins found there.^19 These in
fact cover the reigns both before and after the period of Parthian rule in
Dura (and are accompanied by coins from many other sources), so the numis-
matic evidence alone might not serve to prove that Dura had been within
the Parthian domain. There are at no stage any coins minted by Dura itself,
so this (potentially) unambiguous form of recognition of a sovereign is also
not present.
Equally, there are in fact no inscriptions from ‘‘Parthian’’ Dura which spe-
cifically name any of the Parthian kings. The nearest which the epigraphic
material comes to envisaging a wider governmental context of which Dura
. M. Gawlikowski, ‘‘Palmyre et l’Euphrate,’’Syria (): –.
. A. R. Bellinger, ed.,Final ReportVI:The Coins().