Jews and Others
shelf: Edessa, Carrhae, Rhesaena, Nisibis, Singara. It was this area into which
Roman forces advanced at about the same time as they occupied Dura in the
s, and which was to be made Roman provincial territory in the s by
Septimius Severus. We know that Greek was in use here, but also that Syriac
(a dialect of Aramaic) developed here as a written language in a distinctive
script with its own literature. Once again, we have clear evidence from the
Roman period of connections between this Syriac-speaking zone and Dura.^32
But from the Parthian period there is silence.
If we were searching for sources of external influence on the culture of
Dura, a more promising direction would be to look south-eastwards, some
kilometres down the Euphrates to Babylon, or a little less to Ctesiphon
and Seleucia on the Tigris. For it is well known, firstly, that the Palmyrene
presence was felt not only in Dura but further south-eastwards along the
river towards this ancient centre of civilisation.^33 It should be stressed that
we do know that an Akkadian culture still existed in Babylonia; cuneiform
writing remained in use at least until towards the end of the first century..
This area is relevant not merely because it is beyond question that there was a
trade route which ran along the river, but because both Cumont and Rostov-
tzeff from the beginning saw Dura as promising to reveal the culture of a
Mesopotamiancity—which, literally speaking, it was not.^34 There was how-
ever a sense in which ‘‘Parthian’’ Dura, lying on the river, did indeed belong
to ‘‘Mesopotamia,’’ for the parchment of..(textton.above)men-
tions aparalēptēs(tax collector) andstratēgosof Mesopotamia and Parapotamia,
andArabarchē. The document was written at P(h)aliga, near the confluence
of the Chabur and the Euphrates, but found at Dura. A much more profound
question is whether the excavations have revealed anything to justify the
presupposition on the part of Rostovtzeff and Cumont that the local culture
of Dura was in any significant sense ‘‘Mesopotamian.’’
If there is, it lies in the nature of the cult centres or temples which were
constructed in the Parthian period, from the late first century..to the
middle of the second century..It is very suggestive that one of the few
major studies of any aspect of Parthian Dura is Susan B. Downey’s book
on ‘‘Mesopotamian’’ religious architecture from Alexander to the Parthian
. See esp.P. Dura(n. ), no. Cotton, Cockle, and Millar (n. ), no. , a Syriac
parchment of.. found in Dura; now reprinted as P in appendix I of H. J. W. Drijvers
andJ.F.Healey,The Old-Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene(); cf. F. Millar,The
Roman Near East, ..–..(), chap. .
. Gawlikowski (n. ).
. Millar (n. ).