552 Palmyra
the blessing of palms. The Passion according to the
gospel of Saint Matthew was read at MASSon that day.
The blessed palms were kept in houses after the cere-
mony to commemorate the passion.
See alsoHOLYWEEK.
Further reading:Thomas J. Talley, The Origins of the
Liturgical Year(New York: Pueblo, 1986).
Palmyra (Tadmor) This ruined city was at an oasis in
the Syrian desert, northeast of DAMASCUS. It contained
monumental ruins of a great city and was one of the most
important cultural centers of the ancient world. It united
the art and architecture of GREECEand ROMEwith that of
Persia or IRAN.
During the third century, wars between Rome and Per-
sia intensified. In 260 the emperor Valerian (r. 253–260)
himself was captured by a SASSANIANking. Palmyra was
caught in between, as an import stop on the TRADEroutes
between the two great empires. It tried to be independent of
both, changing for this purpose from a MERCHANTrepublic
into a kingdom under Odenathus (d. 267), who allied with
Rome and had considerable military success against the
Persians by 267. But at the end of 267, Odenathus and his
heir to the throne, were mysteriously assassinated. Zenobia
(d. ca. 275), the king’s second wife and mother of a very
young son, was probably involved in the murder.
Zenobia quickly showed herself to be an able
monarch, who was boundlessly ambitious for herself, for
her son, and for her people. Within six years she had
affected the whole life of Palmyra. In 270, claiming descent
from Cleopatra, she took possession of SYRIAand Lower
EGYPT, even sending her armies into ANATOLIA. All this
was in defiance of Rome and the emperor Aurelian
(r. 270–275), who left the northern front, raised a new
army, crossed Anatolia, and captured Palmyra after a short
siege. Zenobia fled east to seek help from the Sassanians.
However, Romans recaptured her as she was crossing the
Euphrates in 272 and took her back to Rome, where she
was forced to ride in Aurelian’s triumph in 274. She died
soon afterward in comfortable exile at Tivoli.
The once splendid and wealthy city was pillaged and
destroyed in 273. The emperor DIOCLETIANestablished a
military camp to the west of the city. Palmyra never
recovered its position, now replaced in trading networks
by ALEPPOand Damascus. The temples of Palmyra were
converted first into churches and then into MOSQUESafter
the ARABconquest, with the ruins of the city sheltering
only a few peasants. It was rediscovered by Western
adventurers in the 18th century.
Further reading:Malcolm A. R. Colledge, The Art of
Palmyra(London: Thames and Hudson, 1976); Robert G.
Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the
Coming of Islam(New York: Routledge, 2001).
panel painting SeePAINTING.
Pannonia From the second century to its occupation
by the Magyars in 895, the name Pannonia was applied to
a region in the Carpathian basin on the north bank of the
Danube in central Europe, now modern HUNGARY. Many
migrating peoples passed through it on their way into the
Roman Empire. It was ideal for nomadic steppe peoples
with its large grassy plains.
Its initial native population was made up of Thra-
cians, Illyrians, and Celts. From the midsecond century,
Christianity entered southern Pannonia. From the first
barbarian incursions of the late third century, the VAN-
DALS, the Sarmatians, the GOTHS, the ALANS, and the
HUNSall moved in it. In 433, it passed officially to the
rule of the Huns. These events led to a depopulation of
the region, as insecurity and chaotic changes in political
control prevailed.
The OSTROGOTHSprofited from the collapse of the
Hunnic federation after ATTILA’s death in 453. They
occupied Pannonia until the early 470s, when they
moved into ITA LY. The LOMBARDSfollowed them into
Pannonia and then into Italy between 527 and 568. The
AVARSthen extended their rule over the whole of the
Carpathian basin, intermingling with SLAVS who had
recently arrived in the region. CHARLEMAGNEconquered
the Avars in 791 and 797, and Frankish and German
colonists were settled among the Avar and Slav popula-
tions. The internal disputes of the CAROLINGIANFAMILY
led them to appeal for aid from the Magyars in the
second half of the ninth century. In 894 the chief of
these Hungarian tribes, ÁRPÁD, attacked Carolingian
Pannonia, beginning the Magyar conquest of the
Carpathian basin. The region then became the medieval
kingdom of HUNGARY.
Further reading:A. Lengyel and G. T. B. Radan, eds.,
The Archaeology of Roman Pannonia(Lexington: Univer-
sity Press of Kentucky, 1980); Jeno Fitz, The Great Age of
Pannonia: (A.D. 193–284),trans. Ildikó Varga (Budapest:
Corvina, 1982); András Mócsy, Pannonia and Upper Moe-
sia: A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman
Empire,trans. and ed. Sheppard Frere (London: Rout-
ledge and K. Paul, 1974).papacy The medieval pope was the bishop of ROME
and patriarch of the West. He claimed succession from
Saint Peter, whom Christ named as head of the apostles.
During the Middle Ages, the separate evolution of the
Western and Eastern Churches, doctrinal and political
differences, and the efforts of the popes themselves to
give their primacy a practical reality divided the Byzan-
tine, or Greek Orthodox, Church and the Latin Church.
Mutual EXCOMMUNICATION and anathema occurred in- The papally launched CRUSADEof 1204 that sacked
CONSTANTINOPLEsoured relations even more. Unsuccess-
ful attempts at reconciliation followed at the councils of
LYON in 1274 and FLORENCE in 1439. The supreme