Paul of Samosata Thus the wider background provides an ample justification for posing
the question whether the development of Syriac literature, almost entirely
Christian, and of the distinctive Syriac script, reflects some wider cultural
and political movement, to which both the rise of Palmyra and heretical
movements in the church within Roman Syria might conceivably be related.
All the places which are most relevant—Osrhoene, Palmyra, and Samo-
sata—belong to that wide region on either side of the Euphrates over which
Roman rule was steadily extended in the course of the first three centuries of
the Empire. Beyond this area too, in Parthian and Sassanid Mesopotamia and
Iran, it is generally accepted that cultural changes were taking place, with a
steady eclipse of Hellenism in the surviving Greek cities in the later Parthian
period;^22 though it is notable that, as late as the end of the first century..,
a Greek geographer could be produced by distant Charax at the head of the
Persian Gulf.^23 Nor is it clear that it was mere vainglory that led to Greek
being one of the three languages of the great inscription of Shapur I on the
Kaaba of Zoraster at Naqsh-i-Rustam.^24
The rise of Syriac belongs to the ‘‘frontier’’ area along the Euphrates and
to Osrhoene, with its capital Edessa. The Syriac cursive script is first attested
on an inscription of.. from Birecik on the left bank of the Euphra-
tes, and a couple of other inscriptions come from the same region later in
the century.^25 More important is the earliest surviving Syriac document on
perishable material, the deed of sale written at Edessa in and found at
Dura-Europos.^26 From Edessa we have the apparently eye-witness account
of the flood of.., later incorporated in the SyriacChronicle of Edessa,^27
with H. M. Cotton, ‘‘The Languages of the Legal and Administrative Documents from the
Judaean Desert,’’ZPE (): –.
. For the Greek colonies and cities of Mesopotamia, see, e.g., A. H. M. Jones,Cities
of the Eastern Roman Provinces^2 (), chap. IX; N. Pigulevskaja,Les villes de l’état iranien aux
époques parthe et sassanide(), esp. chaps. I–IV; M. A. R. Colledge,The Parthians(),
–.
. For the date of Isidorus of Charax, see S. A. Nodelman, ‘‘A Preliminary History of
Characene,’’Berytus (): , on –.
. For the text, A. Maricq, ‘‘Res Gestae Divi Shaporis,’’Syria (): .
. A. Maricq, ‘‘La plus ancienne inscription syriaque; celle de Birecik,’’Syria ():
; cf. J. Pirenne, ‘‘Aux origines de la graphie syriaque,’’Syria (): , and E. Jenni,
‘‘Die altsyrischen Inschriften, –. Jahrhundert n. Chr.,’’TheologischeZeitschrift (): .
.P. Dura, re-edited by J. A. Goldstein, ‘‘The Syriac Bill of Sale from Dura-Europos,’’
JNES (): ; cf. H. M. Cotton, W. Cockle, and F. Millar, ‘‘The Papyrology of the
Roman Near East: A Survey,’’JRS (): no. .
. Ed. L. Hallier,Texte und UntersuchungenIX. (); see –.