The Problem of Hellenistic Syria pottery appears there before the reign of Antiochus IV.^36 Theevidencefor
continuity of settlement is therefore ambivalent; and while the evidence for
the Hellenistic city remains unpublished, it is impossible to say whether it
would suggest the implantation of an organised settlement at a specific mo-
ment. But if Epiphaneia did receive an actual settlement of Greeks, there
was certainly no such settlement in Jerusalem in the s, when the popu-
lation briefly acquired the title ‘‘Antiocheis.’’ The settlement on the Akra in
Jerusalem in the s was another matter.
The provable extent of organised Macedonian or Greek settlement is thus
limited to one area, north Syria. Other towns which acquired Greek names
may well also have received settlements, but some certainly did not. If we
consider the entire non-desert area west of the Euphrates, Greek colonial
settlement must be regarded as a relatively limited phenomenon, largely re-
stricted in time also, to the reign of Seleucus I. Whatever created the con-
ditions for a large-scale transformation, fusion, or conflict, if anything did,
it was not, except in northern Syria, a massive process of colonisation.
Was there none the less extensive private immigration, either for settle-
ment on the land or for other purposes, such as trading in slaves? Here again
we have to say that we do not know. We can easily illustrate, for instance, the
presence in Syria of Ptolemaic soldiers from various parts of the Greek world;
the inscription from Ras Ibn Hani on the coast eight kilometres north of
Laodicea^37 which records some of these is the earliest Greek public inscrip-
tion from northern Syria, dating to about the second half of the third cen-
tury. Excavations on this site have shown that a fortified Greek town, whose
name remains unknown, was established there in the same period, probably
by the Ptolemies.^38 Greeks also entered the service of local dynasts: a papyrus
from the Zenon archive shows us soldiers from Cnidus, Caunus, Macedon,
Miletus, Athens, and Aspendus serving in under Tobias in Ammonitis
(PCZ CPJI, ). In the second century we come across a Macedonian
settled at Abae in Arabia and married to an Arabian wife (Diod. Sic. , , ),
or apoliteumaof Caunians settled in Sidon (OGIS). No doubt we could
accumulate further illustrations; but it would hardly be significant, since it
would be more than surprising if there had been no Greek private settlement
in this region. But it does have to be emphasised that there is no positive evi-
. A. P. Christensen and C. F. Johansen,Hama. Fouilles et recherches –III.:les
potéries hellénistiques et les terres sigillées orientales(), .
. J.-P. Rey-Coquais, ‘‘Inscription grecque découverte à Ras Ibn Hani: stèle de mercé-
naires lagides sur la côte syrienne,’’Syria (): –.
. P. Leriche, ‘‘La fouille de la ville hellénistique d’Ibn Hani: bilan provisoire ,’’ in
M. Yon, ed.,Archéologie au Levant: recueil à la mémoire de Roger Saidah(), ff.