OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi ANCIENT SYRIA OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi ANCIENT SYRIA a three thousand year history TREVOR BRYCE 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Trevor Bryce 2014 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2013942192 ISBN 978–0–19–964667–8 Printed in Italy by L.E.G.O. S.P.A.—Lavis TN Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi Acknowledgements It has been a pleasure to work with OUP’s editorial staff, particularly Luciana O’Flaherty and Matthew Cotton. And I would like to thank Dorothy McCarthy for her meticulous work on the copy-editing process and David Pelteret for his thorough proofreading and many valuable suggestions. My sincere thanks are due also to Geoff Tully for his important contributions to the preparation of the maps, and to the School of History, Philosophy, Reli- gion and Classics, University of Queensland, for its valuable infrastructural support. I am also most grateful to OUP’s anonymous external reviewer, from whose comments I have gained much benefi t in preparing the fi nal manuscript of this book. The idea for writing this book arose partly from lectures I gave during a cruise to Egypt and Syria on the ship Aegean Odyssey . Trevor Bryce University of Queensland OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi Contents List of Maps ix List of Figures xi Abbreviations xiii The Tale to be Told 1 PART I. THE BRONZE AGES 1. The First Kingdoms 11 2. The International Intruders 23 3. The Amorite Warrior-Chiefs 46 4. The Empires Collide 62 5. The End of an Era 86 PART II. FROM THE IRON AGE TO THE MACEDONIAN CONQUEST 6. The Age of Iron 97 7. The Wolf upon the Fold: The Neo-Assyrian Invasions 114 8. From Nebuchadnezzar to Alexander 138 PART III. SYRIA UNDER SELEUCID RULE 9. The Rise of the Seleucid Empire 159 10. The Seleucid Empire in its Prime 179 11. The Maccabean Rebellion 199 12. The Decline and Fall of the Seleucids 207 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi viii contents PART IV. SYRIA UNDER ROMAN RULE 13. The Coming of the Romans 221 14. Nabataean Excursus 241 15. The Syrian Emperors 247 16. The Crisis Years 258 PART V. THE RISE AND FALL OF PALMYRA 17. From Desert Oasis to Royal Capital: The Story of Palmyra 275 18. Syria’s ‘King of Kings’: The Life and Death of Odenathus 286 19. Zenobia, Queen of the East 294 The Last Farewell 319 Appendix I: Chronology of Major Events and Periods 324 Appendix II: King-Lists 332 Appendix III: Literary Sources 339 Notes 341 Bibliography 364 Picture Acknowledgements 368 Index 369 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi List of Maps 1. Modern Syria and its neighbours 6 2. Syria in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages 12 3. Late Bronze Age Anatolia, northern Syria, and northern Mesopotamia 24 4. The Iron Age kingdoms of northern Syria and south-eastern Anatolia 99 5. The Neo-Assyrian World 115 6. The Persian Empire 146 7. Sites on Alexander’s route as far as Babylon 151 8. Initial western allocations to Alexander’s heirs 160 9. The Near Eastern world in 200 bc 188 10. Syria in its Roman Near Eastern context 222 11. Syria and north-western Mesopotamian cities in the Roman imperial period 228 12. Zenobia’s ‘empire’ 305 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi List of Figures 1. Ebla, Palace G 13 2. Idrimi, king of Alalah 33 3. Ankhesenamun and Tutankhamun on the lid of a box from Tutankhamun’s tomb 44 4. Byblos (Bronze Age Gubla) 51 5. Akhenaten, from the temple of Aten at Karnak 53 6. Ramesses II, Abu Simbel 73 7. Hittite warriors at Qadesh, from temple of Luxor 75 8. Palace entrance, Ugarit 87 9. Sea Peoples, Temple of Ramesses III, Medinet Habu 92 10. Storm God, Carchemish 102 11. Philistine prisoners, Medinet Habu Temple of Ramesses III 109 12. Tiglath-pileser III 131 13. Zedekiah brought in chains before Nebuchadnezzar (from Petrus Comestor’s ‘Bible Historiale’ 1670) 144 14. Darius prepares to fl ee the battlefi eld of Issus 152 15. Seleucus I ‘the Conqueror’ 165 16. Antiochus IV Epiphanes 191 17. The Maccabees , painting by Wojciech Stattler (1842) 203 18. Antiochus VIII Grypus (‘Hook-Nose’) 216 19. Pompey the Great 223 20. The plunder of Jerusalem, Arch of Titus, Rome 234 21. Petra, the Khazneh (commonly known as the ‘Treasury’) 244 22. The Severan line of succession 249 23. Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, and Caracalla 251 24. Shapur I and the submission of Philip and Valerian 259 25. Valerian humiliated, sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger 270 26. The Grand Colonnade, Palmyra 281 27. Queen Zenobia’s Last Look Upon Palmyra, painting by Herbert Schmalz 315 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi Abbreviations ABC A. K. Grayson (1975), Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles , New York: J. J. Augustin. (Specifi c references are made to both the Chronicle (Chron.) number and the relevant pages in Grayson’s edition.) ANET J. B. Pritchard (1969), Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament , 3rd edn, Princeton: Princeton University Press. ARAB D. D. Luckenbill (1928), Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (2 vols.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press (repr. Greenwood Press: New York, 1968). Aust. M. Austin (2006), The Hellenistic World from Alexander to the Roman Conquest , 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beck. G. Beckman (1999), Hittite Diplomatic Texts, 2nd edn, Atlanta: Schol- ars Press. CAH Cambridge Ancient History. CANE J. M. Sasson (ed.) (1995), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (4 vols.), New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. CS (I, II, III) W. W. Hallo and K. L. Younger (eds.) (1997, 2000, 2002), The Context of Scripture (3 vols.), Leiden, New York, and Cologne: Brill. DCM F. Joannès (ed.) (2001), Dictionnaire de la civilisation mésopotamienne , Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont. DL M. H. Dodgeon and S. N. C. Lieu (1991), The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars AD 226–363: A Documentary History , London and New York: Routledge. EA The El-Amarna letters , most recently ed. and transl. by W. Moran (1992), The Amarna Letters , Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press (cited by document nos.). Eccl. Hist. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History. Epit . Justin’s epitome (i.e. abridged version) of the Historiae Philippicae (‘Philippic Histories’) of Pompeius Trogus. FGrH F. Jacoby (ed.) (1923–59), Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker , Berlin: Weidmann. FHG C. Müller (ed.) (1841–70), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (5 vols.), Paris: Ambroise Firmin-Didot. OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/20/2013, SPi xiv abbreviations HCBD P. J. Achtemeier (ed.) (1996), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary , New York: HarperCollins. HA Historia Augusta = Scriptores Historiae Augustae. JA Josephus, Jewish Antiquities. JW Josephus, Jewish Wars. OCD S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds.) (1996), Oxford Classical Dictionary , 3rd edn, Oxford: Oxford University Press. OEANE E. M. Meyers (ed.) (1997), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East , New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. OGIS Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae (2 vols.), ed. W. Dittenberger (1903–5), Leipzig: Hirzel. PRU IV J. Nougayrol (1956), Le Palais Royal d’Ugarit IV (Mission de Ras Shamra, Tome IX), Paris: Klincksieck. RIMA 2 A. K. Grayson (1991), The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Assyrian Periods, Vol. 2. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC I (1114 – 859 BC) , Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto. RIMA 3 A. K. Grayson (1996), The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Assyrian Periods, Vol. 3. Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC II (858 – 745 BC) , Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto. RS Tablets from Ras Shamra > ‘translated in’ OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 11/26/2013, SPi The Tale to be Told Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale told . (Shakespeare, Macbeth ) 1 he purpose of this book is to tell a story, more precisely a series of Tstories and sometimes stories within stories.