Some years after this, we find Diocletian erecting several buildings here; but what they were is not stated. Justinian, also, repaired Palmyra, which, according to Procopius, had been almost entirely deserted. These repairs, however, are supposed to have reference rather to strength than to ornament; and this is the last mention of Palmyra in Roman history.
The various fortunes of Palmyra, to and from the time of Mahomet’s appearance, are scarcely known, except that it was considered as a place of great strength; and that in the twelfth century, A. D. 1171, there were, according to Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the spot in that year, two thousand Jews in it.
Palmyra, according to the Arabs, once occupied an area nearly ten miles in circumference, and is supposed to have been reduced to its present confined and ruined state by the quantities of sand[64] driven on it by whirlwinds.
The walls of the city were flanked by square towers. They were three miles in circumference, and it is imagined that they included the great temple. What remains there are of the wall, do not look, according to Mr. Wood, unlike the work of Justinian; and may be part of the repairs mentioned by Procopius; and the highest antiquity anything else can claim is the time of the Mamelukes.
| A SHORT CHRONICLE OF PALMYRA. | |
| (From Sellerus). | |
| Anno Pers. Jul. 3720. Mund. 3010. | Palmyra, built by Solomon after he had finished the temple of Jerusalem. |
| P. J. 4125. M. 3415. | Destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, before he laid siege to Jerusalem. |
| P. J. 4673. M. 3963. V. C. Varr. 713, ante Christ 41. | Pillaged by Mark Antony. |
| Anno Christi. 122. | Hadrian, Imp. 6, went into the East, and is supposedto have rebuilt Palmyra; in consequenceof which it assumed the name of Hadrianople.At this period Malenthon was a second timesecretary of the city. |
| 264. | Odenathus, having roused the Persians, is declaredAugustus by Gallienus. |
| 267. | Odenathus, with his son Herodianus, slain byMæonius, who assumes the sovereignty ofPalmyra; but is himself slain a few daysafter. Then Zenobia assumes the empire inher own name, and those of her sons. |
| Circa 216. | Palmyra made a Roman colony by Caracalla, inhis expedition into Parthia. |
| 227. | The republic assisted Alexander Severus againstArtaxerxes, king of Persia; Zenobia being their general. |
| 242/3. | The republic assisted Gordian against the Persians. |
| 260. | Valerian taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia. |
| A. D. 267/8. | Zenobia routed Gallienus’s general, Herodianus.Vabellathus assumes the empire. |
| 263. | Claudius chosen emperor of Rome. |
| 270. | Zenobia conquers Egypt by her general Zabdas. |
| 272. | Palmyra taken by Aurelian. |
| 273. | Zenobia follows in the triumph of Aurelian at Rome. |
| 298. | Hierocles, governor of Palmyra, under Dioclesian. |
| 527/8. | Justinian repairs and fortifies Palmyra. |
| 634/9. | Palmyra subjected by the Mahometans; Jabala,the son of Al Ilum, being then lord of Tadmor,and king of Gassan. |
| 659. | The battle of Tadmor, between Datracus and Adis. |
| 746. | Solyman, the pseudo-caliph, beaten by Merwan,fled to Tadmor. |
| 1172. | Palmyra visited by Benjamin of Tudela. |
| 1678. | Palmyra visited by some English merchants,attended by forty servants and muleteers, whofirst informed Europe, that such splendid ruinsas those of Tadmor were in existence. At thistime Melbam was Emir. |
| 1691. | The English merchants visit Palmyra a secondtime; the Emir being Hassine. |
| 1693. | Dôr, Emir of Palmyra[65]. |
We shall now give place to accounts in respect to the first impressions, made by these ruins on the minds of different travellers.
Mr. Halifax says[66], “the city itself appears to have been of a large extent by the space now taken up by the ruins;” but that there are no footsteps of any walls remaining, nor is it possible to judge of the ancient figure of the place. The present inhabitants, as they are poor, miserable, dirty people, so they have shut themselves up, to the number of about thirty or forty families, in little huts made of dirt, within the walls of a spacious court, which inclosed a most magnificent heathen temple: thereinto also Mr. Halifax’s party entered, the whole village being gathered together at the door; whether to stand upon their defence in case the strangers proved enemies (for some of them had guns in their hands), or out of mere curiosity to gaze, he knew not. However the guide, who was an Arab whom Assyne their king had sent to conduct them through the village, being a man known among them, they had an easy admittance; and, with a great many welcomes in their language, were led to the sheik’s house, with whom they took up their abode. “And to mention here what the place at first view represented, certainly the world itself could not afford the like mixture of remains of greatest state and magnificence, together with the extremity of poverty and wretchedness.” The nearest parallel Mr. Halifax could think of, was that of the temple of Baal, destroyed by Jehu, and converted into a draught-house.
“We had scarce passed the sepulchres,” says Mr. Wood, “when the hills opening discovered to us all at once the greatest quantity of ruins we had ever seen, all of white marble; and beyond them, towards the Euphrates, a flat waste as far as the eye could reach, without any object that showed either life or motion.”
When Mr. Wood’s party arrived, they were conducted to one of the huts, of which there were about thirty, in the court of the great temple. The inhabitants of both sexes were well-shaped, and the women, though very swarthy, had good features. They were veiled; but did not so scrupulously conceal their faces as the Eastern women generally do. They paint the ends of their fingers red, their lips blue, and their eyebrows and eyelashes black[67].