Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

164 5 Arabia between the great powers
important centre of trading and trans-shipment. 75 Neither in Hatra nor in
Dura-Europos did new settlements emerge afterwards.
More than anything else, however, the conquest of Palmyra by Aurelian
in the year 273 and the end of Palmyrene rule were decisive. 76 Within a few
decades the established local powers in Syria and Mesopotamia had disappeared,
and the vacuum they had left was not filled by either of the two
great powers. 77 As a consequence, the infrastructure and protection that the
autonomous centres Hatra and Palmyra had provided for the entire Eastern
trade collapsed. The geographer Strabo refers to the possible problems
this caused for the individual merchant who had to cover long distances
safely. As part of his description of the trading routes in Mesopotamia he
mentions that the nomadic or semi-nomadic Arabs along the Euphrates
demanded such high tolls that several routes had become entirely
unprofitable. 78
In the fourth century the risks for travellers in the region were still enormous.
According to Hieronymus, nomadic Saracens were notorious in the
barren country along the public road between Beroia and Edessa. Travellers
formed larger groups in order to resist the threat but this did not always
help. In much detail the church historian describes how the nomads, riding
horses or camels, attacked a group of about seventy travellers, robbed
them and then disappeared. 79 From the end of the second century onwards
Rome reacted to these dangers with a stronger military presence in the
Eastern provinces. 80 However, in particular the introduction of a new saddle
for camel riders during the fourth century increased the threat posed
by the now extraordinarily mobile and united Saracens. Interestingly, in
the first century Palmyra made use of a militia made up of camel-riders,
cavalry, mounted archers and light infantry, which was in charge of protecting
not only the territory of Palmyra but also its trading routes against
raids. 81
In many ways the history of Hatra and Palmyra thus illustrates the crucial
role Arabia played in Roman–Persian relations as early as in the third
75 It is unclear, however, if the decline of Dura-Europos as a trans-shipment centre for the Palmyrene
long-distance trade began earlier, possibly linked to the presence of Roman garrisons in the city.
The ports of both Anath, where soldiers from Palmyra were based (see Driven 1999: 35 n. 137) and
Kirkēsion (Will 1992: 89) would have been other options.
76 On the end of Palmyrene rule, the conquest of Palmyra and the fall of the city see Downey 1950:
57–68; Bowersock 1983: 130–7; Shahîd 1984a: 151–2; Stoneman 1992 and Hartmann 2001: 375–87.
77 On the consequences of the fall of Palmyra for the policy of the great powers see Funke 1996: 228–30.
78 Strabo xvi.1.27.
79 Hier. Vit. Malchi 4; on this text see Fuhrmann 1977: 41–89.
80 Kuhnen 1999: 220; Mayerson 1989: 71–9. 81 Hartmann 2001: 54 and n. 40.