Local industries do not seem to have been important. The prominent townsmen were engaged in the organization and even the personal conduct of caravans, the discharge of public offices such as those of strategos, secretary, guardian of the wells, presi dent of the banquets of Bel, chief of the market (see NSI. Nos. 114, 115, 121, 122), sometimes the victualling of a Roman expe dition. The capable performance of these functions, which often involved considerable pecuniary sacrifices, ensured public esteem; and to these honours the head of a great house was careful to add the glory of a splendid tomb, consecrated as the "long home" (lit. "house of eternity," cf. Eccles. xii. 5) of himself, his sons and his sons' sons for ever. 'These tombs, which lie outside the city and overlook it from the surrounding hills, a feature char acteristically Arabic, remain the most interesting monuments of Palmyra. Some are lofty towers containing sepulchral chambers in stories; others are house-like buildings with a single chamber and a richly ornamented portico ; the sides of these chambers within are adorned with the names and sculptured portraits of the dead. As a rule the buildings of Palmyra do not possess any architectural individuality, but these tombs are an exception. The style of all the ruins is late classic and highly ornate, but without refinement.
The rise of Palmyra to a position of political importance may be dated from the first imperial period, when the city must have admitted the suzerainty of Rome, for decrees respecting its cus tom-dues were issued by Germanicus (A.D. 17-19) and Cn. Do mitius Corbulo (A.D. 57-66). At the same time the city had by no means surrendered its independence ; even in the days of Vespasian (A.D. 69-79) the distinctive position of Palmyra as an intermediate state between the two great powers of Rome and Parthia was carefully watched. The splendid period of Palmyra (A.D. 130-270), to which the greater part of the inscribed monu ments belong, started from the overthrow of Petra (A.D. 105), which left Palmyra without a competitor for the Eastern trade. Hadrian treated the city with special favour, and on the occasion of his visit in A.D. 13o, granted it the name of Hadriana Palmyra (ntriri trimm NSI. p. 322). Under the same emperor the customs were revised and a new tariff promulgated (April, A.D. 137), can celling the loose system of taxation "by custom" which formerly had prevailed. The great fiscal inscription, which still remains where it was set up, gives the fullest picture of the life and com merce of the city. (NSI. pp. 313-340). The government was vested in the council (3ovM) and people (67),uos), and adminis tered by civil officers with Greek titles, the proedros (president), the grammateus (secretary), the archons, syndics and dekaprotoi (a fiscal council of ten), following the model of a Greek munici pality under the Roman Empire. At a later date, probably un der Septimius Severus or Caracalla (beginning of 3rd century), Palmyra received the ius italicum and the status of a colony; the executive officials of the council and people were called strategoi, equivalent to the Roman duumviri (NSI. Nos. 121, 127) ; and Palmyrenes who became Roman citizens began to take Roman names, usually Septimius or Iulius Aurelius, in addition to their native names.
It was the Parthian wars of the 3rd century which brought Palmyra to the front, and for a brief period raised her to an almost dazzling position as mistress of the Roman East. The inscriptions enable us to follow the rise of one house in particu lar, which prefixed to their Semitic names the Roman gentilicium of Septimius; its members, therefore, had received the citizen ship under Septimius Severus (A.D. 193-211). In the next genera tion Septimius Odainath or Odaenathus, son of Hairan, had at tained the rank of Roman senator (av-yartrucen, Vogile No. 21, NSI. p. 285 n.) conferred no doubt when Alexander Severus visited Palmyra in A.D. 230-231 ; his son again, Septimius Hairan, seems to have been the first of the family to receive the title of Ras Tadmor ("chief of Tadmor") in addition to his Roman rank (NSI. No. 125) ; while his son, the famous Septimius Odainath, commonly known as Odaenathus (q.v.), the husband of Zenobia, received even higher rank, the consular dignity (inran.K6s) which is given him in an inscription dated A.D. 258, in the reign of Valerian (NSI. No. 126). The East was then agitated by the advance of the Parthian Empire under the Sassanidae, and the Palmyrenes with their Roman honours and their Roman civiliza tion, which did not really go much below the surface, had to choose one side or other. Their choice leaned towards Rome mainly because the Roman emperor was further off than the Persian king. In the contests which followed there can be no doubt that the Palmyrene princes cherished the idea of an inde pendent empire of their own, though they never threw over their allegiance to the Roman suzerain until the closing act of the drama. Their opportunity came with the disaster which befell the Roman army under Valerian (q.v.) at Edessa. The Persians swept victoriously over Asia Minor and North Syria; not however without resistance on the part of Odaenathus, who inflicted considerable losses on the bands returning home from the pillage of Antioch. It was probably not long after this that
Odaenathus, with a keen eye for his advantage, made overtures to the Persian king, Shapur I., and when they were rejected he threw himself into the Roman cause. After the death of Valerian, Gallienus succeeded to a merely nominal rule in the East, and made no effort to recover the lost provinces. Thereupon the two leading generals of the Roman army, Macrianus and Callistus, renounced their allegiance and proclaimed the two sons of the former as emperors (A.D. 261). During the crisis Odaenathus remained loyal to Gallienus, and was rewarded for his fidelity by the grant of a position without parallel under ordinary cir cumstances; as hereditary prince of Palmyra he was appointed dux Orientis, a sort of vice-emperor for the East (A.D. 262). He started promptly upon the work of recovery. With his Palmyrene troops, strengthened by what was left of the Roman army corps, he took the offensive against Shapur, defeated him at Ctesiphon, and in a series of brilliant engagements won back the East for Rome. During his absence at the wars, we learn from the in scriptions (A.D. 262-267) that Palmyra was administered by his deputy Septimius Worod, "procurator ducenarius of Caesar our lord," also styled "commandant," as being Odaenathus' viceroy (ap-yawirns, NSI. Nos. 127-129). Then in the zenith of his success Odaenathus was assassinated at Horns (Emesa) along with his eldest son Herodes (A.D. 266-267). The fortunes of Palmyra now passed into the vigorous hands of Zenobia (q.v.), who had been actively supporting her husband in his policy. Zenobia seems to have ruled on behalf of her young son Wahab-allath or Atheno anus as the name is Graecized, who counts the years of his reign from the date of his father's death. Under Odaenathus Palmyra had extended her sway over Syria and Arabia but now the troops of Zenobia, numbering it is said 70,000, proceeded to occupy Egypt ; the Romans under Probus resisted vigorously but without avail, and by the beginning of A.D. 270, when Aurelian succeeded Claudius as emperor, Wahab-allath was governing Egypt with the title of "king." His coins of 27o struck at Alex andria bear the legend v(ir) c(onsularis) R(omanorum) im(per ator) d(ux) R(omanorum) and display his head beside that of Aurelian, but the latter alone is styled Augustus. Meanwhile the Palmyrenes were pushing their influence not only in Egypt but in Asia Minor while still .professing to act under the terms of the joint rule conferred by Gallienus. Then in the course of the year A.D. 270-271 came the inevitable and open breach. In Palmyra Zenobia is still called "queen" NSI. No. 131; cf. Wadd. 2628), but in distant quarters, such as Egypt, she and her son claim the dignity of Augustus; Wahab-allath (5th year) begins to issue coins at Alexandria without the head of Aure lian and bearing the imperial title; and Zenobia's coins bear the same. It was at this time (A.D. 271) that the two chief Palmyrene generals Zabda and Zabbai, set up a statue to the deceased Odaen athus and gave him the sounding designation of "king of kings and restorer (or perhaps corrector) of the whole city" (NSI. No. 13o). These assumptions marked a definite rejection of all alle giance to Rome. Aurelian, the true Augustus, quickly grasped the situation. At the close of A.D. 270 Probus brought back Egypt into the empire; then in 271 Aurelian made preparations for a great campaign against the seat of the mischief itself. He ap proached by way of Cappadocia, where he reduced the Palmyrene garrisons, and thence through Cilicia he entered Syria. At Antioch the Palmyrene forces under Zabda attempted to resist him, but they were compelled to fall back, and at Emesa they were de feated in a stiffly contested battle. The way was now open to Palmyra and probably in the spring of A.D. 272 Aurelian captured the city. In accordance with the judicious policy which he had observed in Asia Minor and at Antioch, he granted full pardon to the citizens ; only the chief officials and advisers were put to death ; Zenobia and her son were captured and reserved for his triumph when he returned to Rome. But the final stage in the conquest of the city was yet to come. A few months later, in the autumn of 272—the latest inscription is dated August 272 (Vogue, No. 16)—the Palmyrenes revolted, killed the Roman garrison quartered in the city, and proclaimed one Antiochus as their chief. Aurelian heard of it just when he had crossed the Hellespont on his way home. He returned instantly before any one expected him, and took the city by surprise. Palmyra was destroyed and the population put to the sword. Aurelian restored the walls and the great Temple of the Sun (A.D. 273 ) ; but the city never recovered its splendour or importance. The famous Palmyrene archers, however, served in the Roman army in Africa and elsewhere, even in Britain, as the inscription now at South Shields gives evidence (NSI. pp. 25o, 312 ; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, ii. g2).