PALMY'RA, the name given by time Greeks to a great and splendid city of upper Syria. Its original Hebrew name was Tadmor, which, like tne Greek word, means "city of palms." It was built according to the writers of Kings (Book I. chap. ix. verse 18) and Chronicles (Book II. chapter viii. verse 4), by Solomon in the 10th c. B.C.; but it is more probable that he only enlarged it. It occupied a fertile oasis, well watered, and abounding in palm trees. Barren and naked mountains overlook it from the w,, and to the c and s, stretches the illimitable sandy desert. Palmyra was, in the Solo °manic age, a bulwark of the Hebrew kingdom against the wandering hordes of Bedouins;, but its early history is obscure and insignificant. After the fall of Selucia, it became a great center of commercial intercourse between time e. and the w. of Asia. Its commercial importance, wealth and magnificence greatly increased after the time of Trajan, who subjected the whole country to the Roman empire. in the 3d c., Odenathus; a Syrian, founded here an empire, which, after his mu•ler, rose to great prosperity under his wife, Zettobla (q.v.), and included both Syria and Mesopotamia; but this was not of long dura tion, for tin! Boman emperor Aurelian conquered it in the year 275, and the city was soon after almost entirely destroyed in revenge for the slaughter of a Roman garrison. It
never recovered from this _blow, although Justinian fortified it anew. The Saraceus destroyed,it in 744. A village called Tedmor, inhabited by a few Arab families, now occu pies the site. The ruins of the ancient city, white and dazzling in the Syrian sun, excite. at a little distance, the admiration of all beholders; but when examined in detail, they are said to be far from imposing, though in regard to this latter point opinions differ. They were visited by English merchants resident at Aleppo in 1691, and again by Messrs. "Wood and Dawkins in 1751, and since then by a vast number of travelers. The ruins of a tem ple of Beal, the sun god, are, however, confessedly magnificent. The language of ancient Palmvrene appears, from inscriptions which remain, to have been an Aramaic language. See Murray's or Baedeker's Handbook. for Syria and Palestine; Xogtle's Syria anemic