• Palmyra was an Aramean city, thickly over laid with Greek culture. Its municipality was patterned after those of the other Greek cities in the Roman Empire. Its officials had Greek titles. With the district around it, it formed a separate tariff union. the customs being collected by the community itself. The tariff of duties. engraved on stone, found in 1882. is in Palmy rene and Greek. The caravans formed regular associations, the leaders of which were the promi nent and influential men of the place. There { were also guilds of goldsmiths and silversmiths. Remains of a Jewish synagogue were found there ! by Euting in 1883, and Mitwoch in 1899. The • ruins of Palmyra were discovered by Hunting ton in 1678 and were visited by Wood and Dawkins in 1751. Since then many travelers have described these ruins and have given an idea of the beauty and stateliness of this city in the desert at the time of its grandeur. The great temple of Baal had a colonnade of 390 columns of the Corinthian order. aml was sur rounded by walls 50 feet high. There must have been numerous other shriven., as the Palmy rene pantheon was quite extensive. The walls of Justinian still remain, as well as the ruins of the aqueduct and many beautifully carved com memorative towers. The Palmyrene language
belonged to the western branch of the .Aramaic family. The script is a development of the Ara maic branch of Semitic writing and is the direct parent of the square Hebrew. A large number of grave inscriptions have been found, not only in Palmyra itself, but also in Rome, Africa. and Britain, the latter set up by soldiers of Roman legions at one time quartered in Palmyra. Most of the grave inscriptions accompanied by re liefs of the dead persons, most beautifully exe cuted. The inscriptions are often bilingual and two have been found in Dacia only in Latin. Other inscriptions have been found engraved upon clay medallions, which evidently served as talismans. Consult: Mommsen. Itomische Ge schichte, vol. v., ch. ix. (3d ed., Berlin, 1886) ; Von Oppenheim, Font Mittelmecr zum Persisehen Golf, vol. i.. eh. viii. (Berlin, 1899) ; Wright, decount of Palmyra and Zcnobia (New York, 1895) ; Abamelek-Lasarew, A rehdologisehe Un tersurhungrn (Saint Petersburg. 1885) ; De Inscriptions semitiques (Paris, 1869) ; SahIet. Die Fiirstcn ron Palmyra (Berlin, 1866) ; Moritz, Zur antiken Topographic. der Palmyrene (Berlin, 188'9).