Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Framing the Narrative
Chapter 2: Tribes and Tribalism
Chapter 3: The Growth of Community
Chapter 4: Mapping Social Identities
Chapter 5: The Civic Institutions of Palmyra
Chapter 6: The Palmyrene Diaspora
Chapter 7: The Palmyrene Empire: A Crisis of Identity
Chapter 8: Retrospect and Broader Implications
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Andrew M. Smith II is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University.

Reviews

"This significant book presents a stimulating discussion of the way in which the unique local identity of Palmyra, the famous caravan city in the Syrian steppe, found expression in the Roman period. Its focus is both on the city's peripheral location, between Rome and Parthia, and on its own internal development as a community. Smith makes an important contribution to the on-going debate on Palmyrene tribalism, the city's role in the long-distance trade and its
position in the frontier zone, and the identity of Palmyrenes abroad. The book will doubtless help in granting Palmyra its rightful place in the center of modern scholarship on the Classical world."
--Ted Kaizer, Durham University
"Andrew Smith provides a nuanced analysis of the Palmyrene social and cultural identity, and the means by which individuals self-identified as Palmyrene maintained their distinctive culture on the challenging frontier between Parthia and Rome. Inscriptional and archaeological evidence illuminate this rare example of a tribal society that integrated countryside and city." --John Peter Oleson, University of Victoria
"An admirable study of Palmyra in the first through third centuries A.D. ...[Smith] draws richly and expertly on the epigraphical legacy of the Palmyrenes, not only in Syria but in Italy, Egypt, and Yemen." --The Classical Journal Online