Palmyra: An Irreplaceable Treasure

111 Pages·2017·4 MB·English

by  Paul Veyne

Palmyra

Palmyra
An Irreplaceable Treasure
Originally published as
Palmyre: L’irremplaçable trésor
By
Paul Veyne
Translated from the French by
Teresa Lavender Fagan
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Neil Harris
Endowment Fund, which honors the innovative Scholarship of Neil
Harris, the Preston and Sterling Morton Professor Emeritus of History
at the University of Chicago. The fund is supported by contributions
from the students, colleagues, and friends of Neil Harris.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in
the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more
information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St.,
Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
Originally published as Palmyre: L’irremplaçable trésor. © Editions
Albin Michel - Paris 2015
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 42782- 9 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 45293- 7 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226452937.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Veyne, Paul, 1930–author. | Fagan, Teresa Lavender, translator.
Title: Palmyra : an irreplaceable treasure / by Paul Veyne ; translated
from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan.
Other titles: Palmyre. English
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. |
Originally published as: Palmyre: l’irremplaçable trésor. | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifiers: lccn 2016052000 | isbn 9780226427829 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isbn 9780226452937 (e-book)
Subjects: lcsh: Tadmur (Syria)—History.
Classification: lcc ds99.p17 v4913 2017 | ddc 939.4/32—dc23 lc record
available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052000
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
To Khaled al- Assad,
archaeologist and head of antiquities for Palmyra from 1963 to 2003,
assassinated for “being the director of idolatry”

Contents
Translator’s Note ix
Introduction 1
1. Riches in the Desert 3
2. A Monumental Ancient City 7
3. Being a Capitalist Back Then 18
4. Antiquity in Antiquity 28
5. Palmyra: A Subject of the Caesars 31
6. A Syrian Tribe and a Hellenized City 34
7. Saving the Empire 38
8. The Palmyrene Saga 43
9. A Hybrid Identity 57
10. Dining with the Gods 66
11. Religion in Palmyra 69
12. Palmyrene Portraits 78
Conclusion 84
Notes 87

Translator’s Note
As Paul Veyne says in the introduction to this wonderful little
book, his intent is not to write a scholarly work on the ancient
city of Palmyra. Rather, this book is a tribute to an unfathom-
ably destroyed historical treasure. One can sense and share
the author’s grief, his passion for Palmyra, its monuments,
its people, its art.
And as an impassioned tribute, the reader will find refer-
ences to works without citations, perhaps passages that seem
to arise straight from the author’s heart, prose that is closer to
the realm of poetry than that of scholarship. Wherever pos-
sible, I have provided additional information and footnotes
to clarify a point, and have used published English transla-
tions of passages from texts in other languages.
As I write this note, Palmyra has been recaptured from
ISIS, the group that was bent on her destruction. This is, of
course, a very positive turn of events. And yet many of the
ancient monuments and the irreplaceable art they contained,
artifacts that brought the ancient city to life, are gone forever.
And so we are all the more fortunate to have Paul Veyne’s
work on this extraordinary city, its people, and its unique
place in history.
ix