Palmyra, the Roman Empire, and the Third Century Crisis

Zooming in and Scaling up from the Evidence
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-515-14021-8
Verlag: Steiner Franz Verlag

Buch, Englisch, Band Band 46, 323 Seiten, Kartoniert, Format (B × H): 171 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 552 g

Reihe: Oriens et Occiens

The third century is often seen as a period of crisis in the Roman world, marked by political upheaval, violence, war, religious strife, hyperinflation, climatic instability, pandemics, and border incursions. These troubled times, however, coincided with the peak of Palmyra’s prosperity. They encompassed the Syrian city’s drift towards centralised rulership and short-lived political hegemony in the Near East, as well as its reach for imperial power and downfall in the years 270–272 CE.

How can this discrepancy between metropolitan crisis and peripheral prosperity be explained? Along with experts on different aspects of Palmyra, this volume gathers contributions from leading scholars working with the Roman Empire, and with neighbouring regions inside and beyond the imperial borders. Highlighting parallels, discrepancies, connections, and disconnections between developments in Palmyra and other parts of the world with which Palmyra interacted, the aim is a more critical, detailed, and nuanced understanding of the situation in the Roman Near East in the third century CE.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Raja, Rubina

Seland, Eivind Heldaas

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Römische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten

Über Autor(innen)

Seland, Eivind Heldaas
Eivind H. Seland is professor of Ancient history and premodern Global history at the University of Bergen. His research addresses economy, environment, political power and ideology in the ancient Mediterranean, Near East, and Indian Ocean regions.