So PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IGQS. 



Sov^e Account of the Ancient State of the City of Palmyra, with Remarks on 

 the Inscriptions found there. Ihj E. Halley. N~ 218, p. l6o. 



The city of Tadmor, whose remains in ruins so evidently show its once happy 

 condition, seems very plainly to be the same city which Solomon, the great 

 king of Israel, is said to have t'ounded under that name in the desert, both in 

 1 Kings ix, 18, and 2 Chron. viii. l6, in the translation of which, the vulgar 

 Latin version, said to be that of St. Jerome, has it, CondiditPalmyram in Deserto. 

 And Josephus tells us, that he built a city in the desert, and called it Thada- 

 mora ; and the Syrians at this day, says he, call it by the same name : but the 

 Greeks call it Palmyra. The name is therefore Greek, and consequently has 

 no relation to the Latin Palma; and seems rather derived from Ua.Kfj.-jo<; or UxXf^ui;, 

 which Hesychius interprets |3«(riA£u; Trar^j : or perhaps it is from n«Aju,iiT>i?, which, 

 according to the same author, was an Egyptian God. Nor is the word IQlJl 

 but "l*3n5 which in Hebrew signifies a palm-tree. 



History is silent as to the fate and circumstances of this city, during the 

 great revolutions in the several empires of the east; but it may well be supposed 

 that so advanced a garrison as this was, being above 300 miles from Jerusalem, 

 continued not long in the possession of the Jews, who immediately after 

 Solomon fell into civil dissension, and divided their force : so that it is not to 

 be doubted, but that it submitted to the Babylonian and Persian monarchies, 

 and afterwards to the Macedonians under Alexander and the Seleucidas. But 

 when the Romans got footing in these parts, and the Parthians seemed to put a 

 stop to their further conquests in the east, then was this city of Palmyra, by 

 reason of its situation, being a frontier town, and in the midst of a vast sandy 

 desert, where armies could not well subsist to reduce it by force, courted and 

 caressed by the contending princes, and permitted to continue a free state, a 

 mart or staple for trade, for the convenience of both empires, as fully appears 

 from the words of Appian and Pliny. 



Appian, lib. 5, de Bellis Civil, tells us, that M. Antony, after his victory at 

 Philippi, about 40 years before Christ, sent his horse to plunder the city of 

 Palmyra, pretending only that they were not sufficiently in the Roman interest, 

 i'ri PwM.ai'wi' xai Iloipfiuai'ui' ovte5 £<po?oi iq £>iasT£jaf ettkJe^i'w; fiVoi', and that, being 

 merchants, they conveyed the Indian and Arabian commodities by the way of 

 Persia into the Roman territories; though the true reason was their riches: but 

 the Palmyrenes being informed of the design, took care to prevent them, and 

 so escaped plunder: and this attempt of Antony's occasioned a rupture be- 

 tween the two empires. The words of Pliny (lib. 5, Nat. Hist.) above 100 



