VOL. XtX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6l 



years after, do likewise testify that this city then continued in the same enjoy- 

 ment of its liberties. They being very much to the purpose, I thought fit to 

 copy them : Palmyra urbs nobilis situ, divitiis soli atque aquis amoenis, vasto 

 undique ambitu arenis includit agros, ac velut terris exempta a reruni nalura ; 

 privata sorte inter duo imperia summa Romanorum Parthorumque, et prima in 

 discordia semper utrinque cura. Whence it appears, that it was a common- 

 wealth in the time of Vespasian ; and its situation is truly described, as it were 

 an island of fertile land, surrounded with a sea of barren sands. Such spots 

 Strabo tells us were frequent in Lybia, and by the Egyptians were called Abases ; 

 whence possibly the name of the Abassyne nation is derived. 



With these advantages of freedom, neutrality, and trade, for near two cen- 

 turies, it is not strange that it acquired that state and wealth answerable to the 

 magnificence of these noble structures. But when the Romans, under Trajan, 

 had taken Babylon, and Ctesiphon the then seat of the Parthian empire, the 

 Palmyrenes were at length determined to declare for them ; which they did by 

 submitting themselves to the emperor Adrian, about the year of Christ 130, 

 when he made his progress through Syria into Egypt. And that magnificent 

 emperor, being highly delighted with the natural strength and situation of the 

 place, was pleased to adorn and rebuild it : when probably he bestowed on it 

 the privileges of a colony juris Italici, which it enjoyed, as Ulpian assures us. 

 And the inhabitants, in gratitude to the emperor, wished to call themselves 

 Hadrianopolitas, ETTDCTio-SiiVn; T-n; ttoAsm? inro tb AvTo-n^djo^o;, says Stephanus. Nor 

 is it unlikely that many of those marble pillars were the gift of that emperor, 

 and particularly those of the long porticus ; for none of the inscriptions are 

 prior to that date. And it was usual for the Caesars to present cities, that had 

 obliged them, with marble pillars to adorn their public buildings. These at 

 this place were not far to fetch, the neighbouring mountains affording marble 

 quarries : but the ni.ignitude of the porphyry columns is indeed very remarkable, 

 considering how far those vast stones must have been brought by land carriage 

 to this place ; it being not known that any other quarries yield it, except those 

 of Egypt, which .lie about midway between Cairo and Siena, between the Nile 

 and the Red Sea. The stone is very valunble for its colour and hardness, and 

 because it rises in blocks of any magnitude required ; Quantislibet molibus 

 csedendis sufficiunt lapidicinae, (Plin. lib. 30.) It is therefore a great mistake 

 of those who suppose it factitious. 



From the time of Adrian to that of Aurelian, for about 140 years, this city 

 continued to flourish and increase in wealth and power, to such degree, that 

 when the emperor Valerian was taken prisoner by Sapores, king of Persia, 

 Odaenathus, one of the lords of this town, was able, whilst Gallienus neglected 



