Tadmor

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the palm-tree; bitterness
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


TADMOR (Palmyra).—In 2Ch_8:4 we read that Solomon built ‘Tadmor in the [Syrian] desert.’ It has long been recognized that Tadmor is here a mistake for ‘Tamar in the [Judæan] desert’ of the corresponding passage in 1Kings (1Ki_9:18). The Chronicler, or one of his predecessors, no doubt thought it necessary to emend in this fashion a name that was scarcely known to him. (That it is really the city of Tadmor so famous in after times that is meant, is confirmed by the equally unhistorical details given in 2Ch_8:3-4 regarding the Syrian cities of Hamath and Zobah.) Hence arose the necessity for the Jewish schools to change the Tamar of 1Ki_9:18 in turn into Tadmor [the Qerç in that passage], so as to agree with the text of the Chronicler. The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] translator of 1Ki_9:13 appears to have already had this correction before him. Nevertheless it is quite certain that Tamar is the original reading. But the correction supplies a very important evidence that at the time when Chronicles was composed (c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 200), Tadmor was already a place of note, around the founding of which a fabulous splendour had gathered, so that it appeared fitting to attribute it to Solomon. This fiction maintained itself, and received further embellishments. The pre-Islamic poet Nâbigha (1Ki_9:22 ff., ed. Ahlwardt, c [Note: circa, about.] . a.d. 600) relates that, by Divine command, the demons built Solomon’s Tadmor by forced labour. This piece of information he may have picked up locally; what he had in view would he, of course, the remains, which must have been still very majestic, of the city whose climax of splendour was reached in the 2nd and 3rd cent. a.d.
Tadmor, of whose origin and earlier history we know nothing, lay upon a great natural road through the desert, not far from the Euphrates, and not very far from Damascus. It was thus between Syria, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia proper. Since water, although not in great abundance, was also found on the spot, Tadmor supplied a peaceable and intelligent population with all the conditions necessary for a metropolis of the caravan trade. Such we find in the case of Palmyra, whose identity with Tadmor was all along maintained, and has recently been assured by numerous inscriptions. The first really historical mention of the place (b.c. 37 or 36) tells how the wealth of this centre of trade incited M. Antony to a pillaging campaign (Appian, Bell. Civ. v. 9).
The endings of the two names Tadmor and Palmyra are the same, but not the first syllable. It is not clear why the Westerns made such an alteration in the form. The name Palmyra can hardly have anything to do with palms. It would, indeed, be something very remarkable if in this Eastern district the Lat. palma was used at so early a date in the formation of names. The Oriental form Tadmor is to be kept quite apart from tâmâr, ‘palm.’ Finally, it is unlikely that the palm was ever extensively cultivated on the spot.
Neither in the OT nor in the NT is there any other mention of Tadmor (Palmyra), and Josephus names it only when he reproduces the above passage of Chronicles (Ant. VIII. vi. 1). The place exercised, indeed, no considerable influence on the history either of ancient Israel or of early Christianity. There is therefore no occasion to go further into the history, once so glorious and finally so tragic, of the great city, or to deal with the fortunes of the later somewhat inconsiderable place, which now, in spite of its imposing ruins, is desolate in the extreme, but which still bears the ancient name Tadmor (Tedmur, Tudmur).
Th. Nöldeke.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

2Ch_8:4. Built by Solomon in the wilderness. Tamar, Hebrew (1Ki_9:18), meaning "the city of palms," corresponding to Palmyra from palma "a palm." Solomon fixed on the site, an oasis in the desert which lies between Palestine and Babylonia, as the commercial entrepot between Jerusalem and Babylon. Subsequently, it linked Rome and Parthia by the mutual advantages of trade. In Trajan's time it fell under Rome. Called by Hadrian, who rebuilt it, Hadrianopolis. Under the emperor Gallienus the Roman senate made Odenathus, a senator of Palmyra, its king for having defeated Sapor of Persia. On Odenathus' assassination his widow Zenobia assumed the title Queen of the East, but was conquered and made captive (A.D. 273) by the emperor Aurelian.
Merchants from the English factory at Aleppo, at the close of the 17th century, visited it, and reported their discoveries (Philos. Transact., A.D. 1695, vol. 19, 83). Aglibelus and Melachbelus, i.e. the summer and the winter sun, are named in one inscription (Bochart, Geogr. Sacr., 2:8, section 811). Long lines of Corinthian columns still remain, producing a striking effect; probably of the second and third centuries A.D. A fragment of a building bears Diocletian's name. There are remains of walls of Justinian's time. Robert Wood's "The Ruins of Palmyra," a folio with splendid engravings (A.D 1753), is the best work on Tadmor; see also chap. 11 of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Tad'mor. (city of palms). Tadmor called "Tadmor in the wilderness", is the same as the city known to the Greeks and Romansm under the name of Palmyra. It lay between the Euphrates and Hamath, to the southeast of that city, in a fertile tract or oasis of the desert. Being situated at a convenient distance from both the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, it had great advantages for caravan traffic. It was built by Solomon, after his conquest of Hamath-zobah. 1Ki_9:18; 2Ch_8:4.
As the city is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible, it would be out of place to enter into a detailed history of it. In the second century A.D. , it seems to have been beautified by the emperor, Hadrian. In the beginning of the third century ? 211-217 A.D. ? it became a Roman colony under Caracalla. Subsequently, in the reign of Gallienus, the Roman senate invested Odenathus, a senator of Palmyra, with the regal dignity, on account of his services in defeating Sapor, king of Persia.
On the assassination of Odenathus, his wife, Zenobia, seems to have conceived the design of erecting Palmyra into an independent monarchy; and in prosecution of this object, she, for a while, successfully resisted the Roman arms. She was, at length, defeated and taken captive by the emperor Aurelian, A.D. 273, who left a Roman garrison in Palmyra.
This garrison was massacred in a revolt; and Aurelian punished the city, by the execution not only of those who were taken in arms, but likewise of common peasants, of old men, women and children. From this blow, Palmyra never recovered, though there are proofs of its having continued to be inhabited, until the downfall of the Roman empire. The grandeur and magnificence of the ruins of Palmyra cannot be exceeded, and attest its former greatness. Among the most remarkable are the Tombs, the Temple of the Sun, and the Street of Columns.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

a city built by Solomon, 1Ki_9:18, afterward called Palmyra; situated in a wilderness of Syria, upon the borders of Arabia Deserta, inclining toward the Euphrates. Josephus places it two days' journey from the Euphrates, and six days' journey from Babylon. He says there is no water any where else in the wilderness, but in this place. At the present day there are to be seen vast ruins of this city. There was nothing more magnificent in the whole east. There are still found a great number of inscriptions, the most of which are Greek, and the other in the Palmyrenian character. Nothing relating to the Jews is seen in the Greek inscriptions; and the Palmyrenian inscriptions are entirely unknown, as well as the language and the character of that country. The city of Tadmor preserved this name to the time of the conquest by Alexander the Great: then it had the name of Palmyra given to it, which it preserved for several ages. About the middle of the third century, it became famous, because Odenatus and Zenobia, his queen, made it the seat of their empire. When the Saracens became masters of the east, they restored its ancient name of Tadmor to it again, which it has always preserved since. It is surrounded by sandy deserts on all sides. It is not known when, nor by whom, it was reduced to the ruinous condition in which it is now found. It may be said to consist at present of a forest of Corinthian pillars, erect and fallen. So numerous are these, consisting of many thousands, that the spectator is at a loss to connect or arrange them in any order or symmetry, or to conceive what purpose or design they could have answered. “In the space covered by these ruins,” says Volney, “we sometimes, find a palace of which nothing remains but the court and walls; sometimes a temple, whose peristyle is half thrown down; and now a portico, a gallery, or triumphal arch. Here stand groups of columns, whose symmetry is destroyed by the fall of many of them; there we see them ranged in rows, of such length, that, similar to rows of trees, they deceive the sight, and assume the appearance of continued walls. If from this striking scene we cast our eyes upon the ground, another almost as varied presents itself. On all sides we behold nothing but subverted shafts, some whole, others shattered to pieces or dislocated in their joints; and on which side soever we look, the earth is strewed with vast stones half buried, with broken entablatures, mutilated friezes, disfigured reliefs, effaced sculptures, violated tombs, and altars defiled by dust.”
It is probable, says Mansford, that, although Tadmor is said to have been built by Solomon, or, in other words, to have been erected by him into a city, it was a watering station between Syria and Mesopotamia before; with perhaps accommodations suited to the mode of travelling in those times, as we read of palm trees being found there, which are not trees that come by chance in these desert regions. The mere circumstance of wholesome water being afforded by any spot in such a country was sufficient to give it importance, and to draw toward it the stream of communication, for whatever purpose. This was probably the condition of Tadmor long before it received its name and its honours from Solomon. But, after all, what motive could there be to induce a peaceable king, like Solomon, to undertake a work so distant, difficult, and dangerous? There is but one which at all accords with his character, or the history of the times,— commercial enterprise. Solomon was at great pains to secure himself in the possession of the ports of Elath and Ezion-Geber on the Red Sea, and to establish a navy for his Indian commerce, or trade to Ophir,—in all ages the great source of wealth. The riches of India, thus brought into Judea, were from thence disseminated over those countries of the north and west at that time inhabited or known; while the same country, Judea, became, for a season, like Tyre, the point of return and exchange of the money and the commodities of those countries, the centre of communication between the east and the west.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

tad?mor, tad?mōr (תּדמר, tadhmōr): A city built by Solomon in the wilderness (2Ch_8:4), the Roman Palmyra. Tadmor is the native name and is found on inscriptions. It occurs also in the Ḳerē of 1Ki_9:18, where the Kethı̄bh or consonants read ?Tamar? (compare Eze_47:19; Eze_48:28). It is famous in Arabian as well as in Hebrew literature, and enters Roman history in connection with Zenobia and Longinus. The inscriptions, which belong for the most part to the latter period (266-73 AD), have been published by Dawkins and Wood and also by M. Waddington and the Duc de Luynes. Popular works on the subject are An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia by W. Wright, and The Last Days and Fall of Palmyra by W. Ware. See TAMAR.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Tad?mor or Tamar, a town built by King Solomon (1Ki_9:18; 2Ch_8:4). The name Tamar signifies a palm-tree, and hence the Greek and Roman designation of Palmyra, 'city of palms;' but this name never superseded the other among the natives, who even to this day give it the name of Thadmor. Palm trees are still found in the gardens around the town, but not in such numbers as would warrant, as they once did, the imposition of the name. Tadmor was situated between the Euphrates and Hamath, to the south-east of that city, in a fertile tract or oasis of the desert. It was built by Solomon, probably with the view of securing an interest in and command over the great caravan traffic from the east, similar to that which he had established in respect of the trade between Syria and Egypt.
Tadmor was for a long period under the sway of the Romans. But in the third century it attained independence under Odenatus and his celebrated consort Zenobia. It returned again, however, under the dominion of the Romans, and after various vicissitudes of fortune, it ultimately fell into the hands of the successors of Mohammed. From about the middle of the eighth century it seems gradually to have fallen into decay, but its magnificent ruins were scarcely known in Europe till towards the close of the seventeenth century.
The ruins cover a sandy plain stretching along the bases of a range of mountains called Jebel Belaes, running nearly north and south, dividing the great desert from the desert plains extending westward towards Damascus, and the north of Syria. The general aspect which these relics of ancient art and magnificence present, is well described by Volney:?'In the space covered by these ruins we sometimes find a palace, of which nothing remains but the court and walls; sometimes a temple whose peristyle is half thrown down; and now a portico, a gallery, or triumphal arch. Here stand groups of columns, whose symmetry is destroyed by the fall of many of them; there, we see them ranged in rows of such length that, similar to rows of trees, they deceive the sight and assume the appearance of continued walls. If from this striking scene we cast our eyes upon the ground, another, almost as varied, presents itself; on all sides we behold nothing but subverted shafts, some whole, others shattered to pieces, or dislocated in their joints; and on which side soever we look, the earth is strewed with vast stones, half buried; with broken entablatures, mutilated friezes, disfigured reliefs, effaced sculptures, violated tombs, and altars defiled by dust.'
The present Tadmor consists of numbers of peasants' mud huts, clustered together around the great Temple of the Sun. This temple is the most remarkable and magnificent ruin of Palmyra. The court by which it was enclosed was 179 feet square, within which a double row of columns was continued all round. They were 390 in number, of which about sixty still remain standing. In the middle of the court stood the temple, an oblong quadrangular building, surrounded with columns, of which about twenty still exist, though without capitals, of which they have been plundered, probably because they were composed of metal. In the interior, at the south end, is now the humble mosque of the village.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


(Heb. Tadmor, תִּדנְמֹר, prob. city of palms [see below]; Sept. Θεδμόρ v.r. Θοεδμόρ; Vulg. Palmira), a city “in the wilderness” which Solomon is said to have built (1Ch_8:4). In the nearly parallel passage (1Ki_9:18), where the phrase “in the land” is added to the description, indicating that this, like the associated cities, was within Solomon's legitimate jurisdiction, the reading “Tadmor” is adopted in tile A. V. from the Keri, or margin; the Kethib, or text, has תמר, Tamár (Sept. Θερμάθ v.r. Θαμμώρ; Vulg. Polmirai), which should probably be pointed תִּמֹּר, by contraction for תִּדנְמֹר, or imitation of the original תָּמָר, the palm-tree (see Keil, Comment. ad loc.). SEE PALM. The name would seem to indicate an abundance of date-palms anciently in that vicinity, although they are scarce in its present neglected state.
1. Classical Identification. — There is no reasonable doubt that this city is the same as the one known to the Greeks and Romans and to modern Europe by the name, in some form or other, of Palmyra (Παλμυρά, Παλμιρά, Palmira). The identity of the two cities results from the following circumstances:
(1.) The same city is specially mentioned by Josephus (Ant. 8:6, 1) as bearing in his time the name of Tadmor among the Syrians, and Palmyra among the Greeks; and Jerome, in his Latin translation of the Old Test., translates Tadmor by Palmira (2Ch_8:4).
(2.) The modern Arabic name of Palmyra is substantially the same as the Hebrew word, being Tadmur, or Tathur.
(3.) The word Tadmor has nearly the same meaning as Palmyra, signifying probably the “City of Palms,” from Tamar, a palm; and this is confirmed by the Arabic word for Palma, a Spanish town on the Guadalquivir, which is said to be called Tadmir (see Gesenius, in his Thesaurus. p. 345).
(4.) The name Tadmor, or Tadmor, actually occurs as the name of the city Aramaic and Greek inscriptions which have been found there.
(5.) In the Chronicles, the city is mentioned as having been built by Solomon after his conquest of Hamath-Zobah, and it is named in conjunction with “all the store-cities which he built in Hamath.” This accords fully with the situation of Palmyra, SEE HAMATIT; and there is no other known city, either in the desert or not in the desert, which can lay claim to the name of Tadmor.
2. History. — As above stated, Tadmor was built by Solomon, probably with the view of securing an. interest in and command over the great caravan traffic from the East, similar to that which he had established in respect of the trade between Syria and Egypt. See this idea developed in Kitto's Pictorial Bible (not in 2Ch_8:4), where it is shown at some length that the presence of water in this small oasis must-early have made this a station for caravans coming west through the desert; and this circumstance probably dictated to Solomon the importance of founding here a garrison town, which would entitle him — in return for the protection he could give from the depredations of the Arabs, and for offering an intermediate station where the factors of the West might meet the merchants of the East to a certain regulating power, and perhaps to some dues, to which they would find it more convenient to submit than to change the line of route.. It is even possible that the Phoenicians, who took much interest in this important trade, pointed out to Solomon the advantage which he and his subjects might derive from the regulation aid protection of it by building a fortified town in the quarter where it was exposed to the greatest danger. A most important indication in favor of these conjectures is found in the fact that all our information concerning Palmyra from heathen writers describes it as a city of merchants, who sold to the Western nations the products of India and Arabia, anti who were so enriched by the traffic that the place became proverbial for luxury and wealth and for the expensive habits of its citizens.
We do not again read of Tadmor in Scripture, nor is it likely that the Hebrews retained possession of it long after the death of Solomon. No other source acquaints us with the subsequent history of the place, till it reappears in the account of Pliny (Hist. Nat. 5, 24) as a considerable town, which, along with its territory, formed an independent state between the Roman and Parthian empires. Afterwards it was mentioned by Appian (De Bell. Civ. 5, 9), in reference to a still earlier period of time, in connection with a design of Mark Antony to let his cavalry plunder it. The inhabitants are said to have withdrawn themselves and their effects to a strong position on the Euphrates, and the cavalry entered an empty city. In the 2nd century it seems to have been beautified by the emperor. Hadrian, as may be inferred from a statement of Stephanus of Byzantium as to the name of the city having been changed to. Hadrianopolis (s.v. Παλμυρά). In the beginning of the 3rd century it became a Roman colony under Caracalla (A.D. 211-217), and received the jus Italicum. From this period the influence and wealth of Palms rapidly increased. Though nominally subject to Rome, it had a government of its own, and was ruled by its own laws. The public affairs were directed by a senate chosen by the people; and most of its public monuments were built, as the inscriptions show, by “the senate and people.” For nearly a century and a half this prosperity continued, and it was only checked at length by the pride it generated.
The story of the unfortunate Valerian is well known. Being captured by the Persians, his unworthy son did not use a single effort to release him from the hands of his conquerors. Odenathus, one of the citizens of Palmyra, revenged the wrongs of the fallen emperor, and vindicated the majesty of Rome. He marched against the Persians, took the province of Mesopotamia, and fled Sapor beneath the walls of Ctesiphon (A.D. 260). The services thus rendered to Rome were so great that Odenathus was associated in the sovereignty with Gallienus (A.D. 264). He enjoyed his dignity but a short period, being murdered by his nephew at a banquet in the city of Emesa only three years afterwards. His reign was brief, but brilliant. Not only was Sapor conquered and Valerian revenged, but Syrian rebels and the northern barbarians, who now began their incursions into the Roman empire, felt the force of his arms.
Odenathus bequeathed his power to a worthy successor Zenobia, his widow; and the names of Zenobia and Palmyra will always be associated so long as history remains. The virtue, the wisdom, and the heroic spirit of this extraordinary woman have seldom been equaled. At first she was content with the title of regent during the minority of her son Vaballatus, but unfortunately ambition prompted her to adopt the high sounding title of “Queen of the East.” She soon added Egypt to her possessions in Syria, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia, and ruled over it during a period of five years. In A.D. 271 the emperor Aurelian turned his arms against her, and having defeated her in a pitched battle near Antioch and in another at Emesa, he drove her back upon her desert home. He then marched his veterans across the parched plain and invested Palmyra, which capitulated after a brief struggle. Zenobia attempted to escape, but was captured on the banks of the Euphrates, and brought back to the presence of the conqueror. She was taken to Rome, and there, covered with her jewels and bound by fetters of gold, she was led along in front-of the triumphant Aurelian. Zenobia deserved a better fate. If common humanity did not prevent the Roman citizens from exulting over an honorable, though fallen, foe, the memory of her husband's victories and of his services rendered to the State might have saved her from the indignity of appearing before a mob in chains.
Aurelian took Palmyra in A.D. 272, and left in it a small garrison, but soon after his departure the people rose and massacred them. On hearing of this the emperor returned, pillaged the city, and put the inhabitants to the sword.. It was soon repaired by the orders of the conqueror, and the Temple of the Sun rebuilt; but it never recovered its former opulence. Twenty years later, under the reign of Diocletian, the walls of th3 city were rebuilt. It appears from an inscription to have assisted the emperor Alexander Severus in his wars against the Persians; and there are proofs of its having continued to be inhabited until the downfall of the Roman empire. There is a fragment of a building with a Latin inscription bearing the name of Diocletian; and there are existing walls of the city of the age of the emperor Justinian, together with the remains of a costly aqueduct which he built. It eventually became the seat of a bishop, but never recovered any importance. When the successors of Mohammed extended their conquests beyond the confines of Arabia, Palmyra was one of the first places which became subject to the caliphs. In the year 659 a battle was here fought between the caliphs Ali and Moawiyah, and won by the former. In 744 it was still so strongly fortified that it took the caliph Merwan seven months to reduce it, the rebel Solyman having shut himself up in it.
From this period, Palmyra seems to have gradually fallen into decay. Benljamin of Tudela, who was there towards the end of the 12th century, speaks of it as “Thadmor in the desert, built by Solomon of equally large stones [with Baalbec]. This city is surrounded by a wall, and stands in the desert, far from any inhabited place. It is four days' journey from Baalath [Baalbec], and contains 2000 warlike Jews, who are at war with the Christians and with the Arabian subjects of Noureddin, and aid their neighbors the Mohammedans.” In connection with this statement, it may be remarked that the existing inscriptions of Palmyra attest the presence of Jews there in its most flourishing period, and that they, in common with its other citizens, shared in the general trade, and were even objects of public honor. One inscription intimates the erection of a statue to Julius Schalmalat, a Jew, for having at his own expense conducted a caravan to Palmyra. This was in A.D. 258, not long before the time of Zenobia, who, according to some writers, was of Jewish extraction. Irby and Mangles (Travels, p. 273) also noticed a Hebrew inscription on the architrave of the great colonnade, but give no copy of it, nor say what it expressed. The latest historical notice of Tadmor which we have been able to find is, that it was plundered in 1400 by the army of Timur Beg (Tamerlane), when 200,000 sheep were taken (Rankin, Wars of the Mongols). Abulfeda, sat the beginning of the 14th century (Descript. Arab. p. 98), speaks of Tadmor as merely a village, but celebrated for its ruins of old and magnificent edifices. These relics of ancient art and magnificence were scarcely known in Europe till towards the close of the 17th century. In the year 1678 some English merchants at Aleppo resolved to verify by actual inspection the reports concerning these ruins which existed in that place. The expedition was unfortunate, for they were plundered of everything by the Arabs, and returned with their object unaccomplished. A second expedition, in 1691, had better success; bit the accounts which were brought back received little credit, as it seemed unlikely that a city which, according to their report, must have been so magnificent, should have been erected in the midst of deserts. When, however, in the year 1753, Robert Wood published the views and plans which had been taken with great accuracy on the spot two years before by Dawkins, the truth of the earlier accounts could no longer be doubted; and it appeared that neither Greece nor Italy could exhibit antiquities which, in point of splendor, could rival those of Palmyra. From that time it has frequently been visited by travelers, and it is now readily accessible by an excursion on camels from Damascus. Its ruins have often been described and delineated.
3. Present Remains. — Tadmor was situated between the Euphrates and Hamath, to the south-east of that city, in. a fertile tract or oasis of the desert. Palm trees are still found in the gardens around the town, “but not in such numbers as would warrant, as they once did, the imposition of the name. The present Tadmor consists of numbers of peasants mud-huts, clustered together around the relics of the great Temple of the Sun.
The ruins cover a sandy plain stretching along the bases of a range of mountains called Jebel Belaes, running nearly north and south, dividing the great desert from the desert plains extending westward towards Damascus and the north of Syria. The lower eminences of these mountains, bordering the ruins, are covered with numerous solitary square towers, the tombs of the ancient Palmyrenes, in which are found memorials similar to those of Egypt. They are seen to a great distance, and have a striking effect in this desert solitude. Beyond the valley which leads through these hills the ruined city first opens upon the view. The thousands of Corinthian columns of white marble, erect and fallen, and covering an extent of about a mile and a half, present an appearance, which travelers compare to that of a forest. The site on which the city stands is slightly elevated above the level of the surrounding desert for a circumference of about ten miles, which the Arabs believe to coincide with the extent of the ancient city, as they find ancient remains whenever they dig within this space. There are, indeed, traces of an old wall, not more than three miles in circumference; but this was probably built by Justinian, at a time when Palmyra had lost its ancient importance and become a desolate place, and when it was consequently desirable to contract its bounds, so as to include only the more valuable portion. Volney well describes the general aspect which these ruins present: “In the space covered by these ruins we sometimes find a palace of which nothing remains but the court and walls; sometimes a temple whose peristyle is half thrown down; and now a portico, a gallery, or triumphal arch.
Here stand groups of columns, whose symmetry is destroyed by the fall of many of them; there we see them ranged in rows of such length that, similar to rows of trees, they deceive the sight, and assume the appearance of continued walls. If from this striking scene we cast our eyes upon the ground, another, almost as varied, presents itself-on all sides we behold nothing but subverted shafts; some whole, others shattered to pieces or dislocated in their joints; and on which side soever we look, the earth is strewn with vast stones, half buried; with broken entablatures, mutilated friezes, disfigured reliefs, effaced sculptures, violated tombs, and altars defiled by dust.” The colonnade and individual temples are inferior in beauty and majesty to those which may be seen elsewhere—such, for example, as the Parthenon and the remains of the temple of Jupiter at Athens; and there is evidently no one temple equal to the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, which, as built both at about the same period of time and in the same order of architecture, suggests itself most naturally as an object of comparison. But the long lines of Corinthian columns at Palmyra, as seen at a distance, are peculiarly imposing; and in their general effect and apparent vastness, they seem to surpass all other ruins of the same kind. The examinations of travelers show that the ruins are of two kinds. The one class must have originated in very remote times, and consists of rude, unshapen hillocks of ruin and rubbish, covered with soil and herbage, such as now alone mark the site of the most ancient cities of Mesopotamia and Babylonia, and among which it would be reasonable to seek some traces of the more ancient city of Solomon. The other, to which the most gorgeous monuments belong, bears the impress of later ages. It is clear from the style of architecture that the later buildings belong to the three centuries preceding Diocletian, in which the Corinthian order of pillars was preferred to any other. All the buildings to which three columns belonged were probably erected in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of our sera. Many inscriptions are of later date; but no inscription earlier than the 2nd century seems yet to have been discovered.
The Temple of the Sun is the most remarkable and magnificent ruin of Palmyra. The court by which it was enclosed was 179 feet square, within which a double row of columns was continued all round. They were 390 in number, of which about sixty still remain standing. In the middle of the court stood the temple, an oblong quadrangular building surrounded with columns, of which about twenty still exist, though without capitals, of which they have been plundered, probably because they were composed of metal. In the interior, at the south end, is now the humble mosque of the village. A little beyond the temple begins the great colonnade, which runs nearly from east to west; it is of great length, and very beautiful. The columns are in good proportion and excellent preservation; each shaft consisting of three courses of stone admirably jointed, with a bracket for a bust or statue interposed between the second and third. In their present naked condition, these brackets are unsightly; yet when they were surmounted by statues the effect must have been extremely grand.
The necropolis of Palmyra lies half an hour northwest of the Temple of the Sun, in the Wady el-Kebur, the ravine through which we made our approach to the city. The tombs, which are very numerous and extremely interesting, are almost all of them towers, two, three, four, and in one instance five stories high. The tomb of Jamblichus, mentioned by Wood, is now dreadfully dilapidated, its stairs crumbled away, and the floor of the fourth story entirely gone. It is five stories high, and was built in the third year of the Christian sera. That of Manaius is peculiarly interesting, and in some respects, indeed, the most curious building at Palmyra. It is in wonderful preservation, and its description will afford some idea of the others, as they are almost all built on the same plan, though far less beautiful. It is a lofty square tower, about fifteen feet in the side, lessening by three courses of stone like steps at about a third of its height. An inscription in honor of the deceased is engraved on a tablet over the doorway. The principal apartment is lined with four Coxinthian pilasters on each side, with recesses between them for mummies; each recess divided into five tiers by shelves, only one of which retains its position. The ancient Palmyrenes buried their dead in the Egyptian manner, and Wood found in one of: the tombs a mummy in all respects similar to those in the land of the: Pharaohs.
4. Authorities. — The original sources for the history of Palmyra may be seen in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Triginta Tyranni, vol. 14; Divus Aurelianus,. vol. 26; Eutropius, 9:10, 11, 12. In A.D. 1696; Abraham Seller published a most instructive work, entitled The Antiquities of Palmyra, containing the History of the City and its Emperors, which contains several Greek inscriptions, with translations and explanations. Gesenius published an account of the Palmyrene inscriptions at Rome and Oxford in his Monumenta Scripturae Linguaeque Phoenicme, § 53. The best work on the ruins of Palmyra is still Robert Wood's splendid folio, entitled The Ruins of Palmyra, etc. (Lond. 1753) Very good accounts of them may also be seen in Irby and Mangles, Travels; Richter, Walfahrnten; Addison, Damascus and Palmyra. The last work contains a good history of the place; for which, see also Rosenmüller's Bibl. Geog., translated by the Rev. N. Morren; and, in particular, Cellarius, Dissert. de Inp. Palmyreno (1693). Gibbon, in ch. 11 of the Decline and Fall. hasgiven an account of Palmyra with his usual vigor and accuracy. For an interesting account of the present state of the ruins, see Porter, Handbook for Syria and' Palestine, p. 543-549; Beaufort, Egyptian Sepulchers, etc., vol. 1; and Badeker, Syria, p. 523. Besides Wood's great work, excellent views of the place have been published by Cassas in his Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie; and later by Laborde in his Voyage en Orient. Recently photographs have been taken by various artists, and an, accurate knowledge of the remains of this renowned and remarkable place is thus made accessible to the whole world.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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