Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/552

 536 I'ALLENE. duces an abundance of grain of superior quality, as well as wool, honey, and wax, besides raising silk- worms. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 163.) A list of the towns in Pallene is given under Ch.l- CIDICE. [E. B. J.] PALLE'NE. [Attica, p. 327, a.] PAl.MA. [Bai.eares.] PALMAJl, AD, a station on the coast-road of Syrtica, 12 M. P. from Leptis Magna, and 15 M. P. from Quintiliana (Peut. Tab.). This position agrees with that of the ruins found at Seba Burdj. (Barth, Wanderungen, p. 304.) [E. B. J.] PALMA'RIA (Palmaruola), a small island in the Tyrrhenian sea, the most westerly of the group now known as the Poma Islands, or Isole di Ponza. It is between 3 and 4 miles long, and not more than a quarter of a mile broad ; and was doubtless in ancient, as well as modern times, a dependency of the neighbouring and more considerable island of Pontia (Poma), from which it is only 5 miles dis- t.ant. (Plin. iii. 6. s. 12; Mel. ii. 7. § 18; Varr. Ji. R. iii. 5. § 7.) [E. H. B.] PALMATIS (UdkuaTts, Procop. de Aed. iv. 7. p. 293), a town of Jloesia Inferior, between Doros- torum and ]Iarciaiiopolis {Tab. Peut.), perhaps Kulsckuk-Kaiiiarilsjik. [T. H.D.J PALMY'RA {UaAfivpa, Ptol. v. 15. §§ 19,24, viii. 20. § 10 ; Appian, B. C. v. 9 : UaAfilpa, Joseph. Ant. viii. 2 ; and Palmira, Plin. v. 25. s. 21: Et/i. Palmyrenus, or Palmirenus, Id. /. c), a city of Syria, situated in 34° 24' N. lat., and 38° 20' E. long. Its Hebrew name, Tadmor, or Thad- mor, denotes, like its Greek one, a city of palms ; and this appellation is preserved by the Arabs, who still call it Tedmor. Tadmor was built, or more probably enlarged, by Solomon iu the tenth century H. c. (1 Kings, ix. 18; 2 Chron. viii. 4), and its identity with Palmyra is shown in the passage of Josephus before cited. It is seated in a pleasant and fruitful oasis of the great Syrian desert, and is well watered by several small streams; but the river mentioned by Ptolemy is nowhere to be found. Its situation is line, under a ridge of hills towards the W., and a little above the level of an extensive plain, which it comm.ands on the E. (Wood, Ruins of Palmyra, p. 5), at a distance of about 140 miles ENE. of Damascus. It is not mentioned by Xeno- phon, who must iTave passed near it, nor in the accounts of the conquests of Alexander the Great. The first historical notice that we find of it is in Appian, who tells us that M. Antony, under pretence of punishing its equivocal conduct, but in reality to enrich his troops with the plunder of a thriving commercial city, directed his march towards it, but was frustrated of his object by the inhabitants removing their goods to the other side of the Eu- phrates. (B. Civ. V. c. 9.) This account shows that it must have been a town of considerable wealth; and indeed its advantageous situation must have long rendered it an entrepot for the trafiic between the east and Damascus and the Phoenician cities on the MediteiTanean. Yet its name is not mentioned cither by Strabo or Mela. Under the first Roman emperors it was an independent city; and its situation on the borders of the Roman and Parthian empires gave it a political importance, which it seems to have preserved by a well-judged course of policy, though naturally exposed to much danger in the (luarrels of two such formidable neighbours. (" Inter duo imperia summa, et prima in discordia semper utrinque cura," Plin. I. c.) It is called a colonia on PALJIYRA. the coins of Caracalla, and Ulpian mentioned it in his first book de Censibiis as having the Jus Ita- licum. It appears, from an inscription, to have assisted the emperor Alexander Severus in his wars against the Persians. (Wood, Inscr. xix.) It is not, however, till the reign of Gallienus that we find Palmyra playing any import.ant part in history; and at this period we have notices of it in the works of Zosimus, Vopiscus, and Trebellius Pollio. Odena- thus, a noble of Palmyra, and according to Procopius (B. Pers. ii. c. 5) prince of the Saracens who in- habited the banks of the Euphrates, for his gre.at and splendid services against the Persians, received from Gallienus the title of Augustus, and was ac- knowledged by him as his colleague in the empire. After the assassination of Odenathus by his nephew Maeonius, the celebrated Zenobia, the wife of the former, whose prudence and courage had been of great assistance to Odenathus in his former suc- cesses, ascended the vacant throne, and, assuming the magnificent title of Queen of the East, ruled with a manly vigour during a period of five years. Under this extraordinary woman, whose talents and accomplishments were equalled by her beauty, and whose love of literature is shown by her patronage of Longinus, Palmyra attained the highest pitch of its prosperity. She claimed to be descended from the Macedonian kings of Egypt, and her achieve- ments would not have disgraced her ancestry; though, according to other accounts, she was a Jewess. (Milman, Bist. of the Jews, iii. p. 175.) Besides the sovereignty of Syria and Mesopotamia, she is said to have extended her sway over Egypt (Zosim. i. c. 44); but by some critics this fact has been questioned. Claudius, the successor of Gallienus, being engaged in the Gothic War, tacitly acknow- ledged her authority. But after the termination of the short reign of that emperor, the progress of Zenobia in Asia Minor was regarded by Aurelian with jealousy and alarm. Her arms and intrigues already menaced the security of Bithynia (lb. c. 50), when Aurelian marched against her, and defeated her in two great battles near Antioch and Emesa, at both of which she commanded in person. Zenobia now retreated to Palmyra, and prepared to defend her capital with vigour. The ditficulties of the siege are described by Aurelian himself in an ori- ginal letter preserved by Vopiscus. (Awel. c. 26.) After defying for a long time the arms of the Roman emperor, Zenobia, being disappointed of the succour which she expected to receive from the Persians, was ultimately compelled to fly, but was overtaken on the banks of the Euphrates by the light horse of Aurelian, and brought back a prisoner. Shortly after this event her capital surrendered, and was treated with clemency by the conqueror, who, how- ever, sullied his fame by the cruel execution of Lon- ginus and some of the principal citizens, whom Zenobia had denounced to him. The personal ad- ventures of Zenobia we need not pursue, as they will be found related in the Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. No sooner had Aurelian crossed the Hellespont than he was recalled by the intelli- gence that the Palmyrenians had risen against and ma.ssacred the small garrison which he had left in their city. The emperor immediately marched again to Palmyra, which now paid the full penalty of its rebellion. In an original letter AureUan has himself recorded the unsparing execution, which extended even to old men, women, and children. (Vopisc. Aur. c. 31.) To the remnant of the Palmyrenians,