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Maintaining Cultural Balance

Palmyrene Bilingual Inscriptions and Roman Imperialism

By Catherine E. Bonesho

Palmyra was a city at the intersection of empires, histories, and languages. Between the first century B.C.E. and the third century C.E., thousands of inscriptions were commissioned by Palmyrenes in the dialect we call Palmyrene Aramaic—both in the city of Palmyra and throughout the Mediterranean and ancient Near East. Some of these inscriptions are bilingual, including texts in both their native Palmyrene Aramaic and Latin, the language prominently associated with the Roman Empire. These bilingual inscriptions provide a window into the lives and culture of ancient Palmyra, especially into how the Palmyrenes responded to Roman influence and power. Despite […]

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Endnotes

1.
For a comprehensive study of these inscriptions, see Catherine E. Bonesho, “Aesthetic of Empire: Material Presentation of Palmyrene Aramaic and Latin Bilingual Inscriptions,” Maarav 23.1 (2019), pp. 207–28, 274–75.

2.
Jeremy M. Hutton and I have extended this concept to a translation study of these Palmyrene Aramaic and Latin inscriptions. See Jeremy M. Hutton and Catherine E. Bonesho, “Interpreting Translation Techniques and Material Presentation in Bilingual Texts: Initial Methodological Reflections,” in Jeremy M. Hutton and Aaron Rubin, eds., Epigraphy, Philology, and the Hebrew Bible (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2015), pp. 253–92.

3.
Delbert R. Hillers and Eleonora Cussini, Palmyrene Aramaic Texts, Publications of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).