THE RISE AND FALL OF PALMYRA IN THE 3RD CENTURY

... THE RISE AND FALL OF PALMYRA IN THE 3RD CENTURY Palmyra was set around an oasis in the desert a busy trading place on the Silk Road full 'of the camel caravans.'1 Palmyra had a great deal of history and became a bustling city independent of foreign rule, set between two very powerful Empires; Rome and the Sasanid Persian Empire, Palmyra became adapt at balancing peace between the two rival Empires. Due to this ability a member of the ruling family, Septimius Odaenathus, was made a senator in Rome. While Palmyrene relations were mostly friendly with Rome in the third century, Rome had faced three decades of civil wars and usurpers, the Western provinces of the Empire had broken away from Rome, forming a rebel Roman state known as the 'Gallic empire,'2 in the east Roman frontiers were under pressure from Sasanid Persians, 'Rome needed Palmyra.'3 When Emperor Valerian was

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