Rome's Desert Frontier

Chapter 2 of Kennedy & Riley's Rome's Desert Frontier proved to be more time consuming than anticipated. I finished it on Friday afternoon. It's a broad overview of Rome's military presence in the Near East, from the arrival of Pompey in 65 BC to the first Muslim attacks at Yarmuk in 636 AD. It covers the wars against the Parthians and the Persians, and the alliances with the Arabs. I started reading George Tate's "The Syrian Countryside During the Roman Era", from Susan E. Alcock (ed.) The Early Roman Empire in the East. I made a fair dent in it before being summoned away for a Friday afternoon drink. So far, it's covered the sedentarization of the Arab tribes around Syria, up to 400 AD. I'm intrigued by the bandits of Trachonitis (from page 57);

Throughout the first century BC, the region was marked by poverty and banditry. By bandits, ancient writers meant rebels to the established order and to the peasants' sedentary way of life. These bandits lived in Trachonitis, modern Ledja, a vast basaltic plateau filled with grottoes that were used as places of refuge.

I also had on hand Lemprière's Classical Dictionary, and found this passage from the entry on Palmyra quite, erm, charming.

It is now in ruins, and the splendid and magnificent remains of its portices, temples, and palaces, are visited with astonishment and rapture by the curious and the learned.