tadmor Summary and Overview

palm, a city built by Solomon "in the wilderness" (2 Chr. 8:4). In 1 Kings 9:18, where the word occurs in the Authorized Version, the Hebrew text and the Revised Version read "Tamar," which is properly a city on the southern border of Israel and toward the wilderness (compare Ezek. 47:19; 48:28). In 2 Chr. 8:14 Tadmor is mentioned in connection with Hamath-zobah. It is called Palmyra by the Greeks and Romans. It stood in the great Syrian wilderness, 176 miles from Damascus and 130 from the Mediterranean and was the centre of a vast commercial traffic with Western Asia. It was also an important military station. (See SOLOMON T0003473.) "Remains of ancient temples and palaces, surrounded by splendid colonnades of white marble, many of which are yet standing, and thousands of prostrate pillars, scattered over a large extent of space, attest the ancient magnificence of this city of palms, surpassing that of the renowned cities of Greece and Rome."

(city of palms), called "Tadmor in the wilderness," is the same as the city known to the Greeks and Romans 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.

TAD'MOR (Heb. Tamar-,"palms"), a city in the wilderness, built by Solomon. 1 Kgs 9:18; 2 Chr 8:4. There is no Temple of the Sun. Tadmor (Palmyra). Street of Columns. other Scripture mention of this city, and hence no other clue to its site or after-history. It has usually been identified with the famous city of Palmyra. Some critics, indeed, assert that there is little authority for the insertion of the letter d in the name mentioned in these passages, and would make the place built rather Tamar, on the south of the confines of Judah. Eze 47:19. Palmyra was within the extensive empire of Solomon, and it is most natural to identify Tadmor with it. Situation. - Palmyra occupied the most favorable position on the great caravan-route between the rich cities of the East and the ports of the Mediterranean. A spring of good water makes it a natural halting-place. It was 120 miles northeast of Damascus and 60 miles from the Euphrates, according to the Biblical Educator, but Baedeker's Handbook makes it a five days' journey with camels, in long. 38?? 30' E. and lat. 33?? 58' N. History. - Palmyra has no Scripture history, and hence only a brief sketch of it need be given here. It was mentioned by Pliny, Josephus, Jerome, and other early writers. About a.d. 200 it became famous in Roman history from Zenobia, "the Queen of the East," a woman of extraordinary ability. After the assassination of her husband, Odenathus, she ruled the realm, and under her Palmyra reached the height of its glory, extending its supremacy over Syria, Mesopotamia, and even parts of Egypt. She was subdued by the Roman emperor Aurelian, and led through the streets of Rome to grace the emperor's triumphal procession. The inhabitants of Palmyra afterward revolted, and were slain in great numbers by the Romans. Later, Palmyra was merely a frontier-town in the direction of the wilderness, fortified by Justinian. In 1173 the rabbi Benjamin of Tudela found a considerable colony of Jews there. It then fell into oblivion until visited by members of the English factory at Aleppo, in 1678. Since then the city has been explored and described by many travellers. Present Condition. - Porter says: "In describing the ruins of Palmyra, it would be almost impossible to exaggerate. There is nothing like them in the world. In no other spot in the world can we find such vast numbers of temples, palaces, colonnades, tombs, and monuments grouped together so as to be seen at a single glance. The ruins extend over a plain about 3 or 4 miles in circuit. The most noteworthy are, " 1. The Temple of the Sun. - This was dedicated to Baal. The edifice was enclosed by an outer wall, 256 yards in length and 50 feet high, flanked by pilasters 68 feet high. On the north side this wall is still tolerably preserved. Round the whole of the interior ran a double colonnade or cloister like that surrounding the court of the Gentiles in the temple at Jerusalem. The number of columns was three hundred and ninety. Near the centre of the court is the temple proper, 65 yards long and 34 yards wide, and still well preserved. In the great court is an Arab village of some fifty houses. "2. The Street of Columns.- This extends from the temple of the Sun westward across the plain, through the centre of the ancient city. It was 1240 yards in length, and consisted of rows of columns 55 feet high. Wood thought there were four rows of columns, making the original number about fifteen hundred. Baedeker supposes a double row having seven hundred and fifty columns. About one hundred and fifty of these are yet existing. "3. The Tombs. - Some of these are of great magnificence, and appear to have been intended for temples as well as tombs. The inscriptions show that these tombs mostly belong to the first three centuries of our era. The ancient name is still retained in the form of Thadmor."

2 Chronicles 8:4. Built by Solomon in the wilderness. Tamar, Hebrew (1 Kings 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 Israel 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."