As Mark Twain wrote, Damascus “measures time not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise and ...

a Roman legion bolstered by Palmyran archers defending a town where business was done in Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Middle Persian, Parthian, proto-Arabic and Hebrew. Damascus, first settled in the ...

At its zenith, it broke away from Roman rule and formed the short-lived but powerful Palmyran Empire during the 3 rd century AD. Palmyra gained its wealth and power as a trade hub, ideally situated ...