This is the rating and price for Funerary Bust Or Portrait Of A Palmyrene Priest, 200 - 300 AD

Description : Rare Outstanding Significant piece of Palmyrene history | 3rd Century Roman Palmyra Stone (Limestone) Head | Size : 21cm x 16cm (8.3″ H x 6.3″ W.) | Is a funerary bust or portrait of a Palmyrene priest | Believed to have been recovered in area know as the Camp of Diocletian. Very similar Palmyrene Funerary Portraiture can be found at the largest museums of the world including the British Museum, Walters Art Museum, and The Louvre. This bust would have been only one element in the complex funerary practices that characterized Roman Palmyra, and indicates their elaborate nature. Alongside the city’s numerous individual pit graves, marked by a simple stone or stele, powerful families erected three distinct types of collective sepulchre. Until the first century, the funerary tower (built over the tomb) coexisted with the hypogeum (a chamber cut into the rock), smaller in size but richly carved. In the second century “temple tombs” appeared, combining Eastern and Graeco-Roman architectural traditions. Founded by a single individual for the members of his family, these collective tombs were considered as properties, parts of which could be let out to other families. They had deep individual niches (or loculi) cut into the walls to accommodate the bodies of the dead, which were sometimes mummified. The opening of the niche would then be sealed with a slab of stone, which in the first century began to be adorned with funerary images. The dimensions of the slab rapidly ensured that busts became the standard form of representation, and it is these that make up the majority of Palmyran sculpture found in museums today. An oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. From the 1st to the 2nd century, the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences. The Camp of Diocletian was a Roman military complex, or castra, built in the ancient city of Palmyra in the Syrian Desert. The complex was built under the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the late third-century CE and served as the military headquarters for the Legio I Illyricorum. During the Crisis of the Third Century, Palmyra broke away from Rome to form the short-lived Palmyrene Empire. The city was recaptured by Aurelian in 272 and, following another unsuccessful rebellion, it was sacked by the Romans in 273. Following the Roman reconquest, the city was re-fortified with a new set of city walls enclosing a much smaller area. It lost its former importance as a semi-independent trading centre, instead becoming a key military outpost. This is reflected in Palmyra’s virtual disappearance from the historical literature, it is listed in the Notitia Dignitatum, a late-4th century record of imperial offices, merely as the base of the Legio I Illyricorum. The area known today as the Camp of Diocletian was a group of buildings that spanned an area of 4 hectares (9.9 acres) in an enclosure in the western end of the city. It was built on a hill separated from the town proper by a small wall. The hill was located at the far end of the city’s Grand Colonnade from the Temple of Bel. The complex was laid out around two colonnaded streets, the via praetoria and the via principalis, that intersected at right angles at a tetrapylon. The via praetoria axis started at the Praetorian Gate and led to the top of the hill where the principia, or the military headquarters, was built. Within the principia, and located at the highest point in the complex was the so-called “temple of the standards,” where the legion’s standards were probably kept. The complex may also have included barracks rooms for the soldiers, though it is unclear whether the Roman forces in Palmyra were actually quartered there. They may alternatively have lodged in the city while the “camp” may have functioned as legionary headquarters. The area also enveloped the pre–existing Temple of Allat. The overall design of the site is similar to that of a contemporary camp at Luxor in Egypt and also has similarities with the palace at Antioch and Diocletian’s Palace in Split – a sign of how militarised Roman architecture had become in the unsettled climate of the late 3rd century. The “camp” was designed and built between 293 and 305 CE. An inscription discovered at the temple of the standards proclaims: [Reparato]res orbi sui et propagatores generis humani dd. pp. Diocletianus [ ] [invictis]simi impp. et Constantius et Maximianus nobb. Caess. castra feliciter condiderunt [curam age]nte Sossiano Hieroclete v[ir] p[erfectissimus], praess. provinciae, d[evoto] n[umini] m[aiestati]q[ue] eorum. Translated into English, “The repairers of their world and propagators of the human race, our lords Diocletian and [ ], the most unconquered emperors, and Constantius [Chlorus] and Maximianus [Galerius], the most noble Caesars, have successfully founded the camp [castra], under the care of Sossianus Hierocles, the most perfect man, governor [praeses] of the province, devoted to their numen and maiestas.” The second name after Diocletian’s was erased from the inscription but is probably that of his co-emperor Maximian, who was subjected to damnatio memoriae by Constantine I, under which his name was erased from public inscriptions and images of him were destroyed. The other co-emperors mentioned in the inscription are Constantius Chlorus and Galerius. It is not clear whether the term castra (conventionally translated as “camp”) referred exclusively to the Camp of Diocletian. The wall that separated the military buildings from the civilian settlement at Palmyra was clearly only symbolic and there would have been relatively free movement between the camp and the rest of the city. It is possible that the whole city may have been regarded as a castrum, in the wider sense of a fortified place rather than just the much smaller area of the camp. Excavations: The site has been excavated by a Polish archaeological team from the University of Warsaw. The excavations, led by Dr. Kazimierz Michalowski, unearthed several structures believed to be guard rooms, staircases and side entrances to the compound. The works also determined that the via praetoria colonnade is a remnant of older structures and probably pre-dates the construction of the camp by a century. It also uncovered the layer of occupation preceding the camp which included a residential quarter and funerary artefacts dating to the first-century CE. Furthermore, the excavations discovered several additions dating to the Byzantine period, including a coin and jewelry hoard. Palmyra is an ancient Semitic city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and the city was first documented in the early second millennium BC. Palmyra changed hands on a number of occasions between different empires before becoming a subject of the Roman Empire in the first century AD. The city grew wealthy from trade caravans, the Palmyrenes were renowned merchants who established colonies along the Silk Road and operated throughout the Roman Empire. Palmyra’s wealth enabled the construction of monumental projects, such as the Great Colonnade, the Temple of Bel, and the distinctive tower tombs. The Palmyrenes were a mix of Amorites, Arameans, and Arabs. The city’s social structure was tribal, and its inhabitants spoke Palmyrene (a dialect of Aramaic), Greek was used for commercial and diplomatic purposes. The culture of Palmyra was influenced by Greco-Roman culture and produced distinctive art and architecture that combined eastern and western traditions. The city’s inhabitants worshiped local deities and Mesopotamian and Arab gods. By the third century AD, Palmyra was a prosperous regional center reaching the apex of its power in the 260s, when Palmyrene King Odaenathus defeated Persian Emperor Shapur I. The king was succeeded by regent Queen Zenobia, who rebelled against Rome and established the Palmyrene Empire. In 273, Roman emperor Aurelian destroyed the city, which was later restored by Diocletian at a reduced size. The Palmyrenes converted to Christianity during the fourth century and to Islam in the second half of the first millennium, after which the Palmyrene and Greek languages were replaced by Arabic. Before 273 AD, Palmyra enjoyed autonomy and was attached to the Roman province of Syria, having its political organization influenced by the Greek city-state model during the first two centuries AD. The city became a Roman colonia during the third century, leading to the incorporation of Roman governing institutions, before becoming a monarchy in 260. Following its destruction in 273, Palmyra became a minor center under the Byzantines and later empires. Its destruction by the Timurids in 1400 reduced it to a small village. Under French Mandatory rule in 1932, the inhabitants were moved into the new village of Tadmur, and the ancient site became available for excavations. In 2015, Palmyra came under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which later destroyed a number of the site’s buildings. The city was retaken by the Syrian Army on 27 March 2016. The Roman Theatre at Palmyra (Arabic: المسرح الروماني بتدمر‎‎) is a Roman theatre in ancient Palmyra in the Syrian Desert. The unfinished theatre dates back to the second-century CE Severan period. The theatre’s remains have since been restored. It was occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in May 2015 and recaptured by the government forces in March 2016 with the support of Russian airstrikes. The second-century CE theatre was built in the center of a semicircular colonnaded piazza which opens up to the South Gate of Palmyra. The 82-by-104-metre (269 by 341 ft) piazza was located to the south-west of the main colonnaded street. The unfinished cavea is 92 metres (302 ft) in diameter and consists only of an ima cavea, the lowest section of the cavea, directly surrounding the orchestra. The ima cavea is organized into eleven cunei of twelve rows each[3] and faces north-northeast towards the cardo maximus. The theatre’s aditus maximi, its main entrances, are 3.5 metres (11 ft) in width, and lead to a stone-paved orchestra with a diameter of 23.5 metres (77 ft). The orchestra is bounded by a circular wall with a diameter of 20.3 metres (67 ft). The proscenium wall is decorated with ten curved and nine rectangular niches placed alternately. The stage measures 45.5 by 10.5 metres (149 by 34 ft) and is accessed by two staircases. The scaenae frons had five doors: the main entrance, or valve regia, built into a broad curved niche, two guest doors on either side of the valve regia, or valve hospitalis, built into shallow rectangular niches, and two extra doors, at either end of the stage. Emperor Nero is known to have placed his statue in the niche of the regia of the theatre at Palmyra. The columns at the stage are decorated in the Corinthian order. In the 1950s the theatre was cleared from the sand and subsequently underwent restoration works. Palmyra is a true historical treasure and is considered to be the most remarkable archeological sites in Syrian and the Middle East. See The Special Report on the Importance of Palmyra. About Diocletian: Diocletian (/ˌdaɪ.əˈkliːʃən/, Latin: Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus), born Diocles (244–311), was a Roman emperor from 284 to 305. Diocletian, Latin in full Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, original name Diocles (born 245 ce, Salonae?, Dalmatia [now Solin, Croatia]—died 316, Salonae) Roman emperor (284–305 ce), who restored efficient government to the empire after the near anarchy of the 3rd century. His reorganization of the fiscal, administrative, and military machinery of the empire laid the foundation for the Byzantine Empire in the East and temporarily shored up the decaying empire in the West. His reign is also noted for the last great persecution of the Christians. Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia, Diocletian was proclaimed emperor. The title was also claimed by Carus’ other surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus. Diocletian’s reign stabilized the empire and marks the end of the Crisis of the Third Century. He appointed fellow officer Maximian as Augustus, co-emperor, in 286. Diocletian delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing Galerius and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors. Under this ‘tetrarchy’, or “rule of four”, each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the empire. Diocletian secured the empire’s borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299, the Alamanni in 288, and usurpers in Egypt between 297 and 298. Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the empire’s traditional enemy. In 299 he sacked their capital, Ctesiphon. Diocletian led the subsequent negotiations and achieved a lasting and favorable peace. Diocletian separated and enlarged the empire’s civil and military services and reorganized the empire’s provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the empire. He established new administrative centres in Nicomedia, Mediolanum, Antioch, and Trier, closer to the empire’s frontiers than the traditional capital at Rome had been. Building on third-century trends towards absolutism, he styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the empire’s masses with imposing forms of court ceremonies and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state’s expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. From at least 297 on, imperial taxation was standardized, made more equitable, and levied at generally higher rates. Not all of Diocletian’s plans were successful: the Edict on Maximum Prices (301), his attempt to curb inflation via price controls, was counterproductive and quickly ignored. Although effective while he ruled, Diocletian’s tetrarchic system collapsed after his abdication under the competing dynastic claims of Maxentius and Constantine, sons of Maximian and Constantius respectively. The Diocletianic Persecution (303–11), the empire’s last, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, did not destroy the empire’s Christian community, indeed, after 324 Christianity became the empire’s preferred religion under its first Christian emperor, Constantine. In spite of these failures and challenges, Diocletian’s reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the empire economically and militarily, enabling the empire to remain essentially intact for another hundred years despite being near the brink of collapse in Diocletian’s youth. Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on 1 May 305, and became the first Roman emperor to abdicate the position voluntarily. He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Dalmatian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Split in Croatia.
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