Camp of Diocletian
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The Camp of Diocletian was a
Roman military The military of ancient Rome, according to Titus Livius, one of the more illustrious historians of Rome over the centuries, was a key element in the rise of Rome over "above seven hundred years" from a small settlement in Latium to the capital o ...
complex, or '' castra'', built in the ancient city of
Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...
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''.Pollard, 2000, p. 298.


Background

During the
Crisis of the Third Century The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the ascensio ...
, Palmyra broke away from Rome to form the short-lived
Palmyrene Empire The Palmyrene Empire was a short-lived breakaway state from the Roman Empire resulting from the Crisis of the Third Century. Named after its capital city, Palmyra, it encompassed the Roman provinces of Syria Palaestina, Arabia Petraea, and Egypt, ...
. The city was recaptured by Aurelian in 272 and, following another unsuccessful rebellion, it was sacked by the Romans in 273.Drinkwater, 2005, p. 52 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.Ward-Perkins, 1995, p. 361


Description of the site

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 Temple of Bel ( ar, معبد بعل), sometimes also referred to as the "Temple of Baal", was an ancient temple located in Palmyra, Syria. The temple, consecrated to the Mesopotamian god Bel, worshipped at Palmyra in triad with the lunar g ...
. The complex was laid out around two colonnaded streets, the ''via praetoria'' and the ''via principalis'', that intersected at right angles at a
tetrapylon A tetrapylon ( el, τετράπυλον, "four gates"), plural ''tetrapyla'', known in Latin as a ''quadrifrons'' (literally "four fronts") is a type of ancient Roman monument of cubic shape, with a gate on each of the four sides, generally built ...
. 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.Millar, 1993, p. 182. 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 Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
in
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
and also has similarities with the palace at
Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ ...
and
Diocletian's Palace Diocletian's Palace ( hr, Dioklecijanova palača, ) is an ancient palace built for the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the fourth century AD, which today forms about half the old town of Split, Croatia. While it is referred to as a "pala ...
in
Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...
– 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: :'' /nowiki>Reparato/nowiki>res orbis sui et propagatores generis humani dd. pp. Diocletianus /nowiki> /nowiki>invictis/nowiki>simi impp. et Constantius et Maximianus nobb. Caess. castra feliciter condiderunt /nowiki>curam age/nowiki>nte Sossiano Hieroclete v /nowiki>ir/nowiki> p /nowiki>erfectissimus/nowiki>, praess. provinciae, d /nowiki>evoto/nowiki> n /nowiki>umini/nowiki> m /nowiki>aiestati/nowiki>q /nowiki>ue/nowiki> eorum.'' :The repairers of their world and propagators of the human race, our lords Diocletian and /nowiki>, the most unconquered emperors, and Constantius /nowiki>Chlorus/nowiki> and Maximianus /nowiki>Galerius/nowiki>, the most noble Caesars, have successfully founded the camp /nowiki>castra/nowiki>, under the care of
Sossianus Hierocles Sossianus Hierocles (fl. 303 AD) was a late Roman aristocrat and office-holder. He served as a ''praeses'' in Syria under Diocletian at some time in the 290s. He was then made ''vicarius'' of some district, perhaps Oriens (the East, including Syri ...
, the most perfect man,
governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
raeses/nowiki> of the province, devoted to their
numen Numen (plural numina) is a Latin term for " divinity", "divine presence", or "divine will." The Latin authors defined it as follows:For a more extensive account, refer to Cicero writes of a "divine mind" (''divina mens''), a god "whose numen eve ...
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 is a modern Latin phrase meaning "condemnation of memory", indicating that a person is to be excluded from official accounts. Depending on the extent, it can be a case of historical negationism. There are and have been many routes to , includi ...
'' by
Constantine I Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
, 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 Flavius Valerius Constantius "Chlorus" ( – 25 July 306), also called Constantius I, was Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as caesar from 293 ...
and
Galerius Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (; 258 – May 311) was Roman emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sasanian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across th ...
. 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 University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields o ...
. The excavations, led by Dr.
Kazimierz Michalowski Kazimierz (; la, Casimiria; yi, קוזמיר, Kuzimyr) is a historical district of Kraków and Kraków Old Town, Poland. From its inception in the 14th century to the early 19th century, Kazimierz was an independent city, a royal city of the Cr ...
, 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.Ochsenschlager, 1968, p. 229. Furthermore, the excavations discovered several additions dating to the
Byzantine period The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, including a coin and jewelry hoard.


Occupation by ISIL

The extremist
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
(ISIL) group occupied Palmyra between May 2015 and March 2016. Parts of the ancient city were damaged or destroyed by ISIL, and the Russian television network RT claimed that the Camp of Diocletian had been among the areas affected by the ISIL occupation. However,
DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe is an American commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on 14 May 2009, selling 14.7 million shares at US ...
satellite imagery from the end of March 2016 showed that there was no visible change to the status of the area.


References


Citations


Bibliography

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Camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
Buildings and structures in Palmyra Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd century Roman legionary fortresses in Syria 3rd-century fortifications Diocletian