DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0089
SECOND CENTURY
59
roadway would have been much more necessary in the mud of the valleys than upon
the drier slopes of the hills, as is proved in practice to-day, especially in the wet
season. No definite date, of course, can be given to the building of this great road,
though it would seem most natural to assign it to the greatest of all periods of Roman
road-building — the beginning of the second century a.d. — and the period of the most
important military operations of the Romans to the east of Syria. Above the rock-cut
portion of the road, half a mile east of Kasr il-Benat, on the upper or northern side
of the defile, within a square plaque carved in the face of the rock, about 1.20 m.
above the road and the same distance from it, is an inscription. 1 The occurrence of
the name of Marcus Aurelius in this inscription shows that the cutting was made as
early as the time of that emperor, but the inscription does not refer to this emperor as
the builder of the road, and is probably
later than the cutting, which may be
the work of engineers of the beginning
of the second century. This route, in
its immediate relation to the Portse Sy-
riae, was undoubtedly one of the main
arteries of Roman activity in Northern
Syria, and not far from its course the
earliest monuments of Roman occu-
pation in Northern Syria are found.
Inscriptions dating from the second
century are quite numerous in this
neighborhood, but only five distinctly
classic monuments of architecture from
this region were published by M. de
Vogtie; four of them are definitely
dated, and of these, three belong to the
second century; the fourth belongs to
the early years of the next century.
Two of the above monuments belong
to the reign of the Emperor Hadrian
— the bicolumnar tomb monument
near Sermeda, dated 132 a.d., and the
rock-hewn tomb of Tiberius Claudius
Sosander, near Bshindelaya, dated
134 a.d. The former of these is situated in plain view of the great Roman road ; the
latter lies farther west, in the mountains of the Djebel il-ATa, remote frorn the road,
but less than 25 miles in a straight line to the east of Antioch.
Monument near Sermeda, frotn the south.
1 Part III, insc. 74.
59
roadway would have been much more necessary in the mud of the valleys than upon
the drier slopes of the hills, as is proved in practice to-day, especially in the wet
season. No definite date, of course, can be given to the building of this great road,
though it would seem most natural to assign it to the greatest of all periods of Roman
road-building — the beginning of the second century a.d. — and the period of the most
important military operations of the Romans to the east of Syria. Above the rock-cut
portion of the road, half a mile east of Kasr il-Benat, on the upper or northern side
of the defile, within a square plaque carved in the face of the rock, about 1.20 m.
above the road and the same distance from it, is an inscription. 1 The occurrence of
the name of Marcus Aurelius in this inscription shows that the cutting was made as
early as the time of that emperor, but the inscription does not refer to this emperor as
the builder of the road, and is probably
later than the cutting, which may be
the work of engineers of the beginning
of the second century. This route, in
its immediate relation to the Portse Sy-
riae, was undoubtedly one of the main
arteries of Roman activity in Northern
Syria, and not far from its course the
earliest monuments of Roman occu-
pation in Northern Syria are found.
Inscriptions dating from the second
century are quite numerous in this
neighborhood, but only five distinctly
classic monuments of architecture from
this region were published by M. de
Vogtie; four of them are definitely
dated, and of these, three belong to the
second century; the fourth belongs to
the early years of the next century.
Two of the above monuments belong
to the reign of the Emperor Hadrian
— the bicolumnar tomb monument
near Sermeda, dated 132 a.d., and the
rock-hewn tomb of Tiberius Claudius
Sosander, near Bshindelaya, dated
134 a.d. The former of these is situated in plain view of the great Roman road ; the
latter lies farther west, in the mountains of the Djebel il-ATa, remote frorn the road,
but less than 25 miles in a straight line to the east of Antioch.
Monument near Sermeda, frotn the south.
1 Part III, insc. 74.