DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45607#0133
TRAJAN’S ROAD FROM BOSRA TO THE RED SEA
Ti-ie Section between Bosra and "Amman
by
HOWARD CROSBY BUTLER.
Much has been written about the inscribed milestones that have been found alon®·
o
Trajan’s great road between Bosra and "Amman, and many notices of the road have
been published by travellers in that part of Syria, who happen to have crossed it, or
to have journeyed upon it for a few miles; but, up to the present time, no one has
attempted to give a full description of the road itself, to discuss its structure, its state
of preservation, or the character of the country through which it passes. Since it
happens that I travelled over all but a few miles of the road, in the spring of 1909,
with the Princeton Expedition, I purpose to give a more detailed description than has
been published hitherto of the whole length of the road so far as I have known it,
to appear as an accompaniment to Mr. Magie’s publication of the inscribed milestones
which we found in addition to those already known upon the road. This description
will do no more than supplement the report already published by M. Le Pere Germer-
Durand 1 2 and the description given by Professor R. E. Brunnow,3 in which he quotes
many notes from the report of Pere Germer-Durand. The milestones are numbered
from Bosra {Bostra), and, for this reason, I shall begin at the northern end of the road
and proceed southward to "Amman {Philadelphia).
This piece of road between the ancient cities of Bostra and Philadelphia is a
section of the great highway that Trajan built to connect Syria with the Red Sea,
a finibtis Syriae usque ad Mare Rubrttm, as we learn from inscriptions at the 9th,
14th, 19th, 25th and 28th milestones out of Bostra. But although Bostra belonged
properly to the province of Arabia, it was connected with the Syrian provinces by
many older roads, and was taken as the starting point of the great new road. The
first traces of the road are found near the top of a low ridge about half a mile to
the southwest of Bostra, here only two fragments of broken paving remain ; but they
are sufficient to give the general direction of the road, which indicates that it led out
from the great west gate of the city, called Bab il-Hawa, which was also the starting
point of the Roman road that leads westward to Adraa, modern Der"a. Between
1 Btilletin archeologique du Comite des Travaux nistoriques et scientifiques — Paris 1904, PP· 2—43.
2 P. A., Zweiter Band, pp. 221-227, 312-323.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria, Div. Ill, Sec. A, Pt. 2. a
Ti-ie Section between Bosra and "Amman
by
HOWARD CROSBY BUTLER.
Much has been written about the inscribed milestones that have been found alon®·
o
Trajan’s great road between Bosra and "Amman, and many notices of the road have
been published by travellers in that part of Syria, who happen to have crossed it, or
to have journeyed upon it for a few miles; but, up to the present time, no one has
attempted to give a full description of the road itself, to discuss its structure, its state
of preservation, or the character of the country through which it passes. Since it
happens that I travelled over all but a few miles of the road, in the spring of 1909,
with the Princeton Expedition, I purpose to give a more detailed description than has
been published hitherto of the whole length of the road so far as I have known it,
to appear as an accompaniment to Mr. Magie’s publication of the inscribed milestones
which we found in addition to those already known upon the road. This description
will do no more than supplement the report already published by M. Le Pere Germer-
Durand 1 2 and the description given by Professor R. E. Brunnow,3 in which he quotes
many notes from the report of Pere Germer-Durand. The milestones are numbered
from Bosra {Bostra), and, for this reason, I shall begin at the northern end of the road
and proceed southward to "Amman {Philadelphia).
This piece of road between the ancient cities of Bostra and Philadelphia is a
section of the great highway that Trajan built to connect Syria with the Red Sea,
a finibtis Syriae usque ad Mare Rubrttm, as we learn from inscriptions at the 9th,
14th, 19th, 25th and 28th milestones out of Bostra. But although Bostra belonged
properly to the province of Arabia, it was connected with the Syrian provinces by
many older roads, and was taken as the starting point of the great new road. The
first traces of the road are found near the top of a low ridge about half a mile to
the southwest of Bostra, here only two fragments of broken paving remain ; but they
are sufficient to give the general direction of the road, which indicates that it led out
from the great west gate of the city, called Bab il-Hawa, which was also the starting
point of the Roman road that leads westward to Adraa, modern Der"a. Between
1 Btilletin archeologique du Comite des Travaux nistoriques et scientifiques — Paris 1904, PP· 2—43.
2 P. A., Zweiter Band, pp. 221-227, 312-323.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria, Div. Ill, Sec. A, Pt. 2. a