
Syria has long been one of the most trouble-prone and politically volatile regions of the Near and Middle Eastern world. This book looks back beyond the troubles of the present to tell the 3000-year story of what happened many centuries before. Trevor Bryce reveals the peoples, cities, and kingdoms that arose, flourished, declined, and disappeared in the lands that now constitute Syria, from the time of it's earliest written records in the third millennium BC until the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the 3-4th century AD. Across the centuries, from the Bronze Age to the Rome Era, we encounter a vast array of characters and civilizations, enlivening, enriching, and besmirching the annals of Syrian history: Hittite and Assyrian Great Kings; Egyptian pharaohs; Amorite robber-barons; the biblically notorious Nebuchadnezzar; Persia's Cyrus the Great and Macedon's Alexander the Great; the rulers of the Seleucid empire; and an assortment of Rome's most distinguished and most infamous emperors. All swept across the plains of Syria at some point in her long history. All contributed, in one way or another, to Syria's special, distinctive character, as they imposed themselves upon it, fought one another within it, or pillaged their way through it. But this is not just a history of invasion and oppression. Syria had great rulers of her own, native-born Syrian luminaries, sometimes appearing as local champions who sought to liberate their lands from foreign despots, sometimes as cunning, self-seeking manipulators of squabbles between their overlords. They culminate with Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, whose life provides a fitting grand finale to the first three millennia of Syria's recorded history. The conclusion looks forward to the Muslim conquest in the 7th century AD: in many ways the opening chapter in the equally complex and often troubled history of modern Syria.
This work investigates the complex historical trajectory of the region now known as Syria, spanning three millennia from the earliest written records to the Roman era. Trevor Bryce, a noted historian of the ancient Near East, synthesizes archaeological evidence and textual records to construct a comprehensive narrative of the civilizations that occupied this strategic territory. The author argues that Syria's identity was forged through a constant interplay between indigenous development and the influence of successive foreign empires.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and historians recognize this book as a thorough and accessible synthesis of a vast chronological period. Readers frequently note the clarity of the prose, which manages to organize complex political shifts into a coherent and readable historical account.
Page Count:
393
Publication Date:
2014-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0191002933
ISBN-13:
9780191002939
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