- For places named Palmyra after this city see Palmyra (disambiguation).
Tadmor (in Arabic تدمر), the famed Palmyra of Antiquity, is a small city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 120 km southwest of the Euphrates. It has long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert. The Greek name for the city, Palmyra (Παλμυρα), is a translation of its original Aramaic name, Tadmor, which means 'palm tree'.
Tadmor is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Second Book of Chronicles 8.4) as a desert city that is fortified by Solomon. The city of Tamar is mentioned in the First Book of Kings (9.18), also fortified by Solomon. This is traditionally read (see Qere ) as Tadmor, but may refer to place near the Dead Sea.
The city flourished as a caravan halt in the first century BCE, and became a vital outpost of the Roman Empire in the first century CE, held as a client kingdom to defend Rome's eastern border with Persia. Palmyra was made part of the Roman province of Syria during the reign of Tiberius (14–37 CE) and steadily grew in importance until it became a free city under Hadrian in 129.
In the third Century, its queen, Septimia Zenobia, rebelled against Roman authority, but in 272 the Roman Emperor Aurelian finally captured her and brought her back to Rome. After parading her in golden chains, he allowed her to retire to a villa in Tibur (now Tivoli, Italy), where she took an active part in society for years.
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