https://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/place/syria/batnae/Recent content on Gardens of the Roman EmpireHugoen-ushttps://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/place/syria/batnae/batnae/Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000https://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/place/syria/batnae/batnae/<h2 id="province-description">Province Description</h2> <p>In 64 BCE, after his successes in Armenia, Pompey the Great added Syria to the list of annexed eastern provinces of the growing Roman Empire. The conquest of Syria had not been difficult, because the remnants of the once dominant Seleucid Empire had weakened following the defeats of king Antiochus III at Thermopylae in 191 and Magnesia in Asia shortly after. Ultimately, the Seleucids could not withstand the powers of the Nabatean kingdom to the south, the Hasmonean kingdom to the west, and the new threats of Roman hegemony. With the fall of the Seleucids, Rome inherited the majority of Alexander the Great's former conquests, and the Syrian desert would become a stage for Roman emperors to settle civil conflicts and win triumphs. Smaller Arab settlements sprang up across the region, re-inhabiting Seleucid sites and establishing new ones, and cities such as Palmyra grew in power by taking over the wealthy trade routes of the Nabateans in the second century CE. The Syrian city of Antioch, formerly Seleucia, would become one of the greatest cities of the Roman empire. Although Macedonian presence in the region introduced western styles in art and architecture before the arrival of the Romans, the cities remained Syrian in culture, population and character.</p> <p>Covering the substantial central part of the Fertile Crescent, the province of Syria sat in an advantageous position between the mountain ranges of eastern Anatolia, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Arabian deserts, and it served as an area of expansion for the larger kingdoms around it. Important trans-Asian trade routes made Syria a key component in the Roman imperial economy, and large navigable rivers, such as the Euphrates and the Orontes, were exploited to connect the Persian Gulf with northern cities. The climate, although arid in the inland mountainous areas, was quite conducive to cultivation. River valleys in the mountain chains skirting the coast provided fertile terrain for agriculture, and the Orontes and Euphrates created well-watered plateaus in the steppe and desert regions of the southeast.</p> <p>An irrigation system based around the qanat, an underground water channel, was used in Syria during the Roman period to water fields and gardens. Although qanats were likely introduced to the region via the earlier Achaemenid Persian dynasty, it was during the Roman and Byzantine periods that irrigation technology improved, and the majority of known qanats date to this time. The water could flow from these channels into canals, small reservoirs known today as birkas, or large wells. The ancient field systems of Syria have been well studied in areas such as the Hauran, a basalt region in the south. Cereals, olives and grapes were important crops, and were cultivated in either the broad fields on the lowland plains, or long, segmented plots on terraces in the rocky highlands. These terraced plots would have held fruit trees or vineyards.</p> <h2 id="location">Location</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/place/syria/batnae/">Batnae</a></li> <li> <a href="https://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/search/?q=Batnae%2fMarkopolis">Batnae/Markopolis</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/658405" title="Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places">Pleiades: 658405</a> </li> </ul> <h2 id="location-description">Location Description</h2> <p>The broad plain of Batanaea lay to the west of the uplands, known as Auranitis, in the Hauran, a basalt region that straddled the boundary between ancient Syria and Arabia. Batanaea was not a naturally well-watered area, but it did develop during the Roman period into a successful grain-producing settlement via a careful management of rainwater. The agriculture of the area, which included small enclosed gardens and plantations surrounding villages, depended on precipitation; a large cistern, or birket, commonly found throughout the Hauran and Batanaea, likely served the village and not irrigation purposes. Although the village was perhaps the most ubiquitous settlement type, there did exist some imperial and private estates, potentially with their own gardens.</p> <!-- ## Sublocation --> <h2 id="garden">Garden</h2> <p>Imperial Residence at Batnae</p> <h2 id="keywords">Keywords</h2> <!-- literary description only --> <h2 id="garden-description">Garden Description</h2> <p>The Emperor Julian described the imperial residence in Batnae in Syria in one of his letters to Libanius in 363 CE (Epist. 58). According to him, Batnae was thickly wooded with groves of cypress trees. The palace located there hardly seemed grand, but its garden was worthy of praise; Julian (Epist. 58) compared it to the gardens of Alcinous and Laertes in Homer's Odyssey. It contained a small grove of cypresses, as well as rows of such trees planted along the garden wall, and in the middle of the garden were vegetable beds and fruit trees of all sorts.</p> <!-- ## Maps --> <!-- ## Plans --> <!-- ## Images --> <h2 id="dates">Dates</h2> <p>fourth century CE</p> <h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2> <ul> <li>K. Butcher, <em>Roman Syria and the Near East,</em> Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003.</li> </ul> <h2 id="places">Places</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="https://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/search/?q=Batnae%2fMarkopolis">Batnae/Markopolis</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/658405" title="Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places">Pleiades: 658405</a> </li> </ul>