| Maurice
Sartre is the preeminent French authority on the ancient Near East.
The Middle East Under Rome is an English language translation of
his 2003 work D'Alexandre à Zénobie: IVe siècle avant
J.-C. – IIIe siècle après J.-C., which is a monumental history of
the Near East, anchored around the Seleucid Empire and the Roman province
of Syria, but including the entire Near East to the Euphrates River.
It thus covers Greek and Roman interactions with a host of peoples and
regions including Phoenicia, Judea, Palestine, and Nabataea. This
English version is an abridgement that focuses on the Roman chapters of
the original, spanning from the early Roman involvement in Syria through
its annexation, and concluding with the defeat of Zenobia of Palmyra.
The work thus covers some three and a half centuries, a time period that
brought immense changes to the Near East. Few changes have been
made to Sartre's original chapters from the French version. What
changes have been made deal with updating information, correcting minor
errors, and eliminating text that took away from the Roman focus of the
English volume. In addition, in order to place the Roman period in context,
Sartre has provided a new introductory chapter, "The Hellenistic Legacy,"
which briefly summarizes much of the first half of D'Alexandre à
Zénobie.
Sartre's
volume can be divided into two halves; the first proceeds chronologically
and the second topically. The first chapter traces the influence
of Hellenism on the Near East, from the conquest of Alexander to the successor
state in Syria of the Seleucids. A series of Greek colonists, many
of them veterans, settled in Syria bringing with them Greek culture, including
a Greek political structure that centered on the polis. This, in turn,
led to the founding of numerous new cities. The second chapter deals
with the decline of the Alexandrian successor states and increasing Roman
intervention on issues of succession in the states of the Near East. In
the third chapter, Sartre goes on to trace the more prominent involvement
of Rome after the ascension of Augustus, as Rome began to assert direct
control in the area. The fourth chapter deals with Judea, which
alone among the kingdoms in the area had elements within its population
that offered an ideological alternative to Roman rule based on the Jewish
faith, and the consequent rebellions and civil wars that erupted within
Judea. The initial chronology concludes in chapter five with the
stabilization of Roman control in the Near East with provinces and client
kingdoms beyond the Euphrates, and the end of Roman expansion.
The
second half of the work examines a series of cultural and economic topics.
In chapter six Sartre examines city life in the Near East, including a
series of city profiles that emphasize the Hellenistic influence in the
area. In chapter seven, Sartre examines rural life and issues of
land distribution and production. Evidence on this topic is far
more limited than in other areas, including Anatolia, but still Sartre
draws on what available evidence exists. Chapter eight deals with the
economy of the Near East, its distribution networks and production inside
the cities, and issues of taxation. The ninth chapter examines Hellenism's
effect on local communities and the range of interactions with it, from
a deep acceptance by many urban elites to absolute rejections by others.
He examines the levels of acceptance of Greek institutions, language,
art, architecture and culture as well as Roman law. Chapter ten covers
religious developments and the influence of Greek culture on local pantheons
and temple architecture. It also covers the changing nature of Judaism
and its rabbinical direction after the destruction of the temple as well
as Greek influence upon it as demonstrated by the use of animal and human
decorations on Jewish places of worship (practices barred by Jewish law).
It also briefly covers the spread of Christianity, though it is impossible
to come up with accurate projections on the number of Christians.
The work concludes with a chapter on the growing Persian threat to Roman
territory in the Near East and the changing nature of client kingdoms,
as Romans withdrew from frontiers and turned to nomadic tribes and others
for security.
Catherine
Porter and Elizabeth Rawlings have provided an eminently readable translation.
Nonetheless, there is an immense amount of material covered in three hundred
and sixty eight pages of text, and the density of that material could
be overwhelming for those without some introduction to the material.
Having said that, The Middle East Under Rome is an excellent synthesis
ideally suited for scholars as well as graduate and undergraduate students
pursuing classical studies or with an interest in the Middle East—especially
those who do not want to delve into the secondary sources that Sartre
draws extensively on. This is particularly true for those who lack
a reading ability in French, given the language of many of the works that
Sartre utilizes. The book could be assigned for upper level courses
on the classical world or in graduate seminars either in classics or courses
that take a long-term view of the Middle East. Probably the best
original English synthesis is F. Millar's The Roman Near East,
but Sartre's work is far more wide ranging and comprehensive in its coverage
of the Roman rule, and more forthright in making judgments in areas where
there is limited evidence.
In
addition to drawing on a vast amount of secondary sources, Sartre relies
on archeological works, Greek, Latin and other inscriptions as well as
a highly critical reading of the well-known ancient histories and literary
sources to create this masterful synthesis. The endnotes and works
cited, and the number of pages devoted to them, attest to the amount of
time and effort that went into creating such a well-constructed volume.
The work also contains an adequate index and a series of drawings and
photographs revealing frescoes, inscriptions, statuary and models of architecture
that vastly improve the text, though it could benefit from more maps,
particularly in the first five chapters. The subject matter is ideally
suited for students of world history and is of particular relevance for
the modern world. Sartre's work examines how cultures interacted
in the Near East across all aspects of society from politics, warfare,
and economics to religion, language, culture and architecture. It
examines how Greece and Rome transformed the cultures and societies of
the Near East and also how Greeks and Romans were transformed in the Near
East as well. This is a subject of immense relevance that details
cultural interaction and change over three and a half centuries between
east and west in an area of the world that continues of be of paramount
interest. |
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