Among the countless Classical artifacts exhumed in southern Syria is this beautiful bronze bust of a goddess from the 2nd century C.E.—imago clipeata—measuring 39 cm in diameter and 36 cm in height. Discovered in Bānīās in 1965, it has proudly graced Damascus' National Museum ever since.
Bānīās is a site in the occupied Golan Heights, situated at the eastern slope of Mount Hermon. Its name derives from Pan, god of shepherds and flocks in Greek mythology. It is called Caesarea Philippi in the New Testament (Matthew 16:13 and Mark 8:27).
Syria was one of the Roman Empire's fairest provinces. Its population was estimated at more than 10 million under Trajan (98-117 C.E.). Elegant porticoes, arches, thermae, theaters, temples, and all sorts of public buildings embellished its principal cities, such as Antioch, Laodicea, Apamea, Damascus, Palmyra, Philippopolis, etc.
Syrian businessmen traveled and traded all over the vast empire; they created numerous colonies in Naples, Ostia, Lyon, Sicily, Spain, and the Danube basin, as attested by numerous archaeological finds such as an epitaph of the 3rd century C.E. discovered at the Rhône valley of a certain Ṯīm ibn Saʿd, a trader originally from Qanawāt who owned two workshops in southern Gaul.
Gérard Degeorge. Syrie. Art, histoire, architecture. Hermann, éditeurs des sciences et des arts 1983.
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