Today, the Syrian city of Bosra is best known to most people as one of the major centres of conflict in the devastating Syrian civil war. Most of those people, however, are unaware that Bosra has a long and ancient history — and has been at the centre of conflicts before.
Bosra lies 140km south of Damascus and was from ancient times the chief city of the fertile Hauran plain. The city’s history stretches back to the second millennium BC. In its time, Bosra has been a Nabataean trade capital and a Roman provincial town — after Palmyra the second most important city in Roman Syria.
Bosra was also a significant centre of Byzantine Christianity before encroaching Arab tribes conquered the city the seventh century AD. The town then found itself at the centre of conflict between European aching Arab tribesChristains and Muslims. In the of this conflict, the city faded into obscurity before the recent Syrian conflict brought it sharply back to the world’s attention.
So how did the rise of Bosra occur? And why has it been the centre of so many conflicts?
Bosra from the Late Bronze Age to the Seleucid Empire.
The first historical reference to Bosra occurs in 1300BC in the records of the Ancient Egyptians, which referred to the city as Busman or Busrana. Busrana domineered over a rich fertile plain edged by the Hauran mountains — the fertile en-Nukra or “the hollow.” The En-Nukra was blessed with an abundance of water even in the driest of seasons — owing to meltwater from the nearby mountains and the numerous natural springs on the Hauran plain. The area became wealthy and famous as the granary of ancient Syria. Busrana profited from this abundance.
Busrana was well connected to other cities in the region, the coastlines fo the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the other lands of the Levant due to a series of trade routes. However, the fertility of the Hauran and Busrana’s strategic position meant that both the area and its city became coveted by invaders. In time, Busrana became part of the empire of Alexander the Great. After the Macedonian conqueror’s death, it passed into the hands of his general, Seleucus. For the next two centuries, it remained part of the Seleucid Empire.
It was in the second century BC that Bosra became embroiled in one of its first regional conflicts. Bosra lay 90 miles to the south of the city of Jerusalem, the capital of Judea- and in the second century, the Seleucids had wrestled control of the region from the Egyptian Ptolemies. The Ptolemies had been quite content to leave the Judeans to continue with their own religious beliefs. However, the Seleucids took the opposite view. They began an aggressive policy of Hellenisatiation, vandalising the temple of Jerusalem and forcing conversions from Judaism on pain of death.
By 167Bc, the Judean people had had enough. Under the leadership of a local priest Mattathias Maccabeus they rose up in open rebellion- a revolt today known as Maccabean rebellion. The conflict soon spilt over the borders of Judea into the other Seleucid domains and in 163BC Bosra — now a major Hellenised stronghold — was captured by the forces of Judah Maccabeus, Mattathias’s son.
Nabataean Bosra
In 64BC, the Roman general Pompey formally dissolved the Seleucid empire, and Bosra came under the control of the prosperous, trade orientated Nabataeans.
The Nabateans had sprung to prominence during the fourth century BC as they began to dominate the rich caravan routes that ran from the Arabian interior to the red sea. In the second century BC, they began to profit from the decline of the Seleucid empire, by extending their borders south, east and north into former Seleucid territories. By 85Bc, the Nabataeans installed a King of their own in Damascus — Aretas III —, and by 64BC, they had infiltrated Bosra which now marked the northern limit of their territories.
Initially, the Nabatean capital was at Petra in Jordan. However, by the first century AD, Bosra had eclipsed Perta in importance to become the capital of the Nabataean kingdom. The reason was simple: the city’s position. For Bosra was now better placed than Petra to be a trade hub, as it occupied a pivotal position along the trade root between Damascus and Amman in Jordan.
Roman Bosra
The Nabateans however, soon gave way to another dominant culture — the Romans. Originally, the Nabateans were Roman clients, but in 106AD, Cornelius Palma seized direct control of Syria in the name of Emperor Trajan and Rome. Palma declared the region Provincia Arabia: the Roman province of Arabia.
The Romans immediately annexed Bosra and renamed Nova Trajana Bostra. The city was quite a prize. Its strategic position on the Syrian road system made it the perfect home for a Roman garrison. Very quickly, the Roman authorities installed 5000 legionnaires in a camp outside the northern gate of Bosra and in 106 AD the city became the Roman capital of the new province.
Bosra’s desirability, however, was not solely dictated by its strategic position, for Rome was always hungry for grain. And the Hauran was still Syria’s breadbasket. Now — in addition to Egypt — it was Rome’s.
A substantial amount of architecture from this initial period of Romanisation remains. The city’s market place was upgraded. Bosra’s western city gate, the so-called “Gate of Winds” also dates to this period. New city gates were essential as the Romans were also busy upgrading the road system to their new garrison town and eventually Bosra was the hub of five Roman roads.
Bosra the Metropolis
Bosra continued to prosper under the Romans, and this prosperity helped to fund a major building that changed Bosra from a Nabataean to a Roman town. The city extended westwards from the old Nabataean town, adopting a Roman-style grid street pattern. The main street was collonaded, and the town acquired bathhouses, a governor’s palace and a magnificent theatre.
In 129AD, the city had the honour of hosting Emperor Hadrian for part of his tour of the eastern provinces. In the early third century, it was made a full Roman colony by the last Severan Emperor, Severus Alexander.
However, Bosra reached its peak in the mid-third century. By now, the city was the largest in the region. Then in 244AD a Bosran, Philip, became emperor of Rome. Philip only lasted for five years. However, during that time, he declared his hometown a metropolis- the chief city of southeastern Syria. The town celebrated by aggrandising itself with further monuments — including the Gate of the lantern — a huge main gate straddling the city’s main street that was erected by the garrison of the third legion.
Christian Bosra
Even before Christianity was legitimately accepted across the empire, Bosra was a significant stronghold for the early Church. In 245AD, the early Christian theologian, Origen of Alexandria, visited the city to debate with Bosra’s bishop, Beryllus (who was an exponent of the eastern Monophysite doctrine) and convert him to orthodox beliefs.
By the late Byzantine period, Bosra was a major Christian centre. By the sixth century, it boasted the largest cathedral in the region of Syria and Arabia and was the seat of an important diocese.
However, the days of Christian Bosra were numbered.
Arabic Bosra
In 632AD, Bosra was the first Byzantine city to fall to the encroaching Arab invasion. The Arabs coveted control of the city because it was the main access point to the Arabian desert and for a time Bosra was an important outpost.
The city flourished under its new rulers. Bosra had long been a stopping point along the great caravan route to Mecca. That destination now took on an additional significance due to the rise of Islam. Soon pilgrims, as well as merchants, followed the route and Bosra became home to several mosques, built from materials cannibalised from the Roman city.
However, in the Middle Ages, the city began a steady decline as the caravan root to Mecca was diverted and the pilgrims stopped. For the area around Bosra became great unstable as tribes battled for strategic control of the region. This instability grew worse when further conflict arose this time between crusading European Christians en route to the holy land and the Muslim tribesmen. Bosra was attacked at least twice in the twelfth century — leading to the eventual fortification of the Roman theatre by the Arabs.
With its trade gone and its agricultural significance diminished, Bosra’s wealth began to fade, and its inhabitants depart for safer areas. By the nineteenth century, the city was only lightly inhabited until its resettlement by Lebanese Druze between 1840-60.
By 2008, Bosra was a peaceful rural town with a population of 19,683, with many of its occupants making a living from agriculture and the remains of its ancient past. Then, in 2011, the next round of conflict in Bosra’s history began.
Sources
Lonely Planet Guide to Syria and Lebanon
Monuments of Syria: An Historical Guide, Ross Burns, I b Tauris Publishers, 1999
