This article has been published under the title ‘Rome en Palmyra in de crisis van de derde eeuw n.Chr.’, in Phoenix 53.1 (2007) 5-22; it has been translated (lightly revised, but not updated) into English to accompany the talk 'Palmyra on the Silk Road', to be presented at the International Symposium on Hellenistic Legacies on the Silk Road, Nankai University, Tianjin, China, August 17-20, 2018. The figures referred to in the text can be found at http://www.academia.edu/27304279/Rome_en_Palmyra_in_de_crisis_van_de_derde_eeuw_na_Christus_Phoenix_53.1.pdf.

Conference held at the J.P. Getty Museum - co-organised by Ken Lapatin and Rubina Raja

Based on personal impressions gathered during my stay in the Middle East in 1998 and in 2002, this article focuses on the preservation of art in the Hellenistic city of Palmyra. The destruction of the ancient art produced in such a magnificent place means not only a breach with the past; it is also a bad omen for the very existence of art in the future of mankind. The Author thanks Professor Júlio Tadeu Carvalho da Silveira for his generous cooperation.

Catalogue accompanying the exhibition "Journeys to Tadmor: History and heritage in Palmyra and the Middle East". Displayed at Bergen City Museum July–September 2017

The portrayal of Zenobia of Palmyra in the Historia Augusta must be regarded with suspicion as a faithful representation of historical events. When considered as a narrative, however, this episode becomes a discourse on the correlation of power, gender, and ethnicity. In a new reading of the Life of Aurelian (HA 22–34), I argue that the construction of the episode’s plot as well as devices such as variable focalization and dramatic irony call attention to the nexus of power, gender, and cultural identity, and ultimately destabilize the assumption that power is Roman and masculine.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art symposium “Palmyra: Mirage in the Desert” was held in honor of Dr. Khaled al-Asa‘ad, who was Director of Archaeology at Palmyra and Director of its Museum for almost his entire lifetime. I owe Dr. al-Asa‘ad a huge debt of gratitude, and I hope, with this essay, to repay one small part of that debt.

International conference held at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letter, June 2019

ABSTRACT Hydraulic fracturing is a method employed by the petroleum industry to increase the performance of oil and gas reservoirs. Modeling this process requires accurate characterization of fluid rheology which is significantly affected by the proppant concentration. Various models for slurry viscosity and settling velocity have been reviewed. While many viscosity expressions exist, it was found that many may be inaccurate.

The third century is known for its many usurpers. Ancient and modern writers perceive them as direct opponents of the imperial throne. The author compares the iconography on the coins of these usurpers (AD 235-285) in order to trace what political ambitions they advertised. The analysis points out that the coin types did not always represent the usurpers as direct rivals to the imperial throne. On some coin types, the lack of imperial titles and the focus on regional elements hint more at purely regional claims or the ambition of becoming a local imperial deputy. The increase of 'imperial messaging' on coin types can reveal when imperial aspirations of local chieftains started to grow. This often meant the end of their leadership. The article demonstrates how coinage remains an invaluable source to reconstruct the institutional crisis of the third century, and how ideas of regional particularism may gradually have triggered the later tetrarchic division of the Empire.

Review of Corinne Bonnet, Laurent Bricault, Quand les dieux voyagent: cultes et mythes en mouvement dans l'espace méditerranéen antique. Histoire des religions. Genève: Labor et Fides, 2016. Pp. 314. ISBN 9782830915969. €29.00 (pb).

Introduction to the edited volume by Kropp and Raja (2016). Published by the Royal Academy of Sciences and Letter, Copenhagen in the series founded and edited by Rubina Raja, Palmyrene Studies.

Review of A. Goldsworthy. 2016. Pax Romana. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Survey of the political activities of Ptolemaic queens (in German)

This article explores the nature of the cult of Sol Invictus within its third century context. My work I upports the views of scholars who have argued that it was Aurelian who made 25 December the Natalis Invicti in honour of Sol Invictus and in celebration of the dedication of his new temple in Rome. However, I argue that by choosing this date for the temple’s dedication, Aurelian was not influenced by earlier Roman Solar cult but by contemporary, third-century ideas about the sun and its reappearance after the winter solstice found in the east and west, as well as in Egyptian calendars. We also find some of these notions articulated by Neoplatonic philosophers and courtiers of the late third century,

Venice offers a homage to Palmyra, an event promoted by Iuav University of Venice: images, words and sounds are woven to conjure a story about an "invisible capital city" of Mediterranean civilization that breaks the fragile and uncertain cultural boundaries between East and West. The protagonist of the most recent, tragic, chapter in this story is a man, Khaled Al Assad, the Superintendent of Antiquities of Palmyra, murdered in August 2015, by soldiers of the IS for trying to defend the stones of "his" - our - Palmyra. The performance, presented on the evening of December 15th, 2015 in Venice, consists of a video made on assembling materials and films published and unpublished, with embedded pieces of live music and theatrical reading of historical and literary texts. A song for Palmyra divided into eight acts. The review presents the fifth act of "Homage of Venice to Palmyra": in the video, images are intertwined with notes of live music and words from a text inspired by a Mourning Song of Venice for Constantinople (1453).

This article points to the many parallels between the book of Judith and the Arabic account of the life and death of Zenobia of Palmyra. By comparing these two stories with the episode about Zopyros in Herodotus’ Histories and the episode about Sinon in accounts of the fall of Troy, it argues that these similarities can only be explained if we assume that the book of Judith and the Arabic Zenobia Legend are adaptations of the same Vorlage, an earlier story that contained a Holofernes motif (heroine kills enemy) and a Sinon motif (enemy deceives heroine). When this Vorlage was adapted to create the book of Judith, the part of the deceiving Sinon was adapted to create the role of the sincere Achior, whereby he lost his function in the story and became a blind motif.

Philip Bosman (ed.), Intellectual and Empire in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018. Pp. xx, 221. ISBN 9781138505094. £115.00.