oa The So-Called Semitic Population of the Roman Near East with Special Reference to Dura-Europos

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This essay presents an overview of the historical development of the term Semitic and exemplifies the problem of its application to history through scholarship on the ruined town of Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates. After illustrating the evolution of the modern and ahistorical concept of Semitic cultures and peoples, it shows how these terms were applied to the history of Dura-Europos with misleading results. Where previous scholars identified a generic Semitic people and culture, we should emphasize rather the presence of specifically Aramaic language and culture alongside Greek at that site. The same correction applies to much of the modern historiography of the Roman Near East.