02-07-2012, 05:22 AM
Hi George
Sorry for missing your point in your earlier post, but I'm kinda glad I did because of the additional detail in your second.
It went on the word "indiction" with which I wasn't familiar.
Your reading of the inscription is really significant. It could be that, V Macedonica being part of the garrison at Baalbek for many years, the quarter of the city they were billeted in became known as a Macedonian quarter. But that's only one possibility. The inscription evidently doesn't say "by Macedonian legionaries" and so there are many other possibilities.
Could one be - drawing a long bow - that this was a very old (say 1,000 year-old) community from Alexander's campaigns? Or a later one formed by a trade/commerce-led diaspora?
Many thanks again for your explanations! What is your main interest area BTW? Is it Byzantine mainly or...?
Cheers
Howard/SPC
Sorry for missing your point in your earlier post, but I'm kinda glad I did because of the additional detail in your second.
It went on the word "indiction" with which I wasn't familiar.
Your reading of the inscription is really significant. It could be that, V Macedonica being part of the garrison at Baalbek for many years, the quarter of the city they were billeted in became known as a Macedonian quarter. But that's only one possibility. The inscription evidently doesn't say "by Macedonian legionaries" and so there are many other possibilities.
Could one be - drawing a long bow - that this was a very old (say 1,000 year-old) community from Alexander's campaigns? Or a later one formed by a trade/commerce-led diaspora?
Many thanks again for your explanations! What is your main interest area BTW? Is it Byzantine mainly or...?
Cheers
Howard/SPC
Spurius Papirius Cursor (Howard Russell)
"Life is still worthwhile if you just smile."
(Turner, Parsons, Chaplin)
"Life is still worthwhile if you just smile."
(Turner, Parsons, Chaplin)