Romanization in Syria-Palestine in the late republic and early empire

My previous thesis, submitted for a degree of Master of Arts with Honours, School of History, Philosophy and Politics, Macquarie University, 1981, established the methodological basis for the present study, in particular differentiating between Romanization the deliberate policy and Romanization the effect, providing a working definition of "Romanization", and distinguishing three major degrees of Romanization, superimposition, imitation and creative response; it also established the significance in terms of Romanization for the purpose of the study of a number of contentious type fossils, and determined the intrinsic limitations of the various types of evidence. -- The present thesis proceeds from this to investigate Romanization the effect in the Syrian lands, its primary aim being to demonstrate that a minimum amount of Romanization did occur. The first five chapters delineate the course of the process of Romanization from its beginning to the end of what may be termed its formative phase, dividing suitably dated material into seven Periods, from the first known contact between Rome and Syria to the death of Caracalla, in order to chart its progress; the most significant trends which emerge during this timespan and continue beyond it are dealt with in a brief Epilogue. This same evidence is then reunited with the material which cannot be dated closely enough for chronological treatment (a large proportion of the total) in a final chapter, and studied according to the aspect of life to which it pertains, in order to make some assessment of the overall minimum impact of Rome on the culture of the area, and to gain some insight into the nature of this impact.