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TheBostran era(also called theera of Bostra,theArabian eraorprovincial era[1]) was acalendar era(year numbering) with anepoch(start date) corresponding to 22March 106AD.It was the official era of theRoman provinceofArabia Petraea,introduced to replace dating byregnal yearsafter the Roman annexation of theNabataean Kingdom.[2]It is named after the city ofBostra,which became the headquarters of theSixth Legionstationed in the province.[3]

Dates and names[edit]

The start date of the Bostran era was once a matter of dispute, in part because theChronicon Paschaleexplicitly puts it the year of theconsulsCandidusandQuadratus,that is, 105. Manuscript discoveries from theCave of Lettersput the issue to rest: the era of Bostra began in 106.[3]The Bostran calendar waslunisolar.It had twelve months of 30 days with fiveepagomenaldays at the end of the year.[4]The month names came from theancient Macedonian calendar,although Nabataean equivalents were also used.[5]Aleap yearcame once every four years in the Bostran calendar starting from the second year. Thus years 2, 6, 10 etc. were leap years with a sixth epagomenal day.[6]The first day of the first month, Xanthikos, corresponded to 22 March in theJulian calendar,approximately thevernal equinox.[7][5]The Bostran calendar—as the calendar of Arabia or of the Arabs[5]—is one of sixteen that appear in the Florence, Leiden and Vaticanhemerologia.[8]

The Bostran calendar was used in texts of theNabataeanandPalestinian Jewishvarieties ofAramaic,inGreekand inArabic.[3][9][10]Inscriptions from Arabia Petraea which do not specify the era but simply provide a year number are usually in the era of Bostra. In documents, this era is usually indicated by the phrase "[year] of the province" (e.g., Aramaiclhprkyʾ). Sometimes the province is specified by the name "Arabia" or "Bostra" (e.g. Greekτῆς ἐπαρχείας Ἀραβίας,tes eparcheias Arabias,orτῆς Βοστρηνῶν,tes Bostrenon;Aramaiclhprk bṣrʾ). Such indications, however, are rare for inscriptions, where usually only a year number appears.[11]The occasional use of the name "Bostra" for dating should not, however, be taken to indicate that it was the capital of the province;Petrawas in fact more prominent in the early years. The dating formula and the use of the Bostran era have no special connection to the city beyond the fact that as the seat of the main Roman military base, it was symbolic of the incorporation of Nabataea as a province. TheChronicon Paschalemakes clear that the new dating system was common to the whole province.[12][13]

There are only three inscriptions that use the name of the city of Bostra to clarify the year and they are dated to AD265/6, 397/8 and 538/9. There are also two inscriptions from AD576/7 and 581/2 in the same calendar that specify the year as being that ofElusa.Zbigniew Fiema suggests that theCrisis of the Third Century,which ultimately resulted in the division of the province of Arabia, caused locals to see their calendar with its base date corresponding to 106 as distinctly associated with different major cities. For Fiema, the EmperorPhilip the Arab's granting to Bostra ofmetropolisstatus in 244 and the transfer of the administration ofPalaestina Tertiafrom Petra to Elusa after theearthquake of 551are the proximate causes of the shift in nomenclature.[14]

Some documents after AD127 are dated by the era of the "new" province (νέα ἐπαρχεία Ἀραβία,nea eparcheia Arabia), perhaps in conjunction with the first census in the new province, which was taken in that year.[15]

Usage[edit]

The Bostran era was used extensively in "commemorative and honorific inscriptions", but less frequently in "administrative and legal documents".[2]Its usage was not enforced by the Romans and many cities continued to use local calendars on locally minted coinage. These included thePompeian era(63BC) in some cities of theDecapolisand the era ofCapitolias(AD97/98).[16]The Bostran era may itself be a spontaneous local response to the political changes which rendered the old Nabataean regnal year numbering impossible.[17]

The oldest example of the era is found in an Nabataean inscription atObodafrom AD107. The earliest document is an Nabataean papyrus fromNaḥal Ḥever(AD120).[17]The earliest attestation in Greek is from a papyrus also from Naḥal Ḥever (AD125).[17]An official inscription of the EmperorGordian IIIat Bostra (AD238/9) uses the provincial era.[13]A unique and oft-cited example of Bostran dating comes from a bilingual inscription of AD108/9 atMadaba.The Nabataean dating clause reads "third year of the eparch of Bostra". There was no such office and theRoman legatedid not sit at Bostra, rather the inscription awkwardly combines the new dating method with the old one of dating by the Nabataean king's regnal year.[13]

There is some uncertainty whether the era of Arabia was ever used outside the province of Arabia (roughly theTransjordan,theSinaiand theNegev) while the Roman administration was still intact.[18]Inscriptions have been found in theWadi Mukattabin the Sinai (AD149 and 191).[19]Some inscriptions have been tentatively identified as dated by the Bostran era in the neighbouring provinces ofSyriato the north orJudeato the west.[18]A Jewish Aramaic document of AD111 fromMasadainJudaeawritten inHebrew lettersmay use the era,[9]but David Goodblatt doubts it.[18]

The use of the era spread with the province of Arabia and its successors. The inscriptions of 397/8 and 538/9 are fromḤarrānandʿAmra,respectively, places not incorporated into the empire until theSeveran dynasty(193–235).[20]There are several Christian inscriptions of the late fifth and early sixth centuries in the Arabic script that bear dates in the Arabian era. These are found in Syria andSouth Arabia,far beyond the old provincial boundaries.[10]The use of the provincial era continued well into theIslamic period,even as late as AD735. In the later period, the calendar era was almost never identified explicitly.[21]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Other variants include "Bostrean era", "era of Arabia" [or "the Arabs" ], "era of the province [of Arabia]" or "era of Provincia Arabia" (EPA). SeeFiema 1988,passim;for the abbreviation EPA, seeMercier 2001,p. 102.
  2. ^abFiema 1988,p. 109.
  3. ^abcBowersock 1970,p. 39.
  4. ^Gyllenbok 2018,p. 264, andSamuel 1972,p. 177, provide tables showing the correspondence between Bostran and Julian dates.
  5. ^abcButcher 2003,pp. 125–126.
  6. ^Mercier 2001,p. 101.
  7. ^Gyllenbok 2018,p. 264.
  8. ^Samuel 1972,p. 177.
  9. ^abWasserstein 1989,p. 95n.
  10. ^abHoyland 2018,pp. 334–335.
  11. ^Fiema 1988,pp. 110–111.
  12. ^Millar 1993,p. 94: "Roman provinces did not have capitals".
  13. ^abcFiema 1988,p. 112.
  14. ^Fiema 1988,pp. 116–118.
  15. ^Cotton 1997,p. 204.
  16. ^Fiema 1988,p. 110.
  17. ^abcFiema 1988,p. 111.
  18. ^abcGoodblatt 1999,pp. 252ff.
  19. ^Millar 1993,p. 388.
  20. ^Fiema 1988,p. 119.
  21. ^Wasserstein 1989,p. 101–103.

Sources[edit]

  • Bowersock, Glen Warren(1970). "The Annexation and Initial Garrison of Arabia".Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik.5:37–47.JSTOR20180208.
  • Butcher, Kevin (2003).Roman Syria and the Near East.Getty Publications.
  • Cotton, Hannah M. (1997). "Ἡ νέα ἐπαρχεία Ἀραβία: The New Province of Arabia in the Papyri from the Judaean Desert".Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik.116:204–208.
  • Fiema, Zbigniew Tomasz (1988)."The Era of Bostra: A Reconsideration".In F. Campanati; R. Goianfranco; F. Goianfranco (eds.).The Proceedings of the XXXV Corso di cultura sull'arte Ravennate e Bizantina.Ravenna. pp. 109–121.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Goodblatt, David (1999). "Dating Documents inProvincia Iudaea:A Note on Papyri Murabbaʿat 19 and 20 ".Israel Exploration Journal.49(3): 249–259.JSTOR27926897.
  • Gyllenbok, Jan (2018).Encyclopaedia of Historical Metrology, Weights, and Measures.Vol. 1. Birkhäuser.
  • Hoyland, Robert(2018). "Two New Arabic Inscriptions: Arabian Castles and Christianity in the Umayyad Period". In Laïla Nehmé; Ahmad Al-Jallad (eds.).To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the Languages, Archaeology, and Cultures of Arabia Dedicated to Michael C. A. Macdonald.Brill. pp. 327–337.
  • MacAdam, Henry Innes (1979).Studies in the History of the Roman Province of Arabia(PhD dissertation). University of Manchester.
  • Mercier, Raymond (2001). "Intercalation in the Era of the Province of Arabia".Revue Biblique.108(1): 101–108.JSTOR44089535.
  • Meimaris, Y. E.; Kritikakou, K.; Bougia, P. (1992).Chronological Systems in Roman–Byzantine Palestine and Arabia: The Evidence of the Dated Greek Inscriptions.Research Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Hellenic Research Foundation.
  • Millar, Fergus (1993).The Roman Near East, 31 B.C.–A.D. 337.Harvard University Press.
  • Samuel, Alan E. (1972).Greek and Roman Chronology: Calendars and Years in Classical Antiquity.C. H. Beck.
  • Wasserstein, A. (1989). "A Marriage Contract from the Province of Arabia Nova: Notes on Papyrus Yadin 18".The Jewish Quarterly Review.80(1): 93–131.doi:10.2307/1454328.JSTOR1454328.

Further reading[edit]

  • Freeman, Philip H. (1986). "Appendix 1. The Era of the Province of Arabia: Problems and Solution?". In H. I. MacAdam (ed.).Studies in the History of the Roman Province of Arabia: The Northern Sector.British Archaeological Reports. pp. 38–46.
  • MacAdam, Henry Innes (1986). "The Provincial Era".Studies in the History of the Roman Province of Arabia: The Northern Sector.British Archaeological Reports. pp. 34–36.
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