Neither the Seleucids nor the Romans rule…

Neither the Seleucids nor the Romans rule the Near and Middle East without conflict.

The Seleucids had had to deal with powerful Arab peoples, the Nabataeans, who had established an empire at Petra (in present-day Jordan) and at Busra ash Sham.

The Romans have now to face the Palmyrenes, who have built Palmyra, a city even more magnificent than Damascus and the principal stop on the caravan route from Horns to the Euphrates.