BOSTRA
(Busrâ) Syria.
A royal Nabataean
city in the Hauran plain, Bostra was annexed by Trajan
in A.D. 106, becoming chief city of the Roman province
of Arabia and the camp of Legio III Cyrenaica. An important Christian city in the late Byzantine period, Bostra
was fortified by Justinian, then seized by the Moslem
Arabs in A.D. 637.
Bostra was built of black basalt; the modern town lies
over the ancient one, and many houses are constructed
of reused stones. The wall surrounding the ancient city
is very nearly oval. The rampart is best preserved on
its W face, where it is ca. 4 m thick. The only gate still
standing is that to the W, a high bay with semicircular
arches, flanked by two square towers; in front of the gate
there is an open place oval in shape. The main avenue
is the decumanus, running from the W gate to the E end
of the city. It was paved and was lined with porticos, the
column shafts of which can still be seen. At the intersection of the decumanus and cardo, a tetrapylon stood in
the center of a circular area. To the E, on the N side
of the decumanus, was a vaulted cryptoporticus ca. 100
m long, lit by slits arranged in the steps of the porticos.
Farther E is a monumental arch more than 12 m high
and 18 m wide; it has a great semicircular bay flanked
by two small ones; arches cut in the other direction
permitted passage along the decumanus. The facade facing the decumanus has pilasters with Corinthian capitals
and brackets for statues. At the N angles of the lateral
faces and on either side of the central bay, to the S, are
engaged columns with Ionic capitals, marking the beginning of the porticos.
At the S end of the street is a remarkably well-preserved theater, built in the second half of the 2d c. A.D.
and transformed into a fortress at the end of the 8th c.
It is built on level ground and strictly integrated into the
city plan. The hemicycle, which is slightly over half a
circle and has a diameter of more than 100 m, faces N.
Its three tiers of 14, 18, and S rows of seats are crowned
by a portico with a composite colonnade. Interior galleries, stairways, and admirably built vomitoria made for
easy circulation; the direct access to the middle and upper
stories and to the tribunals above the vaulted paradoi is
remarkable. The orchestra is paved with stone. The scaenae frons, over 26 m high, is decorated with two rows
of Corinthian columns in pink Egyptian granite, and
flanked by two tall folded-back wings that have steps and
loges descending laterally to the stage. Equally noteworthy are the vast side foyers, into which the paradoi
are incorporated by a series of arcades. Coherent both
architecturally and organically, this theater is considered
the most perfect of all Roman and Italian theaters.
To the W of the theater there was probably a stadium;
S of it was the hippodrome, which could accommodate
30,000 spectators. Only a few seats have been found.
To the E of the street and S of the decumanus are the
ruins of baths of the Roman period, covered by modern
houses, and called the S, W, or Trajan's baths. Designed
on a T-shaped plan, they opened to the N through an
8-columned portico and two semicircular, arched doorways with a niche between them. The first room was the
apodyterion, an 8-sided oblong hall with four semicircular recesses in the oblique sides. It was roofed with a
flattened arch of volcanic scoriae. In the entrance axis
was a wide arch leading to the tepidarium, and beyond
that, in the same axis, to another room with a large
window in its S wall. Both rooms had transverse cradle
vaults. On either side, to E and W, are a series of rooms
and exedras; the vaulting of the latter is still intact.
Farther along the decumanus are four tall, well-proportioned Corinthian columns with hexagonal bases,
on a line diagonal to the intersection of the avenue and
a cross street. Behind them was the broad curve of the
apse of a nymphaeum. On the other side of the street
are tall, slender Corinthian columns, one of which carries an entablature fragment supported by a pilaster; they
were part of a late monument not identified. The
facade is at an oblique angle to the street plan. The
cross street is edged in part by an Ionic colonnade now
included in the walls of houses; it leads N to the Omar
mosque. This monument, of the early Omayyad period
was built of magnificent reused marble columns with
Corinthian and Ionic capitals. On the other side of the
street are the baths and, some 50 m to the NE, more
baths, now badly damaged.
At the top of the decumanus is the so-called Nabataean
gate, with its great semicircular bay decorated with round
pilasters and engaged columns surmounted by characteristic crocket capitals. Beside it, to the SE, is the building
commonly known as Trajan's palace. It can be seen only
from the E, where a large well-built basalt wall decorated with two superimposed rows of semicircular niches
and rectangular doors gave on to two stories of outer
porticos now gone. The palace formed an enormous
rectangle with an E entrance opening onto a large porticoed courtyard. The residential wings, which were several stories high and had angle towers, were on the N and
S sides. The first story in the N wing contained a spacious apartment with an entrance to the N, great apses
to the E and W, and a deep rectangular exedra to the S.
To the NE is the 6th c. cathedral. Its square nave was
completely covered by a large cupola supported by four
semi-cupolas. Farther N is a rectangular basilica with
pediments. The long S and N sides are lined with low
porticos and pierced with windows; the W gable wall
contains a great arch, while that to the E has an elliptical arch opening onto a semicircular apse and in the
pediment, a row of three rectangular windows with an
axial window over them. Remarkably simple in design
and decorated with elegant molding, this basilica, which
was used as a church, probably dates from Christian
times. To the N are the ruins of a little apsidal structure
built in the same style and with the same methods.
To the NW inside the surrounding wall is a great
oblong-shaped excavation with springs flowing at the bottom of it. It is often referred to as the Naumachia, and
may have been built in antiquity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. E. Brünnow & A. v. Domaszewski,
Die Provincia Arabia III (1909)
MPI; H. C. Butler,
PAES
Pt. II,
Architecture. Sec. A,
Southern Syria (1914)
MPI;
E. Frézouls, “Les théâtres romains de Syrie,”
Annales archéologiques de Syrie 2 (1952)
PI;
Syria 36 (1959); 38 (1961)
I; S. Abdul-Hak, “Découvertes archéologiques récentes,”
Annals archéologiques de Syrie 6 (1956); 8-9 (1958-59); H. Finsen et al.,
Le levé du théâtre romain
à Bosra, Syrie (=
Analecta romana instituti danici 6
suppl. 1972)
PI.
J.-P. REY-COQUAIS
