I perswade my self it would be but lost Labour to spend time in making Reflections upon this or the following Inscriptions; as for the Knowledge they may exhibit to the World, your own Conjectures will more happily lead you unto it, than any thing I am like to suggest. It seems however pretty evident they were a Free State, governed by a Senate and People, though perhaps under the Protection of great Empires, the _Parthians_, it is probable, first, and afterward the _Romans_, who for a long time contended for the Mastery here in the East. And this Government might continue among them till about the time of _Aurelian_, who demolished the Place, and led _Zenobia_, Wife of _Odenatus_, Captive to _Rome_: Who, though she be called Queen, yet I find not that ever her Husband had the Title of King; but was only one of the Chief Inhabitants, a Leading Man in the Senate (as 'tis probable this _Alilamanes_ and _Airanes_ were before him) who while the _Romans_ were busied in _Europe_, made himself great here, and by his own Force repelled the _Parthians_; who having Master'd whatever was held by the _Romans_ on the other side of _Euphrates_, made an Incursion into _Syria_, but were by _Odenatus_ driven back beyond the River. In the course of these Wars _Odenatus_ was slain, but his Wife _Zenobia_, being a Woman of a Masculine Spirit, not only kept her Ground against her Enemies Abroad, but maintained her Authority at Home, keeping the Government in her Hands. Afterwards out of a desire to cast off the _Roman_ Yoke, she caused the whole Garrison, which was left there by _Aurelian_, to be barbarously cut off: Which bringing _Aurelian_ back with his Army, he quickly took the City, and destroyed it, putting the Inhabitants to the Sword, and carrying _Zenobia_ Captive to _Rome_; which was the Fatal Period of the Glory of the Place. This Custom of theirs of running up their Genealogies or Pedigrees to the fourth or fifth Generation, shews them to have borrowed some of their Fashions from their Neighbours the _Jews_, with whom it is not unlikely they had of old great Commerce; and perhaps many of them were descended from that People, _Zenobia_ her self being said to have been a _Jewess_; Or else this must have been the manner of all the Eastern Nations. Their _Æra_ or Account of Time they begin from the Death of _Alexander_ the Great, as the _Syrians_ generally do; the very Christians at this Day following the same usage. Yet though they mark the Date of the Year by _Greek_ Letters, you may observe they place them a different way from the _Greeks_, setting the lesser Number first, as if they were to be read backward, from the right Hand to the left; as Ν Υ here, denoting 450. The third Letter Λ, I take to stand for the Day of the Month, _viz._ the last of _Xandicus_, which is with us _April_; this and other names of Months, which are found in other Inscriptions, being borrowed from the _Macedonians_ with very little variation. That they were