While research publications on Palmyra have become more and more numerous in recent decades, the question of how to characterise Palmyra’s local elite is still controversial. Ernest Will argued that the local elite were a group of «grand patrons» with their habitus reflecting a habitus «de cheikhs selon le terme arabe». Whereas Yon draws a different picture, labelling the local elite an «aristocratie marchande» and implicitly identifying the ruling class of Palmyra as a regime of notables; hence, resembling other local elites in the Roman Near East. Recently, Sommer emphasised that Palmyrene elite members also provided military service. Thus, he questioned the understanding of Palmyra’s elite as a leisure class of notables.
