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P. Dura 28 is a complete Syriac document written on parchment and found in Dura-Europos, recording the sale of a female slave; it was redacted in Edessa in 243 CE (the date is given according to the Seleucid era), and it provides us with rich chronological information that has added to our knowledge of the status of Edessa under Rome in the third century (Millar 1993: 478–479). The long preamble in the text also demonstrates that Edessene civic authorities asserted peer status with Greek metropoleis and Roman coloniae; the Edessenes were organized into a citizen community that was consistent with other Greek cities and Roman colonies in Syria. The document therefore demonstrates that the use of the Syriac language cannot be merely understood as antagonistic to mainstream Roman imperial culture, but, rather, Syriac enabled the Osrhoenians to shift their allegiances within the context of a broader and complex dialogue on how Romanness was understood in a Roman provincial setting (Drijvers and Healey 1999; Andrade 2015: P1; see also ssss1 and ssss1).