The aim of this study is to examine the range of sociocultural significances that banqueting reliefs had for the people of Palmyra, who commissioned and saw these images, in the first three centuries AD. The paper commences by exploring the various interpretations of what the iconography of reclining to dine meant at Palmyra. It then examines how and why the social level of patrons represented in these reliefs changed over time. These alterations in use are outlined here, because who was repr...