I've been reading about it quite a bit and get confused. Apparently many client-states rose and fell there. The Romans annexed Oshreone, and then it risen again, and then conquered again. Same goes with Mesopotamia. Meanwhile, there seems to be little dynamics... or maybe resistance from southern Syria, except for Zenobia and Mavia in 3rd century.
What was there before Syria became true "Roman", really? What cultures existed prior to Roman Syria? The information I gathered is really scattered, like it was very difficult to exactly know what was actually going on in the region. It feels very different when reading about, say, Britain or Gaul.
During the Classical Antiquity and prior to the Romans, the political entities who had conquered or inhabited Syria were the Seleucid Greeks(and Alexander's empire of course), the Persians (Parthian and Sassanian), the Armenians, and Orshoene.
The Persians and the Armenians had minimal influence aside from the presence of Armenian communities in areas such as Sophene, Commagene, and Cilica and Persians in parts of Mesopotamia.
Rather the dominant foreign culture of the period were the Greeks who exported their Hellenic culture, philsophy, and art to some cities in Syria that were 'refounded' so to speak as Greek cities. Notable examples include Antioch, Laodicea (modern Lattakia), and Apamea (modern Hama, ancient Hamath). Greek gods were equated with Syrian gods such as Baal, Haddad, and Astarte (See Heliopolis). Greek language was the dominant tongue in these Greek colonies, however outside those areas Aramaic was prevelant. Hellenization of Syria lasted quite a while producing several notable figures such as Posidonius, Apollodorus of Damascus, Elagabalus(founder of the Sol Invictus cult and Roman Emperor) and a plethora of Neo-Platonists.
The other culture of Syria, would be the native Semitic culture of the native Syrians, or Arameans (whose language was closely related to that of the Phoenicians and Hebrews). Oshroene was a kingdom ruled by Nabatean sheiks with the official language of the kingdom being the Edessian dialect of Aramaic that would be called Syriac. Its inhabitants were Syrians, and it seems as though it was one of the earliest kingdoms to adopt Christianity as King Abgar V was said to have been in contact with Jesus and received the mandylion after his death. Even prior to the Classical period, the Arameans were originally Semitic nomads who settled Syria in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE, at the time of the Bronze age collapse. The Arameans had a series of kingdoms that were never unified (except a loose coalition that formed at the battle of Qarqar) as shown in this map . Note that the pink area would be the Assyrians, and the Phoenician city states were independent of Arameans. The Luwian-Hittites, and Mitanni-Hurrians who had been in Syria prior to the Arameans, ended up heavily influencing Aramean art, culture, and religion.
Let me know if you want more information.
Edit:
Examples of Iron Age Aramean art
Basalt Lions from the Aramean Kingdom of Bit-Bahiana
Syro-Hittite Storm God relief from Aleppo
Here's an excellent resource, History of Syria by Phillip Hitti
