Shahba ( /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''Shahbā'') is a city located south of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

in the Jabal el Druze in

As-Suwayda Governorate As-Suwayda or Al-Suwayda Governorate () is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is the southernmost governorate, covering an area of 5,550 km², and is part of the historic Hawran region. The capital and largest city of ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, but formerly in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

province of

Arabia Petraea Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province or simply Arabia, was a frontier Roman province, province of the Roman Empire beginning in the 2nd century. It consisted of the former Nabataean Kingdom in the southern Levant, th ...

. Known in

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

as Philippopolis (in Arabia), the city was the seat of a Bishopric (see below), which remains a Latin

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

. Its inhabitants are predominantly

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

History

Roman history

The

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentRoman emperor

Philip the Arab Philip I (; – September 249), commonly known as Philip the Arab, was Roman emperor from 244 to 249. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip, who had been Praetorian prefect, rose to power. He quickly negotiated peace with the S ...

. After Philip became emperor in 244, he dedicated himself to rebuilding the little community as a '' colonia''. The contemporary community that was replaced with the new construction was so insignificant that one author states that the city can be considered to have been built on virgin soil, making it the last of the Roman cities founded in the East. Shahba Mosaics

The city was renamed Philippopolis (a name with homonyms) in dedication to the emperor, who is said to have wanted to turn his native city into a replica of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

herself. A hexagonal-style temple and an open-air place of worship of local style, called a '' kalybe'', a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...

, baths, a starkly unornamented

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

faced with

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

blocks, a large structure that has been interpreted as a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

, and the ''Philippeion'' (''illustration, right'') surrounded by a great wall with ceremonial gates, were laid out and built following the grid plan of a typical Roman city. The public structures formed what author Arthur Segal has called a kind of "imported façade". The rest of the urban architecture was modest and vernacular. The city was never completed as building seems to have stopped abruptly after the death of Philip in 249. The new city followed the extremely regular Roman grid-plan, with the main colonnaded ''

Cardo A ''cardo'' (: ''cardines'') was a north–south street in Ancient Rome, ancient Roman cities and military castra, camps as an integral component of Urban planning, city planning. The ''cardo maximus'', or most often the ''cardo'', was the main ...

maximus'' intersecting a colonnaded ''

Decumanus Maximus In Roman urban planning, a ''decumanus'' was an east–west-oriented road in a Roman city or '' castrum'' (military camp). The main ''decumanus'' of a particular city was the ''decumanus maximus'', or most often simply "the ''decumanus''". In t ...

'' at right angles near the center. Lesser streets marked off '' insulae'', many of which never saw houses constructed upon them.

Ottoman rule and later

In 1596 Shahba appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as ''Sahba'' and was part of the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of Bani Miglad in the Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

population consisting of 8 households and 3 bachelors, who paid a fixed tax rate of 40% on wheat,

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, summer crops, goats and/or beehives; a total of 5,050

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. Because it was far from population centers that would have required cut stone for building and might have quarried it from those deserted in Philippopolis, Shahba today contains well-preserved ruins of the ancient Roman city. A museum located in the city exhibits some beautiful examples of

Roman mosaics A Roman mosaic is a mosaic made during the Roman period, throughout the Roman Republic and later Empire. Mosaics were used in a variety of private and public buildings, on both floors and walls, though they competed with cheaper frescos for the l ...

. The especially rich iconography of the figurative mosaic on the theme, ''The Glory of the Earth'', discovered in 1952 in the so-called "Maison Aoua", is conserved today in the museum of Damascus and has proved a rich resource for iconographers. The relatively well-preserved

bridge at Nimreh is located in the vicinity.

Modern era

In the 18th century

populations from

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round. Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...

moved into the area. A Christian presence exists in the city to the present.

Climate

Shahba has a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''BSk'').

References

Bibliography

* Eubel, Konrad ''Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi'', vol. 2, p. 215; vol. 3, p. 273; vol. 4, p. 280; vol. 5, p. 314; vol. 6, p. 337 * Gams, Pius Bonifacius, 1931, ''Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae'', Leipzig, p. 435 * * Lequien, Michel, 1740, ''Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus'', Paris, vol. II, coll. 861-862

External links

GCatholic - (former &) titular bishopric

Map of the town
Google Maps {{Authority control Cities in Syria Populated places in Shahba District Archaeological sites in as-Suwayda Governorate Roman towns and cities in Syria Roman sites in Syria Druze communities in Syria