Phoenice ( lat, Syria Phoenīcē ; grc-koi, ἡ Φοινίκη Συρία, hē Phoinī́kē Syría ) was a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

, encompassing the historical region of

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

. It was officially created in 194 AD and after , Phoenice Syria was divided into Phoenice proper or Phoenice Paralia, and

Phoenice Libanensis Phoenice Libanensis (, also known in Latin as Phoenice Libani), or Phoenice II/Phoenice Secunda), was a province of the Roman Empire, covering the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the territories to the east, all the way to Palmyra. It was officially cre ...

, a division that persisted until the region was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in the 630s.

Administrative history

Phoenicia came under Roman rule in 64 BC, when

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

created the province of Syria. With the exception of a brief period in 36–30 BC, when

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

gave the region to Ptolemaic Egypt, Phoenicia remained part of the province of Syria thereafter. Emperor Hadrian (reigned 117–138) is said to have considered a division of the overly large Syrian province in 123–124 AD, but it was not until shortly after c. 194 AD that

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...

(r. 193–211) actually undertook this, dividing the province into Syria Coele in the north and Syria Phoenice in the south. Tyre became the capital of the new province, but

Elagabalus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 11/12 March 222), better known by his nickname "Elagabalus" (, ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for s ...

(r. 218–222) raised his native

Emesa ar, حمصي, Himsi , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_t ...

to co-capital, and the two cities rivalled each other as the head of the province until its division in the 4th century. The province was much larger than the area traditionally called

: for example, cities like

and

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

and the base of the

Legio III Gallica Legio III Gallica ( Third Legion "Gallic") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. The cognomen ''Gallica'' suggests that its earliest recruits came from veterans of the Gallic legions of Gaius Julius Caesar, a supposition supported by it ...

in Raphanaea were now subject to governor in Tyre. Veterans of this military unit were settled in Tyre, which also received the rank of colonia. NationalMuseumOfBeirut SeptimiusSverus-marble-Tyre RomanDeckert06102019

NationalMuseumOfBeirut SeptimiusSverus-marble-Tyre RomanDeckert06102019

After the death of the 2nd century Roman emperor Commodus, a civil war erupted, in which Berytus, and

Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...

supported Pescennius Niger. While the city of Tyre supported

, which led Niger to send

Mauri Mauri (from which derives the English term "Moors") was the Latin designation for the Berber population of Mauretania, located in the part of North Africa west of Numidia, in present-day northern Morocco and northwestern Algeria. Name ''Mauri'' ...

javelin men and archers to sack the city. However, Niger lost the civil war, and Septimius Severus decided to show his gratitude for Tyre's support by making it the capital of Phoenice. Diocletian (r. 284–305) separated the district of

Batanaea Batanaea or Batanea (the Hellenized/Latinised form of Bashan) was an area of the Biblical Holy Land, north-east of the Jordan River, to the west of Trachonitis. History Bataneaea was one of the four post- Exile divisions of the area of Bashan. ...

and gave it to

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

, while sometime before 328, when it is mentioned in the ''

Laterculus Veronensis The ''Laterculus Veronensis'' or Verona List is a list of Roman provinces and barbarian peoples from the time of the emperors Diocletian and Constantine I, most likely from AD 314. The list is transmitted only in a 7th-century manuscript preserve ...

'',

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...

(r. 306–337) created the new province of Augusta Libanensis out of the eastern half of the old province, encompassing the territory east of Mount Lebanon.

Phoenice I and Phoenice Libanensis

Constantine's province was short-lived, but formed the basis of the re-division of Phoenice c. 394 into the Phoenice I or Phoenice Paralia ( el, Φοινίκη Παραλία, "coastal Phoenice"), and Phoenice II or Phoenice Libanensis (Φοινίκη Λιβανησία), with Tyre and Emesa as their respective capitals. In the '' Notitia Dignitatum'', written shortly after the division, Phoenice I is governed by a ''

consularis ''Consularis'' is a Latin adjective indicating something pertaining to the position or rank of consul. In Ancient Rome it was also used as a noun (plural ''consulares'') to designate those senators who had held the office of consul or attained co ...

'', while Libanensis is governed by a ''

praeses ''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions. ...

'', with both provinces under the

Diocese of the East The Diocese of the East ( la, Dioecesis Orientis; el, ) was a diocese of the later Roman Empire, incorporating the provinces of the western Middle East, between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. During late Antiquity, it was one of the majo ...

.''Notitia Dignitatum''
''in partibus Orientis'', I
/ref> This division remained intact until the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s. Under the

Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

, most of the two Phoenices came under the province of Damascus, with parts in the south and north going to the provinces of

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

and

respectively.

Governors

Propraetorial Imperial Legates of Phoenicia

''Consulares'' of Phoenicia

In the fourth century, as a whole, almost 30 governors of Phoenicia are known with 23 governors of Phoenicia being in office between 353 and 394.

Ecclesiastical administration

The ecclesiastical administration paralleled the political, but with some differences. The bishop of Tyre emerged as the pre-eminent prelate of Phoenice by the mid-3rd century. When the province was divided c. 394, Damascus, rather than Emesa, became the

metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big ci ...

of Phoenice II. Both provinces belonged to the

Patriarchate of Antioch Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the bishop of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). As the traditional "overseer" (ἐπίσκοπος, ''episkopos'', from which the word ''bishop'' is derived) of the first gentile Christian c ...

, with Damascus initially outranking Tyre, whose position was also briefly challenged by the see of Berytus c. 450; after 480/1, however, the Metropolitan of Tyre established himself as the first in precedence ('' protothronos'') of all the Metropolitans subject to Antioch.

Military

Since the time of

, it had been the practice to assign not more than two legions to each frontier province, and, although in some provinces one legion was sometimes deemed sufficient, the upper limit was not exceeded. This policy appears to have been continued during the third century AD, as seen in the case of Aurelian raising the garrisons of Phoenice to the normal strength of two legions.Parker, “The Legions of Diocletian and Constantine,” p. 177/178.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * Schürer Emil, Vermes Geza, Millar Fergus, ''The history of the Jewish people in the age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.-A.D. 135)'', Volume I, Edinburgh 1973, p. 243-266 (Survey of the Roman Province of Syria from 63 B.C. to A.D. 70). * Linda Jones Hall, ''Roman Berytus: Beirut in late antiquity'' (2004) * Martindale, J. R.; Jones, A. H. M, ''The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'', Vol. I AD 260–395, Cambridge University Press (1971)

Roman governors of Syria This is a list of governors of the Roman province of Syria. From 27 BC, the province was governed by an imperial legate of praetorian rank. The province was merged with Roman Judaea in 135 AD to form Syria Palaestina until 193 AD when it was d ...

Lists of office-holders in ancient Rome Syria ca:Síria (província romana)#Governadors romans de Síria pl:Syria (prowincja rzymska) {{coord missing, Asia 2nd-century establishments 7th-century disestablishments in Asia Ancient Lebanon Lebanon in the Roman era Holy Land during Byzantine rule Geography of Phoenicia Provinces of the Roman Empire Provinces of the Byzantine Empire Roman Syria Byzantine Syria States and territories established in the 190s States and territories disestablished in the 7th century