Syria I or Syria Prima ("First Syria", in , ''Prṓtē Suríā'') was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

province, formed c. 415 out of Syria Coele. The province survived until the

Muslim conquest of Syria The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and developed ...

in the 630s.

History

Syria I emerged out of Syria Coele, which during the reign of Antiochus III was one of the four satrapies in its region that included Phoenicia, Idumea, and an unknown territory that included Palestine. The Syria Coele region along the Euphrates was separated to form the province of ''

Euphratensis Euphratensis (Latin for "Euphrates, Euphratean"; , ''Euphratēsía''), fully Augusta Euphratensis, was a late Roman and then Byzantine province in Syria (region), Syrian region, part of the Byzantine Diocese of the East. History Sometime between ...

''. After c. 415 ''Syria Coele'' was further subdivided into ''Syria I'' (or ''Syria Prima''), with the capital remaining at

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

, and ''Syria II'' (''Syria Secunda'') or ''Syria Salutaris'', with capital at Apamea on the Orontes. In 528,

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

carved out the small coastal province '' Theodorias'' out of territory from both provinces. The region remained one of the most important provinces of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. It was governed by a Consularis based in Antioch. Syria Prima was occupied by the Sasanians between 609 and 628, then recovered by the emperor

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

, but lost again to the advancing Muslims after the Battle of Yarmouk and the fall of Antioch.

References

Late Roman provinces Provinces of the Byzantine Empire Justinian I States and territories established in the 410s 5th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire States and territories disestablished in the 7th century 7th-century disestablishments in the Byzantine Empire Byzantine Syria {{Byzantine-geo-stub