4th century in Lebanon

Events from the 4th century in Lebanon

4th century in Lebanon

Key event(s):

* Diocletianic Persecution, Constantinian shift

Pilgrim flask (4th century A.D.) in the National Museum of Beirut.
Chronology:

* ← 3rd century
* 4th century
* 5th century →

Part of a series on the

History of Lebanon
Timeline

Ancient

* Prehistory
* Canaan/Phoenicia (2500–333 BC)
* Amurru kingdom (2000 BC)
* Egyptian rule (1550–1077 BC)
* Hittite rule (1600–1178 BC)
* Assyrian rule (883–605 BC)
* Babylonian rule (605–538 BC)
* Persian rule (538–332 BC)

Classical

* Hellenistic rule (332–64 BC)
* Roman rule (64 BC–646 AD)
* Sassanid interlude (610s–628 AD)

Medieval

* Rashidun Caliphate (636–661)
* Umayyad Caliphate (661–750)
* Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258)
* Tulunids (868–905)
* Hamdanid dynasty (890–1004)
* Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171)
* Ikhshidid dynasty (935–969)
* Mirdasid dynasty (1024–1080)
* Seljuk Empire (1037–1194)
* County of Tripoli (1099–1291)
* Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291)
* Zengid dynasty (1127–1250)
* Mamluk Sultanate (1291–1515)
* Assafs (1306–1591)
* Ma'anids (1490–1697)
* Harfushids (1493–1860)

Colonial

* Ottoman rule (1516–1918)
* Emirate of Mount Lebanon (1516–1840)
* Tripoli Eyalet (1579–1864)
* Sidon Eyalet (1660–1864)
* Shihabs (1697–1842)
* El Assaad Family (1749–1957)
* Double Qaim-Maqamate of Mount Lebanon (1843-1861)
* Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861–1918)
* Beirut Vilayet (1888–1917)
* Allied administration (1918–1920)
* French rule (1920–1943)

Republic of Lebanon

* 1958 Lebanon crisis
* Chehabist era
* Palestinian insurgency
* Lebanese Civil War (Aftermath)
* Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon
* Syrian occupation of Lebanon
* 2005 Lebanon bombings
* Cedar Revolution
* 2006 July War
* 2006–08 political protests
* 2007 North Lebanon conflict
* 2008 conflict in Lebanon
* Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon
* Lebanese presidential crisis
* Maritime boundary dispute
* Liquidity crisis (Reaction)
* Political crisis
* 2020 Beirut explosion
* Israeli invasion of Lebanon

By city and region

* Beirut
* Chouf
* Kfarsghab
* Sidon
* Kisrawan
* Tyre
* Tripoli

By century

* 1st century
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* 10th century

Lebanon portal

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This article lists historical events that occurred between 301–400 in modern-day Lebanon or regarding its people.

## Administration

[edit]

While sometime before 328, when it is mentioned in the Laterculus Veronensis, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) created the new province of Augusta Libanensis (lit. 'Lebanese Augusta') out of the eastern half of the old province of Phoenice, encompassing the territory east of Mount Lebanon.[1]

### Governors

[edit]

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.[2] Amongst them was Sossianus Hierocles, who was a praeses at some time between 293 and 303.[3] The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE) states that, as praeses, he governed Phoenice Libanensis,[4] the province on the eastern side of Mount Lebanon. The district included Palmyra, where the inscription attesting to Hierocles' career is located.[5]

### Consularis Governors of Phoenicia

[edit]

Consularis Governor  | Date

|

Aelius Statuus  | Between 293 and 305
Sossianus Hierocles  | Between 293 and 303
Julius Julianus  | Before 305
Maximus  | ? Between 309/313
Achillius  | c. 323
Fl. Dionysius  | 328 – 329
Archelaus  | 335
Nonnus  | c. 337
Marcellinus  | 342
Apollinaris  | 353/4
Demetrius  | Before 358
Nicentius[6] | 358 – 359
Euchrostius  | (?) 359/60
Julianus  | Before 360
Andronicus  | 360 – 361
Aelius Claudius Dulcitius  | Before 361
Anatolius  | 361
Polycles  | c. 361/2
Julianus  | 362
Gaianus | 362 – 363
Marius  | 363 – 364
Ulpianus  | 364
Domninus  | 364 – 365
Leontius  | 372
Petrus  | 380
Proculus  | 382 – 383
Eustathius  | Before 388
Antherius  | 388
Epiphanius  | 388
Domitius  | 390
Severianus  | 391
Leontius  | 392

### Military

[edit]

In the late fourth century an edict to draft the sons of veterans was issued from Berytus.[7]

## Events

[edit]

### 300s

[edit]

Piece of the Edict on Maximum Prices in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin

* The Edict on Maximum Prices is issued by the emperor Diocletian in 301 AD, with the prices and simulated sailing times from Nicomedia to Beirut reported to be 12 denarii for 9.9 days of duration with the ratio (price/duration) being 0.83.[8]
* Beginning of the Diocletianic Persecutions, 303 AD.[9]
* Five young Christians are martyred at Tyre in 303.[10]
* Ulphianus, a Tyrian youth, is martyred, 303 AD.[11]
* 500 Christians in Tyre get tortured and martyred in 304 AD.[12]
* Aphian, a student of the Law school of Berytus, is martyred on April 2 c. 305 AD.[13][14]
* The Governor Urbanus, shortly after Easter 307, orders the virgin Theodosia of Tyre to be thrown to the sea for conversing with Christians attending trial and refusing sacrifice.[15]

Miniature painting of the martyrdom of Pamphilus

* Pamphilus of Caesarea, a biblical scholar from a rich and honorable family of Beirut, is martyred in February 16, 309.[16][17]

### 310s

[edit]

* Tyrannion of Tyre is martyred during the Diocletianic Persecutions, 311 AD.[10]

Coin of Maximinus

* Maximinus issues a rescript encouraging every city to expel its Christians. This rescript is published in Tyre on May or June, 312 AD.[18]
* The Edict of Milan, is issued in February of 313 AD.
* In 315 AD, the cathedral of Paulinus in Tyre is inaugurated by the Bishop Eusebius, who recorded his speech and thus a detailed account of the site in his writings.[19]

Religious imagery of Frumentius

* In 316, the Tyrian-born Frumentius and his brother, Edesius accompanied their uncle Metropius on a trip to the Kingdom of Axum by ship, the crew was massacred in a port on the Red Sea and the boys taken as slaves to the King of Axum. Frumentius and Edesius, who were both christian, gained favor with the king and his family, signaling the birth of Christianity in Ethiopia.[20]

### 320s

[edit]

Seated statue of Helena.

Shrine of Our Lady of Awaiting, Maghdouché.

* During the reign of Emperor Constantine, his mother, Helena of Constantinople, requests in 324 the destruction of all pagan temples and idols dedicated to Astarte. The Astarte shrine in Maghdouché was probably destroyed at that time and converted to a place of devotion to Mary.[21]
* Paulinus of Tyre is the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East for about six months in 324 and 325.[22]
* The First Council of Nicaea – in which ten bishops from Phoenicia attended (one of them being Zeno I, bishop of Tyre) – is convened in 325 AD.[23][24]

### 330s

[edit]

The Right Hand of Gregory the Illuminator (who died in 331 AD) in the museum of the Holy See of Cilicia at Antelias, Lebanon

* The First Synod of Tyre or the Council of Tyre (335 AD), a gathering of bishops, in which the first historically documented bishop of Tripoli, Hellanicus,[25] took part, for the primary purpose of evaluating charges brought against Athanasius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, is called together by Emperor Constantine,[26] with the former governor of Phoenice, Flavius Dionysius, taking charge of the council.[27]
* Emperor Constantine is baptized by the once-bishop of Beirut, Eusebius of Nicomedia, right before his death on 22 May 337.

### 340s

[edit]

* Marcellinus, is attested as praeses of Phoenice in 342 AD.[28]

### 350s

[edit]

* The Letter 492 of Rhetorician Libanius to Vindonius Anatolius of Beirut is written in 356, in the letter, Libanius writes that Anatolius, a native of Phoenicia, had spent some time “among us”, (i.e. in Antioch).[29]

### 360s

[edit]

* In 360, Dominus the Elder, a law school professor, declines the invitation of Libanius to leave the Law School at Beirut and to teach with him at the rhetoric school of Antioch.[30]

Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II of the martyrdom of Dorotheus

* Around 362 AD, Julian the Apostate burns a basilica that existed in Beirut.[31]
* The 107-year-old Dorotheus of Tyre, bishop of Tyre, is martyred in 362 AD.[32]
* In 365 AD, Tyre and Sidon alongside several other coastal cities are damaged by a tsunami caused by the Crete earthquake.[33]

### 370s

[edit]

The remains of the temple of Jupiter

* The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, already greatly damaged by earthquakes,[34] is demolished under Theodosius in 379 and replaced by another basilica (now lost), using stones scavenged from the pagan complex.[35]

### 380s

[edit]

* The Edict of Thessalonica is issued on 27 February AD 380, making Christianity the sole official religion of the Roman empire.
* Diodorus is bishop of Tyre, 381 AD.[36]

Commemorative inscription of Proculus (Inscription #11), Nahr el-Kalb. (Zoom in for epigraphic details)

* Proculus, governor of Phoenicia, is Comes Orientis between 383 and 384. During this time, his name was carved on the Commemorative stela of Nahr el-Kalb.[37]

## Culture

[edit]

### Education

[edit]

In the 4th century, the Greek rhetorician Libanius reported that the school attracted young students from affluent families and deplored the school's instructional use of Latin, which was gradually abandoned in favor of Greek in the course of the century.[38][39][40][41]

Historically, Roman stationes or auditoria, where teaching was done, stood next to public libraries housed in temples. This arrangement was copied in the Roman colony at Beirut. The first mention of the school's premises dates to 350.[42]

### Chariot racing

[edit]

A lead tablet, cursing the blue faction, was found in Beirut in 1929 and has now been dated to the fourth century CE.[43]

## Religion

[edit]

The Life of Constantine mentions a temple at Aphaca in Phoenicia, on a remote summit of Mount Libanus, being used by effeminate homosexual pagan priests, and says that this temple was destroyed by the command of Roman emperor Constantine I.[44][45]

## Economy

[edit]

During the fourth-century abundant crops of grain, wine, oil, and other products were attributed to the cities of Berytus, Byblos, Tyre, and Sarepta.[46] Further evidence of agricultural production near Berytus is found in the fourth-century journal of the bureaucrat Theophanes, who traveled between Antioch and Egypt from 317 to 324 AD. In Berytus, Theophanes noted buying two types of bread ("pure white" for officials amongst his party and "coarse" for the servants), as well as grapes, figs, pumpkins or squashes, peaches, apricots, and cleaning supplies such as natron, bath oil, and soap. Similar purchases of bread, fresh produce, wine, and even snow to cool the wine (in Byblos) were made during each stop along the journey. They also came to Sidon on the following day and bought eggs.[47]

## Architecture

[edit]

* Shrine of Our Lady of Nourieh.
* Our Lady of Awaiting, Maghdouché.
* A basilica in Tyre built upon the ruins of a church by the city's bishop, Paulinus.[48]

## People

[edit]

### Professors at the Berytus Law School

[edit]

Dates of service[49] | Names

(uncertain names in italic)

|

Summer 356 to March / April 364  | Domninus (Domnio)
October 363  | Scylacius
Summer 365  | Anonymous
Summer 388  | Sebastianus?

### Births and deaths

[edit]

### 300s

[edit]

Porphyry, a detail of the Tree of Jesse, 1535, Sucevița Monastery.

* The Tyrian-born Porphyry (philosopher) dies in c. 305 AD.[50]

### 320s

[edit]

Mar Awtel, Kfarsghab, Lebanon

* Christian Maronite saint Awtel dies in 327 AD.

### 390s

[edit]

* Frumentius dies c. 383.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Eißfeldt 1941, pp. 368–369.
2. ^ A.H.M. Jones, J.R. Martindale, J. Morris, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. I: AD 260–395, Cambridge 1971 (hereinafter: PLRE I), pp. 1105–1110 (fasti). For the reviews, often negative, and corrections to the first volume of PLRE, cf. A.H.M. Jones, “Fifteen years of Late Roman Prosopography in the West” (1981–95), [in:] Medieval Prosopography 17/1, 1996, pp. 263–274.
3. ^ CIL III, 133; Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 1.432 s.v. "Sossianvs Hierocles 4", citing L'Année épigraphique 1932, 79 = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 7.152.
4. ^ Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 1.432 s.v. "Sossianvs Hierocles 4".
5. ^ Simmons, 848.
6. ^ Martindale, J. R. & A. H. M. Jones, "Nicentius 1", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I AD 260-395 (Cambridge: University Press, 1971), p. 628
7. ^ Linda Jones Hall (2004), p. 49
8. ^ Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, Explaining the maritime freight charges in Diocletian’s Price Edict, Version 1.0, April 2013, Walter Scheidel, Stanford University.
9. ^ Philip F. Esler, ed. (2000). The Early Christian World, Vol.2. Routledge. pp. 827–829. ISBN 978-0-415-16497-9.
10. ^ a b Basil Watkins, The Book of Saints, 8th ed. (Bloomsbury, 2016 [1921]), p. 734.
11. ^ Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine) (1897). The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 04, April. London, J. C. Nimmo.
12. ^ "500 Martyrs of Tyre". Living Maronite. 2017-02-19. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
13. ^ Saints of April 2: Amphianus
14. ^ Campbell, Thomas Joseph (1907). "St. Aphian" . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1.
15. ^ Eusebius, De Martyribus Palestinae 7.1f, cited in Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 152.
16. ^ "Henry Wace: Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library". www.ccel.org. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
17. ^ Christa Müller-Kessler, The Unknown Martyrdom of Patriklos of Caesarea in Christian Palestinian Aramaic from St Catherine’s Monastery (Sinai, Arabic NF 66), Analecta Bollandiana 137, 2019, pp. 63-71
18. ^ Eusebius, De Martyribus Palestinae 4.8; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 152; Keresztes, 384; Mitchell, p. 117.
19. ^ Medlej, Youmna Jazzar; Medlej, Joumana (2010). Tyre and its history. Beirut: Anis Commercial Printing Press s.a.l. pp. 1–30. ISBN 978-9953-0-1849-2.
20. ^ RUFINUS, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. I, cap. ix, in P.L., XXI, 478-80; Acta SS. Oct., XII, 257-70; DUCHESNE, Les missiones chrétienne au Sud de l'empire romain in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire (Rome, 1896), XVI, 79-122; THEBAUD, The Church and the Gentile World (New York, 1878), I, 231-40; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 27 Oct.; BARING-GOULD, Lives of the Saints (London, 1872), 27 Oct.
21. ^ "(Maghdouche Through) History". Maghdouche. PiPOP (PCA Internet Point of Presence). Archived from the original on 2004-10-10.
22. ^ Sozomen, H. E. I. 17, Theodoret, H. E. I. 7, and the Acts of the Council of Nicæa, ed. Labbei et Cossartii, I. p. 51
23. ^ Hitti, Philip K. (1951) History of Syria including Lebanon and Palestine. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 363 fn.
24. ^ Cowper, B. H. (1861). Syriac Miscellanies. London:Williams and Norgate. pp. 9–10. Preterist Archive website Archived 2018-10-07 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2 April 2018.
25. ^ Le Quien, Oriens christianus
26. ^ Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 2 Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Incorporated, 1997. ISBN 0-7172-0129-5.
27. ^ Linda Jones Hall (2004), p. 95
28. ^ PLRE I 545; 546.
29. ^ Libanius, Ep. 492, 2: σὺ γὰρ δὴ Φοίνιξ ὢν καὶ διατρίβων τὰ μὲν ἐκεῖ, τὰ δὲ παρ’ ἡμῖν.
30. ^ Collinet 1925, p. 121
31. ^ Kassir (2002); Kassir, S. Histoire de Beyrouth, Ed. Fayard, Paris p.51, 2003.
32. ^ "Saint Dorotheus of Tyre". Saints.SQPN. Retrieved April 5, 2011.
33. ^ "Ammianus Marcellinus on the tsunami of 365 - Livius". www.livius.org. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
34. ^ Cook (1914), p. 556.
35. ^ Cook (1914), p. 555.
36. ^ "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. IV: Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life.: To Diodorus (fragment). | St-Takla.org". st-takla.org. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
37. ^ Commemorative stela of Nahr el-Kalb at Livius.org
38. ^ Collinet 1925, p. 39
39. ^ Clark 2011, p. 36
40. ^ Sadowski 2010 pp. 211–216
41. ^ Rochette 1997 pp. 168, 174
42. ^ Collinet 1925, p. 62
43. ^ Paturel, Simone (2019), p 129.
44. ^ Cantarella, Eva (20 October 2017). Bisexuality in the Ancient World. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300093025 – via Google Books.
45. ^ "Internet History Sourcebooks". sourcebooks.fordham.edu. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016.
46. ^ Expositio totius mundi et gentium
47. ^ Matthews, John (2006-10-19). The Journey of Theophanes. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10898-9.
48. ^ Doig, Allan (2008). Liturgy and architecture from the early church to the Middle Ages. Internet Archive. Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-5272-4.
49. ^ Collinet 1925, p. 192
50. ^ Schott, Jeremy M. (2013-04-23). Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0346-2.

## Sources

[edit]

* Linda Jones Hall, Roman Berytus: Beirut in late antiquity (2004)
* Attridge, Harold W.; Gōhei Hata (1992). Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2361-8.
* Kassir, Samir; M. B. DeBevoise (2010). Beirut. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25668-2.
* Sadowski, Piotr (2010). "Szkoła prawa w Bejrucie w świetle listów i mów Libaniusza" [Beirut law school in the light of letters and sayings of Libanius] (PDF). Studia Prawnoustrojowe (in Polish). 12: 203–218\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-08-27 – via Czasopisma humanistyczne.
* Clark, Gillian (2011). Late Antiquity: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-161140-7.
* Collinet, Paul (1925). Histoire de l'école de droit de Beyrouth (in French). Paris: Société Anonyme du Recueil Sirey.
* Paturel, Simone (2019-07-01), Baalbek-Heliopolis, the Bekaa, and Berytus from 100 BCE to 400 CE, BRILL, ISBN 978-90-04-40073-3
* Cook, Arthur Bernard (1914). Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion. Vol. I: Zeus God of the Bright Sky. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Eißfeldt, Otto (1941). "Phoiniker (Phoinike)". Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Vol. Band XX, Halbband 39, Philon–Pignus. pp. 350–379.
* Simmons, Michael Bland. "Graeco-Roman Philosophical Opposition". In The Early Christian World, edited by Philip Francis Esler, 2.840–868. New York: Routledge, 2000.

* v
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Roman archaeological sites in Lebanon

Roman Berytus
(actual Beirut)|

* Berytus 1
* Roman Forum of Berytus
* Berytus Roman Baths
* Cisterns of Berytus Baths
* Berytus Cardo Decumanus
* Berytus Colonnaded street
* Byzantine mosaics
* Roman hippodrome of Berytus
* Roman Law school of Berytus

Roman Phoenicia
(actual Lebanon)|

* Heliopolis
* Temple of Bacchus
* Temple of Jupiter (Baalbek)
* Temples of Mount Hermon
* Temples of the Beqaa Valley
* Aaqbe temple
* Afqa
* Ain Aata temple
* Ain Harcha roman temple
* Amioun Monastery
* Arca Caesarea
* Augusti Pagus
* Bakka temple
* Batroumine
* Bziza temple
* Canalizations of Zenobia
* Dakoue temple
* Mansourieh Roman aqueduct
* Hebbariye temple
* Iaat column
* Kafr Zabad temples
* Khirbet El-Knese roman temples
* Labweh Roman temple
* Libbaya roman temple
* Monastery of Qozhaya
* Monastery of Saint Maron
* Nahle roman temple
* Nebi Safa temple
* Niha
* Hosn Niha
* Qalaat Faqra
* Qal'at Bustra temple
* Castra Chbib
* Castra El Banat
* Saraain El Faouqa
* Schleem roman temple
* Colonia Aurelia Pia "Sidon"
* Temnin el-Foka nymphaeum
* Tripolis in Phoenicia
* Tyrus 1
* Tyre Necropolis
* Roman temple to Venus in Yammoune

Related|

* Roman Lebanon
* Phoenice (Roman province)
* Palaestina Secunda
* Phoenice Libanensis
* Stone of the Pregnant Woman
* Ulpianus
* Marcus Valerius Probus
* Eudokia of Heliopolis
* Saint Barbara of Heliopolis
* Coele-Syria
* List of Christian cathedrals in Lebanon
* Christianity in Lebanon
* Catholic Church in Lebanon
* Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral
* 2nd century in Lebanon
* 3rd century in Lebanon
* 4th century in Lebanon
* 5th century in Lebanon
* 6th century in Lebanon
* 551 Beirut earthquake

* 1 UNESCO World Heritage Sites 2 Proposed
* Category:Roman sites in Lebanon

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