Phoenice (Roman province)

Roman/Byzantine province (c. 194–394)

Not to be confused with Phoenicia.

This article is about the ancient Roman province in the Levant. For the ancient Greek city in Epirus, see Phoenice.

Province of Syria Phoenice

Provincia Syria Phoenice (Latin)
ἐπαρχία τῆς Φοινίκης Συρίας (Koinē Greek)

Province of the Roman Empire (after 395 of the Byzantine Empire)
c. 194–c. 394

Roman Empire in 210 with Syria Phoenice highlighted in red
Capital| Tyrus
Historical era| Late Antiquity

• Created by Septimius Severus

| c. 194

• Division during the reign of Theodosius the Great

| c. 394

Preceded by | Succeeded by

|

|  | Syria (Roman province)

|

| Syria Palaestina
| Phoenice Libanensis |

|

Phoenice Paralia |
Today part of| Lebanon
Syria
Israel

Phoenice (Latin: Syria Phoenīcē Latin: [ˈsʏri.a pʰoe̯ˈniːkeː]; Koinē Greek: ἡ Φοινίκη Συρία, romanized: hē Phoinī́kē Syría Koinē Greek: [(h)e pʰyˈni.ke syˈri.a]) was a province of the Roman Empire, encompassing the historical region of Phoenicia. It was officially created in 194 AD and after c. 394, Phoenice Syria was divided into Phoenice proper or Phoenice Paralia, and Phoenice Libanensis, a division that persisted until the region was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in the 630s.

## Administrative history

[edit]

Map of the Diocese of the East with its provinces, as recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum, c. 400

Phoenicia came under Roman rule in 64 BC, when Pompey created the province of Syria. With the exception of a brief period in 36–30 BC, when Mark Antony gave the region to Ptolemaic Egypt, Phoenicia remained part of the province of Syria thereafter.[1] 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 (r. 193–211) actually undertook this, dividing the province into Syria Coele in the north and Syria Phoenice in the south.[1] Tyre became the capital of the new province, but Elagabalus (r. 218–222) raised his native Emesa to co-capital, and the two cities rivalled each other as the head of the province until its division in the 4th century.[1]

The province was much larger than the area traditionally called Phoenicia: for example, cities like Emesa[a] and Palmyra[b] and the base of the Legio III Gallica[c] in Raphanaea[d] were now subject to governor in Tyre. Veterans of this military unit were settled in Tyre, which also received the rank of colonia.[2]

After the death of the 2nd century Roman emperor Commodus, a civil war erupted, in which Berytus, and Sidon supported Pescennius Niger. While the city of Tyre supported Septimius Severus, which led Niger to send Mauri[e] javelin men and archers to sack the city.[3] 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 and gave it to Arabia, 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 out of the eastern half of the old province, encompassing the territory east of Mount Lebanon.[4]

### Phoenice I and Phoenice Libanensis

[edit]

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 (Greek: Φοινίκη Παραλία, "coastal Phoenice"), and Phoenice II or Phoenice Libanensis (Φοινίκη Λιβανησία), with Tyre and Emesa as their respective capitals.[4] In the Notitia Dignitatum, written shortly after the division, Phoenice I is governed by a consularis, while Libanensis is governed by a praeses, with both provinces under the Diocese of the East.[5] This division remained intact until the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s.[6] Under the Caliphate, most of the two Phoenices came under the province of Damascus, with parts in the south and north going to the provinces of Jordan and Emesa respectively.[7]

## Ecclesiastical administration

[edit]

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 of Phoenice II. Both provinces belonged to the Patriarchate of Antioch, 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.[6]

## Military

[edit]

Since the time of Septimius Severus, 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.[8]

## Governors

[edit]

### Propraetorial Imperial Legates of Phoenicia

[edit]

Marble head of the emperor Septimius Severus, from Tyre, on display at the National Museum of Beirut. Date  | Legatus Augusti pro praetore (Governor of imperial province)

|

193 – 194 | Ti. Manilius Fuscus[9]
198 | Q. Venidius Rufus Marius Maximus L. Calvinianus
c. 207 | Domitius Leo Procillianus
213 | D. Pius Cassius
Between 268 and 270 | Salvius Theodorus
Between 284 and 305 | L. Artorius Pius Maximus
292 – 293 | Crispinus

### Consulares of Phoenicia

[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.[10]

Date  | Provincial governor (Consularis)

|

Between 293 and 305 | Aelius Statuus
Between 293 and 303 | Sossianus Hierocles
Before 305 | Julius Julianus
? Between 309/313 | Maximus
c. 323 | Achillius
328 – 329 | Fl. Dionysius
335 | Archelaus
c. 337 | Nonnus
342 | Marcellinus
353/4 | Apollinaris
Before 358 | Demetrius
358 – 359 | Nicentius[11]
(?) 359/60 | Euchrostius
Before 360 | Julianus
360 – 361 | Andronicus
Before 361 | Aelius Claudius Dulcitius
361 | Anatolius
c. 361/2 | Polycles
362 | Julianus
362 – 363 | Gaianus
363 – 364 | Marius
364 | Ulpianus
364 – 365 | Domninus
372 | Leontius
380 | Petrus
382 – 383 | Proculus
Before 388 | Eustathius
388 | Antherius
388 | Epiphanius
390 | Domitius
391 | Severianus
392 | Leontius

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Modern-day Homs/Hims (حمص), Syria.
2. ^ Arabic: تَدْمُر (Tadmur)
3. ^ A military unit of the Imperial Roman army
4. ^ Arabic: الرفنية, romanized: al-Rafaniyya; colloquial: Rafniye
5. ^ Latin designation for the Berber population of Mauretania, a region in the ancient Maghreb.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Eißfeldt 1941, p. 368.
2. ^ Ulpian, Digests 50.15.1.
3. ^ Herodian, Roman History 3.3.
4. ^ a b Eißfeldt 1941, pp. 368–369.
5. ^ Notitia Dignitatum, in partibus Orientis, I
6. ^ a b Eißfeldt 1941, p. 369.
7. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 47–48, 240.
8. ^ Parker, “The Legions of Diocletian and Constantine,” p. 177/178.
9. ^ Hall, pg. 94
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ 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

## Sources

[edit]

* Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994). The End of the Jihâd State: The Reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1827-7.
* Eißfeldt, Otto (1941). "Phoiniker (Phoinike)". Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Vol. Band XX, Halbband 39, Philon–Pignus. pp. 350–379.
* 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)

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* e

Roman governors

* Achaia
* Aegyptus
* Africa proconsularis
* Alpes (Alpes Cottiae, Alpes Maritimae and Alpes Poeninae)
* Arabia Petraea
* Armenia
* Asia
* Assyria
* Bithynia and Pontus
* Britannia
* Cappadocia
* Cilicia
* Corsica and Sardinia
* Crete and Cyrenaica
* Cyprus
* Dacia
* Dalmatia
* Epirus
* Galatia
* Gaul (Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Belgica, Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia Narbonensis)
* Germania (Germania Inferior and Germania Superior)
* Hispania (Hispania Baetica and Hispania Tarraconensis)
* Judaea
* Lusitania
* Lycia et Pamphylia
* Macedonia
* Mauretania (Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana)
* Mesopotamia
* Moesia (Moesia Inferior and Moesia Superior)
* Noricum
* Pannonia (Pannonia Inferior and Pannonia Superior)
* Raetia
* Sicilia
* Syria
* Thracia

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* e

Late Roman and early Byzantine provinces (4th–7th centuries AD)

History

As found in the Notitia Dignitatum. Provincial administration reformed and dioceses established by Diocletian, c. 293\. Permanent praetorian prefectures established after the death of Constantine I. Empire permanently partitioned after 395. Exarchates of Ravenna and Africa established after 584. After massive territorial losses in the 7th century, the remaining provinces were superseded by the theme system in c. 640–660, although in Asia Minor and parts of Greece they survived under the themes until the early 9th century.

Western Roman Empire (395-476)

| Praetorian prefecture
of Gaul|

| Diocese of Gaul|

* Alpes Poeninae et Graiae
* Belgica I
* Belgica II
* Germania I
* Germania II
* Lugdunensis I
* Lugdunensis II
* Lugdunensis III
* Lugdunensis IV
* Maxima Sequanorum

|

Diocese of Vienne1|

* Alpes Maritimae
* Aquitanica I
* Aquitanica II
* Narbonensis I
* Narbonensis II
* Novempopulania
* Viennensis

Diocese of Spain|

* Baetica
* Balearica
* Carthaginensis
* Gallaecia
* Lusitania
* Mauretania Tingitana
* Tarraconensis

Diocese of the Britains|

* Britannia I
* Britannia II
* Flavia Caesariensis
* Maxima Caesariensis
* Valentia (?)

Praetorian prefecture
of Italy|

| Diocese of Suburbicarian Italy|

* Apulia et Calabria
* Campania
* Corsica
* Lucania et Bruttium
* Picenum Suburbicarium
* Samnium
* Sardinia
* Sicilia
* Tuscia et Umbria
* Valeria

|

Diocese of Annonarian Italy|

* Alpes Cottiae
* Flaminia et Picenum Annonarium
* Liguria et Aemilia
* Raetia I
* Raetia II
* Venetia et Histria

Diocese of Africa2|

* Africa proconsularis (Zeugitana)
* Byzacena
* Mauretania Caesariensis
* Mauretania Sitifensis
* Numidia (divided as Cirtensis and Militiana during the Tetrarchy)
* Tripolitania (Roman province)

Eastern Roman Empire (395-c. 640)

| Praetorian prefecture
of Illyricum|

| Diocese of Pannonia3|

* Dalmatia
* Noricum mediterraneum
* Noricum ripense
* Pannonia I
* Pannonia II
* Savia
* Valeria ripensis

|

Diocese of Dacia|

* Dacia Mediterranea
* Dacia Ripensis
* Dardania
* Moesia I
* Praevalitana

Diocese of Macedonia|

* Achaea
* Creta
* Epirus Nova
* Epirus Vetus
* Macedonia Prima
* Macedonia II Salutaris
* Thessalia

Praetorian prefecture
of the East|

| Diocese of Thrace5|

* Europa
* Haemimontus
* Moesia Secunda4
* Rhodope
* Scythia4
* Thracia

|

Diocese of Asia5|

* Asia
* Caria4
* Hellespontus
* Islands4
* Lycaonia (370)
* Lycia
* Lydia
* Pamphylia
* Pisidia
* Phrygia Pacatiana
* Phrygia Salutaris

Diocese of Pontus5|

* Armenia Prima5
* Armenia Secunda5
* Armenia Maior5
* Armenian Satrapies5
* Armenia III (536)
* Armenia IV (536)
* Bithynia
* Cappadocia I5
* Cappadocia II5
* Galatia I5
* Galatia II Salutaris5
* Helenopontus5
* Honorias5
* Paphlagonia5
* Pontus Polemoniacus5

Diocese of the East5|

* Arabia
* Cilicia I
* Cilicia II
* Cyprus4
* Euphratensis
* Isauria
* Mesopotamia
* Osroene
* Palaestina I
* Palaestina II
* Palaestina III Salutaris
* Phoenice I
* Phoenice II Libanensis
* Syria I
* Syria II Salutaris
* Theodorias (528)

Diocese of Egypt5|

* Aegyptus I
* Aegyptus II
* Arcadia
* Augustamnica I
* Augustamnica II
* Libya Superior
* Libya Inferior
* Thebais Superior
* Thebais Inferior

Other territories

* Taurica
* Quaestura exercitus (536)
* Spania (552)

* 1 Later the Septem Provinciae
* 2 Re-established after reconquest by the Eastern Empire in 534 as the separate Prefecture of Africa
* 3 Later the Diocese of Illyricum
* 4 Placed under the Quaestura exercitus in 536
* 5 Affected (i.e. boundaries modified, abolished or renamed) by Justinian I's administrative reorganization in 534–536

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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

Authority control databases |

* VIAF

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