Phoenice Libanensis

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Phoenice Libanensis (

Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the territories to the east, all the way to Palmyra. It was officially created c. 394, when the Roman province of Phoenice 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.

Phoenice Libanensis
Φοινίκη Λιβανησία
Province of the
Muslim conquest of Syria
635
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Phoenice (Roman province)
Jund Dimashq
Jund Hims
Jund al-Urdunn
Today part ofSyria
Lebanon

Toponymy

Agapius of Hierapolis used the term “wilderness of Phoenicia” to refer to the steppe between Emesa and Palmyra, in the former province of Lebanese Phoenicia. During the Crusades, William of Tyre and Jacques of Vitry mention Lebanese Phoenicia in its Graeco-Roman borders and limits, undoubtedly based on the administrative and ecclesiastical geographies still known in the Roman Empire.[1][2] William of Tyre goes on to call Damascus the “metropolis of Little Syria, otherwise called Lebanese Phoenicia”.

Under the Ottoman Empire, the former province of the Lebanese Phoenicia was present only in titles used by local Rûm Christians of the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. In the list of episcopal titles, for instance, the Archbishops of Emesa, Baalbek, and Palmyra are “exarchos over the whole of Lebanese Phoenicia”.[3][4]

History

Phoenice I and Phoenice Libanensis

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

The province of Augusta Libanensis, mentioned in the

Verona List, was short-lived, but formed the basis of the re-division of Phoenice c. 400 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.[5] 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.[6] This division remained intact until the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s.[7] 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.[8]

Edicts of Justinian the Great

Due to mass administrative reforms and edicts directed at Phoenice Libanensis with the goal of preventing further pro-Sassanid raids and invasions, the province was now ruled by two ducēs during the reign of Justinian I.[9][10]

Detail of a contemporary portrait mosaic of Justinian dressed in a royal purple chlamys and jeweled stemma in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. AD 547

In the edict dating from c.535–539 of

comes Orientis, Patricius, to reconstruct Palmyra, its churches, and its baths, and stationed a numerus and a number of limitane there. On the basis of this and of a passage in Procopius
, scholars have concluded that the new dux was stationed in Palmyra.

Shahnameh illustration of al-Mundhir III (right) seeking the help of the Sasanian king Khosrow I against the Byzantine Empire.

These reforms were due to the devastating raids that were led by the

Lakhmid Al-Mundhir during Justin's reign, such raids have reached deep into Oriens, most especially the invasion as far as Emesa in 527. This raid affecting Lebanese Phoenicia probably inspired Justinian's measures. Justinian had the defense of Jerusalem in mind, expecting the dux in Phoenicia to protect the Holy City. Mundhir's raid as far as the Holy Land must have made the Roman authorities apprehensive about the safety of Palestine, and seeing that Mundir had taken a route from Palmyra to Emesa and Apamea. Byzantium wanted to protect the interior of Oriens by intercepting Mundir at Palmyra to prevent him from penetrating deeper into Roman territory. It also seems that the number of phylarchs (pro-Roman Arab sheikhs) assigned to Phoenicia was also raised to two or more. In the edict on the province of 536, more than one phylarch is referred to. In 528 three Arab phylarchs took part in the punitive expedition against Mundhir, and dukes from Phoenicia also participated. Two of the phylarchs named by John Malalas
; Naaman and Jafna, may have been appointed to the newly reorganized province.

Palmyra was the last place Justinian fortified in his enormous building program all over the empire, largely for military reasons, other reasons for such building program in the region may have to do with biblical references, as Malalas refers to the biblical association of Palmyra with Solomon, the Old Testament king whom Justinian claimed to have surpassed in the building of Hagia Sophia. In the mid-530s Justinian initiated a wide-ranging program of administrative reforms in the eastern provinces, which included Phoenicia Libanensis.[12]

Edict 4

The "Edict 4" was issued in May 536 towards Phoenice Libanensis. The edict's main concern was: the assertion of the power of the civil governor over the military and his elevation from

clarissimus). In contrast to the phylarch of Arabia, al-Harith ibn Jabalah
, who was spectabilis, these in Lebanon were ordinary phylarchs, inferior in rank to the spectabilis dux. The more distinguished phylarchs had the higher ranks that appear in Greek inscriptions. The phylarchs mentioned in the edict were subordinate to the dukes of the province, the tribal affiliation of these phylarchs was possibly Ghassanid.

Procopius tells the story of the Strata dispute between al-Harith and Mundir, which served as Persia's pretext for the outbreak of the second Persian war with Byzantium. This account documents the Ghassanids' involvement with Phoenicia, as according to Procopius the Strata was south of Palmyra. In such an important border dispute it was al-Harith the archphylarch, not the lesser phylarchs of Phoenicia, that was involved, showing the archphylarch's transprovincial jurisdiction. Here it was al-Harith, not the dukes, who was the defender of the Roman limes, confirming the view that it was to the Ghassanids (and not the dukes) that the defense of the oriental limes sector from Palmyra to Ayla was primarily left. In his account of the Ghassanids' buildings, the Islamic author Hamza states, in his Arabic chronicle, that there was a Ghassanid presence in Tadmur (Palmyra). This seems confirmed by the explanation of Justinian's edict on Phoenicia. With Palmyra being the seat of one of the two dukes of this province.[12]

Lakhmid raids

The supreme phylarch al-Harith appears everywhere in Oriens defending Byzantine interests. After three years of the

Arabic: يَوْم حَلِيمَة, romanizedYawm Ḥalimah, lit.'Day of Halima'.[12]

Byzantine-Sassanian War and its aftermath

Painting of the last Byzantine-Sassanian War.

During the frequent

Muslim conquests: by the 640s, the Muslim Arabs conquered Syria soon after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, establishing a new regime to replace the Romans.[15]

Regions

The Lebanese Phoenicia was between

Nazala, Abina, Casama (Nabk), Calamona (In Jabal Qalamoun), Betproclis (Bir el-Fourqlous), Thelseae (possibly Doumeir), Adatna (possibly Ḥadata), and Palmira.[18] During the Arab pre-islamic period, in Phoenice Libanensis, Jalliq, the second capital of the Ghassanid Arabs, constituted a major urban center for the Arab population.[19]

Military

Dux Foenicis
Active4th century-6th century
CountryRoman empire

The

Mavia's Saracens in c. 377, fighting alongside the Magister Equitum per Orientem.[20] The following units or detachments of units, and prefects and their units, are listed as being under the command of the Dux Foenicis:[21]

Unit Location
Equites Mauri Illyriciani Otthara
Equites scutarii Illyriciani Euhari
Equites promoti indigenae Saltatha
Equites Dalmati Illyriciani Latavi
Equites promoti indigenae Avatha
Equites promoti indigenae Nazala
Equites sagittarii indigenae Abina
Equites sagittarii indigenae Casawa
Equites sagittarii indigenae Calamona
Equites Saraceni indigenae Betproclis
Equites Saraceni Thelsee
Equites sagittarii indigenae Adatha
Praefectus legionis primae Illyriciorum Palmira
Praefectus legionis tertiae Gallicae Danaba

Units from a lesser register include:

Unit Location
Ala prima Damascena Monte Iovis
Ala nova Diocletiana Veriaraca
Ala prima Francorum Cunna
Ala prima Alamannorum Neia
Ala prima Saxonum Verofabula
Ala prima Foenicum Rene
Ala secunda Salutis Arefa
Cohors tertia Herculia Veranoca
Cohors quinta pacta Alamannorum Onevatha
Cohors prima Iulia lectorum Vale Alba
Cohors secunda Aegyptiorum Valle Diocletiana
Cohors prima Orientalis Thama

Ecclesiastical administration

Bab Kisan, one of the seven ancient city-gates of Damascus, with Chi Rho carvings.

The ecclesiastical administration paralleled the political, but with some differences. When the province was divided c. 394,

Patriarchate of Antioch, with Damascus initially outranking Tyre, the capital of Phoenice I, 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.[7] In February 452[b] the alleged head of John the Baptist was discovered in the monastery of Spelaion, in the diocese of Emesa, in Phoenice II.[23] Following this event, Emesa—which had first been a suffragan of Damascus[24]—was "probably raised to the rank of honorary [ecclesiastical] metropolis of Lebanese Phoenicia in the second half of the fifth century" according to Julien Aliquot.[9]

This situation, "conforming to the letter of the twelfth canon of the

Stéphanoupolis"[25] This was probably due, according to Julien Aliquot, to the transfer of the head of John the Baptist to the city of Emessa from the monastery of Spelaion attested by Theophanes the Confessor, although it is dated by him to around the year 760 – "more than a century after the Muslim conquest of the Near East" – which is an unlikely date.[26]

Basil II's Menologion
depicting Julian of Emesa's martyrdom

It's presumed that Julian of Emesa was considered as the patron saint of Phoenice Libanensis. The Notitia Antiochena, composed about 570, lists eleven bishoprics of Phoenicia Libanensis under the metropolitan of Damascus, among which it lists the “bishopric of Euhara” and the “bishopric of the Saracens.”[27]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ It's unknown if the province kept its name after the Byzantine reconquest.
  2. ^ Vitalien Laurent suggested the month of February 453[22]

References

  1. ^ William of Tyre, Histoire des Croisades, available from [1]
  2. ^ Jacques of Vitry, Histoire des Croisades, Available from: [2]
  3. ^ Charon, C., 1907. La hiérarchie melkite du patriarcat d'Antioche, in: Échos d'Orient, tome 10, n°65, pp.223–230. Doi: [3]
  4. ^ Rustum, A., 1988. Kanisat Madinat Allah Antakia el Ouzma [The Church of the City of God, Great Antioch], Volume I, Éditions de la Librairie Saint-Paul, Beirut, Lebanon, p. 61-62
  5. ^ Eißfeldt 1941, pp. 368–369.
  6. ^ Notitia Dignitatum, in partibus Orientis, I
  7. ^ a b Eißfeldt 1941, p. 369.
  8. ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 47–48, 240.
  9. ^ a b c Julien Aliquot, p. 126.
  10. ^ Trombley, Frank. "The Operational Methods of the Late Roman Army in the Persian War of 572–591". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. ISSN 0003-097X
    .
  12. ^ a b c Shahîd, Irfan (1995). Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 1, Part 1, Political and Military History. Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University.
  13. .
  14. OCLC 773516651.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  15. ^ Giftopoulou, Sofia (2005). "Diocese of Oriens (Byzantium)". Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor. Foundation of the Hellenic World. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  16. ^ Rustum, A., 1988. Kanisat Madinat Allah Antakia el Ouzma [The Church of the City of God, Great Antioch], Volume I, Éditions de la Librairie Saint-Paul, Beirut, Lebanon, p 399.
  17. ^ Brown, J. P.; Gatier, P.-L. (2017-05-12). "Otthara: a Pleiades place resource". Pleiades: a gazetteer of past places. DARMC, R. Talbert, R. Warner, Jeffrey Becker, Sean Gillies, Tom Elliott. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  18. , retrieved 2022-11-12
  19. ^ Byzantium and the Arabs in the sixth century, Irfan Shahîd, p. 358.
  20. ^ ND
  21. ^ ND
  22. ^ Vitalien Laurent, Le corpus des sceaux de l'empire byzantin, t. 5 : L'Église, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1965, p. 380.
  23. ^ Julien Aliquot, p. 122.
  24. ^ Siméon Vailhé, p. 142.
  25. ^ Julien Aliquot, p. 126.
  26. ^ Julien Aliquot, p. 127.
  27. ^ Shahîd, Irfan (1995). Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 1, Part 2, Ecclesiastical History. Dumbarton Oaks. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University.

Sources