Phoenice (Roman province)
Province of Syria Phoenice Provincia Syria Phoenice ( Theodosius the Great | c. 394 | ||||||||||||
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Today part of | Lebanon Syria Israel |
Phoenice (
Administrative history
Phoenicia came
The province was much larger than the area traditionally called
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
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
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,
Military
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
Propraetorial Imperial Legates of Phoenicia
Date | imperial province )
|
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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
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
References
- ^ a b c Eißfeldt 1941, p. 368.
- ^ Ulpian, Digests 50.15.1.
- ^ Herodian, Roman History 3.3.
- ^ a b Eißfeldt 1941, pp. 368–369.
- ^ Notitia Dignitatum, in partibus Orientis, I
- ^ a b Eißfeldt 1941, p. 369.
- ^ Blankinship 1994, pp. 47–48, 240.
- ^ Parker, “The Legions of Diocletian and Constantine,” p. 177/178.
- ^ Hall, pg. 94
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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
- 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)