Syria Palaestina

Syria Palaestina (Koinē Greek: Συρία ἡ Παλαιστίνη, romanized: Syría hē Palaistínē, [syˈri.a (h)e̝ pa.lɛsˈt̪i.ne̝]), or Roman Palestine,[1][2][3] was a Roman province in the Palestine region between the early 2nd and late 4th centuries AD. The provincial capital was Caesarea Maritima.

Province of Syria Palaestina
Provincia Syria Palaestina (Latin)
Ἐπαρχία Συρίας τῆς Παλαιστίνης (Koinē Greek)
Province of the Roman Empire
132–390

Syria Palaestina within the Roman Empire in 210.
CapitalCaesarea Maritima
History
Historical eraClassical antiquity
• Established
132
• Disestablished
390
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Judaea
Palaestina Prima
Palaestina Secunda

Background
Further information: Judea (Roman province), Jewish-Roman Wars, and Bar Kokhba revolt

Judaea was a Roman province which incorporated the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, and extended over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Judea. It was named after Herod Archelaus's Tetrarchy of Judaea, but the Roman province encompassed a much larger territory. The name "Judaea" was derived from the Kingdom of Judah of the 6th century BC.

Following the deposition of Herod Archelaus in 6 AD, Judea came under direct Roman rule,[4] during which time the Roman governor was given authority to punish by execution. The general population also began to be taxed by Rome.[5] However, Jewish leaders retained broad discretion over affairs within Judaism.[6] The Herodian kingdom was split into tetrarchies in 6 AD, and they were gradually absorbed into Roman provinces, with Roman Syria annexing Iturea and Trachonitis. The capital of the Judaea province was shifted from Jerusalem to Caesarea Maritima, which, according to historian H. H. Ben-Sasson, had been the "administrative capital" of the region beginning in 6 AD.[7]

History

During the 1st and 2nd centuries, Judaea became the epicenter of a series of unsuccessful large-scale Jewish rebellions against Rome, known as the Jewish-Roman Wars. The Roman suppression of these revolts led to wide-scale destruction, a very high toll of life and enslavement. The First Jewish-Roman War (66-73) resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.[8] Two generations later, the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-136) erupted. Judea's countryside was devastated, and many were killed, displaced or sold into slavery.[9][10][11][12] Jewish presence in the region significantly dwindled after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt.[13] Following the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Jerusalem was rebuilt as a Roman colony under the name of Aelia Capitolina, and the province of Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina.[14][15]

The province retained its capital, Caesarea Maritima, and therefore remained distinct from the province of Syria located further north with its capital in Antioch. Jerusalem, which held special religious significance for the Jews, was rebuilt as a Roman colony named Aelia Capitolina. Jews were forbidden to settle there or in the immediate vicinity. While Syria was divided into several smaller provinces by Septimius Severus and later again by Diocletian, Syria Palaestina survived into late antiquity. Presumably it was small enough not to become dangerous as a potential starting point for usurpations. Instead, Diocletian even integrated parts of the province of Arabia into the province, namely the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula. He moved the Legio X Fretensis from Jerusalem to Aila (today's Eilat/Aqaba) to secure the country against Arab incursions. The part of the Roman imperial border that now ran through Palestine was subsequently placed under its own supreme commander, the Dux Palaestinae, who is known from the Notitia Dignitatum.[16] The border wall, the Limes Palaestinae, which had existed for some time, was pushed further south.[17]

In the 3rd century, Syria Palaestina experienced the crisis that spread throughout the empire, but the 4th century brought an economic upswing due the Christianization of the Roman Empire and the associated upswing in Christian pilgrimage to the "Holy Land". In the course of late antiquity, with imperial support, Christianity succeeded in asserting itself against Judaism in almost the entire region. The province was split into smaller provinces during the 4th and 5th centuries. In 358, areas that had formerly belonged to Arabia were transformed into a separate province of Palaestina Salutaris, with Petra as its capital. The remaining territory was named Palaestina Prima.[18] Around the year 400, it had been further split into a smaller Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Secunda. Palaestina Prima included the heartland with the capital Caesarea, while Palaestina Secunda extended to Galilee, the Golan and parts of the Transjordan, and its capital was Scythopolis (today Bet She'an).[19] Salutaris was named Tertia or Salutaris.[20]

Name
Further information: Timeline of the name Palestine

The name Syria-Palaestina was given to the Roman province of Judaea in the early 2nd century AD. The renaming is often presented as having been performed by Roman Emperor Hadrian in the wake of the 132-135 AD Bar Kokhba revolt,[21][22][23][24] though no evidence exists as to exactly when the name change was implemented or by whom,[25][26] the name "Palestina" to the whole region had been used by the Greeks for centuries and by then,[26] and the renaming may even have taken place at an earlier date.[27] While the previous term bore an ethnic connotation to Jews, the new term had a strict geographical meaning.[21]

Some scholars suggest it was enacted to "disassociate the Jewish people from their historical homeland" or as a "punishment" for the Bar Kokhba revolt, and identify Hadrian as the one responsible.[28][29][30][31] [32][33][34][35][36] Other scholars disagree; some suggested that the name was justified as the new province was far larger than geographical Judea, and as the name of Syria Palaestina was already in use for at least five centuries by the time the Bar Kokhba revolt took place.[26][37] Some authors continued to refer to the region as Judaea out of habit and because in the ancient imagination, it was regarded as a territory of the Jews.[38]

Despite this naming, Palestine was independent of Syria, even to a greater extent than before, since instead of a legatus Augusti pro praetore, a higher-ranking governor of consular rank now presided over the region. This in turn was probably due to the fact that in addition to the already existing legion in Caesarea, a second legion was stationed in Legio, increasing the military importance of the province. Exactly when the legion was moved and the rank of the governor's post increased is a matter of debate - in any case, these events must have occurred before the governorship of Quintus Tineius Rufus, who took office no later than 130.[39]

According to some sources, the name change resulted from the merging of the province of Judaea with Galilee, in 132 AD, into an enlarged province named "Syria Palaestina".[40][41][42]

Demographics

The population of Syria-Palaestina was of mixed character.[43] It appears that at the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Jewish settlement in Judea proper had nearly been eradicated.[44] The Roman authorities confiscated lands in the area.[45] In time, a new population emerged in the area: archaeological evidence indicates a mix of Roman veterans and migrants from western parts of the empire, who settled in Aelia Capitolina, its surroundings, administrative centers, and along the main roads, as well as immigrants from the coastal plain and neighboring provinces such as Arabia, Syria and Phoenicia who settled in the countryside.[46]

In 300 AD, Jews formed around a quarter of the population and lived in compact settlements in Galilee, while Samaritans were concentrated in Samaria.[43][47] By the fifth century, Christianity had gained further ground among the population and Christians formed a majority in Palestine and Jerusalem.[43][48][49]

Religion

Roman cult

After the Jewish–Roman wars (66–135), which Epiphanius believed the Cenacle survived,[50] the significance of Jerusalem to Christians entered a period of decline, Jerusalem having been temporarily converted to the pagan Aelia Capitolina, but interest resumed again with the pilgrimage of Helena (the mother of Constantine the Great) to the Holy Land c. 326–28.

New pagan cities were founded in Judea at Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrin), Diopolis (Lydd), and Nicopolis (Emmaus).[51][52]

Early Christianity

The Romans destroyed the Jewish community of the Church in Jerusalem, which had existed since the time of Jesus.[53] Traditionally it is believed the Jerusalem Christians waited out the Jewish–Roman wars in Pella in the Decapolis.

The line of Jewish bishops in Jerusalem, which is claimed to have started with Jesus's brother James the Righteous as its first bishop, ceased to exist within the Empire. Hans Kung in "Islam: Past Present and Future", suggests that the Jewish Christians sought refuge in Arabia and he quotes with approval Clemen et al.:

"This produces the paradox of truly historic significance that while Jewish Christianity was swallowed up in the Christian church, it preserved itself in Islam."[54]

Christianity was practiced in secret and the Hellenization of Palaestina continued under Septimius Severus (193–211 AD).[51]

Reorganization

In circa 390, Syria Palaestina was reorganised into several administrative units: Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda, and Palaestina Tertia (in the 6th century),[55] Syria Prima and Phoenice and Phoenice Lebanensis. All were included within the larger Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Diocese of the East, together with the provinces of Isauria, Cilicia, Cyprus (until 536), Euphratensis, Mesopotamia, Osroene, and Arabia Petraea.

Palaestina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the Paralia, and Peraea, with the governor residing in Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of the Galilee, the lower Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former Decapolis, with the seat of government at Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Transjordan part of Arabia, and most of Sinai, with Petra as the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris.[56]

See also

References

Notes

    Citations
    1. "Roman Palestine". Britnannica.
    2. Trevor Bryce, 2009, The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia
    3. Roland de Vaux, 1978, The Early History of Israel, Page 2: "After the revolt of Bar Cochba in 135, the Roman province of Judaea was renamed Palestinian Syria."
    4. Haensch, Rudolf (August 19, 2010). "The Roman Provincial Administration". In Catherine Hezser (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine. OUP Oxford. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-921643-7.
    5. Josephus, De Bello Judaico (Wars of the Jews) 2.8.1.
    6. Hitchcock, James (2012). History of the Catholic Church : from the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium. Ignatius Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-58617-664-8. OCLC 796754060.
    7. A History of the Jewish People, H. H. Ben-Sasson editor, 1976, page 247: "When Judea was converted into a Roman province [in 6 AD, page 246], Jerusalem ceased to be the administrative capital of the country. The Romans moved the governmental residence and military headquarters to Caesarea. The centre of government was thus removed from Jerusalem, and the administration became increasingly based on inhabitants of the hellenistic cities (Sebaste, Caesarea and others)."
    8. Westwood, Ursula (2017-04-01). "A History of the Jewish War, AD 66–74". Journal of Jewish Studies. 68 (1): 189–193. doi:10.18647/3311/jjs-2017. ISSN 0022-2097.
    9. Taylor, J. E. (15 November 2012). The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955448-5. These texts, combined with the relics of those who hid in caves along the western side of the Dead Sea, tells us a great deal. What is clear from the evidence of both skeletal remains and artefacts is that the Roman assault on the Jewish population of the Dead Sea was so severe and comprehensive that no one came to retrieve precious legal documents, or bury the dead. Up until this date the Bar Kokhba documents indicate that towns, villages and ports where Jews lived were busy with industry and activity. Afterwards there is an eerie silence, and the archaeological record testifies to little Jewish presence until the Byzantine era, in En Gedi. This picture coheres with what we have already determined in Part I of this study, that the crucial date for what can only be described as genocide, and the devastation of Jews and Judaism within central Judea, was 135 CE and not, as usually assumed, 70 AD, despite the siege of Jerusalem and the Temple's destruction
    10. Werner Eck, "Sklaven und Freigelassene von Römern in Iudaea und den angrenzenden Provinzen," Novum Testamentum 55 (2013): 1–21
    11. Raviv, Dvir; Ben David, Chaim (2021). "Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account?". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 34 (2): 585–607. doi:10.1017/S1047759421000271. ISSN 1047-7594. S2CID 245512193. Scholars have long doubted the historical accuracy of Cassius Dio's account of the consequences of the Bar Kokhba War (Roman History 69.14). According to this text, considered the most reliable literary source for the Second Jewish Revolt, the war encompassed all of Judea: the Romans destroyed 985 villages and 50 fortresses, and killed 580,000 rebels. This article reassesses Cassius Dio's figures by drawing on new evidence from excavations and surveys in Judea, Transjordan, and the Galilee. Three research methods are combined: an ethno-archaeological comparison with the settlement picture in the Ottoman Period, comparison with similar settlement studies in the Galilee, and an evaluation of settled sites from the Middle Roman Period (70–136). The study demonstrates the potential contribution of the archaeological record to this issue and supports the view of Cassius Dio's demographic data as a reliable account, which he based on contemporaneous documentation.
    12. Mor, Menahem (2016-04-18). The Second Jewish Revolt. BRILL. pp. 483–484. doi:10.1163/9789004314634. ISBN 978-90-04-31463-4. Land confiscation in Judaea was part of the suppression of the revolt policy of the Romans and punishment for the rebels. But the very claim that the sikarikon laws were annulled for settlement purposes seems to indicate that Jews continued to reside in Judaea even after the Second Revolt. There is no doubt that this area suffered the severest damage from the suppression of the revolt. Settlements in Judaea, such as Herodion and Bethar, had already been destroyed during the course of the revolt, and Jews were expelled from the districts of Gophna, Herodion, and Aqraba. However, it should not be claimed that the region of Judaea was completely destroyed. Jews continued to live in areas such as Lod (Lydda), south of the Hebron Mountain, and the coastal regions. In other areas of the Land of Israel that did not have any direct connection with the Second Revolt, no settlement changes can be identified as resulting from it.
    13. Oppenheimer, A'haron and Oppenheimer, Nili. Between Rome and Babylon: Studies in Jewish Leadership and Society. Mohr Siebeck, 2005, p. 2.
    14. H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, ISBN 978-0-674-39731-6, page 334: "In an effort to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Judaea to Syria-Palestina, a name that became common in non-Jewish literature."
    15. Ariel Lewin. The archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine. Getty Publications, 2005 p. 33. "It seems clear that by choosing a seemingly neutral name - one juxtaposing that of a neighboring province with the revived name of an ancient geographical entity (Palestine), already known from the writings of Herodotus - Hadrian was intending to suppress any connection between the Jewish people and that land." ISBN 978-0-89236-800-6
    16. Notitia Dignitatum, Kap. 34.
    17. Othmar Keel, Max Küchler, Christoph Uehlinger: Orte und Landschaften der Bibel. Ein Handbuch und Studien-Reiseführer zum Heiligen Land. Band 1: Geographisch-geschichtliche Landeskunde. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 978-3-525-50166-5, S. 281 f. (online).
    18. Yaron Dan: Palaestina Salutaris (Tertia) and its Capital. In: Israel Exploration Journal. Band 32, Nummer 2/3, 1982, S. 134–137.
    19. Johannes Pahlitzsch: Palaestina III: Römische und byzantinische Zeit. In: Der Neue Pauly (DNP). Band 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 978-3-476-01479-5, Sp. 160–162, hier Sp. 162.
    20. DAN, YARON (1982). "Palaestina Salutaris (Tertia) and Its Capital". Israel Exploration Journal. 32 (2/3): 134–135. JSTOR 27925836. The division of Palestine into two provinces, Palestina Prima and Southern Palestine, later to be known as Palaestina Salutaris, took place in 357-358 [...] In 409 we hear for the first time of the three provinces of Palestine: Palaestina Prima, Secunda and Tertia (the former Salutaris)
    21. Isaac, Benjamin (2015-12-22). "Judaea-Palaestina". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3500. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5. Retrieved 2022-07-08. After the Bar Kokhba war, in the reign of Hadrian, the Roman province of Judaea was re-named Syria-Palaestina. Thus an appellation referring to an ethnic element associated with Jews was replaced by the purely geographic one: Syria-Palaestina.
    22. Lehmann, Clayton Miles (Summer 1998). "Palestine: History: 135–337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy". The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. University of South Dakota. Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2014-08-24. In the aftermath of the Bar Cochba Revolt, the Romans excluded Jews from a large area around Aelia Capitolina, which Gentiles only inhabited. The province now hosted two legions and many auxiliary units, two colonies, and--to complete the disassociation with Judaea--a new name, Syria Palaestina.
    23. Roland de Vaux, 1978, The Early History of Israel, Page 2: "After the revolt of Bar Cochba in 135 CE, the Roman province of Judaea was renamed Palestinian Syria."
    24. Moše Šārôn / Moshe Sharon, 1988, Pillars of Smoke and Fire: The Holy Land in History and Thought
    25. Feldman 1990, p. 19"While it is true that there is no evidence as to precisely who changed the name of Judaea to Palestine and precisely when this was done, circumstantial evidence would seem to point to Hadrian himself, since he is, it would seem, responsible for a number of decrees that sought to crush the national and religious spirit of the Jews, whether these decrees were responsible for the uprising or were the result of it. In the first place, he refounded Jerusalem as a Graeco-Roman city under the name of Aelia Capitolina. He also erected on the site of the Temple another temple to Zeus."
    26. Jacobson 2001, p. 44–45:"Hadrian officially renamed Judea Syria Palaestina after his Roman armies suppressed the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (the Second Jewish Revolt) in 135 C.E.; this is commonly viewed as a move intended to sever the connection of the Jews to their historical homeland. However, that Jewish writers such as Philo, in particular, and Josephus, who flourished while Judea was still formally in existence, used the name Palestine for the Land of Israel in their Greek works, suggests that this interpretation of history is mistaken. Hadrian's choice of Syria Palaestina may be more correctly seen as a rationalization of the name of the new province, in accordance with its area being far larger than geographical Judea. Indeed, Syria Palaestina had an ancient pedigree that was intimately linked with the area of greater Israel."
    27. Cotton 2009, p. 80
    28. Isaac, Benjamin (2015-12-22). "Judaea-Palaestina". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3500. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5. Retrieved 2022-07-08. After the Bar Kokhba war, in the reign of Hadrian, the Roman province of Judaea was re-named Syria-Palaestina. Thus an appellation referring to an ethnic element associated with Jews was replaced by the purely geographic one: Syria-Palaestina.
    29. Lehmann, Clayton Miles (Summer 1998). "Palestine: History: 135–337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy". The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. University of South Dakota. Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2014-08-24. In the aftermath of the Bar Cochba Revolt, the Romans excluded Jews from a large area around Aelia Capitolina, which Gentiles only inhabited. The province now hosted two legions and many auxiliary units, two colonies, and--to complete the disassociation with Judaea--a new name, Syria Palaestina.
    30. Roland de Vaux, 1978, The Early History of Israel, Page 2: "After the revolt of Bar Cochba in 135 CE, the Roman province of Judaea was renamed Palestinian Syria."
    31. Moše Šārôn / Moshe Sharon, 1988, Pillars of Smoke and Fire: The Holy Land in History and Thought
    32. Cassius, Dio (1927). Dio's Roman History, Volume VIII, Books 61-70. World: Loeb Classical Library. p. 447. ISBN 978-0-674-99195-8.
    33. H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, ISBN 978-0-674-39731-6, page 334: "In an effort to wipe out all memory of the bond between the Jews and the land, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Iudaea to Syria-Palestina, a name that became common in non-Jewish literature."
    34. Ariel Lewin. The archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine. Getty Publications, 2005 p. 33. "It seems clear that by choosing a seemingly neutral name - one juxtaposing that of a neighboring province with the revived name of an ancient geographical entity (Palestine), already known from the writings of Herodotus - Hadrian was intending to suppress any connection between the Jewish people and that land." ISBN 978-0-89236-800-6
    35. Ronald Syme suggested the name change preceded the revolt; he writes "Hadrian was in those parts in 129 and 130. He abolished the name of Jerusalem, refounding the place as a colony, Aelia Capitolina. That helped to provoke the rebellion. The supersession of the ethnical term by the geographical may also reflect Hadrian's decided opinions about Jews." Syme, Ronald (1962). "The Wrong Marcius Turbo". The Journal of Roman Studies. 52 (1–2): 87–96. doi:10.2307/297879. ISSN 0075-4358. JSTOR 297879. S2CID 154240558. (page 90)
    36. Othmar Keel, Max Küchler, Christoph Uehlinger: Orte und Landschaften der Bibel. Ein Handbuch und Studien-Reiseführer zum Heiligen Land. Band 1: Geographisch-geschichtliche Landeskunde. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 978-3-525-50166-5, S. 279 f. (online).
    37. The term Syria-Palaestina was already in use in the Greco-Roman world at least five centuries earlier. Herodotus, for example, used the term in the 5th century BC when discussing the component parts of the fifth province of the Achaemenid Empire: Phoenicia, Cyprus, "and that part of Syria which is called Palestine" (Ionic Greek: Συρίη ἡ Παλαιστίνη, romanized: Suríē hē Palaistínē). "The full Herodotus quote is "from the town of Posideion, which was founded by Amphilocus son of Amphiaraus, on the border between Cilicia and Syria, beginning from this as far as Egypt —omitting Arabian territory (which was free of tax), came 350 talents. In this province there is the whole of Phoenicia and that part of Syria which is called Palestine, and Cyprus. This is the fifth province" Anson F. Rainey (February 2001). "Herodotus' Description of the East Mediterranean Coast". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The American Schools of Oriental Research. 321 (321): 57–63. doi:10.2307/1357657. JSTOR 1357657. S2CID 163534665. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
    38. Belayche, Nicole (2001). "Ways of Romanization from 135 onwards". Iudaea-Palaestina: The Pagan Cults in Roman Palestine (Second to Fourth Century). Religion der Römischen Provinzen 1. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. p. 51. ISBN 978-3-16-147153-7. Once the troubles, which inflamed Galilee under Trajan and the rest of the province fifteen years later had been controlled, Judaea became the province of Syria-Palaestina (or Palaestina) as it was known in official and literary documents. However, after this date, some authors continued to use the former name. No doubt out of habit, as the memory of the revolt which was responsible for the banishment of the name faded and because in the ancient imagination, this territory was first and foremost that of the Jews.
    39. Werner Eck: Rom und die Provinz Iudaea/Syria Palaestina. Der Beitrag der Epigraphik. In: Aharon Oppenheimer (Hrsg.): Jüdische Geschichte in hellenistisch-römischer Zeit. Wege der Forschung: Vom alten zum neuen Schürer (= Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Kolloquien. Band 44). Oldenbourg, München 1999, ISBN 978-3-486-56414-3, S. 237–264, hier S. 246–250 (wo als spätestmöglicher Beginn der Statthalterschaft aber noch das Jahr 132 angesehen wird).
    40. Clouser, Gordon (2011). Jesus, Joshua, Yeshua of Nazareth Revised and Expanded. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4620-6121-1.
    41. Spolsky, Bernard (2014-03-27). The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-05544-5.
    42. Brand, Chad; Mitchell, Eric; Staff, Holman Reference Editorial (2015). Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8054-9935-3.
    43. Kramer, Gudrun (2011). A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel. Princeton University Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-0-691-15007-9.
    44. Raviv, Dvir; Ben David, Chaim (2021-05-27). "Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account?". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 34 (2): 585–607. doi:10.1017/S1047759421000271. ISSN 1047-7594. S2CID 236389017.
    45. Seligman, J. (2019). Were There Villages in Jerusalem's Hinterland During the Byzantine Period? In. Peleg- Barkat O. et.al. (Eds.) Between Sea and Desert: On Kings, Nomads, Cities and Monks. Essays in Honor of Joseph Patrich. Jerusalem; Tzemach. Pp. 167-179.
    46. Klein, E, 2010, “The Origins of the Rural Settlers in Judean Mountains and Foothills during the Late Roman Period”, In: E. Baruch., A. Levy-Reifer and A. Faust (eds.), New Studies on Jerusalem, Vol. 16, Ramat-Gan, pp. 321-350 (Hebrew).
    47. Edward Kessler (2010). An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations. Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-521-70562-2.
    48. David Goodblatt (2006). "The Political and Social History of the Jewish Community in the Land of Israel, c. 235–638". In Steven Katz (ed.). The Cambridge History of Judaism. Vol. IV. pp. 404–430. ISBN 978-0-521-77248-8. Few would disagree that, in the century and a half before our period begins, the Jewish population of Judah () suffered a serious blow from which it never recovered. The destruction of the Jewish metropolis of Jerusalem and its environs and the eventual refounding of the city... had lasting repercussions. [...] However, in other parts of Palestine the Jewish population remained strong [...] What does seem clear is a different kind of change. Immigration of Christians and the conversion of pagans, Samaritans and Jews eventually produced a Christian majority
    49. Bar, Doron (2003). "The Christianisation of Rural Palestine during Late Antiquity". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 54 (3): 401–421. doi:10.1017/s0022046903007309. ISSN 0022-0469. The dominant view of the history of Palestine during the Byzantine period links the early phases of the consecration of the land during the fourth century and the substantial external financial investment that accompanied the building of churches on holy sites on the one hand with the Christianisation of the population on the other. Churches were erected primarily at the holy sites, 12 while at the same time Palestine's position and unique status as the Christian "Holy Land" became more firmly rooted. All this, coupled with immigration and conversion, allegedly meant that the Christianisation of Palestine took place much more rapidly than that of other areas of the Roman empire, brought in its wake the annihilation of the pagan cults and meant that by the middle of the fifth century there was a clear Christian majority.
    50. Catholic Encyclopedia: Jerusalem (A.D. 71-1099): "Epiphanius (died 403) says..."
    51. Shahin, Mariam (2005) Palestine: a Guide. Interlink Books ISBN 978-1-56656-557-8, p. 7
    52. Encyclopædia Britannica (2007). Palestine. In Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-12 from
    53. Whealey, J. (2008) "Eusebius and the Jewish Authors: His Citation Technique in an Apologetic Context" (Journal of Theological Studies; Vol 59: 359-362)
    54. C. Clemen, T. Andrae and H.H. Schraeder, p. 342
    55. Thomas A. Idniopulos (1998). "Weathered by Miracles: A History of Palestine From Bonaparte and Muhammad Ali to Ben-Gurion and the Mufti". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
    56. "Roman Arabia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2007-08-11.

    Sources
    • Cotton, Hannah M. (2009). Eck, Werner (ed.). "Some Aspects of the Roman Administration of Judaea/Syria-Palaestina". Jahrhundert. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag. 1, Lokale Autonomie und Ordnungsmacht in den kaiserzeitlichen Provinzen (3): 75–92. doi:10.1524/9783486596014-007. ISBN 978-3-486-59601-4.

    Further reading
    • Jacobson, David (2001), "When Palestine Meant Israel", Biblical Archaeology Review, 27 (3), archived from the original on 2011-07-25
    • Feldman, Louis H. (1990). "Some Observations on the Name of Palestine". Hebrew Union College Annual. Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. 61: 1–23. JSTOR 23508170.
    • Nicole Belayche, "Foundation myths in Roman Palestine. Traditions and reworking", in Ton Derks, Nico Roymans (ed.), Ethnic Constructs in Antiquity: The Role of Power and Tradition (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2009) (Amsterdam Archaeological Studies, 13), 167-188.
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