Syria Palaestina

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Province of Syria Palaestina Provincia Syria Palaestina (Latin) Ἐπαρχία Συρίας τῆς Παλαιστίνης (Koinē Greek)
Province of the Roman Empire
136–390
Syria Palaestina within the Roman Empire in 210.
Capital	Caesarea Maritima
Historical era	Classical antiquity
• Established	136
• Disestablished	390
Preceded by Succeeded by Judaea Palaestina Prima Palaestina Secunda

Syria Palaestina (Koinē Greek: Συρία ἡ Παλαιστίνη, romanized: Syría hē Palaistínē [syˈri.a (h)e̝ pa.lɛsˈt̪i.ne̝]) was the renamed Roman province formerly known as Judaea, following the Roman suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in what then became known as the Palestine region between the early 2nd and late 4th centuries AD. The provincial capital was Caesarea Maritima.^[1][2] It forms part of timeline of the period in the region referred to as Roman Palestine.^[3]

Background

Further information: Judaea (Roman province), Jewish–Roman wars, and Bar Kokhba revolt

Judaea was a Roman province that incorporated the regions of Judea, Samaria, Idumea, and Galilee and extended over parts of the former regions of Hasmonean and Herodian Judea. It was named after Herod's Tetrarchy of Judaea, but Roman Judaea encompassed a much larger territory than Judaea. The name "Judaea" ultimately traces to the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah.

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 a tetrarchy in 6 AD, which was gradually absorbed into Roman provinces, with Roman Syria annexing Iturea and Trachonitis. The capital of Judaea was shifted from Jerusalem to Caesarea Maritima, which, according to historian Hayim Hillel 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 Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina,^[14][15] a term occasionally used among Greco-Romans for centuries to describe the Southern Levant.^[16]A Syria-Palaestina included Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Idumaea, and Philistia. The province retained its capital, Caesarea Maritima, and therefore remained distinct from Syria, which was located further north with its capital in Antioch. Jerusalem, which held special religious significance for the Jews but had been destroyed, was rebuilt as the colonia 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 usurpation attempts. Instead, Diocletian even integrated parts of Arabia Petraea into the province, namely the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula. He moved the Legio X Fretensis from Aelia Capitolina 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.^[17] The border wall, the Limes Arabicus, which had existed for some time, was pushed further south.^[18]

The Crisis of the Third Century (235–284) affected Syria Palaestina, but the fourth century brought an economic upswing due to 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 both remnants of Semitic as well as trending Hellenistic Paganism in the land.

The province was split into smaller ones during the fourth and fifth centuries. In 358, areas that had formerly belonged to Arabia Petraea were transformed into a separate province of Palaestina Salutaris with Petra as its capital. The remaining territory was named Palaestina Prima.^[19] 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 at Caesarea, while Palaestina Secunda extended to Galilee, the Golan, and parts of the Transjordan and its capital was Scythopolis (now Beit She'an).^[20] Salutaris was named Palaestina Tertia or Salutaris.^[19]

Name

Further information: Timeline of the name Palestine

The name Syria-Palaestina was given to the former Roman province of Judaea in the early 2nd century AD. The renaming is often presented as an act of punitive disassociation in the aftermath of the AD 132-135 Bar Kokhba revolt, identifying Emperor Hadrian as the one responsible for the measure,^{[21][22][2][23][24][14][25]} though no direct evidence suggests exactly when the name change was implemented or by whom,^[26] and the renaming may even have taken place before the conclusion of the revolt.^[27] While the name Judaea bore an ethnic connotation to Jews, Syria-Palaestina had a strict geographical meaning.^[21][28][15] Some authors in late antiquity, such as Jerome,^[29] continued to refer to the region as Judaea out of habit due to the prominent association with the Jews.^[30] This includes an inscription from Ephesos from AD 170–180, honoring the wife of a figure known as "Eroelius Klaros", who had the epithet "ruler of Judaea" ("[Ερο]υκίου Κλάρου, υπάτου, [ηγ]εμόνος Ιουδ[αίας]"), decades after the recreation of Provincia Judaea as Syria-Palaestina.^[31]

Other scholars and commenters disagree with a punitive recent origin for the term, and point it has been used to refer to the Southern Levant at large for centuries since Classical antiquity, when it was first used by Herodotus, and has been used by Jewish authors such as Philo and Josephus while Judaea still existed.^[16][32] It's claimed that the name was chosen as the new province was far larger than Judaea, and was resulted from the merger of Judaea with Galilee.^[33][34]

Despite this "Syria" in the name, Palestine was independent of Roman 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.^[35]

Demographics

The population of Syria-Palaestina was of mixed character.^[36]

The aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in severe devastation for Judaea's Jewish population, including significant loss of life, forced displacements, and widespread enslavement. The scale of suffering was immense, with ancient sources reporting extensive destruction and high casualty rates. It appears that at the end of the revolt, Jewish settlement in Judaea Proper had nearly been eradicated, but remained strong in other parts of Palestine.^{[37][38][39][40]} Jewish survivors faced harsh Roman punitive measures, including expulsion from Jerusalem and other areas, leading to a migration to Galilee and Golan.^[41][42][43] Some scholars suggest that a number of Jews may have forfeited their Jewish identity and assimilated into the Pagan and early Christian I.e. Gentile populations.^[44][45] Many Jewish captives were sold into slavery across the Roman Empire, contributing to an increase in the Jewish diaspora.^[46]

According to Eitan Klein, after the revolt, Roman authorities confiscated lands in Judaea, leading to the resettlement of the region by a diverse population. Archaeological evidence shows that gentile migrants from neighboring Levantine provinces such as Arabia, Syria, and Phoenicia, as well as from the coastal plain and beyond, settled in the area. The new Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina was populated by Roman veterans and migrants from western parts of the empire, who also occupied its surroundings, administrative centers, and main roads.^[47] According to Lichtenberger, archaeological evidence from Bayt Nattif suggests a persistence of non-conformist unorthodox Jewish groups that did not adhere to strict Biblical monotheism, as well as remnants of semitic pagan groups related to those of Yahwahist Iron Age Judah in the late Roman period.^[48]

In AD 300, Jews formed around a quarter of the population and lived in compact settlements in Galilee, while Samaritans were concentrated in Samaria.^[36][49] By the fifth century, Christianity had gained further ground in the region, and Christians formed a majority in Palestine and Jerusalem through migration and conversion of pagans, Samaritans and Jews.^[36][37][38]

Religion

Roman Imperial 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, it having been destroyed and later refounded as the pagan colonia of Aelia Capitolina. Christian interest resumed again with the pilgrimage of Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, c. 326–28.^{[citation needed]}

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

The Hellenization of Palaestina continued under Septimius Severus (193–211 AD).^[51]

Early Christianity

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

The line of Jewish bishops in Jerusalem, which is claimed to have started with James, brother of Jesus as its first bishop, ceased to exist within the Empire. Hans Küng in Islam: Past Present and Future, suggests that the Jewish Christians sought refuge in the Arabian Peninsula 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]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Palaestina Prima consisted of Judaea, Samaria, the Paralia and Peraea,^{[failed verification]} 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,^{[failed verification]} with the seat of government at Scythopolis.^[3] Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Transjordan part of Arabia, and most of Sinai, with Petra as the usual residence of the governor. Palaestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris.^[56]

See also

• Roman Judaea
• Aelia Capitolina
• Shaam

References

Notes

Citations

1. Bryce, Trevo (2009), The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia
2. de Vaux, Roland (1978), The Early History of Israel, p. 2: "After the revolt of Bar Cochba in 135, the Roman province of Judaea was renamed Palestinian Syria."
3. "Roman Palestine". Palestine - Roman Rule, Jewish Revolts, Crusades | Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
4. Haensch, Rudolf (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. Barnavi, Élie; Eliav-Feldon, Miriam; Hayim Hillel Ben-Sasson (1992). A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present. Schocken Books. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-8052-4127-3. When Judea was converted into a Roman province [in AD 6, 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, Joan 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. Eck, Werner. "Sklaven und Freigelassene von Römern in Iudaea und den angrenzenden Provinzen" (in German), Novum Testamentum 55 (2.13), pp. 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. Ben-Sasson, H.H. (1976). A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 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. Lewin, Ariel (2005). The archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine. Getty Publications, p. 33. ISBN 978-0-89236-800-6. "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."
16. Jacobson 2001, pp. 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."
17. Notitia Dignitatum, Chapter 34.
18. Keel, Othmar; Küchler, Max; Uehlinger, Christoph (1984). Orte und Landschaften der Bibel. Ein Handbuch und Studien-Reiseführer zum Heiligen Land. Vol. 1: Geographisch-geschichtliche Landeskunde (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttinge, ISBN 978-3-525-50166-5, p. 281 f. ^{[dead link‍]}
19. 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)
20. >Pahlitzsch, Johannes (2000). Palaestina III: Römische und byzantinische Zeit (in German). In: Der Neue Pauly (DNP). Vol. 9, Metzler, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-476-01479-5, Sp. 160–162, here Sp. 162.
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. Sharon, Moshe (1988). Pillars of Smoke and Fire: The Holy Land in History and Thought.
24. Lehmann, Clayton Miles (Summer 1998). "Palestine: History: 135–337: Syria Palaestina and the Tetrarchy". Palestine: History. 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.
25. Keel, Küchler & Uehlinger (1984), p. 279.
26. 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."
27. Cotton 2009, p. 80
28. 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 [90]. doi:10.2307/297879. ISSN 0075-4358. JSTOR 297879. S2CID 154240558.
29. Foster, Zachery (2017). The invention of Palestine (PhD thesis). Princeton University.
30. 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.
31. Smallwood, E. Mary. The Jews Under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian: A Study in Political Relations. Apendix A. 1. The Governors of Judaea and Syria Palaestina after A.D. 70., p. 552.
32. 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. 321 (321). The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The American Schools of Oriental Research: 57–63. doi:10.2307/1357657. JSTOR 1357657. S2CID 163534665. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
33. Spolsky, Bernard (2014-03-27). The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-05544-5.
34. Brand, Chad; Mitchell, Eric; Holman Reference Editorial Staff (2015). Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8054-9935-3.
35. Eck, Werner (1999). Rom und die Provinz Iudaea/Syria Palaestina. Der Beitrag der Epigraphik (in German). In: Aharon Oppenheimer (ed.): Jüdische Geschichte in hellenistisch-römischer Zeit. Wege der Forschung: Vom alten zum neuen Schürer (= Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Kolloquien. Vol. 44). Oldenbourg, München, ISBN 978-3-486-56414-3, pp. 237–264, here pp. 246–250 (where, however, the latest possible start year of governorship is seen as being 132).
36. Krämer, 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.
37. Goodblatt, David (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. Cambridge University Press. 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.
38. 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.
39. Taylor, Joan (1990). A critical investigation of archaeological material assigned to Palestinian Jewish-Christians of the Roman and Byzantine periods.
40. Bar, Doron (2008). Continuity and change in the cultic topography of late antique Palestine
41. Miller, 1984, p. 132
42. Mor 2016, pp. 483–484: "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."
43. Dauphin, Claudine M. (1982). "Jewish and Christian Communities in the Roman and Byzantine Gaulanitis : A Study of Evidence from Archaeological Surveys". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 114 (2): 129–130, 132. doi:10.1179/peq.1982.114.2.129. ISSN 0031-0328.
44. Goldenberg, Robert (1989). The Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple : Its Meaning and Its Consequences , in "The Cambridge History of Judaism: The late Roman-Rabbinic period". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780511467936. Indeed ,many must have reacted to the catastrophe with despair and total abandonment of Judaism. Apostates from Judaism (aside from converts to Christianity) received little notice in antiquity from either Jewish or non-Jewish writers , but ambitious individuals are known to have turned pagan before the war , and it stands to reason that many more did so after its disastrous conclusion. It is impossible to determine the number who joined the budding Christian movement and the number who disappeared into the polytheist majority.
45. Goodman, Martin (2008). Rome and Jerusalem The Clash of Ancient Civilizations. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307544360. Since the Roman State had always accepted without quibble the validity of apostasy from Judaism , as Tiberius Julius Alexander had demonstrated by the success of his public career in the first century , it might seen sensible for Jews to respond to roman hostility to their religion by choosing to abandon it , particularly since their God seemed to have abandoned them. This may indeed be the best way to understand the assertion in Christian writers , such as Justin Martyr in the mid-second century , that jews were forbidden after Bar Kokhba to live in their homeland. It would not have benefited the settlers in Aelia Capitolina to find the lands they were allotted in the new colony deprived of local workforce. Doubtless they could employ slave labour to some extent , particularly when slave prices were low in the aftermath of the war , but much farm work must have been done by descendants of the original Jewish inhabitants who had given up Jewish customs and elected to merge into the wider gentile population of the region.
46. Powell, The Bar Kokhba War AD 132-136, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ç2017, p.81
47. Klein, Eitan (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 (in Hebrew).
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Sources

• Cotton, Hannah M. (2009). Eck, Werner (ed.). "Some Aspects of the Roman Administration of Judaea/Syria-Palaestina". Jahrhundert. 1, Lokale Autonomie und Ordnungsmacht in den kaiserzeitlichen Provinzen (3). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag: 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. 61. Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion: 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.

External links

• Two legates and a procurator of Syria Palaestina Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 1977