Roman Palestine

Roman Palestine is the term used by historians for the region of Palestine during the period in its history when it stood, to varying degrees, under the rule of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Historians typically trace the period from the Roman intervention in the Hasmonean civil war in 63 BCE (uncontested), up until the transition from the pagan Roman to the Christian Byzantine Empire with the consolidation of Constantine's rule in 324 CE,^[1] but this end date varies from author to author. The Roman period can be subdivided into early and late phases, transitioning at either the First Jewish–Roman War c. 70 CE or the Bar Kokhba Revolt c. 135 CE.^{[2][3][dubious – discuss]} Some add a Middle Roman period to the Early and Late subsets.

Roman Palestine
Dependency of ancient Rome
63 BCE–324 CE
Map of the province of Judaea in 125 CE
Capital	Jerusalem (Hasmoneans, Herod I, Herod Archelaus) Sepphoris (Herod Antipas) Tiberias (Herod Antipas) Banias (Philip the Tetrarch) Jamnia (Salome I) Caesarea Maritima (Roman governors)
Area
• Coordinates	32°30′N 35°0′E
Status	Client kingdom client tetrarchy province
Government	Hasmonean dynasty Herodian dynasty Roman administration
Legislature	Sanhedrin (with extreme variations of legislative power)
Historical era	Classical antiquity
• Siege of Jerusalem	63 BCE
• Crucifixion of Jesus	30s CE
• Jewish–Roman wars	66–70/73, 116–118, 132–136
• Civil wars of the Tetrarchy	306-324 CE
• Constantine the Great achieving sole rule	324 CE
Preceded by Succeeded by Hasmonean Judea Byzantine Palestine
Today part of	*Israel *Palestine *Jordan (N, NW) *Southern Lebanon (wider Galilee) *Syria (Gaulanitis etc.)

During the Roman period, Palestine went through a series of administrative changes, beginning as a succession of Roman client states initially centered on Jerusalem and Judea, under the Jewish dynasty of the Hasmoneans, followed by the Herodians, before being gradually annexed into the Roman Empire as the fully incorporated Roman province of Judaea. Its peripheral areas incorporated parts of the Nabataean Kingdom, which underwent a similar evolution from client state to Roman province, Arabia Petraea (est. in 106). After 135 CE, Roman Palestine was re-organised into the Roman province of Syria Palaestina,^[4] which received in c. 300 CE, during the reforms of Diocletian, additional territories formerly part of Arabia Petraea: the Negev, Sinai and southern Transjordan.^[5] About six decades later, already during the next, Byzantine period, the province was split in two, the northern part being named Palaestina Prima and the southern yet later becoming part of a wider Palaestina Tertia.

Known governors of Roman Palestine

The governors of Roman Palestine had a large amount of administrative power, however, they and the province were - to degrees varying with time - under the authority of the Roman legatus (legate) who governed over Syria from Damascus (see here and here for the province under their direct administration).^[6]

Province of Judaea

For the time period between the first dissolution of the Herodian client statelets into the empire during Herod's immediate successors, to the change of name for the province from Judaea to Palaestina after the Bar Kokhba Revolt, see Roman administration of Judaea (AD 6–135).

Province of Syria Palaestina

• Aufidius Priscus (293/305)^[7]
• Aelius Flavianus (303)^[8]
• Urbanus (304–307)^[8]
• Valerius Firmilianus (308/9–310/11)^[8]
• Valentinianus (310/311)^[9]

Economy

The study of the ancient economy is based on a mixture of the archaeological and historical (including epigraphic) records. For the Roman period, these typically focus on the activities and lives of the rich. The Talmud offers perspectives on rural life in Roman Palestine. The historian Daniel Sperber suggested that the region's declined during the Crisis of the Third Century.^[10]

See also

• Byzantine Palestine, the region during the following period
  • Timeline of the Palestine region: Byzantine period
• Early Christianity
• Herodian tetrarchy, Herod the Great's kingdom under his immediate successors
• History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
• Mishnah, first written collection of Jewish oral traditions