8.  Phoenicia under the Romans (B.C. 65-A.D. 650)

Syria made a Roman province, B.C. 65—­Privileges granted by Rome to the Phoenician cities—­Phoenicia profits by the Roman suppression of piracy, but suffers from Parthian ravages—­The Phoenicians offend Augustus and lose their favoured position, but recover it under later emperors—­ Mention of the Phoenician cities in the New Testament—­ Phoenicia accepts Christianity—­Phoenician bishops at the early Councils—­Phoenician literature at this date—­Works of Antipater, Apollonius, Philo, Hermippus, Marinus, Maximus, and Porphyry—­School of law at Berytus—­Survival of the Phoenician commercial spirit—­Survival of the religion—­ Summary.

The kingdom of the Seleucidae came to an end through its own internal weakness and corruption.  In B.C. 83 their subjects, whether native Asiatics or Syro-Macedonians, were so weary of the perpetual series of revolts, civil wars, and assassinations that they invited Tigranes, the king of the neighbouring Armenia, to step in and undertake the government of the country.[14464] Tigranes ruled from B.C. 83 till B.C. 69, when he was attacked by the Romans, to whom he had given just cause of offence by his conduct in the Mithridatic struggle.  Compelled by Lucullus to relinquish Syria, he retired to his own dominions, and was succeeded by the last Seleucid prince, Antiochus Asiaticus, who reigned from B.C. 69 to B.C. 65.  Rome then at length came forward, and took the inheritance to which she had become entitled a century and a quarter earlier by the battle of Magnesia, and which she could have occupied at any moment during the interval, had it suited her purpose.  The combat with Mithridates had forced her to become an Asiatic power; and having once overcome her repugnance to being entangled in Asiatic politics, she allowed her instinct of self-aggrandizement to have full play, and reduced the kingdom of the Seleucidae into the form of a Roman province.[14465]

The province, which retained the name of Syria, and was placed under a proconsul,[14466] whose title was “Praeses Syriae,” extended from the flanks of Amanus and Taurus to Carmel and the sources of the Jordan, and thus included Phoenicia.  The towns, however, of Tripolis, Sidon, and Tyre were allowed the position of “free cities,” which secured them an independent municipal government, under their own freely elected council and chief magistates.  These privileges, conferred by Pompey, were not withdrawn by Julius Caesar, when he became master of the Roman world; and hence we find him addressing a communication respecting Hyrcanus to the “Magistates, Council, and People of Sidon."[14467] A similar regard was shown for Phoenician vested rights by Anthony, who in B.C. 36, when his infatuation for Cleopatra was at its height, and he agreed to make over to her the government of Palestine and of Coelesyria, as far as the river Eleutherus, especially exempted from her control, despite her earnest entreaties, the cities of Tyre and Sidon.[14468] Anthony also wrote more than one letter to the “Magistates, Council, and People of Tyre,” in which he recognised them as “allies” of the Roman people rather than subjects.[14469]