IMPERIUM ROMANUM

Provinces · The later eastern provinces

LE-44 Phoenice

The later Balkan provincial landscape. Dacia south of the Danube, the two Epiri…
The later Balkan provincial landscape. Dacia south of the Danube, the two Epiri, Thessaly, Macedonia, Achaia, and the Thracian districts illustrate the replacement of large commands by smaller jurisdictions. The river network helps relate frontier districts to the Adriatic, Aegean, and imperial straits.

Ports, textile and craft traditions, farming, urban institutions, and maritime trade sustained the province. Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, and other cities possessed different histories and claims to prestige. Civil precedence, legal education, commercial strength, and ecclesiastical rank were separate forms of importance.

The division from inland Phoenice Libani narrowed the earlier jurisdiction. Christianity transformed urban institutions while maintaining many established connections. Persian occupation and later Arab conquest changed sovereignty, but coastal communities and religious life continued under new rulers. The province’s name should not be used as a substitute for all territories ever associated with Phoenician settlement or culture.