Syria Prima

Provincia Syria Prima
Province of the Byzantine Empire

415–630s
Syria Prima within the Diocese of the East, c. 400.
Capital Antioch
History
  Established 415
  Disestablished 630s
Today part of  Syria
 Turkey

Syria I or Syria Prima ("First Syria", in Greek: Πρώτη Συρία, Prote Syria) was a Byzantine province, formed c. 415 out of Coele-Syria. The province survived until the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 630s.

History

After c. 415 Syria Coele was further subdivided into Syria I (or Syria Prima), with the capital remaining at Antioch, and Syria II (Syria Secunda) or Syria Salutaris, with capital at Apamea on the Orontes. In 528, Justinian I carved out the small coastal province Theodorias out of territory from both provinces.[1]

The region remained one of the most important provinces of the Byzantine Empire. It was occupied by the Sassanids between 609 and 628, then recovered by the emperor Heraclius, but lost again to the advancing Muslims after the battle of Yarmouk and the fall of Antioch.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Kazhdan, Alexander (Ed.) (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 1999. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.

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