 Roman ruins of Berytus, in front ofSaint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in modern-dayBeirut | |
  Shown within Lebanon | |
| Alternative name | Laodicea in Phoenicia (Ancient Greek:Λαοδίκεια ἡ ἐν Φοινίκῃ) or Laodicea in Canaan(2nd century to 64 BCE) |
|---|---|
| Location | Beirut, Lebanon |
| Coordinates | 33°53′44.8″N35°30′18.5″E / 33.895778°N 35.505139°E /33.895778; 35.505139 |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Founded | Roman republic (merchants from early Laodicea/Berytus recorded by 110–109 BCE) |
| Periods | Roman andEarly Byzantine/late antiquity;previous port dating back toIron Age III andPersian periods |
| Cultures | Phoenician,Roman |
Berytus (/ˈbɛrɪtəs,bəˈraɪtəs/;[1]Phoenician:𐤁𐤓𐤕,romanized: Biruta;Ancient Greek:Βηρυτός,romanized: Bērytós;Latin:Bērȳtus;Arabic:بَيرُوتَ), briefly known asLaodicea in Phoenicia (Ancient Greek:Λαοδίκεια ἡ ἐν Φοινίκῃ;Arabic:لاذقية كنعان) orLaodicea in Canaan from the 2nd century to 64 BCE, was the ancient city ofBeirut (in modern-day Lebanon) from theRoman Republic through theRoman Empire andEarly Byzantine period/late antiquity.[2] Berytus became aRoman colonia that would be the center ofRoman presence in theEastern Mediterranean shores south ofAnatolia.[3]
The veterans of twoRoman legions underAugustus were established in the city (thefifth Macedonian and thethird Gallic), that afterward quickly becameRomanized. It was the only fullyLatin-speaking city in the Syria-Phoenicia region until the fourth century. Although Berytus was still an important city after earthquakes, around 400 CETyre was made the capital of theRoman province of Phoenicia. "Of the great law schools of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus", thelaw school of Berytus stood "pre-eminent".[4] TheCode of Justinian (one part of theCorpus Juris Civilis, the codification of Roman law ordered early in the 6th century CE byJustinian I and fully written in Latin) was mostly created in this school.
In 140 BCE the Phoenician village called "Biruta" was destroyed byDiodotus Tryphon in his contest withAntiochus VII Sidetes for the throne of the MacedonianSeleucid monarchy. Later it was rebuilt on a more conventionalHellenistic plan—the exact date is unclear but prosperous Berytian merchants were recorded inDelos by 110–109 BCE[5]—under the name ofLaodicea in Phoenicia (Greek:Λαοδίκεια ἡ ἐν Φοινίκῃ) orLaodicea in Canaan in honor of a SeleucidLaodice.
During the late decades of theRoman Republic the city was conquered by the Romans ofPompey in 64 BCE. It renamed "Berytus", as a reference to the name of the oldoriginal Phoenician port-village. The city was assimilated into theRoman Empire, many veteran soldiers were sent there, and large building projects were undertaken.[6][7][8]
In 14 BCE, during the reign ofHerod the Great, Berytus became an important Romancolonia. The city was namedColonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus in honor ofJulia the Elder, the only daughter ofAugustus (according toTheodore Mommsen,Res gestae divi Augusti, II, 119). The veterans of twoRoman legions were established in the city of Berytus by emperor Augustus: thefifth Macedonian and thethird Gallic.[9] The city quickly became Romanized, with two third of the inhabitants being descendants of the Roman veterans. Large public buildings and monuments were erected and Berytus enjoyed full status as a part of the empire.[10]
...(Berytus) was made a Roman colony about 14 B.C. Herod the Great, Agrippa I and II, and Queen Berenice built exedras, porticos, temples, a forum, a theater, amphitheater, and baths here. In the 3d c. A.D. the city became the seat of a famous school of law and continued to flourish until the earthquake of A.D. 551 ravaged the city....Its streets, laid out on a grid plan, are spaced at roughly the same intervals as those of Damascus and Laodicea. The new Roman city spread farther S and W (of the port), with its Forum near the (actual) Place de l'Etoile. On its N side was a civic basilica 99 m long with a Corinthian portico of polychrome materials..., dating from the 1st c. A.D. Some large baths have been uncovered on the E slope of the (actual) Colline du Sérail, and the hippodrome lay on the NW side of the same hill. Some villas in a S suburb facing the sea had mosaic floors (now in the Beirut Museum).Some 12 km upstream on the Beirut river are the ruined arches of an aqueduct.[11]
Berytus was considered the most Roman city in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.[12] It was one of four Roman colonies in the Syria-Phoenicia region and the only one with fullIus Italicum (meaning: exemption from imperial taxation).
Its territory/district underClaudius reached theBekaa valley and includedHeliopolis; it was the only area mostlyLatin-speaking in the Syria-Phoenicia region, because of the Roman colonists who promoted agriculture in the fertile lands aroundYammoune. From the 1st century BCE the Bekaa valley served as a source of grain for theRoman provinces of theLevant and even for the sameRome (today the valley makes up to 40 percent of Lebanon'sarable land): Roman colonists created there even a "country district" calledPagus Augustus, where are located the famous Niha temples with Latin inscriptions.[13]
Agrippa greatly favoured the city of Berytus, and adorned it with a splendid theatre and amphitheatre, besidebaths and porticoes, inaugurating them with games and spectacles of every kind, including shows of gladiators. Now only minor ruins remain, in front of the Catholic Cathedral of Beirut. Four large bath complexes as well as numerous private baths increased the city's water consumption: the Romans constructed an aqueduct fed by the Beirut River whose main source was 10 km from the city. The aqueduct crossed the river at Qanater Zbaydeh and the water finally reachedRiad Al Solh Square; there, at the foot of theSerail Hill, it was stored inlarge cisterns. An intricate network of lead or clay pipes and channels distributed the water to the various pools of the Roman Baths.
Roman Berytus was a city of nearly 50,000 inhabitants during the reign ofTrajan and had a huge forum and necropolis.[14] TheHippodrome of Berytus was the largest known in the Levant, while literary sources indicate there was a theatre.[15][13] Scholars like Linda Hall write that the hippodrome was still working in the fifth century.[16]
The gods worshipped by the Berytians were not limited to a single pantheon from a single culture. There is evidence that indicates that gods of many cultures were all worshipped in their own pantheons. Berytus had a closer relationship withPoseidon, who was the chief god of the city. He was especially revered by the Berytian merchants, who would call themselves "Poseidonistes". Up until the third century CE, Poseidon was commonly depicted on coins minted in Berytus. On these coins, he was usually depicted in a similar fashion to the Phoenician godBaal Berit. Poseidon was not the only Graeco-Roman god to be given Phoenician qualities. An inscription written in Greek and Latin givesJupiter the Phoenician epithet "Baal".[17]
Berytus had a monumental "Roman Gate" with huge walls (recently discovered[19]) and was a trade center of silk and wine production, well connected by efficientRoman roads toHeliopolis andCaesarea. According to Kevin Butcher,[13] the Latin character of Berytus remained dominant until the fifth century: the city was a center for the study of Latin literature and – afterSeptimius Severus – ofRoman Law. During the reign ofNero, the son of a Roman colonist,Marcus Valerius Probus (born in Berytus around CE 25), was known in all the empire as a Latin grammarian and literature masterphilologist.
Roman emperors promoted the development of high-level culture in the fully Romanized city (even in Greek language as withHermippus of Berytus).
TheBerytian law school was widely known in theRoman Empire;:[20] it was famous the Latin mottoBerytus Nutrix Legum ("Beirut, Mother of Laws"). Indeed, two of Rome's most famous jurists,Papinian andUlpian, both natives ofPhoenicia, taught there under theSeveran emperors.
WhenJustinian assembled hisPandects in the sixth century, a large part of the "Corpus of Laws" -all in Latin- was derived from these two jurists, and in 533 CE Justinian recognized the school as one of the three official law schools of the empire.
The law school of Beirut supplied the Roman Empire, especially its eastern provinces, with lawyers and magistrates for three centuries until the school's destruction in a powerful earthquake.After the551 Beirut earthquake[21] the students were transferred toSidon.[22]
Since the third century, the city had an important law college. It was here that the great codification of Roman Law, which was to be propagated by emperors like Theodosius II and Justinian, was prepared.[23]
Under the Eastern Roman Empire, some intellectual and economic activities in Berytus continued to flourish for more than a century, even if theLatin language started to be replaced by theGreek language and become Hellenised again.[citation needed]
However, in the sixth century a series of earthquakes demolished most of the temples of Heliopolis (actualBaalbek) and destroyed the city of Berytus, leveling its famous law school and killing nearly 30,000 inhabitants (according toAnonymous pilgrim of Piacenza[24][unreliable source?]). Furthermore, the ecumenical Christian councils of the fifth and sixth centuries CE were unsuccessful in settling religious disagreements within the surviving community.
Berytus became a "Christian See"[definition needed] at an early date, and was a suffragan of Tyre in "Phoenicia Prima", a province of the "Patriarchate of Antioch". In antiquity its most famous bishop was Eusebius, afterwards Bishop of Nicomedia, the courtier-prelate and strong supporter of Arianism in the fourth century....In 450 CE Berytus obtained from Theodosius II the title of metropolis, with jurisdiction over six sees taken from Tyre; but in 451 CE the "Council of Chalcedon" restored these to Tyre, leaving, however, to Berytus its rank of metropolis (Mansi, VII, 85–98). Thus, from 451 CE Berytus was an exempt metropolis depending directly on the Patriarch of Antioch.[25]
This turbulent Byzantine period weakened the already Hellenised (and fully Christian) population and made it easy prey to the newly convertedMuslimArabs of theArabian Peninsula.[26][27][failed verification] Eastern Roman Berytus -reduced to the size of a village- fell to the Arabs in 635 CE.[28]
Recently at theGarden of Forgiveness, the two main streets of Roman Berytus, thecardo anddecumanus, were discovered in theBeirut Central District. Their shaded colonnades became busy markets on festival days. At other times, these streets would have been frequented by Law School students and citizens passing to the Forum or visiting temples and churches.
In 1968 were discovered the "Roman Baths" Gardens, a landscaped public space that lies on the eastern slope of theSerail Hill. It consists of a garden and a set of uncovered ruins of the ancientRoman Baths (hence the name of the place). These ruins underwent a thorough cleaning and further excavation in 1995–1997. Designed by the British landscaping firm Gillespies, the Gardens' layout is dominated by low-slung glass walls and lookout platforms that can be turned into concert venues, thus giving a 21st-century touch without harming the area's historical fabric.[29]
At the turn of the 20th century, the area where existed the famousschool of Roman law at Berytus was identified. Archaeological excavations in the area between the Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral andSaint George Cathedral of the Maronites unearthed a funerarystele etched with an epitaph to a man named Patricius, "whose career was consecrated for the study of law".[30] The epitaph was identified as being dedicated to the famous 5th-century law school professor.[31] In 1994, archaeological diggings underneath the Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral inBeirut Central District'sNejmeh Square identified structural elements of the Anastasis cathedral, but they were restricted to an area of 316 square metres (3,400 sq ft) and failed to unearth the school.[32] In the 5th century, Zacharias Rhetor reported that the school stood next to the "Temple of God", the description of which permitted its identification with the Byzantine Anastasis cathedral.[33]
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