description: Ancient BEIRUT in ages gone by was beautiful city, the intellectual and commercial center of the Roman world and was described by chroniclers as "most handsome Berytus, the jewel of Phoenicia". From the third century A.D. onward one of the greatest law schools of the Roman-Byzantine world flourished here. Two distinguished professors from its faculty were invited by Emperor Justinian to sit on commissions for the official revision of the entire legal system which then prevailed. This important legislative work of the sixth century, the Code of Justinian, has preserved the Roman law which in turn has provided the basic principles for the laws regulating most of modern society in our day.Destroyed by a cataclysmic earthquake on July 16, 551 the city was reduced to ruins. It was rebuilt and with time attracted once again to its port the trade and travel of the Eastern Mediterranean world. Celebrated as a center of learning and the focal point to which the commerce of the ancient world converged, Beirut preserves and maintains to the present time these characteristics. It continues to be the center of learning and commercial activity in the Middle East today.Nina Jidejian in "Beirut Through the Ages" gives a rapid survey of the history of Beirut from the early Stone Age settlements of prehistoric man to the Canaanite walled city of king Ammunira of Birûta.During excavations of the city center from 1993 to date, the city walls of Ammunira have at last come to light as well as remains of the Iron Age, Persian period, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mamluke and Ottoman cities.
language: English
title: Beirut Through The Ages
publisher: Dar al-Mashreq