page_title: As-Suwayda
section_title: Ancient and Medieval eras
hierarchical_section_title: As-Suwayda / History / Ancient and Medieval eras
caption_attribution_description: English: As Suwayda's town square.
context_page_description: As-Suwayda, also spelled Sweida or Swaida, is a mainly Druze city located in southwestern Syria, close to the border with Jordan.
  It is the capital of As-Suwayda Governorate, one of Syria's 14 governorates, bordering Jordan in the South and Daraa Governorate in the West and Rif Dimashq Governorate in the north and east. The city is referred to by some as "Little Venezuela" due to the city's influx of affluent Venezuelan Syrian immigrants.
context_section_description: The city was founded by the Nabataeans as Suada. It became known as Dionysias Soada (Ancient Greek: Διονῡσιάς) in the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire, for the god Dionysus, patron of wine - the city is situated in a famous ancient wine-producing region.
  The name Dionysias replaced the former Nabataean name in 149 AD after Nabataean influence decreased and then concentrated towards the south, as a result of the then accelerating Hellenization of Coele-Syria.
  Dionysias was a part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, and received the rights of civitas during the reign of Commodus between 180–185.
  Dionysus was worshipped in the same Nabatean temple dedicated to Dushara. This practice of associating the worship of local and Hellenic gods was common in Hellenistic Syria.
  This name remained in use during the Byzantine Empire, when the town was under the influence of the Ghassanids. Dionysias then was a diocese with a suffragan bishop from Bosra. It was mentioned in the Synecdemus of Hierocles. After the early Muslim conquests it became a titular see.
  Yaqut al-Hamawi noted in the 1220s that As Suwaida  was "a village of the Hauran Province".
caption: Town square
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