page_title: Bosra
section_title: Roman and Byzantine era
hierarchical_section_title: Bosra / History / Roman and Byzantine era
caption_attribution_description: English: Ancient Roman mosaic from the Syrian city of Bosra depicting a bearded man, likely a caravan merchant leading a camel train through the desert. العربية: فسيفساء روماني من مدينة بصرى الشام السورية لتاجر يقود قافلة من الجمال.
context_page_description: Bosra, also spelled Bostra, Busrana, Bozrah, Bozra and officially known Busra al-Sham is a town in southern Syria, administratively belonging to the Daraa District of the Daraa Governorate and geographically being part of the Hauran region.
  According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Bosra had a population of 19,683 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the nahiyah of Bosra which consisted of nine localities with a collective population of 33,839 in 2004. Bosra's inhabitants are predominantly Sunni Muslims, although the town has a small Shia Muslim community.
  Bosra has an ancient history and during the Roman era it was a prosperous provincial capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric, under the jurisdiction of Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. It continued to be administratively important during the Islamic era, but became gradually less prominent during the Ottoman era. It also became a Latin Catholic titular see and the episcopal see of a Melkite Catholic Archeparchy. Today, it is a major archaeological site and has been declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
context_section_description: Under the Roman Empire, Bosra was renamed Nova Trajana Bostra and was the residence of the legio III Cyrenaica. It was made capital of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. The city flourished and became a major metropolis at the juncture of several trade routes, namely the Via Traiana Nova, a Roman road that connected Damascus to the Red Sea. It became an important center for food production and during the reign of Emperor Philip the Arab, Bosra began to mint its own coins. The two Councils of Arabia were held at Bosra in 246 and 247 AD.
  By the Byzantine period which began in the 5th-century, Christianity became the dominant religion in Bosra (Βόσρα in Greek-Byzantine). The city became a Metropolitan archbishop's seat (see below) and a large cathedral was built in the sixth century. Bosra was conquered by the Sasanian Persians in the early seventh century, but was recaptured during a Byzantine reconquest.
caption: Roman mosaic from Bosra displaying a camel train
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