page_title: Lajat
section_title: Roman period
hierarchical_section_title: Lajat / History / Antiquity / Roman period
caption_attribution_description: English: Philipopolis temple Syria العربية: معبد قديم في مدينة شهبا، الواقعة جنوبي سوريا.
context_page_description: The Lajat, also spelled Lejat, Lajah, el-Leja or Laja, is the largest lava field in southern Syria, spanning some 900 square kilometers. Located about 50 kilometers southeast of Damascus, the Lajat borders the Hauran plain to the west and the foothills of Jabal al-Druze to the south. The average elevation is between 600 and 700 meters above sea level, with the highest volcanic cone being 1,159 meters above sea level. Receiving little annual rainfall, the Lajat is largely barren, though there are scattered patches of arable land in some of its depressions.
  The region has been known by a number of names throughout its history, including "Argob" in the Hebrew Bible and "Trachonitis" by the Greeks, a name under which it is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. Long inhabited by Arab groups, it saw development under the Romans, who built a road through the center of the region connecting it with the empire's province of Syria. The pagan cults that predominated in Trachonitis during the Roman and pre-Roman era persisted through much of the Byzantine era, until the 6th century when Christianity became dominant.
context_section_description: The Roman Empire conquered Syria and in 24 BCE put Trachonitis, then inhabited by nomadic marauders and cattle herders who lived its caves and depressions, under the authority of Herod the Great. To keep watch over the people of Trachonitis, Herod built the town of Bathyra (modern location unknown, but possibly in the vicinity of as-Sanamayn). During the Roman era, Trachonitis' inhabitants gradually became settled and gained exemption from taxation.
  The Romans built a road that passed through the center of Trachonitis and connected with the Roman road system in Syria. Several towns and villages sprang up in Trachonitis between the 1st and 4th centuries CE. Many of these settlements had theaters, colonnades and temples. There are almost twenty sites in the Lajat that contain ruins and inscriptions from the Roman period, including Phillipopolis (modern-day Shahba) and Sha'ara (ancient name unknown). The town of Zorava (modern-day Izra') was the political center of Trachonitis and its earliest inhabitants were Nabatean Arabs. The main Nabatean tribes of the town were the Sammenoi and the Migdalenoi (migrants from nearby al-Mujaydil). The inhabitants practiced a Roman pagan cult as early as 161 CE. In the 3rd century, they built numerous houses and baths from basaltic stone, and the town had a relatively urban character.
caption: Roman-era buildings in the modern town of Shahba (ancient Phillipopolis), located in the southeastern edge of Lajat
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