page_title: Roman Syria
section_title: Syria in the Byzantine Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Roman Syria / Aftermath / Syria in the Byzantine Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: Overview of the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites, Syria Français&#160;: Vue d'ensemble de l'église de Saint-Siméon le Stylite, Syrie
context_page_description: Roman Syria was an early Roman province annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BC by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War following the defeat of King of Armenia Tigranes the Great.
  Following the partition of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea into tetrarchies in 6 AD, it was gradually absorbed into Roman provinces, with Roman Syria annexing the Herodian Tetrarchy.
context_section_description: After c. 415 Syria Coele was further subdivided into Syria I (or Syria Prima), with the capital remaining at Antioch, and Syria II (Syria Secunda) or Syria Salutaris, with capital at Apamea on the Orontes. In 528, Justinian I carved out the small coastal province Theodorias out of territory from both provinces.
  The region remained one of the most important provinces of the Byzantine Empire. It was occupied by the Sasanians between 609 and 628, then reconquered by the emperor Heraclius, but  lost again to the advancing Muslims after the Battle of Yarmouk and the fall of Antioch.
  The city of Antioch was reconquered by Nikephorus Phocas in 963, along with other parts of the country, at that time under the Hamdanids, although still under the official suzerainty of the Abbasid caliphs and also claimed by the Fatimid caliphs. After emperor John Kurkuas's failed to conquer Syria up to Jerusalem a Muslim "reconquest" of Syria followed in the late 970s undertaken by the Fatimid Caliphate which resulted in the ouster of the Byzantines from most parts of Syria. However, Antioch and other northern parts of Syria remained in the empire and other parts were under the protection of the emperors through their Hamdanid, Mirdasid, and Marwanid proxies, until the Seljuk arrival, who after three decades of incursions, conquered Antioch in 1084. Antioch was captured again during the 12th century by the revived armies of the Comnenii. However, by that time the city was regarded as part of Asia Minor and not of Syria.
caption: Church of Saint Simeon Stylites, one of the oldest surviving churches in the world
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