page_title: Timeline of the name "Palestine"
section_title: Late Roman Empire (Byzantine) period
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of the name "Palestine" / Historical references / Late Antiquity period / Late Roman Empire (Byzantine) period
caption_attribution_description: English: Syria Palestine inscription in De itinere suo Constantinopolitano Ε. Κ. Ι. ΑΝΔΔΡΩΝΕ ΙΕΡΟΠΟΙΙΩΝ. ΕΣΤΑ ΤΗΓΟΝ. ΟΥΡΒΑΝΟΝ. ΠΡΕ ΣΒΕΥΕΝ. ΛΕΓΙΩΝΟΣ Λ. ΟΥΛΠΙΑΣ. ΝΙΚΗΦΟ ΡΟΥ. ΕΠΙΜΕΛΗΤΗΝ. Ο ΔΟΥ. ΑΠΠΙΑΕ. ΥΠΑΤΟΥ ΠΡΕΣΒ. ΑΝΤΙΣΡΑΤΗ ΓΟΝ. ΣΥΡΙΑΕ ΠΑΛΑΙ ΣΥΕΙΝΗΣ. ΤΡΕΒΙΟΣ ΚΟΚΚΗΙΟΣ. ΑΛΞΑΝ ΔΡΟΣ. ΤΟΝ. ΕΑΥΤΟΥ. ΕΥ ΕΡΓΕΤΗΝ.
context_page_description: "
  The term "Peleset" is found in five inscriptions referring to a neighboring people or land starting from circa 1150 BC during the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt. The first known mention is at the temple at Medinet Habu which refers to the Peleset among those who fought with Egypt in Ramesses III's reign, and the last known is 300 years later on Padiiset's Statue. The Assyrians called the same region "Palashtu/Palastu" or "Pilistu," beginning with Adad-nirari III in the Nimrud Slab in c. 800 BC through to an Esarhaddon treaty more than a century later. Neither the Egyptian nor the Assyrian sources provided clear regional boundaries for the term.
  The first appearance of the term "Palestine" was in 5th century BC Ancient Greece when Herodotus wrote of a "district of Syria, called Palaistinê" between Phoenicia and Egypt in The Histories. Herodotus applied the term to both the coastal and the inland regions such as the Judean mountains and the Jordan Rift Valley.
context_section_description: c. 362: Julian, Against the Galilaeans: "Why were you so ungrateful to our gods as to desert them for the Jews?" Was it because the gods granted the sovereign power to Rome, permitting the Jews to be free for a short time only, and then forever to be enslaved and aliens? Look at Abraham: was he not an alien in a strange land? And Jacob: was he not a slave, first in Syria, then after that in Palestine, and in his old age in Egypt? Does not Moses say that he led them forth from the house of bondage out of Egypt "with a stretched out arm"? And after their sojourn in Palestine did they not change their fortunes more frequently than observers say the chameleon changes its colour, now subject to the judges, now enslaved to foreign races?
  c. 365: Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus: Vespasian ruled ten years. [...] Volgeses, King of Parthia, was compelled to peace. The Syria for which Palestina is the name, and Cilicia, and Trachia and Commagene, which today we call Augustophratensis, were added to the provinces. Judaea, too, was added.
  c. 370: Eutropius, Breviarium historiae Romanae: "Vespasian, who had been chosen emperor in Palestine, a prince indeed of obscure birth, but worthy to be compared with the best emperors." and "Under him Judæa was added to the Roman Empire; and Jerusalem, which was a very famous city of Palestine."
  c. 380: Ammianus Marcellinus, "Book XIV," The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus: Book XIV, 8, 11. "The last province of the Syrias is Palestine, a district of great extent, abounding in well-cultivated and beautiful land, and having several magnificent cities, all of equal importance, and rivalling one another as it were, in parallel lines. For instance, Caesarea, which Herod built in honour of the Prince Octavianus, and Eleutheropolis, and Neapolis, and also Ascalon, and Gaza, cities built in bygone ages."
  c. 384: Saint Jerome, Epistle 33: "He (Origen) stands condemned by his bishop, Demetrius, only the bishops of Palestine, Arabia, Phenicia, and Achaia dissenting."
  c. 385: Egeria, Itinerary: "The greatest part of Palestine, the land of promise, was in sight, together with the whole land of Jordan, as far as it could be seen with our eyes."
  390: Auxentius of Durostorum (else Maximinus the Arian), Commenttarium on Iob: "In regione Arabiae et Palaestinorum asini, qui veloces sunt similiter ut equi."
  c. 390: John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty: "“What about Abraham?” someone says. Who has suffered as many misfortunes as he? Was he not exiled from his country? Was he not separated from all his household? Did he not endure hunger in a foreign land? Did he not, like a wanderer, move continually, from Babylon to Mesopotamia, from there to Palestine, and from there to Egypt?" and Adversus Judaeos: "VI...[7] Do you not see that their Passover is the type, while our Pasch is the truth? Look at the tremendous difference between them. The Passover prevented bodily death: whereas the Pasch quelled God's anger against the whole world; the Passover of old freed the Jews from Egypt, while the Pasch has set us free from idolatry; the Passover drowned the Pharaoh, but the Pasch drowned the devil; after the Passover came Palestine, but after the Pasch will come heaven."
  c. 390: Palaestina was organised into three administrative units: Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia (First, Second, and Third Palestine), part of the Diocese of the East. Palaestina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the Paralia, and Peraea with the governor residing in Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of the Galilee, the lower Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former Decapolis with the seat of government at Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the Negev, southern Jordan—once part of Arabia—and most of Sinai with Petra as the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris. Recorded in the:
  Synecdemus of Hierocles (c. 530) 
  Descriptio Orbis Romani of George of Cyprus (c. 600)
  392: Epiphanius of Salamis, On Weights and Measures: "So [Hadrian] passed thro
caption: Undated Classical inscription from Constantinople, published by George Dousa in 1599, mentioning "Syriae Palaisteinae"[121]
exif: {}