page_title: History of Palestine
section_title: Byzantine period
hierarchical_section_title: History of Palestine / Classical antiquity / Byzantine period
context_page_description: The history of Palestine is the study of the past in the region of Palestine, generally defined as a geographic region in the Southern Levant between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands. Situated at a strategic point between Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the region has a long and tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. In ancient times, Palestine was intermittently controlled by several independent kingdoms and numerous great powers, including Ancient Egypt, Persia, Alexander the Great and his successors, the Roman Empire, several Muslim dynasties, and the Crusaders. In modern times, the area was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, then the United Kingdom. Since 1948, Palestine has been divided into Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Other terms for approximately the same geographic area include Canaan, Zion, the Land of Israel, Southern Syria, Outremer and the Holy Land.
  The region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization.
context_section_description: Following the victory of Christian emperor Constantine in the Civil Wars of the Tetrarchy (306–324), the total Christianization of the Roman Empire began. Within a few months, the First Council of Nicaea (first worldwide Christian council) confirmed the status of Aelia (Jerusalem) as a patriarchate, at which point the city is generally taken to have been renamed Jerusalem. Theodosius I declared Christianity the state religion of the empire in 380, and Palestine became part of the Eastern Roman Empire ("Byzantium") after the division of the Roman Empire into east and west (a fitful process that was not finalized until 395 CE).
  The Byzantines redrew the borders of Palestine. The various Roman provinces (Syria Palaestina, Samaria, Galilee, and Peraea) were reorganized into three diocese of Palaestina, reverting to the name first used by Greek historian Herodotus in the mid-5th century BCE: Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia or Salutaris (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. According to historian H.H. Ben-Sasson, this reorganisation took place under Diocletian (284–305), although other scholars suggest this change occurred later in 390.
  This was the period of Palestine's greatest prosperity in antiquity. Urbanization increased, large new areas were put under cultivation, monasteries proliferated and synagogues were restored. The cities of Palestine, such as Caesarea Maritima, Jerusalem, Scythopolis, Neapolis, and Gaza reached their peak population, and the population West of the Jordan may have reached as many as one million. Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica, drew on Orosius' information gathered from the local Jews to describe Palestine as one of the provinces of "Syria, which is called Aram by the Hebrews. The place is between the River Euphrates and the Great Sea, and extends towards Egypt; its largest provinces are Commagene, Phoenicia, and Palestine, as well as the countries of the Saraceni and the Nabathaei. It has twelve gentes."54
  In 326, Constantine's mother Saint Helena visited Jerusalem and ordered the destruction of Hadrian's temple to Venus, which had been built on Calvary. Accompanied by Macarius of Jerusalem, the excavation reportedly discovered the True Cross, the Holy Tunic and the Holy Nails. The first Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the first Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the first Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives were all built during Constantine's reign.
  The earliest monasteries in Christianity outside of Egypt were built in Palestine during this period, notably those of Hilarion near Gaza, Saint Epiphanius at Ad near the city of Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrin, the head of the largest bishopric in Palestine at this time), Tyrannius Rufinus and Melania the Elder on the Mount of Olives, Euthymius the Great at Pharan, Sabbas the Sanctified in the Kidron Valley as well as St. George's Monastery in Wadi al-Qelt, the Monastery of the Temptation and Deir Hajla near Jericho, and Deir Mar Saba and Deir Theodosius east of Bethlehem. The sack of Rome in 410 caused a significant episode of migration to Palestine as a group of aristocratic ladies responded to the holy man Jerome's invitation to settle in Aelia Capitolina and Bethlehem. In 451, the Council of Chalcedon confirmed Jerusalem's status as a Patriarchate as one of the Pentarchy, and Juvenal of Jerusalem became the first Patriarch of Jerusalem
  Notable works by Christian scholars were produced in Palestine in the disciplines of rhetoric, historiography, Eusebian ecclesiastical history, classicizing h
caption: 5th-century CE: Byzantine provinces of Palaestina I (Philistia, Judea and Samaria) and Palaestina II (Galilee and Perea)
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