page_title: Timeline of the name "Palestine"
section_title: Roman Aelia Capitolina period
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of the name "Palestine" / Historical references / Classical antiquity / Roman Aelia Capitolina period
caption_attribution_description: English: w:Roman military diploma 139 AD Afiq H.&#160;: 13.90 cm.&#160;; L.&#160;: 11.80 cm. Published 1897 Br 4088 in the Louvre. CIL XVI 87 = AE 1897, 106 = AE 1897, 145 = AE 1898, 3, Nazarthe, Ottoman Palestine: Imp(erator) Caes(ar) div(i) Hadr(iani) f(ilius) divi Trai(ani) Parth(ici) / nep(os) T(itus) Ael(ius) Hadr(ianus) Antonin(us) Aug(ustus) Pius / pon(tifex) max(imus) tri(bunicia) pot(estate) II co(n)s(ul) II des(ignatus) III p(ater) p(atriae) / eq(uitibus) et ped(itibus) q(ui) mil(itaverunt) in al(is) III et coh(ortibus) XII q(uae) ap(pellantur) / Gal(lorum) et Ant(iana) et VII Phr(ygum) et I Thr(acum) et I Seb(astena) et I / Dam(ascenorum) et I Mon(tanorum) et I Fl(avia) c(ivium) R(omanorum) et I et II Gal(atarum) et / III et IIII Br(acaraugustanorum) et IIII et VI Pet(raeorum) et V Gem(ella) c(ivium) R(omanorum) / et sunt in Syria Palaest(ina) sub Calp(urnio) / Atilian(o) XXV sti(pendiis) eme(ritis) dim(issis) hon(esta) mis(sione) / quor(um) nom(ina) scr(ipta) ips(is) civ(itatem) ded(it) et con(ubium) / cum ux(oribus) q(uas) t(unc) hab(uissent) cum est civ(itas) i(i)s dat(a) / aut si q(ui) cae(libes) ess(ent) cu(m) i(i)s q(uas) pos(tea) dux(issent) dum/tax(at) sin(guli) sin&lt; g = C &gt;(ulas) // a(nte) d(iem) X K(alendas) Dec(embres) / Iustino et Basso co(n)s(ulibus) / coh(ortis) II Ulp(iae) Galatar(um) cui prae(e)st / Q(uintus) Fl(avius) Q(uinti) f(ilius) Pal(atina) Amatianus Capua / ex pedite / Gaio Luci f(ilio) Nicia // Imp(erator) Caesar divi Hadriani f(ilius) divi Traia[ni] / Parth(ici) nepos divi Nervae pronep(os) T(itus) Aeliu[s] / Hadrianus Antoninus Aug(ustus) Pius pont(ifex) / max(imus) trib(unicia) pot(estate) II co(n)s(ul) II desig(natus) III p(ater) p(atriae) / equit(ibus) et pedit(ibus) qui milit(averunt) in alis III et coh(ortibus) XII / quae appell(antur) Gall(orum) et Thr(acum) et Ant(iana) Gall(orum) et VII / Phry(gum) et I Thr(acum) oo(miliaria) et I Seb(astena) oo(miliaria) et I Dam(ascenorum) et I Mont(anorum) / et I Fl(avia) c(ivium) R(omanorum) et I et II Gala(tarum) et III et IIII Brac(araugustanorum) et IIII / et VI Petr(aeorum) et V Gem(ella) c(ivium) R(omanorum) et sunt in Syria Palae/stin(a) sub Calpurn(io) Atiliano quinq(ue) et vi/gint(i) stip(endiis) emer(itis) dimis(sis) honest(a) mission(e) / quorum nomin(a) subscrip(ta) sunt ipsis li/beris posterisq(ue) eoru(m) civitat(em) dedit / et conub(ium) cum uxorib(us) quas tunc habuis(sent) / cum est civitas iis data aut si q(ui) caelibes / essent cum i(i)s quas post(ea) duxiss(ent) dumta/xat singuli singulas a(nte) d(iem) X K(alendas) Dec(embres) / M(arco) Ceccio Iustino C(aio) Iulio Basso co(n)s(ulibus) / coh(ortis) II Ulpiae Galatar(um) cui prae(e)st / Q(uintus) Flavius Q(uinti) f(ilius) Pal(atina) Amatianus Capua / ex pedite / Gaio Lucii f(ilio) Nicia / descript(um) et recogn(itum) ex tabula aerea quae / fixa est Rom(ae) in muro post templ(um) divi / Aug(usti) ad Minervam // Ti(beri) Claudi [Menandri] / P(ubli) Atti [Severi] / L(uci) Pull(i) Daphni / P(ubli) Atti Festi / T(iti) Flavi Lauri / Ti(beri) Iuli Felicis / C(ai) Iuli Silvani
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. 129 or 135: Syria Palæstina was a Roman province between 135 and about 390. It was established by the merge of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea, shortly before or after the Bar Kokhba Revolt. There is only circumstantial evidence linking Hadrian with the name change and the precise date is not certain. The common view that the name change was intended "sever the connection of the Jews to their historical homeland" is disputed. Zachary Foster in his Princeton doctoral dissertation wrote that "Most scholars believe the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the provincial administrative name of Judaea to Palestine to erase the Jewish presence in the land," opining that "it’s equally likely the name change had little to do with Jew hatred and more to do with Hadrian’s romance with ancient Greece." He adds, there is a “paucity of direct evidence around who made the change, when and under what circumstances”, and that it may be that Hadrian did not “rename” the country but simply “called the place what it was called”. Louis Feldman argues prior to change of province name the term was used to refer to the coastal region associated with the Philistines and that first century authors differentiated Judea from Palestine.
  139: A Roman military diploma from Afiq names military units "in Syria Palaestin[a]."
  c. 130: Pausanias (geographer), Description of Greece: (1) "Hard by is a sanctuary of the Heavenly Aphrodite; the first men to establish her cult were the Assyrians, after the Assyrians the Paphians of Cyprus and the Phoenicians who live at Ascalon in Palestine; the Phoenicians taught her worship to the people of Cythera."; (2) "In front of the sanctuary grow palm-trees, the fruit of which, though not wholly edible like the dates of Palestine, yet are riper than those of Ionia."; and (3) "[a Hebrew Sibyl] brought up in Palestine named Sabbe, whose father was Berosus and her mother Erymanthe. Some say she was a Babylonian, while others call her an Egyptian Sibyl."
  c. 150: Aelius Aristides, To Plato: In Defense of the Four: (671) These men alone should be classed neither among flatterers nor free men. For they deceive like flatterers, but they are insolent as if they were of higher rank, since they are involved in the two most extreme and opposite evils, baseness and willfulness, behaving like those impious men of Palestine. For the proof of the impiety of those people is that they do not believe in the higher powers. And these men in a certain fashion have defected from the Greek race, or rather from all that is higher.
  c. 150: Appian, Roman History: "Intending to write the history of the Romans, I have deemed it necessary to begin with the boundaries of the nations under their sway.... Here turning our course and passing round, we take in Palestine-Syria, and beyond it a part of Arabia. The Phoenicians hold the country next to Palestine on the sea, and beyond the Phoenician territory are Coele-Syria, and the parts stretching from the sea as far inland as the river Euphrates, namely Palmyra and the sandy country round about, extending even to the Euphrates itself."
  c. 150: Lucian of Samosata, Passing of Peregrinus: 11. "It was then that he learned the wondrous lore of the Christians, by associating with their priests and scribes in Palestine. And—how else could it be?—in a trice he made them all look like children, for he was prophet, cult-leader, head of the synagogue, and everything, all by himself. He interpreted and explained some of their books and even composed many, and they revered him as a god, made use of him as a lawgiver, and set him down as a protector, next after that other, to be sure, whom they still worship, the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world.
  c. 150: Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri: "Tyre then was captured, in the archonship at Athens of Anicetus in the month I lecatombacun...Alexander now determined to make his expedition to Egypt. The rest of Syrian Palestine (as it is called) had already come over to him, but a certain eunuch, Batis, who was master of Gaza, did not join
caption: "Syria Palaestin[a]" mentioned in a 139 AD Roman military diploma
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