Syria Palaestīna
Meaning
- A geographic region of the Levant encompassing the southern part of ancient Syria, between Phoenicia and Egypt along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to the northwest of Arabia; roughly equating to the Palestine region.
- The name given by the emperor Hadrian to the Roman province of Judea following the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD; later divided into the provinces of Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda and Palaestina Salutaris. The province of Syria was divided in 197 AD into Coele Syria and Phoenice.
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | Syria Palaestīna | — |
| genitive | Syriae Palaestīnae | — |
| dative | Syriae Palaestīnae | — |
| accusative | Syriam Palaestīnam | — |
| ablative | Syriā Palaestīnā | — |
| vocative | Syria Palaestīna | — |
Origins
Compound of Syria + Palaestīna, literally “Palestinian Syria”. In renaming the conquered province of Judaea, 2nd century AD Roman Emperor Hadrian formally adopted a name that had been in use as a Græco-Roman geographic term since at least the time of 5th century BC historian Herodotus, who repeatedly wrote in his dialectal Ionic Greek Συρίη ἡ Παλαιστίνη (Suríē hē Palaistínē, “Syria Palaestina”), meaning the part of Syria that is Palestine. Syria was understood to refer to a broader geographic region encompassing multiple smaller territories, with Syria Palaestina the southernmost part of Syria, bordered to the north by Syria Phoenīcē, followed by Coelē Syria, south of Asia Minor. (Compare Gallia Cisalpīna (“Cisalpine Gaul”), Hispānia Baetica (“Baetic Hispania”) etc.)