Coele Syria (Roman province)

Coele Syria was a Roman province which Septimius Severus created with Syria Phoenice in 198 by dividing the province of Syria.[1] Its metropolis was Antioch.

This article is about the Imperial Roman province. For the Hellenistic region, see Coele Syria.
Provincia Coele Syria
Province of the Roman Empire
198–end of 4th century

Roman Empire with provinces in 210 AD
CapitalAntioch
History 
• Established
198
• Disestablished
end of 4th century
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Syria (Roman province)
Syria Prima
Syria Secunda
Today part of

History

As related by Theodor Mommsen,

The governor of Syria retained the civil administration of the whole large province undiminished, and held for long alone in all Asia a command of the first rank. [...] It was only in the course of the second century that a diminution of his prerogatives occurred, when Hadrian took one of the four legions from the governor of Syria and handed it over to the governor of Palestine. It was Severus who at length withdrew the first place in the Roman military hierarchy from the Syrian governor. After having subdued the province—which had wished at that time to make Niger emperor, as it had formerly done with its governor Vespasian—amidst resistance from the capital Antioch in particular, he ordained its partition into a northern and a southern half, and gave to the governor of the former, which was called Coele-Syria, two legions, to the governor of the latter, the province of Syro-Phoenicia, one [legion].[2]

Coele Syria was further divided into Syria Prima and Syria Secunda around the end of the fourth century.[3]

References
  1. Essai sur la vie et le règne de Septime Sévère, p. 245.
  2. Mommsen 1886, pp. 117–118.
  3. Gatier, p. 94.

Bibliography
  • Essai sur la vie et le règne de Septime Sévère (in French).
  • Gatier, Pierre-Louis. "« Grande » ou « petite Syrie Seconde » ? Pour une géographie historique de la Syrie intérieure protobyzantine". Conquête de la Steppe (in French).CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Mommsen, Theodor (1886). The History of Rome. R. Bentley.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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