Coele-Syria

This article is about the Hellenistic region. For the Imperial Roman province, see Syria Coele (Roman province).

Coele-Syria (/ˌsiːliːˈsɪriə/, also spelt Coele Syria, Coelesyria, Celesyria), alternatively Coelo-Syria or Coelosyria (/ˌsiːlə-/; Greek: Κοίλη Συρία, Koílē Syría, 'Hollow Syria'; Latin: Cœle Syria or Cava Syria), was a region of Syria in classical antiquity. The term originally referred to the "hollow" Beqaa Valley between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges, but sometimes it was applied to a broader area of the region of Syria. The area is now part of the modern-day Syria and Lebanon.

Coele-Syria
Region of Macedonian Empire / Ptolemaic Kingdom / Seleucid Empire/ Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)
332 BCE–64 BCE
Historical era	Hellenistic era
• Conquests of Alexander the Great	332 BCE
• Syrian Wars	274–168 BCE
• Hasmonean Kingdom	140 BCE
• Conquests of Pompey	64 BCE
Preceded by Succeeded by Eber-Nari Achaemenid Phoenicia Yehud Medinata Hasmonean kingdom Roman Syria Decapolis

Historical Levant

Name

It is widely accepted that the term Coele is a transcription of Aramaic kul, meaning "all, the entire", such that the term originally identified all of Syria.^[1][2][3] The word "Coele", which literally means "hollow" in Koine Greek, is thought to have come about via a folk etymology referring to the "hollow" Beqaa Valley between Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains.^[3] However, the term Coele-Syria was also used in a wider sense to indicate "all Syria" or "all Syria except Phoenicia", by the writers; Pliny, Arrian, Ptolemy^[4] and also Diodorus Siculus, who indicated Coele-Syria to at least stretch as far south as Joppa,^[5][6] while Polybius stated that the border between Egypt and Coele-Syria lay between the towns of Rhinocolara and Rhaphia.^[7][8]

The first and only official use of the term was during the period of Seleucid rule of the region, between c. 200 BCE and 64 BCE.^{[citation needed]} During this period, the term "Coele Syria and Phoenicia" or "Coele Syria" was also used in a narrower sense to refer to the former Ptolemaic territory which the Seleucids now controlled, being the area south of the river Eleutherus. This usage was adopted by Strabo and the Books of the Maccabees.^[9][10] Later during the Roman Period c.350 CE, Eunapius wrote that the capital of Coele-Syria was the Seleucid city of Antioch, north of the Eleutherus.^[11]

Official usage

 

According to Polybius, a former officer of the Ptolemaic Empire named Ptolemy Thrasea, having fought in the 217 BCE Battle of Raphia, defected to the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great. Antiochus gave him the title "Strategos and Archiereus of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia". Some scholars speculate that this title may have been used previously by the Ptolemies, but no direct evidence exists to support this.^[3]

Syrian Wars

Main article: Syrian Wars

 

Map of ancient Syria

The region was disputed between the Seleucid dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty during the Syrian Wars. Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy first occupied Coele-Syria in 318 BC. However, when Ptolemy joined the coalition against Antigonus I Monophthalmus in 313 BC, he quickly withdrew from Coele-Syria. In 312 BC Seleucus I Nicator, defeated Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, in the Battle of Gaza which again allowed Ptolemy to occupy Coele-Syria. Though he was again to pull out after only a few months, after Demetrius had won a battle over his general and Antigonus entered Syria in force up to Antigonuses, this brief success had enabled Seleucus to make a dash for Babylonia which Seleucus secured. In 302 BC, Ptolemy joined a new coalition against Antigonus and reoccupied Coele-Syria, but quickly withdrew on hearing a false report that Antigonus had won a victory. He was only to return when Antigonus had been defeated at Ipsus in 301 BC. Coele-Syria was assigned to Seleucus, by the victors of Ipsus, as Ptolemy had added nothing to the victory. Though, given Ptolemy's track record, he was unlikely to organize a serious defense of Coele-Syria, Seleucus acquiesced in Ptolemy's occupation, probably because Seleucus remembered how it had been with Ptolemy's help he had reestablished himself in Babylonia.

The later Seleucids were not to be so understanding, resulting in the century of Syrian Wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids. The Battle of Panium in 200 BC, during the Fifth Syrian War, was the final decisive battle between the two sides in ending Ptolemaic control over the region. The 171–168 BC conflicts over Coele-Syria, between Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Ptolemy VI Philometor, are discussed in Livy's The History of Rome from its Foundation (in XLII. 29 and XLV. 11–12).

Seleucid control over the area of Judea began diminishing with the eruption of the Maccabean Revolt in 165 BC. With Seleucid troops being involved in warfare on the Parthian front, Judea succeeded in securing its independence by 140 BC. Despite attempts of Seleucid rulers to regain territories, the conquests of Pompey in 64 BC were a decisive blow to them, and Syria became part of the Roman Republic.

Upper Syria

Main article: Syrian tetrapolis

Under the Macedonian kings, Upper Syria (Syria Superior) was divided into four parts (tetrarchies) which were named after their capitals. Later in the Roman Pompeian era, the province was divided into nine districts.^[12]

Nomenclatures of Syria

Further information: Name of Syria and Names of the Levant

Judging from Arrian and The Anabasis of Alexander, the historians of Alexander the Great, as well as more ancient authors,^[13] gave the name of Syria to all the country comprehended between the Tigris and the Mediterranean. The part to the east of the Euphrates, afterwards named Mesopotamia was called "Syria between the rivers;" that to the west was called by the general name Coele-Syria, and although Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes separated from it. Yet, it was often comprehended as the whole country as far as Egypt.^[14][15]

Nomenclatures of Syria given in the time of Cyrus the Great c. 530 BCE
Primary	Kul Eber-Nari	All Across-the-River
Alternate	Koile Syria	Corrupt Greek translation

 

The Kingdoms of Antigonos and his rivals c. 303 BC.

• Circa 323 BCE Laomedon of Mytilene takes control of Coele-Syria (dissolving Eber-Nari).^[16]
• Circa 323 BCE The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax lists several cities on the Palestinian coast (Dor, Jaffa, Ascalon, and Acre) that are incorporated into Coele-Syria.^[17][18]

In the Wars of the Diadochi, Coele-Syria came under the control of Antigonus I Monophthalmus. Then in 301 BCE, Ptolemy I Soter exploited events surrounding the Battle of Ipsus to take control of the region. The victors at Ipsus finalized the breakup of Alexander's empire. Coele-Syria was allocated to Ptolemy's former ally Seleucus I Nicator, who—having been previously aided by Ptolemy—took no military action to gain control of the region. Their successors, however, became embroiled in a series of conflicts over this issue.^[19]

Wars over Coele-Syria given by Polybius c. 150 BCE^[20]

Ptolemy, marching on Pelusium, made his first halt at that city, and after picking up stragglers and serving out rations to his men moved on marching through the desert and skirting Mount Casius and the marshes called Barathra. Reaching the spot he was bound for on the fifth day he encamped at a distance of fifty stades from Raphia, (Modern Rafah at the border of Egypt and Israel, north of Rhinocolara (El Arish)) which is the first city of Coele-Syria on the Egyptian side after Rhinocolura.^[7][21]

• Circa 120 BCE In the written work, 1 Maccabees ;

  And king Demetrius made Apollonius his general, who was governor of Celesyria: and he gathered together a great army, and came to Jamnia.^[22]

• Circa 100 BCE In the written work, 2 Maccabees ;

  And when he could not overcome Onias, he went to Apollonius, the son of Tharseas, who at that time was governor of Celesyria, and Phenicia.^[23][24]

Boundaries of Egypt given by Diodorus Siculus c. 50 BCE

Having spoken of the three boundaries of Egypt, by which it is distinguished from the rest of the continent, we now proceed to the next. The fourth side is nearly surrounded with a vast sea, without any harbours, being a very long and tedious voyage, and very difficult to find any place of landing. For from Parcetonium in Africa, to Joppa in Cœlo-Syria, for the space almost of five thousand furlongs, there is not one safe harbour to be found, except Pharus.^[25]

• Circa 25 BCE Livy in his written work, The History of Rome ;

  Antiochus was so incensed, ...He at once sent his fleet to Cyprus, and in the first days of spring set his army in motion for Egypt and advanced into Coelo-Syria. When near Rhinocolura he was met by envoys from Ptolemy, who ...begged him to say clearly what he wanted rather than to attack Ptolemy as an enemy—by force of arms—after previously being his friend.^[26][27][28]

Coele-Syria Proper

 

Coele Syria

Authors of the Roman period differ on the limits of Coele-Syria, some extending and others contracting them. The Geography of Strabo notes that Coele Syria Propria (Proper) is defined by the Libanus and Anti-libanus mountain ranges, running parallel to each other.^[29] In the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ, the name Cœle (or Hollow Syria) was applied to the whole of the southern portion of Syria, but under the Romans, it was confined to "Cœlesyria Proper" and variously included the district east of Anti-Libanus, about Damascus, and a portion of Palestine east of the Jordan river (possibly of: Trans-Jordan, Perea, or the Decapolis).^[30]

Nomenclatures of Syria given by Strabo c. 10 BCE^[14]^[31]
Primary	Cœlê-Syria & Seleucis-Syria & Phœnicia &c. &c.	Cœlê-Syria ≠ Cœlo-Syrians^[32]
Alternate	Cœlo-Syrians & Syrians & Phœnicians	Similar to nomenclature given by Herodotus

 

SYRIA post 70 CE

• Circa 36 CE Philo of Alexandria in his written work, On the Life of Moses ;

  When then [Moses] he received the supreme authority, with the good will of all his subjects, God himself being the regulator and approver of all his actions, he conducted his people as a colony into Phoenicia, and into the hollow Syria (Coele-syria), and Palestine, which was at that time called the land of the Canaanites, the borders of which country were three days' journey distant from Egypt.^[33]

• Circa 43 CE Pomponius Mela in his written work, Description of the World ;

  Syria holds a broad expanse of the littoral, as well as lands that extend rather broadly into the interior, and it is designated by different names in different places. For example, it is called Coele, Mesopotamia, Judaea, Commagene, and Sophene. It is Palestine at the point where Syria abuts the Arabs, then Phoenicia, and then—where it reaches Cilicia—Antiochia. [...] In Palestine, however, is Gaza, a mighty and well fortified city.^[34]

 

Greek colonies

The name Syria comes from the ancient Greek regional name for the Levantine colonies and colonial territories which they had established and which were "formerly comprehended as part of Assyria" (see Name of Syria).^[35] Syria had an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including from west to east; Commagene, Sophene, and Adiabene. In Pliny's time, Syria was administratively divided into a number of provinces with various degrees of autonomy under the Roman Empire, such as the Ityraei or Ituraei, who were a people of Coelo-Syria famous for shooting with a bow, [The wood of the trees called] "yews are bent into Ituraean bows".^[36][37]

Nomenclatures of Syria given by Pliny the Elder c.70 CE^[38]
Primary	Syria	deprecated terms: Palæstina, Judæa, Cœle, Phœnice
Alternate	Syria & Phœnice

• Circa 70 CE Pliny the Elder in his written work, Natural History ;

  Next to these countries on the coast is Syria, once the greatest of lands. It had a multitude of divisions with different names, the part adjacent to Arabia was previously known as Palestine (who's northernmost city was Caesarea, Plin. NH 5.69: "Caesarea ..finis Palastine") or Judaea or Cœle.^[39][40]

• Circa 100 CE Josephus in his written work, Antiquities of the Jews, notes that in 46 BCE Herod the Great was appointed as the "stratēgos" of Coele Syria, by the governor of Syria, Sextus Julius Caesar.^[41][42] And he also writes ;

  Antiochus made a friendship and league with Ptolemy, and gave him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, and yielded up to him Cœle-Syria and Samaria and Judæa and Phœnicia by way of dowry.^[43]

• Circa 125 CE The Roman emperor Hadrian promotes the city of Damascus to "Metropolis of Coele-Syria".^[44][45]

 

Coele Syria. Heliopolis

• Circa 150 CE Appian in his written work, 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.^[46]

 

Palestine & Coele-Syria according to Ptolemy (map by Claude Reignier Conder of the Palestine Exploration Fund)

The Decapolis was so called from its ten cities enumerated by Pliny. What Pliny calls Decapolis, Ptolemy makes his Cœle-Syria; and the Cœle-Syria of Pliny, is that part of Syria about Aleppo.^[47][48]

Towns in Coelesyria given by Ptolemy c. 150 CE that are distinct from Pliny's Decapolis^[49][50][51]

1. Heliopolis
2. Abila which is called Lysinia (Abila Lysanios)
3. Saana
4. Ina
5. Samulis (Samoulis)
6. Abida
7. Capitolias
8. Adra
9. Canatha

Provincia Syria Coele

 

The Roman provinces of Syria, Palestina, and Arabia

 

Dioecesis Orientis (East) 400 CE

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].^[52]

Nomenclature of Syria given in the time of Septimius Severus c.200 CE^[53]^[54]^[55]
Syria	Provincia Syria Coele	Syria Coele ≠ Cœlê-Syria ≠ Cœlo-Syrians
Phoenice	Provincia Syria Phoenice
Palestina	Provincia Syria Palæstina
Arabia	Provincia Arabia Petraea

• Circa 200 CE. Ulpian, On Taxes, Book I;

There is also the colony of Laodicea, in Coele Syria, to which also the divine Severus granted the Italian Law on account of its services in the Civil War.^[56]

Boundaries of the 'Promised Land' given by Jerome c. 400 CE

You may delineate the Promised Land of Moses from the Book of Numbers (ch. 34): as bounded on the south by the desert tract called Sina, between the Dead Sea and the city of Kadesh-barnea, [which is located with the Arabah to the east] and continues to the west, as far as the river of Egypt, that discharges into the open sea near the city of Rhinocolara; as bounded on the west by the sea along the coasts of Palestine, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, and Cilicia; as bounded on the north by the circle formed by the Taurus Mountains and Zephyrium and extending to Hamath, called Epiphany-Syria; as bounded on the east by the city of Antioch Hippos and Lake Kinneret, now called Tiberias, and then the Jordan River which discharges into the salt sea, now called the Dead Sea.^[57][58]

• Circa 400 CE Eunapius in his written work, Lives of Philosophers and Sophists ;

Libanius (died 392 CE) was born at Antioch, the capital of Coele Syria as it is called. This city was founded by Seleucus surnamed Nicator.^[59][60]

• Capital of the Seleucid Empire was Antioch (240–63 BCE)
• Capital of the Syria Coele (Roman province) was Antioch (200–600 CE)

See also

• Hasmonean kingdom
• Roman Syria
• Herodian kingdom
• Tetrarchy (Judea)
• Judaea (Roman province)
• Syria Palaestina

Notes

1. "La Syrie creuse n'existe pas", in G. L. Gatier, et al. Géographie historique au proche-orient (1988:15-40), reviving the explanation offered by A. Schalit (1954), is reported by Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer (2008, notes p378f): "the crux is solved".
2. The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa, Getzel M. Cohen, 2006 and pdf here 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
3. A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 2, Lester L. Grabbe, p173 "Yet the suggestion is widely accepted that the name actually derives from Aramaic for "all Syria", which was then assimilated by the Greeks to a more usual pattern for place names"
4. From Sartre, pages 21-25: Diodorus 18.6.3, 61.4; 20.73.2; Polybius 8.17.10–11; Pliny, Naturalis Historiæ 5.106–10; Arrian Anabasis 2.13.7; Ptolemy 5.14.1.
5. Diodorus Siculus c.150 BCE, Bibliotheca historica, XIX, 93; XXIX, 29
6. Diodorus, Siculus (October 4, 1933). "Diodorus of Sicily, with an English translation by C.H. Oldfather [and others]". London Heinemann – via Internet Archive.
7. Polybius; Hultsch, Friedrich Otto (1889). The Histories of Polybius. Macmillan and Company. p. 431. 80. Having marched to Pelusium Ptolemy made his first halt in that town; and having been there joined by the stragglers, and having given out their rations of corn to his men, he got the army in motion, and led them by a line of march which goes through the waterless region skirting Mount Casius and the Marshes.(Called Barathra, See Strabo, 17, 1, 21.) On the fifth day's march he reached his destination, and pitched his camp a distance of fifty stades from Rhaphia, which is the first city of Coele-Syria towards Egypt.
8. Polybius c.150 BCE, The Histories, Book 3, Chapter 2
9. Feldman, Louis H.; Cohen, Shaye J. D.; Schwartz, Joshua J. (2007). Studies in Josephus and the varieties of ancient Judaism: Louis H. Feldman. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004153899. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
10. Parke, Herbert William (January 1988). Sibyls and sibylline prophecy in classical antiquity. Routledge. ISBN 9780415003438. Retrieved 2012-05-28.
11. "Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists (1921) pp.343-565. English translation". www.tertullian.org.
12. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain) (1842). Penny cyclopaedia of the Society for the diffusion of useful knowledge. C. Knight. pp. 476–. Antient Divisions of Syria. –Under the Macedonian kings Syria was divided into four parts (tetrarchies), which were named after their capitals, Antioch, Seleuceia, Apamea, and Laodicea. Both the Greeks and the Romans called the northern portion of Syria, that is the whole country with the exception of Coele-Syria, Phoenice, and Palestine, by the name of Upper Syria (???, Syria Superior), to distinguish it from Coele Syria (???, that is, the Hollow Syria), which was the name given to the valley between the ridges of Libanus and Anti Libanus. Under the Romans the province was divided into nine districts: Cassiotis, Apamene, Chalcidice, Seleucis, Pieria, Commagene, Cyrrhestice, Chalybonitis, Palmyrene.
13. Besnier, Maurice (1914). Lexique de géographie ancienne. C. Klincksieck. pp. 222–223.
14. Strabo (1889). The geography of Strabo. Bell. p. 161, note 1. Strabo below, c. ii. § 21, refers to this ancient division, when he says that the name Coele-Syria extends to the whole country as far as Egypt and Arabia, although in its peculiar acceptation it applied only to the valley between Libanus and Antilibanus.
15. Van Wijlick, Hendrikus Antonius Margaretha (2013). Rome and Near Eastern Kingdoms and Principalities, 44-31 BCE: A Study of Political Relations During Civil War (PhD thesis). Durham University. p. 90, note 29. Retrieved 13 June 2015. The toponym "Coele Syria" (Κοίλη Συρία) has been used by ancient authors to designate various regions of the Levant. The term appeared for the first time in Greek language at the beginning of the fourth century BCE. Schalit (1954) 68-70 and Sartre (1988) 22, 26 among others have convincingly argued that at that time "Coele Syria" signified "the whole of Syria" from the Levantine coast in the west to the river Euphrates in the east covering the entire area of the old Achaemenid satrapy called kul ʿawar nahara ("everything beyond the river"). The word Κοίλη in this context does thus not mean "hollow" (κοῖλος), but "whole", and originates probably as a Greek transliteration from the Aramaic word "kul". As a result of administrative changes in the Levant during the following two and a half centuries, the toponym "Coele Syria" acquired additional narrower meanings, whereby it was used to refer to different parts of Syria. Throughout antiquity, though, it never seems to have lost its original meaning.
16. Marcus Junianus Justinus; Yardley, J. C.; Wheatley, Pat (15 December 2011). Justin: Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus: Volume II: Books 13-15: The Successors to Alexander the Great. Clarendon Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-19-927759-9. 4. 12. Syria, was given to Laomedon of Mytilene. Curt. 10. 10. 2; Diod. 18. 3. 1; Arr. Succ. 1. 5; Dexippus, FGrH 100 F 8 §2. Syria here is Coele-Syria (Hollow Syria), in effect, the old Persian satrapy of Abarnahara ('the land beyond the river'; cf. Lehmann-Haupt §26; cf. §§129 ff). By strict definition, 'Hollow Syria' was the area between Lebanon and Antilebanon, though it came to represent the stretch from the Orontes to the Dead Sea. Strabo 16. 2. 16 C755 shows that it includes Damascus and the Jordan River, and that its northern and southern reaches are roughly parallel with Tripolis and Sidon respectively. Since the satrapy lists do not include a separate ruler for Phoenicia, we must conclude that Coele-Syria in the broad sense includes Phoenica as well; see also Pliny, HN 5. 13. 66-7.
17. Ameling, Walter; Cotton, Hannah M.; Eck, Werner (14 July 2014). South Coast: 2161-2648: A multi-lingual corpus of the inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad. De Gruyter. p. 239, note 14. ISBN 978-3-11-033767-9. The text is in bad shape and has been restored as follows: "Doros (Dor), a city of Sidonioi, <Ioppe (Jaffa), a city;> they say it was here that Androm<eda> was <ex>posed <to the monster. Aska>lon, a city of Tyrioi and a royal seat. Her<e is the boundary of Koile> (Hollow) Syria." (Shipley 2011, Pseudo-Skylax's Periplous, 104,3) Apparently the source lists the major cities on the Palestinian coast, apart from Gaza.
18. Shipley, Graham (2011). Pseudo-Skylax's Periplous: The Circumnavigation of the Inhabited World: Text, Translation and Commentary. Bristol Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1-904675-82-2.
19. Kelly, Douglas; Londey, Peter (30 June 2016). Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome: The Definitive Political, Social, and Military Encyclopedia [3 volumes]: The Definitive Political, Social, and Military Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 981. ISBN 978-1-61069-020-1. In 301 BCE, Judaea was incorporated into the Ptolemaic province of Coele-Syria. Then in 200 BCE, the Seleucids conquered Coele-Syria.
20. Shuckburgh, Evelyn. "Polybius, Histories". Follow PerseusDigLib on Twitter Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. Retrieved 28 January 2015. I shall tell how Antiochus (Antiochus III the Great) and Ptolemy Philopator (Ptolemy IV Philopator) first quarreled and finally went to war with each other for the possession of Coele-Syria. (Syrian Wars 219–217 BCE) [...] (Now I come to) the disturbances in Egypt; (The attempted partition of the dominions of Ptolemy V Epiphanes c.204) how, after the death of King Ptolemy (IV), Antiochus and Philip (Philip V of Macedon) entered into a compact for the partition of the dominions of that monarch's infant son, I shall describe their treacherous dealings. Philip laying hands upon; the islands of the Aegean and Caria and Samos. Antiochus upon; Coele-Syria and Phoenicia.
21. Polybius; Walbank, Frank William (2011). The histories: in six volumes. 3. Books 5 - 8. Harvard University Press. pp. 212–215. ISBN 978-0-674-99658-8. 80. Ptolemy, marching on Pelusium, made his first halt at that city, and after picking up stragglers and serving out rations to his men moved on marching through the desert and skirting Mount Casius and the marshes called Barathra. Reaching the spot he was bound for on the fifth day he encamped at a distance of fifty stades from Raphia, (Modern Rafah at the border of Egypt and Israel, north of Rhinocolara (El Arish)) which is the first city of Coele-Syria on the Egyptian side after Rhinocolura.
22. 1 Maccabees 10:69.
23. 2 Maccabees 3:5.
24. 2 Maccabees
    • 3:8. So Heliodorus forthwith began his journey, under a colour of visiting the cities of Celesyria and Phenicia, but indeed to fulfil the king's purpose.
    • 8:8. Then Philip seeing that the man gained ground by little and little, and that things for the most part succeeded prosperously with him, wrote to Ptolemee, the governor of Celesyria and Phenicia, to send aid to the king's affairs.
25. Diodorus (Siculus) (1814). The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian: In Fifteen Books. To which are Added the Fragments of Diodorus, and Those Published by H. Valesius, I. Rhodomannus, and F. Ursinus. W. MʻDowall. pp. 36–.
26. "Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 45, chapter 11". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
27. "LIVY - History of Rome". mcadams.posc.mu.edu.
28. • Liv. 33.19: During the previous summer Antiochus had reduced all the cities in Coelo-Syria which had been under Ptolemy's sway.
    • Liv. Liv. 42.29: Antiochus was threatening Egypt, and in his contempt for the boy-king and his unenterprising guardians he thought that, by raising the question of Coelo-Syria, he would have a good pretext for war.
29. MacBean, Alexander; Johnson, Samuel (1773). "Coelesyria". A Dictionary of Ancient Geography: Explaining the Local Appellations in Sacred, Grecian, and Roman History; Exhibiting the Extent of Kingdoms, and Situations of Cities, &c. And Illustrating the Allusions and Epithets in the Greek and Roman Poets. The Whole Established by Proper Authorities, and Designed for the Use of Schools. G. Robinson. pp. 191–192. Coelesyria, some write it conjoined as here, others, as the Greeks, Coele Syria, separate, which seems the juster way, because Pliny not only separates these words, but also simply says, Coele, an ancient inscription. Authors differ much in settling its limits, some extending, and others contracting, them too much: Strabo says, Coele Syria Propria is defined by Libanus and Anti-libanus, running parallel to each other. Now if we determine the limits of these two mountains, we shall go near to settle those of Coele Syria. They both begin a little above the sea; Libanus near Tripolis; chiefly against the spot called Dei Facies: Antilibanus at Sidon; but they terminate near the mountains of Arabia, above the territory of Damascus, and near the mountains of the Trachonitis, and there they terminate in other mountains, Strabo.
30. Pliny (the Elder) (1893). The Natural History of Pliny. H. G. Bohn. pp. 423, note 7. ISBN 9780598910738. Or the "Hollow" Syria. This was properly the name given, after the Macedonian conquest, to the great valley between the two great ranges of Mount Lebanon, in the south of Syria, bordering upon Phœnicia on the west, and Palestine on the south. In the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ, the name was applied to the whole of the southern portion of Syria, which became subject for some time to the kings of Egypt; but under the Romans, it was confined to Cœlesyria proper with the district east of Anti-Libanus, about Damascus, and a portion of Palestine east of Jordan.
31. Strabo 16.2, Geographica
32. Richardson, Peter (1 January 1999). Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans. Fortress Press. p. 70, note 74. ISBN 978-1-4514-1594-0. On Coele-Syria as a geographic designation, see Millar, Roman Near East, pp. 121-23, and .42 with bibliography cited there, including E. Bickerman, "La Coelé-Syria: Notes de géographie historique," RB 54 (1947): 256. The term floated; it did not have the connotations in antiquity that it now has. Most helpful is Strabo, Geog. 16.2.16-22: in 16-20 he discusses Coele-Syria proper, the area between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains; then in 21 he says the whole area between Seleucia (i.e., Syria) and Egypt-Arabia is called Coele-Syria, pointing out that "the country marked off by the Libanus and the Antilibanus is called by that name in a special sense" (see also 22). He is not confused but reports differing contemporary usages.
33. Philo (of Alexandria) (1855). "On the Life of Moses". The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus. H. G. Bohn. p. 37. When then [Moses] he received the supreme authority, with the good will of all his subjects, God himself being the regulator and approver of all his actions, he conducted his people as a colony into Phoenicia, and into the hollow Syria (Coele-syria), and Palestine, which was at that time called the land of the Canaanites, the borders of which country were three days' journey distant from Egypt.
34. Pomponius Mela (1998). Frank E. Romer (ed.). Pomponius Mela's Description of the World. University of Michigan Press. p. 52. ISBN 0-472-08452-6. 62. Syria holds a broad expanse of the littoral, as well as lands that extend rather broadly into the interior, and it is designated by different names in different places. For example, it is called Coele, Mesopotamia, Judaea, Commagene, and Sophene. 63. It is Palestine at the point where Syria abuts the Arabs, then Phoenicia, and then—where it reaches Cilicia—Antiochia. [...] 64. In Palestine, however, is Gaza, a mighty and well fortified city.
35. (N.H. 5.66)
36. Verg. Georg. 2.458
37. Vergilius Maro, Publius (1755). Pub. Virgilii Maronis Georgicorum libri quatuor. The Georgicks of Vergil, with an Engl. By J. Martyn. p. 237. Ityraeos taxi torquentur in arcus.
38. Crane, Gregory. "Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed". Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved 25 January 2015. Plin. Nat. 5.13, CHAP. 13. (12.)—SYRIA.
39. Asia is One Volume, with Thirty One Maps, Sanson's Tables, &c. as May be Seen in the Catalogue Thereof Annex'd to the Preface: 3. Nutt, John. 1712. p. 82.
40. Pliny (the Elder.) (1848). Pliny's Natural History. In Thirty-seven Books. Club. p. 65. Chapter XII. Syria, Palestine, Phœnicè. Near the Coast is Syria, a Region which in Times past was the chiefest of Lands, and distinguished by many Names.
41. Josephus (1957). Jewish Antiquities. Vol. VII. Translated by Ralph Marcus. London: William Heinemann. p. 545.
42. Sir James William Redhouse (1887). A Tentative Chronological Synopsis of the History of Arabia and Its Neighbors: From B.C. 500,000(?) to A.D. 679. Trübner & Company. p. 19. [Year] 46 [BCE] Herod (the Great) made governor of all Coele-Syria by Sextus Caesar, governor of Syria.
43. Flavius Josephus (1900). "IV. Antiquities of the Jews". The Works of Flavius Josephus. G. Bell and Sons. p. 323. Antiochus made a friendship and league with Ptolemy, (Ptolemy V., Epiphanes 205-181 B.C.) and gave him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, and yielded up to him Cœle-Syria and Samaria and Judæa and Phœnicia by way of dowry.
44. Butcher, Kevin (2004). Coinage in Roman Syria: Northern Syria, 64 BC-AD 253. Royal Numismatic Society. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-901405-58-6.
45. Barclay Vincent Head (1887). "VII. Coele-Syria". Historia Numorum: A Manual of Greek Numismatics. Clarendon Press. p. 662.
46. Appian of Alexandria. . Livius.org. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
47. Hodgson, James; Derham, William; Mead, Richard; M. de Fontenelle (Bernard Le Bovier) (1727). Miscellanea Curiosa: Containing a Collection of Some of the Principal Phænomena in Nature, Accounted for by the Greatest Philosophers of this Age: Being the Most Valuable Discourses, Read and Delivered to the Royal Society, for the Advancement of Physical and Mathematical Knowledge. As Also a Collection of Curious Travels, Voyages, Antiquities, and Natural Histories of Countries; Presented to the Same Society. To which is Added, A Discourse of the Influence of the Sun and Moon on Human Bodies, &c. W. B. pp. 175–176. Decapolis was so called from its ten Cities enumerated by Pliny (lib. 5. 18.) And with them he reckons up among others, the Tetrarchy of Abila in the same Decapolis : Which demonstrates the Abila Decapolis and Abila Lysaniæ to be the same Place. And tho'it cannot be denied, but that some of Pliny's ten Cities are not far distant from that near Jordan ; yet it doth not appear that ever this other had the Title of a Tetrarchy. Here it is to be observed, that what Pliny calls Decapolis, Ptolemy makes his Cœle-Syria ; and the Cœle-Syria of Pliny, is that Part of Syria about Aleppo, formerly call'd Chalcidene, Cyrrhistice, &c.
48. Cohen, Getzel M. (3 September 2006). The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa. University of California Press. p. 284, n. 1. ISBN 978-0-520-93102-2. The problem of indicating precise ancient boundaries in Transjordan is difficult and complex and varies according to the time period under discussion. After the creation of the Roman province of Arabia in 106 A.D. Gerasa and Philadelphia were included in it. Nonetheless, Ptolemy—who was writing in the second century A.D. but did not record places by Roman provinces—described them as being in (the local geographical unit of) Coele Syria (5.14.18). Furthermore, Philadelphia continued to describe itself on its coins and in inscriptions of the second and third centuries A.D. as being a city of Coele Syria; see above, Philadelphia, n. 9. As for the boundaries of the new province, the northern frontier extended to a little beyond the north of Bostra and east; the western border ran somewhat east of the Jordan River valley and the Dead Sea but west of the city of Madaba (see M. Sartre, Trois ét., 17-75; Bowersock, ZPE₅, [1970] 37-39; id., JRS61 [1971] 236-42; and especially id.. Arabia, 90-109). Gadara in Peraea is identified today with es-Salt near Tell Jadur, a place that is near the western boundary of the province of Arabia. And this region could have been described by Stephanos as being located "between Coele Syria and Arabia."
49. Claudius Ptolemy c.150 CE, The Geography, Book 5, Chapter XIV. Location of Syria (Fourth map of Asia)
50. Crane, Gregory. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed". Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
51. Carpenter, William (1836). The Biblical companion, or, An introduction to the reading and study of the holy Scriptures. Thomas Tegg. p. 441. Cœlosyria properly so called, lay between Libanus and Antilibanus, and was thence called Cœlosyria, or the Hollow Syria. Its principal cities were Heliopolis, Abila, Damascus and Laodicea. This geographer styles Abila Abila Lysaniœ, which agrees with St. Luke's division of the tetrarchy, chap iii. 1. From Abila, the neighbouring country took the name of Abilene.
52. Mommsen, Theodor (1886). The History of Rome. R. Bentley. pp. 117–118. 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].
53. Raleigh, Walter (1829). The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt: The history of the world. The University Press. pp. 217–. 3vGAz5Gs3JEC. In Syria, taken largely, there were many small provinces as Coelesyria, which the Latins call Syria Cava, because it lay in that fruitful valley between the mountains of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, in which the famous cities of Antioch, Laodicea, Apamea, with many others were seated.)
54. Lendering, Jona. . Livius. Livius.org. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
55. Cohen, Getzel M. (3 October 2006). The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa. University of California Press. p. 40, note 63. ISBN 978-0-520-93102-2. In 194 A.D. The emperor Septimus Severus divided the province of Syria and made the northern part into a separate province called Coele Syria.
56. . www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
57. Sainte Bible expliquée et commentée, contenant le texte de la Vulgate. Bibl. Ecclésiastique. 1837. p. 41. Quod si objeceris terram repromissionis dici, quae in Numerorum volumine continetur (Cap. 34), a meridie maris Salinarum per Sina et Cades-Barne, usque ad torrentem Aegypti, qui juxta Rhinocoruram mari magno influit; et ab occidente ipsum mare, quod Palaestinae, Phoenici, Syriae Coeles, Ciliciaeque pertenditur; ab aquilone Taurum montem et Zephyrium usque Emath, quae appellatur Epiphania Syriae; ad orientem vero per Antiochiam et lacum Cenereth, quae nunc Tiberias appellatur, et Jordanem, qui mari influit Salinarum, quod nunc Mortuum dicitur.
58. Hieronymus (1910). "Epistola CXXIX Ad Dardanum de Terra promissionis (al. 129; scripta circa annum 414ce)". Epistularum Pars III —Epistulae 121-154, p. 171 (The fifty-sixth volume of Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum also known as the Vienna Corpus: Letters Part 3, Containing letters 121-154 of St. Jerome.) Image of p. 171 at Archive.org
59. Philostratus (the Athenian); Eunapius (1922). Lives of the sophists. W. Heinemann. p. 519. LIBANIUS was born at Antioch, the capital of Coele Syria as it is called. This city was founded by Seleucus surnamed Nicator. Libanius came of a noble family and ranked among the first citizens.
60. Pearse, Roger. "Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers and Sophists (1921) pp.343-565. English translation". Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts. tertullian.org. Retrieved 19 December 2014. Libanius was born at Antioch, the capital of Coele Syria as it is called. This city was founded by Seleucus surnamed Nicator

Further reading

• Kholod, Maxim M. (2021). "The Administration of Syria under Alexander the Great". Klio. 103 (2): 505–537. doi:10.1515/klio-2021-0005.

External links

• Bagnall, R.; J. Drinkwater; A. Esmonde-Cleary; W. Harris, R. Knapp; S. Mitchell; S. Parker; C. Wells; J. Wilkes; R. Talbert; M. E. Downs; M. Joann McDaniel; B. Z. Lund; T. Elliott; S. Gillies (3 July 2016). "Places: 991407 (Syria Coele)". Pleiades. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
• Barclay Vincent Head (1887). "VII. Coele-Syria". Historia Numorum: A Manual of Greek Numismatics. Clarendon Press. p. 662.
• Palestine: From Alexander the Great to 70 CE. Encyclopedia Britannica.