This article lists historical events that occurred between 301–400 in modern-day
Lebanon or regarding
its people.
Administration
Diocletian (r. 284–305) separated the district of
Batanaea and gave it to
Arabia, while sometime before 328, when it is mentioned in the Laterculus Veronensis,
Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) created the new province of Augusta Libanensis (
lit.'Lebanese Augusta') out of the eastern half of the old province of Phoenice, encompassing the territory east of
Mount Lebanon.[2]
Governors
In the fourth century, as a whole, almost 30 governors of Phoenicia are known with 23 governors of Phoenicia being in office between 353 and 394.[3] Amongst them was
Sossianus Hierocles, who was a praeses at some time between 293 and 303.[4] The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE) states that, as praeses, he governed
Phoenice Libanensis,[5] the province on the eastern side of
Mount Lebanon. The district included
Palmyra, where the inscription attesting to Hierocles' career is located.[6]
The
Edict on Maximum Prices is issued by the emperor Diocletian in 301 AD, with the prices and simulated sailing times from
Nicomedia to Beirut reported to be 12
denarii for 9.9 days of duration with the ratio (price/duration) being 0.83.[8]
Beginning of the Diocletianic Persecutions, 303 AD.[9]
Five young Christians are martyred at Tyre in 303.[10]
The Governor Urbanus, shortly after Easter 307, orders the virgin
Theodosia of Tyre to be thrown to the sea for conversing with Christians attending trial and refusing sacrifice.[16]
Maximus is consularis (governor) of Phoenice,
c. 309 AD.
Pamphilus of Caesarea, a biblical scholar from a rich and honorable family of Beirut, is martyred in February 16, 309.[17][18]
In 315 AD, the cathedral of Paulinus in Tyre is inaugurated by the Bishop
Eusebius, who recorded his speech and thus a detailed account of the site in his writings.[20]
In 316, the Tyrian-born
Frumentius and his brother, Edesius accompanied their uncle Metropius on a trip to the
Kingdom of Axum by ship, the crew was massacred in a port on the Red Sea and the boys taken as slaves to the King of Axum. Frumentius and Edesius, who were both christian, gained favor with the king and his family, signaling the birth of Christianity in Ethiopia.[21]
Emperor Constantine is baptized by the once-bishop of Beirut,
Eusebius of Nicomedia, right before his death on 22 May 337.
Nonnus is consularis of Phoenice
c. 337 AD.
340s
Marcellinus, is attested as praeses of Phoenice in 342 AD.[29]
350s
Apollinaris is consularis of Phoenice, 353/4.
The Letter 492 of Rhetorician
Libanius to
Vindonius Anatolius of Beirut is written in 356, in the letter, Libanius writes that Anatolius, a native of Phoenicia, had spent some time “among us”, (i.e. in Antioch).[30]
In 360, Dominus the Elder, a law school professor, declines the invitation of Libanius to leave the Law School at Beirut and to teach with him at the rhetoric school of Antioch.[33]
Gaianus of Tyre is the consular governor of Phoenicia in 362.
Marius is consularis of Phoenice, 363 – 364.
Ulpianus is consularis of Phoenice, 364.
Domninus is consularis of Phoenice, 364 – 365.
In 365 AD, Tyre and Sidon alongside several other coastal cities are damaged by a tsunami caused by the
Crete earthquake.[36]
370s
Leontius is consularis of Phoenice, 372 AD.
The
Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, already greatly damaged by earthquakes,[37] is demolished under
Theodosius in 379 and replaced by another basilica (now lost), using stones scavenged from the pagan complex.[38]
380s
Petrus is consularis of Phoenice, 380 AD.
The
Edict of Thessalonica is issued on 27 February AD 380, making Christianity the sole official religion of the Roman empire.
Antherius and Epiphanius are cōnsulārēs of Phoenice, 388 AD.
390s
Domitius is consularis of Phoenice, 390.
Severianus is consularis of Phoenice, 391.
Leontius is consularis of Phoenice, 392.
Education
In the 4th century, the Greek
rhetoricianLibanius reported that the school attracted young students from affluent families and deplored the school's instructional use of
Latin, which was gradually abandoned in favor of Greek in the course of the century.[41][42][43][44]
Historically, Roman
stationes or
auditoria, where teaching was done, stood next to public libraries housed in temples. This arrangement was copied in the Roman colony at Beirut. The first mention of the school's premises dates to 350.[45]
^A.H.M. Jones, J.R. Martindale, J. Morris, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. I:
AD 260–395, Cambridge 1971 (hereinafter: PLRE I), pp. 1105–1110 (fasti). For the reviews, often negative, and corrections to the first volume of PLRE, cf. A.H.M. Jones, “Fifteen years of Late Roman Prosopography in the West” (1981–95), [in:] Medieval Prosopography 17/1, 1996, pp. 263–274.
^Martindale, J. R. & A. H. M. Jones, "Nicentius 1", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I AD 260-395 (Cambridge: University Press, 1971), p. 628
^Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, Explaining the maritime freight charges in Diocletian’s Price Edict, Version 1.0, April 2013, Walter Scheidel, Stanford University.
^Christa Müller-Kessler, The Unknown Martyrdom of Patriklos of Caesarea in Christian Palestinian Aramaic from St Catherine’s Monastery (Sinai, Arabic NF 66), Analecta Bollandiana 137, 2019, pp. 63-71
^Eusebius, De Martyribus Palestinae 4.8; Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 152; Keresztes, 384; Mitchell, p. 117.
^Medlej, Youmna Jazzar; Medlej, Joumana (2010). Tyre and its history. Beirut: Anis Commercial Printing Press s.a.l. pp. 1–30.
ISBN978-9953-0-1849-2.
^RUFINUS, Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. I, cap. ix, in P.L., XXI, 478-80; Acta SS. Oct., XII, 257-70; DUCHESNE, Les missiones chrétienne au Sud de l'empire romain in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire (Rome, 1896), XVI, 79-122; THEBAUD, The Church and the Gentile World (New York, 1878), I, 231-40; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 27 Oct.; BARING-GOULD, Lives of the Saints (London, 1872), 27 Oct.
Sadowski, Piotr (2010).
"Szkoła prawa w Bejrucie w świetle listów i mów Libaniusza" [Beirut law school in the light of letters and sayings of Libanius] (PDF). Studia Prawnoustrojowe (in Polish). 12: 203–218. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2019-08-27 – via Czasopisma humanistyczne.
Simmons, Michael Bland. "Graeco-Roman Philosophical Opposition". In The Early Christian World, edited by Philip Francis Esler, 2.840–868. New York: Routledge, 2000.