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more or less to the ancient Roman region of Phoenice Prima (I), which went from Arados to Ptolemais and included the plain of Beqaa. This area was part of the Byzantine Empire until the Arab conquest in the 7th century.
Prehistory – in the reign of Pax Romana
Since the 3rd century BC, Roman Lebanon was able to develop its craft production, to export it to the West, and to found the prestigious Law School of Beirut. This region became one of the most prosperous areas in the province of Syria. The name Syria (Suriyya) was derived and employed by the Greeks from the famous Phoenician city of Tyre or Sur. The city was known in Myth to be the birthplace of Europa, the moon goddess who gave Europe its name.
At the approach of Christian era, Lebanon inherited a great notoriety from the Phoenicians due to their great performances of maritime trade and production of luxury products. The region comprised a mosaic of people with different political regimes and different languages: Greek, Aramaic and Semitic dialects.
Trade with the West
Berytus, the Phoenician name of Beirut, was transformed into a Roman colony by Augustus in 15 BC and was called Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus. The inhabitants of Phoenicia were honoured by the ius italicum, the Italic Law, making it possible to them to gain the Roman citizenship. All the emperors granted special protection to Lebanon, for they saw in this rich country, already well Latinized, a land favorable to the harmonization of Eastern and Western civilizations.
At the end of the 2nd century, the Roman emperor Septimus Severus split up Syria into two provinces: the holy northern part of Syria with its capital Antioch, and the Phoenician southern part with its capital Tyre. Like all the cities of the province of Syria, Beirut derived for a long time its prosperity from its privileged position of intermediary between the East and the West and from its sheltered harbor.