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Berytus (''Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus'') was a Roman colonia that was the center of Roman presence in the eastern Mediterrranean shores south of Anatolia. Roman Berytus (actual Beyrut) was the capital of Phoenicia during Roman times. ==History== In 140 BC the Phoenician village called "Biruta" was destroyed by Diodotus Tryphon in his contest with Antiochus VII Sidetes for the throne of the Macedonian Seleucid monarchy. Later it was soon rebuilt on a more conventional Hellenistic plan and renamed ''Laodicea in Phoenicia'' ((ギリシア語:Λαοδίκεια ἡ ἐν Φοινίκῃ)) or ''Laodicea in Canaan'' in honor of a Seleucid Laodice. The city was conquered by the Romans of Pompey in 64 BC and renamed "Berytus", as a reference to the name of the old original phoenician port-village. The city was assimilated into the Roman Empire, veteran soldiers were sent there, and large building projects were undertaken.〔(About Beirut and Downtown Beirut ), DownTownBeirut.com.〕〔(Beirut Travel Information ), (Lonely Planet )〕〔(Czech excavations in Beirut, Martyrs' Square ), Institute for Classical Archaeology>〕 Berytus was considered the most Roman city in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.〔Morgan, James F. ''The Prodigal Empire: The Fall of the Western Roman Empire'', page 87〕 It was one of four Roman colonies in the Syria-Phoenicia region and the only one with full ''Ius Italicum'' (meaning: exemption from imperial taxation). Its territory under Claudius reached the Bekaa valley and included Heliopolis: it was the only area mostly latin-speaking in the Syria-Phoenicia region, because settled by Roman colonists who even promoted agriculture in the fertile lands around actual Yammoune. From the 1st century BC the Bekaa valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant and even for the same Rome (today the valley makes up to 40 percent of Lebanon's arable land):Roman colonists created there even a "country district" called ''Pagus Augustus''.〔Butcher, 2003; p.230〕 In 14 BC, during the reign of Herod the Great, Berytus became an important ''Roman colonia''. The city was named ''Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus'' in honor of Julia, the only daughter of Augustus (according to Theodore Mommsen, "Res gestae divi Augusti", II, 119). Furthermore, the veterans of two Roman legions were established in the city of Berytus by emperor Augustus: the fifth Macedonian and the third Gallic.〔(Roman Berytus: a colony of legionaries )〕 Consequently, the city quickly became fully Romanized. Large public buildings and monuments were erected and Berytus enjoyed full status as a part of the empire.〔(About Beirut and Downtown Beirut ), DownTownBeirut.com. Retrieved November 17, 2007.〕 Agrippa greatly favoured the city of Berytus, and adorned it with a splendid theatre and amphitheatre, beside Baths and porticoes, inaugurating them with games and spectacles of every kind, including shows of gladiators. But now only minor ruins remains, in front of the Catholic Cathedral of Beirut. Indeed, four large bath complexes as well as numerous private baths increased the city’s water consumption: the Romans constructed an aqueduct fed by the Beirut River whose main source was located 10 km from the city. The aqueduct crossed the river at Qanater Zbaydeh and the water finally reached the place of actual Riad Al Solh Square; there, at the foot of the Serail Hill, it was stored in large cisterns. An intricate network of lead or clay pipes and channels distributed the water to the various pools of the Roman Baths. Roman Berytus was a city of nearly 50,000 inhabitants during Trajan times and had a huge Forum and necropolis〔(Data with map of Roman Berytus (in Spanish) )〕 There was an important hippodrome,〔(Berytus hippodrome, with image reconstructed )〕 while literary sources indicate there was even a theater.〔(The Roman colonies: Berytus )〕 Scholars like Lynda Hall pinpoint that the hippodrome was still working in the fifth century 〔Lynda Hall, p. 68〕 Berytus had a monumental "Roman Gate" with huge walls (recently discovered〔(Roman gate of Berytus )〕) and was a trade center of silk and wine production, well connected by efficient roman roads to Heliopolis and Caesarea. According to Kevin Butcher,〔Butcher, 2003; p. 230〕 the Latin character of Berytus remained dominant until the fifth century: the city was a center for the study of Latin literature and -after Septimius Severus- of Roman Law. Under Nero the son of a roman colonist, Marcus Valerius Probus (born in Berytus around 25 AD), was known in all the empire as a Latin grammarian and literature master philologist. Roman emperors promoted the development of high-level culture in the fully Romanized city (even in Greek language as with Hermippus of Berytus): its Law School was widely known in the Roman empire;〔(Beirut ), Britannica.com〕 two of Rome's most famous jurists, Papinian and Ulpian, both natives of Phoenicia, taught there under the Severan emperors. When Justinian assembled his ''Pandects'' in the sixth century, a large part of the "Corpus of Laws" was derived from these two jurists, and in 533 AD Justinian recognized the school as one of the three official law schools of the empire. After the 551 Beirut earthquake〔(History of Phoenicia )〕 the students were transferred to Sidon.〔(History of Berytus )〕 Under the Eastern Roman Empire, some intellectual and economic activities in Berytus continued to flourish for more than a century, even if the Latin language started to be replaced by the Greek language. However, in the sixth century a series of earthquakes demolished most of the temples of Heliopolis (actual Baalbek) and destroyed the city of Berytus, leveling its famous law school and killing nearly 30,000 inhabitants. Furthermore, the ecumenical Christian councils of the fifth and sixth centuries AD were unsuccessful in settling religious disagreements within the surviving community. This turbulent Byzantine period weakened the Romanized (and fully Christian) population and made it easy prey to the newly converted Muslim Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula.〔Gil, Moshe; Ethel Broido. "A History of Palestine". pp. 634–1099〕 Roman Berytus -reduced to the size of a village- fell to the Arabs in 635 AD.〔Donner, Fred McGraw (1981), "The Early Islamic Conquests". Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-05327-8〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Berytus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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