Augusti Pagus was a Roman settlement in Roman Phoenicia. It was created in the 110s AD and lasted nearly seven centuries until the Arab invasion of the Levant. The settlement was named in honor of Roman Emperor Augustus, who ordered the development of this pagus in the central-northern hills of the Beqaa Valley.
In the 1st century AD, after the Roman conquest of Phoenicia, the Roman Emperor Augustus settled some veterans of his legions in what is now central Lebanon.
Most of the Roman veterans settled in Berytus (The veterans of two Roman legions were established in the city of Berytus by emperor Augustus: the fifth Macedonian and the third Gallic), but a few moved to colonize the fertile Beqaa valley.
These few hundreds [1] created the so-called "Augustus pagus" or "Augusti pagus".
The pagus was made of a group of farm-houses (owned by retired legionaries) in a relatively close and interconnected area where latin was spoken for some centuries.
Of special interest is the material from Niha, in the Beqa valley, where a series of inscriptions in Latin records the existence of a sanctuary of the Syrian Goddess of Niha’, Hadaranes, or Atargatis. One of those mentions the "Pagus Augustus", presumably an association of Latin-speaking Roman citizens which will have been settled there at the time of the foundation of the Roman colony. At this sanctuary some evidence of social integration has been detected. The sanctuary preserved its indigenous character, and the gods did not receive Graeco-Roman names. In contrast to the sanctuary at Heliopolis itself, the priests and prophetesses were peregrini, but the inscriptions also mention at least six Roman citizens and their relatives. A sanctuary nearby is identified by a dedication in Latin to the god Mifsenus. Benjamin Isaac ( [2] )
From the 1st century BC the Beqaa valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant and Rome; even today the valley makes up to 40 percent of Lebanon's arable land. Roman colonists created a "country district" within "Augusti Pagus", where are located the famous Roman Niha temples with Latin inscriptions. [3] This district reached the Kadisha valley in north Lebanon: vestiges of Roman presence have been found in the "Asi Hauqqa cave" near Hawqa [4] and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Cedars of God.
This pagus lasted some centuries until the Arab conquest of the region in the seventh century. Some villages still exist in the area: the most important are Niha and Hosn Niha, where remnants of four Roman temples still exist. [5]
Baalbek is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about 67 km (42 mi) northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, Baalbek had a population of 82,608, mostly Shia Muslims, followed by Sunni Muslims and Christians.
The Trēverī were a Germanic or Celtic tribe of the Belgae group who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle in modern day Germany from around 150 BCE, if not earlier, until their displacement by the Franks. Their domain lay within the southern fringes of the Silva Arduenna, a part of the vast Silva Carbonaria, in what are now Luxembourg, southeastern Belgium and western Germany; its centre was the city of Trier, to which the Treveri give their name. Celtic in language, according to Tacitus they claimed Germanic descent. They contained both Gallic and Germanic influences.
Berytus, briefly known as Laodicea in Phoenicia or Laodicea in Canaan from the 2nd century to 64 BCE, was the ancient city of Beirut from the Roman Republic through the Roman Empire and Early Byzantine period/late antiquity. Berytus became a Roman colonia that would be the center of Roman presence in the eastern Mediterranean shores south of Anatolia. The veterans of two Roman legions under Augustus were established in the city, that afterward quickly became Romanized and was the only fully Latin-speaking city in the Syria-Phoenicia region until the fourth century. Although Berytus was still an important city after earthquakes, around 400 CE Tyre was made the capital of the Roman province of Phoenicia. "Of the great law schools of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus", the law school of Berytus stood "pre-eminent". The Code of Justinian was mostly created in this school.
The history of ancient Lebanon traces the course of events related to the geographic area in the Eastern Mediterranean of what is now known as Lebanon from the beginning of antiquity to the beginning of Arab rule.
Triparadeisos or Triparadisus was a settlement in Lebanon near the sources of the Orontes. A paradeisos was a hunting reserve or pleasure-ground for the nobility of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire, normally a walled-in area with groves of trees, wild animals, and running water.
Phoenicia under Roman rule describes the Phoenician city states ruled by Rome from 64 BCE to the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. The area around Berytus was the only Latin speaking and Romanized part of Aramaic-speaking Phoenicia.
Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa was the capital and the largest city of Roman Dacia, later named Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa after the former Dacian capital, located some 30 km away. Possibly built over a camp of the Fifth Macedonian Legion in about 106 AD, the city was settled by veterans and colonists from Italian peninsula. From the very beginning it received the title of colonia and the status of ius Italicum. The urban centre and the civil settlement occupied an area of over 130 hectares, with a population reaching between 20,000 and 25,000 at the end of the 2nd century beginning of the 3rd. The centre built in a Hippodamian Plan was surrounded by strong fortifications over 32.4 hectares.
Niha is a village in the Bekaa Valley about 18 km (5.0 mi) north of Zahlé. It is famous for its Roman archeological ruins in the outskirts, and in particular two lower Roman temples that date back to the 1st century AD.
Ptolemais was an ancient port city on the Canaanite coast in the region of Palestine, in the location of the present-day city of Acre, Israel. It was also called Ptolemais in Canaan. It was an ancient bishopric that became a double Catholic titular see.
The Temples of the Beqaa Valley are a number of shrines and Roman temples that are dispersed around the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. The most important and famous are those in Roman Heliopolis. A few temples are built on former buildings of the Phoenician & Hellenistic era, but all are considered to be of Roman construction and were started to be abandoned after the fourth century with the fall of the Roman Paganism.
Nahle ), is a village situated 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) northeast of Baalbek in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon. It has the ruins of a roman temple.
Qasr el Banat is an ancient temple situated 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) east of Chlifa in the Baalbek District of the Beqaa Governorate in the city of Qsarnaba (Lebanon).
Phoenice was a province of the Roman Empire, encompassing the historical region of Phoenicia. It was officially created in 194 AD and after c. 394, Phoenice Syria was divided into Phoenice proper or Phoenice Paralia, and Phoenice Libanensis, a division that persisted until the region was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in the 630s.
Qalaat Faqra is an archaeological site in Kfardebian, Lebanon, with Roman and Byzantine ruins. Located near the Faqra ski resort on the slopes of Mount Sannine at an altitude of 1500 m, it is one of the most important sites of the UNESCO-listed valley of Nahr al-Kalb.
The Roman temple of Bziza is a well-preserved first century AD building dedicated to Azizos, a personification of the morning star in ancient Arab polytheism. This Roman temple lends the modern Lebanese town of Bziza its current name, as Bziza is a corruption of Beth Azizo meaning the house or temple of Azizos. Azizos was identified as Ares by Emperor Julian.
Hosn Niha is an archaeological site in Lebanon composed of some temples and buildings in the outskirts of the village of Niha, that hold significant archaeological value.
This article lists historical events that occurred between 201–300 in modern-day Lebanon or regarding its people.
This article lists historical events that occurred between 101–200 in modern-day Lebanon or regarding its people.
This article lists historical events that occurred between 1–100 in modern-day Lebanon or regarding its people.
