Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

syria, palestine and mesopotamia 593
that every province had one, and in 528 additional duces were established at
Circesium in Mesopotamia and Palmyra in Phoenicia Libanensis to defend
obvious invasion routes. As in other areas of late Roman administration, the
hierarchies and responsibilities were not rigidly adhered to. The emperor
communicated directly with provincial governors and duces, and on occasion
the magister militum constructed buildings in Antioch, while the comes Orientis
was put in charge of the development and garrisoning of Palmyra. One comes
Orientis, Ephraemius, even became patriarch in 527. Justinian seems to have
been concerned to maintain the status of the civilian governors vis-à-vis the
duces, and in 535–6 the governor of Palestine I became a proconsul and those
of Arabia and Phoenicia Libanensis were honoured with the new title of
moderator. It is likely that the regular succession of officials continued at least
until the Persian invasions of the early seventh century, but the evidence for
this is very scanty and, for example, we do not know the name of any of the
duces of the province of Arabia after Flavius Paulus in 580. 12
The degree of military preparedness seems to have varied from time to
time and place to place. Those provinces which directly bordered on the
Persian empire – Mesopotamia, Osrhoene and Euphratensis – must have
had permanent garrisons of numeri of the imperial army, at such strong
points as Amida, Edessa and Circesium. Palmyra was garrisoned by numeri
early in Justinian’s reign. In the sixth century, major fortifications were built
at strategic places on the Persian frontier and the remains of these can still
be seen at Dara, Birtha on the Euphrates and Sergiopolis. 13
Other areas seem to have had few regular troops: in the major Persian
invasion of 540, Hierapolis, Beroea (Aleppo) and Apamea all paid ransoms
to the invaders, having, it would appear, insufficient garrisons to defend
them. Antioch, faced by the same invasion, was poorly defended and was
dependent on 6,000 troops hurriedly summoned from Lebanon and on
volunteers from within the city. Their combined efforts could not save it
from the horrors of pillage and mass deportations. 14 The governors and
duces of Scythopolis and Caesarea seem to have been equally ill-prepared to
face the Samaritan revolts of 529 and 556, and it is said that, after the rebellion
of 529, the governor of Scythopolis, Bassus, was executed and the dux
Theodoros removed from office and put under arrest. 15
The ecclesiastical administration echoed the civilian one. At the start of
the period, all the churches in the area were subordinate to the patriarch of
Antioch, just as the secular administration was presided over by the comes
Orientis. In each province, the church was governed by a metropolitan
based in the capital and bishops in all the main towns. 16 At the Council of
12 Sartre (1982) 108–12 discusses the evidence for the sixth-century governors of Arabia.
13 On Dara: Whitby (1986b) and the comments in Cameron, Procopius 107–8; on Zenobia: Lauffray
(1983); on Rusafa: Karnapp (1976).
14 See Procop. Wars ii and Downey (1961) 533–46; Liebeschuetz (1977) and Cameron, Procopius
152–70. 15 Malalas pp. 445–7 Bonn. 16 These structures are detailed in Devreesse (1945).
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