Shahba

File:Philpopolis SYRIE 016.jpg

The oasis settlement now named Shahba had been the native hamlet of the Roman emperor Philip the Arab. After Philip became emperor in 244, he dedicated himself to rebuilding the little community as a colonia. The contemporary community that was replaced with the new construction was so insignificant that one author states that the city can be considered to have been built on virgin soil, making it the last of the Roman cities founded in the East.Arthur Segal, "Roman Cities in the Province of Arabia" The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 40.2 (May 1981:108–121) p. 111.

File:Shahba Mosaics.jpg and Ares]]The city was renamed Philippopolis (a name with homonyms) in dedication to the emperor, who is said to have wanted to turn his native city into a replica of Rome herself.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} A hexagonal-style temple and an open-air place of worship of local style, called a kalybe, a triumphal arch, baths, a starkly unornamented theatre faced with basalt blocks,This, the last of the Syrian theatres, was examined in a detailed monograph by Pierre Coupel and Edmond Frézouls, Le Théâtre de Philippopolis en Arabie (Paris, 1956); an extended review by John Eames in The Journal of Roman Studies 50.1/2 (1960:273–274) serves as an abstract of it. a large structure that has been interpreted as a basilica, and the Philippeion (illustration, right) surrounded by a great wall with ceremonial gates,Nabatean capitals at the southern gate documented the continuing cultural influence of Nabateans in the region, long after their political influence succumbed to Roman hegemony (Segal 1981:118). were laid out and built following the grid plan of a typical Roman city.

The public structures formed what author Arthur Segal has called a kind of "imported façade". The rest of the urban architecture was modest and vernacular.Segal 1981:108; the architectural vocabulary of Philippopolis is discussed in pages. The city was never completed as building seems to have stopped abruptly after the death of Philip in 249.

The new city followed the extremely regular Roman grid-plan, with the main colonnaded Cardo maximus intersecting a colonnaded Decumanus Maximus at right angles near the center. Lesser streets marked off insulae, many of which never saw houses constructed upon them.

In 1596 Shahba appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Sahba and was part of the nahiya of Bani Miglad in the Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 8 households and 3 bachelors, who paid a fixed tax rate of 40% on wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives; a total of 5,050 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 218.

Because it was far from population centers that would have required cut stone for building and might have quarried it from those deserted in Philippopolis, Shahba today contains well-preserved ruins of the ancient Roman city.

A museum located in the city exhibits some beautiful examples of Roman mosaics.[http://www.atlastours.net/syria/philipapolis.html Philipapolis [sic], Syra] The especially rich iconography of the figurative mosaic on the theme, The Glory of the Earth, discovered in 1952 in the so-called "Maison Aoua", is conserved today in the museum of Damascus and has proved a rich resource for iconographers.The literature is summarized in Marie-Henriette Quet, "Le Triptolème de la mosaïque dite d'Aiôn et l'affirmation identitaire héllène à Shahba-Philippopolis" Syria 77 (2000), pp. 181–200

The relatively well-preserved Roman bridge at Nimreh is located in the vicinity.

File:Ifpo 21307 Syrie, Gouvernorat de Soueïda, District de Chahba, Chahba, vue aérienne oblique.jpg

In the 18th century Druze populations from Mount Lebanon moved into the area.[http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d2p21.html Philippopolis in Arabia] at Catholic-Hierarchy.org A Christian presence exists in the city to the present.{{Cite web|url=https://zenit.org/articles/in-shadow-of-war-syrian-christians-are-trying-to-rebuild-their-lives/|title=In Shadow of War, Syrian Christians are Trying to Rebuild Their Lives|date=20 July 2015}}

Shahba has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk).

{{Weather box|location = Shahba

|metric first = Y

|single line = Y

|Jan high C = 10.3

|Feb high C = 11.6

|Mar high C = 15.2

|Apr high C = 20.1

|May high C = 25.6

|Jun high C = 29.4

|Jul high C = 30.7

|Aug high C = 31.2

|Sep high C = 29.3

|Oct high C = 25.9

|Nov high C = 18.8

|Dec high C = 12.5

|Jan low C = 1.3

|Feb low C = 2.2

|Mar low C = 4.4

|Apr low C = 7.6

|May low C = 11.2

|Jun low C = 14.1

|Jul low C = 15.7

|Aug low C = 15.9

|Sep low C = 14.0

|Oct low C = 11.3

|Nov low C = 7.4

|Dec low C = 3.4

|Jan precipitation mm = 61

|Feb precipitation mm = 60

|Mar precipitation mm = 46

|Apr precipitation mm = 18

|May precipitation mm = 9

|Jun precipitation mm = 0

|Jul precipitation mm = 0

|Aug precipitation mm = 0

|Sep precipitation mm = 1

|Oct precipitation mm = 11

|Nov precipitation mm = 26

|Dec precipitation mm = 53

|year precipitation mm = 285

|source = [https://en.climate-data.org/location/47497/, Climate data]

|date = 1 September 2018}}

• List of Catholic dioceses in Syria
• Druze in Syria
• Christianity in Syria

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{{refbegin}}

• Eubel, Konrad Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 2, p. 215; vol. 3, p. 273; vol. 4, p. 280; vol. 5, p. 314; vol. 6, p. 337
• Gams, Pius Bonifacius, 1931, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig, p. 435
• {{cite book

| last1 = Hütteroth |first1=W.-D.|author-link1=Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth

| last2 = Abdulfattah|first2=K. |author-link2=Kamal Abdulfattah

| title = Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wqULAAAAIAAJ

| year = 1977

| publisher = Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft

|isbn= 3-920405-41-2}}

• Lequien, Michel, 1740, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris, vol. II, coll. 861-862

{{refend}}

• [http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t0789.htm GCatholic - (former &) titular bishopric]
• [https://www.google.com/maps/@32.8535777,36.6289329,14z Map of the town], Google Maps

{{coord|32|51|15|N|36|37|45|E|display=title}}

{{Al-Suwayda Governorate|shahba}}

{{Cities of Syria}}

{{Roman colonies in ancient Levant}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Cities in Syria

Category:Populated places in Shahba District

Category:Archaeological sites in as-Suwayda Governorate

Category:Roman towns and cities in Syria

Category:Roman sites in Syria

Category:Druze communities in Syria