Syria Prima
{{Short description|Byzantine province (c.415–630s)}}
{{Infobox Former Subdivision
|native_name = {{aut|Provincia Syria Prima}}
|common_name = Syria Prima
|image_map = Dioecesis_Orientis_400_AD.png
|image_map_caption = Syria Prima within the Diocese of the East, c. 400.
|era =
|subdivision = Province
|nation = the Byzantine Empire
|year_start = 415
|year_end = 630s
|p1 = Coele Syria (Roman province)
|flag_p1 = Simple Labarum.svg
|s1 = Bilad al-Sham
|flag_s1 =
|capital = Antioch
(modern-day Antakya, Hatay, Turkey)
}}
Syria I or Syria Prima ("First Syria", in {{langx|el|Πρώτη Συρία}}, Prṓtē Suríā) was a Byzantine province, formed c. 415 out of Syria Coele. The province survived until the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 630s.
History
Syria I emerged out of Syria Coele, which during the reign of Antiochus III was one of the four satrapies in its region that included Phoenicia, Idumea, and an unknown territory that included Palestine.{{Cite book|title=The Origins of Syrian Nationhood: Histories, Pioneers and Identity|last=Beshara|first=Adel|date=2011|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415615044|location=Oxon|pages=20}} The Syria Coele region along the Euphrates was separated to form the province of Euphratensis.{{Cite book|title=Roman Syria and the Near East|last=Butcher|first=Kevin|date=2003|publisher=Getty Publications|isbn=0892367156|location=Los Angeles, CA|pages=86}} After c. 415 Syria Coele was further subdivided into Syria I (or Syria Prima), with the capital remaining at Antioch, and Syria II (Syria Secunda) or Syria Salutaris, with capital at Apamea on the Orontes. In 528, Justinian I carved out the small coastal province Theodorias out of territory from both provinces.{{cite book | editor-first = Alexander | editor-last = Kazhdan | title = Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-19-504652-6 | page=1999}}
The region remained one of the most important provinces of the Byzantine Empire. It was governed by a Consularis based in Antioch.{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|last=Nicholson|first=Oliver|date=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198662778|location=Oxon|pages=1443}} Syria Prima was occupied by the Sasanians between 609 and 628, then recovered by the emperor Heraclius, but lost again to the advancing Muslims after the Battle of Yarmouk and the fall of Antioch.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Late Roman provinces|state=expanded}}
{{coord missing|Syria}}
Category:Provinces of the Byzantine Empire
Category:States and territories established in the 410s
Category:5th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire
Category:States and territories disestablished in the 7th century
Category:7th-century disestablishments in the Byzantine Empire
{{Byzantine-geo-stub}}