Between Historiography and Geography: Palestine’s Territorial Extent and Political-Administrative Status in Classical through Late Roman sources | ||
| IWNW | ||
| Volume 4, Issue 1, 2025, Pages 325-386 PDF (1.63 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/iwnw.2025.457477 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Hassan Ahmed El-Ebiary* ; Haytham Alsayed Qandeil* | ||
| Ain Shams University, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This paper examines how Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and late Roman sources frame Palestine’s boundaries and political identity. Close readings of key historiographical and geographical texts trace how ancient authors defined, delimited, and situated Palestine within the eastern Mediterranean. Across these sources, ‘Palestine’ consistently denotes a geographic designation extending beyond the littoral to substantial inland territories. At times, this continuity was obscured by Roman imperial strategies that installed client entities. The study clarifies the concept’s historical development, challenges restrictive interpretations, and reaffirms its broader historical and geographical scope. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Palestine; Classical sources; Hellenistic period; Roman period; Historical geography; Political identity | ||
| References | ||
Abd El Ghani, M. ‘Zenon in Syria and Palestine.’ In Alessandria e il mondo ellenisticoromano. I Centenario del Museo Greco-Romano. Alessandria, 23–27 Novembre 1992. Atti del II Congresso Internazionale Italo-Egiziano, 12–21. Roma, 1995.
Austin, M. The Hellenistic world from Alexander to the Roman conquest: a selection of ancient sources in translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006 (reprinted).
AVI-Yonah, M. The Holy Land: A Historical Geography from the Persian to the Arab Conquest. Jerusalem: Carta, 2002 (reprinted).
Bagnall, R. and Derow, P. The Hellenistic Period: Historical Sources in Translation. Malden–Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
Bagnall, R. The Administration of the Ptolemaic Possessions outside Egypt. Leiden: Brill, 1976.
Bar-Kochva, B. The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Barton, G. ‘Palestine before the Coming of Israel.’ The Biblical World 28 (1906): 360–373.
Bearag, D. ‘The Palestinian ‘Judaea Capta’ Coins of Vespasian and Titus and the Era on the Coins of Agrippa II Minted under the Flavians.’ The Numismatic Chronicle, Seventh Series, Vol. 18 (138) (1978): 14–23.
Bonfante, G. ‘The Origin of the Philistines.’ Journal of Near Eastern Studies 29, no. 2 (1970): 96–103.
Bostock, J. and Riley, H. (tr.). The Natural History of Pliny, Vol. 1. London: Taylor and Francis, 1855.
Bruce, L. ‘The Merneptah Stele and the Biblical Origins of Israel.’ Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 62 (2019): 463–493.
Cary, E. (tr.). Dio Cassius Roman History, vol. 6. London: William Heinemann LTD, 1935.
Cohen, G. The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa. California: University of California Press, 2006.
Cunliffe, B. The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Daniel, N. The Arabs and Mediaeval Europe. London–New York: Longman, 1979.
Di Segni, L. ‘Changing borders in the provinces of Palaestina and Arabia in the fourth and fifth centuries.’ Liber Annuus 68 (2018): 247–267.
Dothan, T. and Dothan, M. People of the Sea, The Search for the Philistines. New York: MacMillian Publishing Company, 1992.
Douglas, J., Tenney, M., and Silva, M. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.
Eck, W. ‘The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View.’ The Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999): 76–89.
Ehrlich, C. The Philistines in Transition: A History from ca. 1000-730 BCE (Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East [= SHCANE] 10). Leiden–New York–Köln: Brill, 1996.
Eliyahu, E. ‘מ'יהודה' ל'ישראל' טריטוריה וזהות לאומי (Judea and Israel: The Territorial Dimension of National Identity).’ ציון (Zion) (2010): 127–151.
Feldman, L. ‘Some Observations on the Name of Palestine.’ Hebrew Union College Annual 61 (1990): 1–23.
Godley, A. (tr.). Herodotus, Books I and II. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1920.
Goodman, M. The Ruling Class of Judaea: The Origins of the Jewish Revolt against Rome, A.D. 66–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Goodman, M. Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations. London: Penguin Books, 2007.
Grabbe (ed.). A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Vol. 2. London: T&T Clark, 2008.
Graf, D. ‘Palestine in the Persian through Roman Periods.’ In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, Vol. 4, edited by Eric Meyers et al., 222–228. Oxford–New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Graf, D. ‘The Saracens and the Defense of the Arabian Frontier.’ Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 229 (1978): 1–26.
Grainger, J. The Syrian Wars. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2010.
Hallo, W and Simpson, W. The Ancient Near East: A History. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971.
Hasel, M. ‘Israel in the Merneptah Stela.’ Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 296 (1994): 45–61.
Hendin, D. ‘Echoes of “Judaea Capta”: The Nature of Domitian's Coinage of Judaea and Vicinity.’ Israel Numismatic Research 2 (2007): 123–130.
Koch, I ‘Israel and Assyria, Judah and Assyria.’ In The Ancient Israelite World, edited by Kyle Keimer and George Pierce, 693–712. London: Routledge, 2022.
Lauinger, J. and Yoder, T. The Amarna Letters, The Syro-Levantine Correspondence. Columbus: Lockwood Press, 2025.
Metzger, B. and Coogan, M. (eds.). The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Militello, C. ‘Myth and Imagination in Olympiodorus’ Commentary on Aristotle’s Meteorology.’ In Platonism and its Heritage, Selected Papers from the 19th Annual Conference of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, edited by John Finamore, Ioanna Patsioti and Giannis Satamatellos, 73–89. Chepstow: The Prometheus Trust, 2023.
Müller, M. Egyptological Researches, Results of a Journey in 1904. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1906.
Naʾaman, N. ‘The Contribution of the Amarna Letters to the Debate on Jerusalem's Political Position in the Tenth Century B.C.E.’ Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 304 (1996): 17–27.
Pfeiffer, S. ‘Der eponyme Offizier Tubias: ein lokaler Vertreter der ptolemäischen Herrschaft in Transjordanien.’ Archiv für Papyrusforschung 56 (2010): 242–257.
Pfeiffer, S. ‘Die Familie des Tubias: Eine (trans–)lokale Elite in Transjordanien,’ in Lokale Eliten und hellenistische Könige, edited by Boris Dreyer and Peter Mittag, 191–215 (Oikumene: Studien zur antiken Weltgeschichte 8). Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2011.
Phillips, E. ‘The Scythian Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and Archaeology.’ World Archaeology 4 (1972): 129–138.
Pritchard, J. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton–New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Qandeil, H. ‘The Origins of Slaves and Their Names in Ptolemaic Egypt: A Case Study of the Zenon Archive.’ IWNW 2 (2023): 367–392.
Redford, D. The Wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmose III. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Richardson, P. Herod, King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.
Rolle, R. Die Welt der Skythen. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1980.
Rostovtzeff, M. The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1941.
Rowe, A. ‘The Two Royal Stelae of Beth-Shan.’ The Museum Journal, University of Pennsylvania 20, no. 1 (1929): 88–98.
Schafer, P. Der Bar Kokhba-Aufstand: Studien zum zweiten jüdischen Krieg gegen Rom (Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum, 1). Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1981.
Schniedewind, W. and Cochavi-Rainey, Z. (eds.). The El-Amarna Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El- Amarna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets (Handbook of Oriental Studies 110). Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Seaver, J. ‘Publius Ventidius. Neglected Roman Military Hero.’ The Classical Journal 47 (1952): 275–280+300.
Shahîd, I. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 2, Part 2, Economic, Social, and Cultural History. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 2009.
Strange, J. Caphtor/Keftiu: A New Investigation. Leiden: Brill, 1980.
Stüve, G. (ed.). Olympiodori in Aristotelis Meteora Commentaria (Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca 12.2). Berlin: Reimer, 1900.
Tcherikover, V. Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews. New York: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1959.
Thiele, E. The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983.
Walbank, F. The Hellenistic World. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981. | ||
|
Statistics Article View: 421 PDF Download: 422 |
||
