The RomanColoniaeof the Near East in that of Gallus.^118 With that, as it seems, all reflection of the colonial status
of the city also ceases. What is significant however is the clear dating of the
titlemetropolisto and ofcoloniato , and the connection of both with
the posture adopted by the city in the civil war.
Apart from Antioch and Laodicea, the other pair of mutually hostile
neighbours which Herodian mentioned (text to n. above) was Tyre,
which took the Severan side, and Berytus. Tyre too became acolonia,aswe
will see below. But the reference also provides a perfectly clear and intel-
ligible framework for the elevation of Heliopolis to the rank of an inde-
pendent city with the status ofcolonia. That is to say that the urban con-
glomeration (pagus?) which already existed around the long-famous temple
of Juppiter Optimus Maximus Heliopolitanus in the Bekaa valley (above)
was now detached from the territory of thecoloniaof Berytus on the coast.
The deployment of political favour, and disfavour, in this way finds an exact
parallel under Constantine, when the Emperor granted the port of Gaza,
Maiouma, city status as a reward for the Christian faith of its inhabitants. It
was thus detached from Gaza, whose population remained predominantly
pagan.^119
It may have been merely that Berytus incurred displeasure and was pun-
ished by the loss of territory. Alternatively the people of Heliopolis, like the
inhabitants of thevicus Patavissensiumin Dacia, may have petitioned Severus,
as Ulpian records (Dig.,,,):InDacia...Patavissensiumvicus,quia
divo Severo ius coloniae impetravit. But at any rate it is Ulpian who makes quite
clear the relevance of the civil war in the case of Heliopolis (Dig.,,,):
Heliopolitana (colonia), quae a divo Severo per belli civilis occasionem Italicae coloniae
rem publicam accepit. Almost at the same moment as Ulpian was writing we
find Caracalla in.. issuing a rescript about a case in which therespublica
Heliopolitanorumhad come into possession of some property. It is interesting
(see below) that a party to the suit is called Sossianus (CJ, , ).
As we have seen, the area was already ‘‘colonial,’’ being part of the distinc-
tive zone of Latin and Roman culture created by the settlement of legionaries
at Berytus and in its wideterritorium. There is nothing in the least surpris-
ing or confusing in the fact that the formal title of the newcoloniareflected
its historical origins in the veteran settlement under Augustus:Colonia Iulia
Augusta Felix Heliopolis. Not having been an independent city, the place had
of course minted no coins until Severus’ reign. From Severus to Gallienus we
.BMC Syria,–.
. Eusebius,VC, –; Sozomenus,HE, , –.