The RomanColoniaeof the Near East In parallel with that there is of course the much better-known case of
Philippopolis in the northern Hauran, founded as a city with the rank of
coloniaby its most famous citizen, Philip ‘‘the Arab.’’ The place will perhaps
have been a substantial village before its elevation, though nothing is in fact
known of its earlier name (probably, but not certainly, related to its present
name, Shahba), of its character as an urban conglomeration, or of its degree
of self-government; it may even be (as Segal, n. below, suggests) that the
new city was built on a virgin site. This lack of information is unfortunate but
also surprising, for the physical remains of the substantial villages, and occa-
sional towns (Canatha and Soueida/Dionysias), of this region, with their rich
crop of inscriptions illustrating village self-government, allied with inten-
sive study in recent decades, have made this one of the best-known regions
of the Roman Near East.^202
The Emperor, M. Iulius Philippus, born in about.., was the son
of a local notable of equestrian rank, Iulius Marinus, both of whose sons
embarked on prominent equestrian careers.^203 The notion that we are con-
cerned with a family of low-class brigands (Epit. de Caes. , ) can safely be
dismissed; more probably they were quite substantial landowners. The re-
foundation of the place as a city with the rank ofcoloniahad a considerable
impact both locally, in the wider Syrian region, and in the historical tradi-
tion on Philip. In the town itself we find the building, in the very distinctive
black basalt of the region, of a shrine dedicated to the now deified father of
the Emperor, Marinus:θεὸςΜαρίνοςorDivusMarinus.^204 The theatre of Phi-
lippopolis, also in black basalt, and situated close to the sanctuary, seems to
have been built at the same time.^205 So, probably, was the main street, along
with the walls and gates.^206 The constitution of the new city is not illustrated
. See, of course, the well-known article by G. M. Harper, ‘‘Village Administration
in the Roman Province of Syria,’’YCS (): ; H. I. MacAdam, ‘‘Epigraphy and Vil-
lage Life in Southern Syria in the Roman and Early Byzantine Periods,’’Berytus ():
, andStudies in the History of the Roman Province of Arabia: The Northern Sector(); and,
above all, J.-M. Dentzer, ed.,Le HauranI.– (–).
.PIR^2 I , , . For the family and the place, see now G. Amer and M. Gawli-
kowski, ‘‘Le sanctuaire impérial de Philippopolis,’’Dam. Mitt. (): .
. Le Bas-Waddington, nos. – IGRIV –;AE, (reference
only): given in full by Amer and Gawlikowski (n. ), ,Divo Marino eqq. ala Celerum
Philippianae.
. See P. Coupel and E. Frézouls,Le théatre de Philippopolis en Arabie().
. There has been no comprehensive analysis of these buildings since the accounts
by H. C. Butter,AAESII:Architecture and Other Arts(), –, and by R. E. Brünnow
and A. von Domaszewski,Die Provincia ArabiaIII (), –. For a survey, necessarily