Byzantine Palestine or Palaestina refers to the geographic, political, and cultural landscape of Palestine (also known as Land of Israel or Holy Land) during the period of Byzantine rule (early 4th to mid-7th centuries CE), beginning with the consolidation of Constantine’s power in the early 4th century CE and lasting until the Arab-Muslim conquest in the 7th century CE. The term generally designates the territories reorganized into the provinces of Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia (or Salutaris) between the late 4th and 5th centuries (covering most of modern-day Israel and Palestine and parts of Jordan and Syria.
The title "Byzantine" is a modern and artificial term which has been called "imaginary". This division is not unique for Palestine and related to the historiographical line between Ancient history and the Middle Ages. The Byzantine period in Palestine was politically a direct continuation of Roman rule, which began with Pompey’s conquest in 63 BCE and, from 395 CE, persisted in the form of the Eastern Roman Empire. Culturally, it followed a historical continuum that began in 332 BCE with the conquest of Alexander the Great and the incorporation of the Levant into the Hellenistic world, later evolving into a Hellenistic–Roman–Byzantine sphere. The Byzantine period is most distinguished from earlier times by major religious and demographic changes. Christianity became the state religion and Palestine assumed a central place in the Christian world, while the Jewish, Samaritan and polytheistic populations, facing increasing restrictions, became a minorities. The Jewish community declined in influence relative to diaspora communities, with the Babylonian Jewish community emerging as the leading center of Judaism.
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