Tyre, Sidon and Tripoli were given the position of ‘free’ cities, which allowed them to have an independent government, under an elected council and chief magistrates. These privileges were continued by Caesar (100-44 BC) when he became the undisputed master of the Roman world.
In alliance with the Roman rebel Labienus (died 39 BC), Pacorus-I of Parthia (r.41-38 BC) occupied Phoenicia and gained control of the whole country except for Tyre, which was still regarded as impregnable. In 39 BC a Roman counterattack under Ventidius Bassus killed Labienus in the Taurus Mountains, and Pacorus was killed the following year.
In 36 BC Mark Antony (c.83-30 BC) gave all the country between Egypt and the Eleutherus to Cleopatra VII (39; r.51-30 BC), but excluded from her control the cities of Tyre and Sidon. In 20 BC Octavian (=Augustus; 76; r.31-00-14) came to the east and aggrieved at the preference they had shown for his rival he deprived both cities of their liberty.
Roman authority and the bringing of anarchy and piracy under control gave the people of the region a measure of security they had not enjoyed since the time of Alexander. The foundation and rapid rise of Alexandria created a direct challenge to the Phoenician maritime and commercial activity in the Mediterranean. The destruction of Carthage and the passing of Alexandria and the Phoenician cities to the Romans assured Alexandria’s monopoly of the seas.
Phoenicia’s creative and intellectual talents, previously absorbed by trade, were redirected elsewhere. Philo of Byblos (c.64-c.141) produced a Phoenician history assembled from the writings of Sanchuniathon (seventh century BC or earlier). Marinus of Tyre (c.70-c.130) laid the foundations of scientific geography. Ptolemy (c.90-c.168) used Marinus’ work as a source for his Geographia.
In the struggle that shook the Seleucid Empire towards the middle of the second century BC Beirut having had legitimist loyalties was destroyed soon afterwards by the usurper Diodotus Tryphon (r.142-138 BC). Contrary to the suggestion of its enduring ruin, the city seems to have been involved in the civil war between Octavian and Antony. It sheltered part of Antony’s fleet and was included in the territory that Antony gave to Cleopatra. At the beginning of the third century Septimius Severus (65; r.193-211) founded Beirut’s famous Law School. This was the first such institution in the Roman world and it was enthusiastically supported by the Severan emperors (193-235). It represents the birth of Roman and hence European jurisprudence, of which the Digest produced by Justinian (82; r.525-565) was the first great achievement.
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