"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٦‎٥] (٧٣٨/١٣٥)

124
MILITARY HISTORY
captured after a five months’ siege (37 b. c.). The resistance
which it then offered to Roman troops is an evidence of its
strength as a fortified place.
Of all the Syrian peoples the Jews were the most turbulent,
from the Roman point of view. Their religious susceptibilities
induced friction and revolt. Two rebellions were specially
serious and were not easily suppressed. The principal event
of the first (a. d. 66-73) was the siege of Jerusalem for five
months (a.d. 70). Even its capture did not end the war.
Small Jewish garrisons held strongly fortified castles which
had to be reduced one by one. The second revolt did not
last so long (a.d. 132-5). Jerusalem was no longer capable
of defence. Still the Jews made a stubborn resistance else-
where. After their defeat Jerusalem became a Roman colony,
Aelia Capitolina, subordinate to Caesarea, the capital of
Palestine. The Jews were no longer allowed to reside in
their ancient capital. Another people who gave the Romans
trouble were the Nabateans. Their kingdom was destroyed
in a. d. 106.
In the third century (a. d.) the chief Syrian state was the
new kingdom of Palmyra, a Hellenistic city with a large
Arab population and Arab rulers. An attempt by Queen
Zenobia to make herself independent was crushed by the
Emperor Aurelian (272-3). He entered Syria by the Beilan
pass and followed Zenobia as she retired from Antioch to
Homs. Having defeated and dispersed her army there,
Aurelian proceeded to the siege of Palmyra. Under pressure
of a prolonged siege Zenobia left the city hoping to get
reinforcements in Parthia. Her capture on the way was
followed by the submission of her people.
From the third century onwards the chief rival of the
Romans in the east was a revived kingdom of Persia. After
the transformation of the Roman empire into the Byzantine
empire, with its capital at Constantinople, the rivals Avere not
unequally matched. In the sixth century Syria began to
suffer from Persian invaders. In a. d. 540 the town of
Antioch was sacked and in 571 Apamea. Finally in the