British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 883

CHAPTER XXII.

themselves the fulfilment of the prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and to venerate the Ascension of the Saviour on the Mount of Olives.

11. It is only possible to summarise briefly the principal events in the history of Palestine between the restoration by the Emperor Hadrian of the Roman authority and the establishment of the Byzantine Empire, which was to be fraught with such profound consequences for Palestine and for the Christian world.

12. By the beginning of the third century Caesarea had become the civil capital of the Holy Land, and also the metropolitical see : under the organization described above the Bishop (not yet Patriarch) of Jerusalem (still called Aelia Capitolina), despite the unique associations of his City, was no more than a suffragan of the Metropolitan of Caesarea. He was, however, second in precedence among the bishops of Palestine and already a person of importance : Narcissus (a Greco-Roman of Palestinian or Syrian birth), who succeeded to the Throne of St. James in A.D. 190, presided over a council * at which the bishops of Palestine and Phoenicia discussed the method of computing the date of Easter. His successor, Alexander, founded the great library at Aelia Capitolina which was later to be consulted by Eusebius and many other scholars.

13. In A.D. 267 Zenobia, the Queen of Palmyra (of which the ruins are among the most glorious remains of Greco-Roman architecture) became for a few years mistress of Palestine following a campaign against the Roman Empire in which she defeated the Roman commander Heraclian. But her triumph was short lived and Palestine was soon restored to Roman rule. Towards the end of the third century, the Tenth Legion, which had taken part in the capture of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70 and had been stationed in Palestine ever since that date, was withdrawn from the city. With its withdrawal Aelia Capitolina lost much of its importance from the point of view of the civil power, and it was a city of but little worldly consideration that Diocletian saw when he visited Palestine in A.D. 206. Diocletian was accompanied by the young Constantine, with whom a new chapter in history was soon to open for Palestine and for the Christian world.

14. It is beyond the scope of this note to describe the events which led to the promulgation by Constantine and Licinius in A.D. 313 of the Edict of Milan. It must suffice to say that the Edict assured liberty of conscience throughout the Empire and
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* Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History, Book V, chapter 23.

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