In this episode of our History of the Middle East series, we now arrive at the Roman Empire and its influence on the region. Let’s begin then.
The next few centuries of Roman rule meant efficiency, good order and justice in accordance with Roman law. The road and tax systems were greatly improved. Egypt became an important supplier of food to the imperial capital and a military base for the Roman armies. The Romans cleared the Red Sea of pirates and revived the trade through it to India. Egypt was a Roman colony in the fullest sense. Egyptians lived under iron military government and paid exorbitant taxes. The Greek ruling class co-operated with the colonial power and retained its privileged position.
Roman rule in Syria was rather more relaxed. It was indirect rule of the kind employed by the British during the colonial period. The educated urban population was a fruitful synthesis of Mediterranean and Semitic races. It was part of the empire’s professional and intellectual elite. These people mixed easily with the Roman officials, and many acquired Roman citizenship. Hellenised Egyptians played a similar role. Multiculturalism was a key element of that empire. Several of the later Roman emperors were wither wholly or partly Syrian.
Despite the multiculturalism, the clash of cultures was imminent. Especially that between the cities and the tribal cultures. In Syria these tribesmen spoke Aramaic. In Arabia they spoke Arabic. In Egypt, ancient Egyptian. The divide was everywhere, but the most violent clash of cultures took place in Palestine. It was a clash between the Christians and the rest.
Christianity is thought to have arrived in Egypt with St Mark, before the end of the first century AD. There it spread rapidly among the masses. At the same time, Christians were persecuted too. There were periods of toleration and then there were periods of persecution. Yet, for three centuries Christianity continued gaining converts. The big breakthrough came in the fourth century AD, when Constantine the Great declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Interestingly, the rise of Christianity went side by side with the decline of the empire. There have been too many internal divisions. In 330 AD, on the ancient site of Byzantine on the Bosporus where Europe meets Asia, Constantine founded the city that bore his name. Constantinople, it was called then, Istanbul now. Half a century later, on the death of the Emperor Theodosius, the empire was divided between his two sons. The Christian, Hellenic-oriental Byzantine Empire was born. While the western half of the empire collapsed under the weight of barbarian invasions. Byzantium continued to rule the Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt.
The eastern Roman Empire was able to maintain control over the Middle East region for three centuries. There were many threats, but the greatest threat it faced was from the Persians. However, for at least two hundred years the Byzantines were able to secure peace with the persians through diplomacy. This changed by the end of the sixth century. In this period the Persians repeatedly invaded and occupied Syria and had to be thrown back. In 616 they conquered both Egypt and Asia Minor and laid siege to Constantinople. By the time the Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians and restored the empire’s frontiers, Byzantium and Persia, although still the two superpowers of the ancient world, were overstretched and weakened.
Meanwhile in the year 570 or 571, in obscure and impoverished Arabia, an extraordinary man had been born. His name was Muhammad, and soon, he would change the course of the history. More on that in the next episode of A Brief History of the Middle East.
Reference books:
Kalampedia 
