Palaestīna
（
Παλαιστίνη, ἡ Παλαιστίνη Συρία). The Greek and Roman
form of the Hebrew word which was used to denote the country of the Philistines, and which was
extended to the whole country. The Romans called it
Iudaea, extending to the whole country the name of its southern part. It was regarded
by the Greeks and Romans as a part of Syria. It was bounded by the Mediterranean on the west,
by the mountains of Lebanon on the north, by the Jordan and its lakes on the east, and by the
deserts which separated it from Egypt on the south. The Romans did not come into contact with
the country till B.C. 63, when Pompey took Jerusalem. From this time the country was really
subject to the Romans. At the death of Herod his kingdom was divided between his sons as
tetrarchs; but the different parts of Palestine were eventually annexed to the Roman province
of Syria, and were governed by a procurator. The Jews were by no means well disposed, however,
to the rule of the Romans, and in the first century A.D. broke out with a general rebellion
which was crushed out by Vespasian and Titus with merciless severity. The latter general took
Jerusalem and destroyed it in A.D. 70. Under Constantine, Palestine was divided into three
provinces—Palaestina Prima in the centre, Palaestina Secunda in the north, and
Palaestina Tertia in the south. See Tristram,
Land of Israel (3d ed.
1876); Thomson,
The Land and the Book (2d ed. 1880-85);
Merrill, Galilee in the Time of Christ (1881); Darenbourg,
Essai sur l'Histoire, etc., de la Palestine (Paris, 1867); and
the articles
Herodes;
Hierosolyma;
Iudaei.
