ROMANS AND SEMITES
All geographical and traditional Syria was incorporated by Pompey in 64 B.C. into a single province, with Antioch as capital. Arab dynasts were allowed to remain, but their authority was restricted to their original domains and they paid annual tribute. The Nabataean king, however, kept Damascus for a lump sum of money. Judaea was left a subject state within the framework of the province of Syria, but the cities with a Greek constitution which the Jews had added to their domain were restored to their former status and granted internal freedom under provincial governors. Ten of these cities then formed a league known as Decapolis, of which all but Scythopolis lay east of the Jordan. Antioch, Gaza and other colony-cities were also given autonomy and placed under provincial governors.
The Syrian province was considered of such focal importance in the Asiatic possessions as to be put under the direct rule of a Roman proconsul with power to levy troops and engage in war. The first proconsul, Aulus Gabinius, further reduced the power of the Jewish monarchy by depriving the high priest of his royal rank, subjecting the people to heavy taxation and dividing the state into five small cantons, each under a council or Sanhedrin. He also rebuilt a number of Greco-Syrian cities which had been destroyed by the Maccabees, including Samaria, Scythopolis and Gaza. He was succeeded by the avaricious Crassus, who immediately upon his arrival in 54 B.C. made Syria a base of military operations against Parthia, whose wealth was considered inexhaustible. With the successive elimination of Pontus and Armenia and the acquisition of Syria, Rome had come into direct contact with Parthia. In his second campaign in
