Byzantine Palestine
300–638 CE · 3 snapshots
Watch the boundaries of biblical-era polities shift across a draggable timeline. Click any place to see its affiliation in all 13 periods, scriptural references and archaeology notes.
Snapshots
Constantine and the Christian Empire
330 CE
Constantine converts to Christianity and convenes the Council of Nicaea; his mother Helena builds the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
- Roman EmperorConstantine the Great
- Bishop of JerusalemMacarius
- Scripture
- Eusebius, Church History 10; Life of Constantine 3
- Archaeology & dating
- Early Byzantine period; the Holy Sepulchre (c. 326) and the Nicene Creed (325)
Byzantine Palaestina and the Ghassanid Buffer
450 CE
The Byzantine province of Palaestina prospers with a steady stream of pilgrims, while the Ghassanid Arabs buffer the empire's eastern frontier.
- Eastern Roman EmperorTheodosius II
- Ghassanid Kingal-Nu'man III
- Scripture
- Itinerarium Burdigalense 333; Eusebius, Onomasticon
- Archaeology & dating
- Byzantine period; monasteries, church complexes and Ghassanid frontier sites
The Justinianic Era and the Madaba Map
560 CE
Under Justinian the empire revives; the Madaba Map depicts the Holy Land in mosaic and is the most important surviving Byzantine map.
- Eastern Roman EmperorJustinian I
- Patriarch of JerusalemPeter
- Scripture
- Madaba Map (c. 560-565); Codex Justinianus
- Archaeology & dating
- Late Byzantine period; the mosaic map in St George's Church at Madaba (discovered in 1884)
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Boundaries are schematic approximations, not survey-grade geography. This is a historical-geography study tool and takes no position on matters of faith.