The large Roman province of Syria encompassed most of what is today modern Syria and Lebanon, in addition to parts of southeastern Turkey (Asia Minor). During at least part of the time of the New Testament, Syria also exercised some control over Judea and Galilee (cf. Lk 2:1–2). The capital of Syria was Antioch, a beautifully situated city nestled near the northernmost bend of the Orontes River.
It was here that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:19–26; 15:22–23). Syria was an extremely hellenized part of the Roman Empire.
Many established cities here had already been given Greek names during the Hellenistic period and were eventually rebuilt according to classic Greco-Roman architectural lines, becoming important centers of Greek philosophy and literature.
Hellenism first gained a foothold in Syria through cities such as Tyre and Sidon, old seafaring ports that hugged the rocky Phoenician (Lebanese) coast. In part the Greeks and Romans simply took advantage of the role that these cities had already played in the Mediterranean world, for by establishing trading colonies throughout the Mediterranean, as early as the eighth century BC, Tyre and Sidon had forged close economic and political ties with the West long before the rise of Rome.
